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How to help your baby get a proper latch

Breastfeeding

How to help your baby get a proper latch

For many first-time moms, breastfeeding will not come naturally. After all, it is a process of tuning your child and you to understand each other. 

Here are some helpful tips to help your baby get a proper latch, which is the key to successful breastfeeding:

5 Steps to establish a proper latch

Get baby in position breastfeeding

1.Position your baby’s torso close to your body. And, make sure to loosen your shoulders down so that your baby is below you.

Hold you breast

2. Hold your breast with your hand with your thumb on top and your fingers below, keeping them far enough from the areola so that your baby has enough of the nipple and areola to latch onto.

Glide-on-baby_s-mouth

3. Compress your areola between your fingers to make the nipple project out. Gently glide your nipple from the middle of your baby’s lower lip down to the chin to signal the baby to open their mouth.

Latch on

4. With the mouth wide open and the tongue down, bring the little one’s mouth to latch onto your breast. Make sure the nipple points towards the roof of the mouth. The mouth must cover the areola to stimulate milk flow.

Sucking and swallowing

5. You will feel the tingling sensation when your baby starts suckling and the milk starts flowing; the baby will alternate between sucking and swallowing.

You know there’s a successful latching when:

Breastfeeding is a process you will have to get used to. Don’t be discouraged by a few unsuccessful trials. Ask for expert advice from other moms or midwives, and keep nursing. Trust that you and your child will eventually come to master it.

Verified:

Dr. Wanwadee Sapmee Panyakat (OB-GYN) (10 November 2021)

Sources:

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