Breastfeeding class

I know I haven’t posted in a while. I’m still alive (pregnant but living) and the baby’s still kickin’

On Tuesday August 14th I went to the “Feeding your baby” class. That was a great class. I learned quite a bit. It’s funny that the class is supposed to cover both formula and breast-feeding but that only about twenty minutes of the hour and a half class was about bottle-feeding. My cliff notes to that section are – follow the damn directions on the can. That’s about it. Oh and don’t hold a baby horizontal to the floor to bottle-feed. The baby should be at an angle as if he or she is being held up to the breast in order to avoid ear infections. Holding the baby at an angle helps keep fluids draining properly as baby feeds. Other than those two major tips on bottle-feeding, it’s the natural way of feeding that we all have forgotten about. The part of the class that we should already know about, the part we should have learned from our mothers, sisters, aunts and so on was what was most covered. That seems wrong to me. Not that bottle-feeding is wrong, just that none of us seem to know how our bodies are supposed to work anymore. Someone might think that the hospital I’m going to leans more towards a non-medical, home birth type of deal where no one uses medication during labor, but no, we’re just that out of touch with the natural ways of things.

Before this class, I kept hearing from various people that breast feeding hurts and that you get sore cracked nipples. I really want to breast feed because I also keep hearing how healthy it is for the baby, but how could anyone breast feed for more than a few weeks if it hurts so much? The first thing I learned in the breastfeeding portion of the class was that it’s not supposed to hurt (boobs and nipples will be tender the first few weeks but actual breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt), and if it does, it’s probably due to the baby not latching properly. The nurse facilitating the class taught us how to hold the baby and the basic way to get a baby to latch. She also went over what it should look like when the baby is latched properly, how a suckling baby should sound when properly latched, and how to detach baby from boob if he or she isn’t attached err I mean latched on right. She also went over what to do when breasts become engorged, how to reduce swelling (cabbage leaves anyone?) and what to do if they’re so engorged that the nipple disappeared and baby has a hard time latching.

A lot of the information the nurse covered was in the book, Pregnancy Childbirth and the Newborn: The Complete Guide, that we received in our childbirth preparation class. As a matter a fact most of it is in there. Some of the cool tips I noticed were not there, but many of those can be found in What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Third Edition. Thank you to the friend that sent me that book! Yes, I found it incredibly useful and I have in fact been reading it. One tip the nurse gave that I noticed wasn’t in either book (or maybe I missed it) was when you have a bad latch don’t try to pull the baby off! Place your finger at the corner of the baby’s mouth to break the suction.