Diane Oakland, IBCLC Family Education and Support Coordinator, Lactation Consultant

February 01, 2007

In this era of Blackberries, iPods and advancing technology, it is becoming increasingly difficult to trust in the wisdom of nature.  Reality TV focuses on the excitement of nature gone wrong and the medical moments of tragedy waiting to happen. How can you know and trust that, as a new mother, you can naturally provide just exactly what your baby needs through the ancient practice of breastfeeding?

In fact, survival of the species has been dependent on women’s ability to breastfeed successfully for thousands of years. I guess you could say, it works!  Then why do some women doubt that their bodies will adequately feed their babies or question their abilities to breastfeed correctly? Why do so many women say, “I am going to try to breastfeed?” A look at the history of breastfeeding provides the answer.

Before the early 20th Century, women breastfed and learned how from each other.  Then science took the country by storm and “formula” became popular. It was called “formula” because it had to be carefully measured and mixed with specific quantities of various items and specific rules as to how much and how often to feed the baby.

Because the baby drank more from the bottle and it took longer for baby to digest, the rules for feeding began to change. Furthermore, the formula no longer provided the immunity benefits and the formula and equipment had to be prepared very carefully and sterilized to protect the baby from foreign bacteria. Women needed to seek the guidance of their doctors to learn the formula for feeding and caring for baby, no longer turning to family and neighbors in the community. At the same time, new rules for baby care taught mothers to delay feedings to prevent over feeding and to let the baby cry so as not to “spoil” the baby.

As ready-made formulas became available in the second half of the 1900s, the use of formula became more widespread. It seemed that everyone was feeding their infants formula and the “scientific principles” that go with formula feeding soon became an accepted part of new parenting. Women lost trust in what nature could provide over what science had produced. 

Today even though most of us now know that breastfeeding is proven to be better for both baby and mother than formula, the rules of formula feeding linger and interfere with what nature has intended in order for a mother to produce just what her baby needs. What are these misleading rules?

• Colostrum is not enough in the early days until the “milk comes in”
• Schedule feed a baby, every 3 to 4 hours.
• Baby should finish nursing in 10 to 20 minutes
• Don’t go to your baby when he cries or he will expect to be held.

While, these rules may sound familiar, they have nothing to do with successful breastfeeding.

Today’s technology gives us the knowledge of the incredible benefits and composition of breastmilk that cannot be reproduced by science. Mother’s milk is designed to be taken frequently, in small amounts, in the first few days as baby learns to suck, swallow and breathe. And, amazingly, babies are born with extra fluid reserves to carry them through those early days. If allowed to frequently take the small amounts of remarkable colostrum as designed, the newborn will be well fed and satisfied until the “milk comes in.” 

Well meaning hospital routines that may keep mother and baby apart and interfere with those frequent colostrum feedings, may delay the milk “coming in,” and dictate times to feed a “sleepy baby” or “give a pacifier” to a wakeful baby when separated from mother.  By keeping a mother and baby together, the mother will quickly go to baby and bring baby to breast, capturing those precious wakeful moments in the first days as their relationship grows together and the milk “comes in.”

Nature has provided such a well-designed breastfeeding system that when you simply stay with your baby, your baby will be your guide as you learn to soothe and comfort her with frequent feedings to get her off to a good start.  By keeping your baby near, you’ll learn to recognize your baby’s feeding cues.

What are those feeding cues?

• Waking, smacking on the tongue
• Rooting, turning head from side to side with a wide open mouth
  • Bringing baby skin-to-skin on mother’s chest will often encourage a waking baby to begin to “root,” seek mother’s milk
• Fussing
• Crying – the last cue, “a late indicator of hunger”

You can breastfeed with confidence, knowing that doing what comes naturally is the right thing. (See the answer in this issue’s “Just Ask” article for some indicators that your baby is getting enough milk.)

You need not worry that nursing and cuddling your baby frequently will spoil him; he learned to be held and nurtured, snuggled inside of you for the past nine months. Treasure the moments in the months that lie ahead, as your baby learns about this new “outside” world, secure and confident in your arms, nourished at your breast.

For more information about breastfeeding, I suggest Breastfeeding Made Simple, Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers, by Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC.