10 Breastfeeding Tips (from a Lactation Consultant) I Wish I'd Known As a New Mama

Motherhood

Jan 22

Written By

Breastfeeding... it's difficult, often painful (at first), and not something first-time mothers are prepared for enough.

Some things you learn best by doing. Breastfeeding is one of them.

That said, they are important ways you can prepare ahead of time to make breastfeeding a newborn waaay less stressful.

If I had known more about breastfeeding and its potential challenges before the birth of my son, I could have been a calmer, less anxious version of myself following his arrival. I didn’t have the tools and knowledge I needed for success, and so I suffered.

Breastfeeding was excruciating in the beginning. I would cry when my son would latch onto my nipples, which were sore and bleeding. A few moments later, the pain of the letdown would often take my breath away.

newborn breastfeeding tips — Photo by Aditya Romansa on Unsplash

Getting Breastfeeding Help

Fortunately, despite the latch issues, my newborn was gaining the weight he needed and I didn't need to supplement.* Still, I needed to figure out a way to make breastfeeding less agonizing so that I could continue on with our breastfeeding journey.

*You are a phenomenal mother regardless of whether you supplement with formula, only use formula, pump exclusively, or only use donor milk, etc. Fed is best.

I first reached out to one of the midwives who assisted me during the birth of my son, who also happened to be a lactation consultant. Her help was key — but also limited. “Am I doing this right?” I kept second-guessing myself after she left, trying to envision just exactly how she’d guided my son to latch. Also, new questions started to come up as I came up against new problems: engorgement, choking, mastitis, etc.

The Lactation-Consultant-Lead Class that Changed It All

I decided to look into online classes and, after much research, settled on a phenomenal breastfeeding course. This course not only answered all of my questions and taught me how to breastfeed effectively, it also empowered me to reach my goals and feel excited about this journey that I was on with my son. This class offers a variety of other courses in addition to its Basics course.

Here are some newborn breastfeeding tips I wish I knew before my son arrived.

1. Have a Few Supplies Ready Before Coming Home from the Hospital

I totally missed the mark on this one. You only need boobs to breastfeed, or so I thought.

Maybe the boob is the only thing you need later on down the line. But at first, breastfeeding is tough. It’s tricky. There are angles. It’s messy. It’s (possibly) painful. You need some assistance.

I had no breastfeeding supplies when I got home from the hospital. After a day or two, I quickly realized that I needed to place a few orders. Thank God for next day shipping.

Boppy: As I explain in more detail below, it took me a bit of time before I found the best position I could breastfeed. Man, newborns are floppy. My Boppy (why do I always spell this “Bobby”??) was indispensable in helping me get comfortable and for me son to latch well.

Nipple cream: Until we can a hang of a good latch, my nipples really took a beating. My sister in-law got me some all-natural, organic Badger Nursing Balm — made with sunflower oil, beeswax, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and carnauba wax — and it was phenomenal for healing and soothing my sore, cracked nipples. Use it AFTER feeding.

Soft, stretchy, no-wire bras: I didn’t really use proper nursing bras, opting instead for soft, no-unwire bras. They have to be flexible enough to be able to pull under my breast while still having sufficient support. I really liked Boody Body bras and Hanes bras.

The right T-shirts: I never really got into nursing shirts — those boob holes just kill me. I found I also wasn’t a huge fan of button downs that went all the way down. Despite the access they provide, the buttons always seemed to get in the way and create pressure points on my belly. Instead, I liked loose scoop neck Ts I could either roll up or pull down and Henleys for a little more coverage.

A good nursing chair or supportive pillows: I took it for granted that our couch or bed would be comfortable as is for breastfeeding. Nope. I had to get extra pillows to accommodate newfound pressure points on my butt and back, and to really be able to settle in for the long haul. If I were to do it again, I’d for sure invest in a comfortable chair, like west elm’s Paxton glider.

Nursing pads: Reusable nursing pads let me to go to the grocery store — or hell, just walk around the house — without two wet saucer-shaped stains plastered against my chest. My first solution to this problem was, wait for it: paper towels. They didn’t last long.

Haakaa: The Haakaa is a manual breast pump that uses just suction (and gravity) to express your milk. This thing was a life-saver for leakage from the opposite breast during breastfeeding and for collecting any oversupply. (I save any extra milk in the Medela freezer bags!)

Absorbent washcloths. Per the above, my breasts often leaked during breastfeeding. Those muslin clothes did NOT cut it. I needed something more absorbent, like a proper towel or washcloth. These organic baby washcloths do the trick and are multi-purpose.

2. Know What a Good Breastfeeding Latch Looks (and Feels) Like

A good latch is the foundation of a successful breastfeeding relationship. It is truly critical, and something that is not always easy to master. It takes practice. Fortunately, there are some pro tips and excellent tricks for helping you get there.

Make sure her head, neck, and spine are aligned. If she’s twisted, she’s not going to be able to latch well.
With the above in mind, make sure her entire body is turned toward your breast, not just her head. Keep her close to your body and tilt her chin slightly up so that this is the FIRST thing that touches your breast. This will enable her take more of your nipple into her mouth.
Guide her mouth open, encouraging her to open it as wide as possible by touching your nipple to her upper lip. You want her to take the entire nipple — not just the tip — as well as some or even all of the areola (depending on size) into her mouth. You may want to gently squeeze the top of your breast to help direct more of your nipple into her mouth. See what works best for you.
When latched, make sure her nose is almost (but not quite) touching your breast and that her lips are pressed out, creating suction around the base of your nipple.
Break the latch if it’s painful or too shallow by gently inserting your finger into her mouth. This should release the suction, allowing you to try again.
The latch itself should not be painful. Instead, it should feel like tugging. (Side note: your nipples may be sore and bleeding from initial latch problems — this shouldn’t deter you, but you should take care of yourself so that you can recover, mama!). She’ll start moving her jaw fast at first to stimulate the letdown before moving on to longer, more fluid sucking and swallowing movements.

#1 Newborn Breastfeeding Tip: latch within one hour of delivery. If you intend to breastfeed your baby or are interested in trying, ask your delivery team that your baby be placed on your breast as soon after the birth as possible.

Nursing within the first 60 minutes is great for bonding with your baby right away, yes, but it’s also associated with reduced infant mortality and morbidity.

But make sure you (and your baby) are set up for success! Within the first hour of life, “newborns were four times more likely to sustain deep rhythmical suckling when their chin made contact with their mother’s breast as they approached the nipple” (source). So make sure that baby’s chin is nudging your breast!

*For the first 2 to 5 days, you’re actually producing what’s called colostrum, a super-charge form of breastmilk that will help build your baby’s immune system, protect her against germs, help her pass meconium (poop!), prevent jaundice, impart important nutrients, and beyond.

3. Try Out Different Breastfeeding Positions

Every body — and baby — is shaped differently. Fortunately, there are a bunch of different positions you can try. See which one (or ones) feels most comfortable for you and helps your baby latch on the best.

Side-lying position

Side-lying position. While I was in the hospital, I could only seem to manage breastfeeding by lying side by side with my son. I tilted my body down towards him and his body up towards me (with a little blanket wedged underneath him) to help us get the right angle. This position was especially useful for night feedings.

We used side-lying used on and off throughout his infancy, but it wasn’t always realistic. Can you imagine how that might work in a coffee shop, for instance? No. Thankfully, there are some other options...

Cradle hold

Cradle hold is perhaps the most common hold, and the one that I opted for more often than not. I did not nail this one until I got my hands on a boppy, however (see above).

For the cradle hold, you support your baby’s body on your right arm if your baby is nursing on your right breast (or your left arm if your baby is nursing on the left breast). Your baby’s head should be nestled in the crook of your arm.

Cross-cradle hold

Cross-cradle hold is very similar to the cradle hold, but you use your opposite forearm to support your baby’s body. This changes the angle at which your baby reaches your breast, which can help you achieve a better latch.

Football hold

Football hold is also a cradle-like hold except you position your baby so that her body runs under your arm (like an adorable football) and she nurses from the breast closest to this arm.

Prone or laid-back position

Prone or laid-back position is when you lie on your back, propping yourself up a bit, and place your baby on top of your breast while you cradle them with one arm.

For those of you mamas who have or will have a C-section, football hold is especially useful as your baby won’t come in contact with your tummy. You can also try laid-back breastfeeding, but instead of placing your baby on your chest, you lay them across your shoulder.

Further resources. I suggest visiting the Mayo Clinic or La Leche League for further guidance on breastfeeding positions.

4. Embrace Nursing on Demand

When your baby is in the newborn stages, do not be afraid to nurse as often as he wants to! There is a lot of advice out there about nursing your baby on a schedule, particularly every two to three hours.

Nursing on a schedule or at regular intervals may be best for you and your baby when he gets older, but newborns grow like proper weeds. In those first four months, babies put on an average of 5 to 7 ounces every week, if not more! It’s better not to try to enforce too strict of a regimen if it doesn’t accommodate your baby’s needs. If he wants to feed — feed him! He’s asking for it for a reason.

I would nurse my son for long stretches of time — we're talking up to an hour — in the first weeks of his life. Once, during one of our first few days at home, I remember how he started acting hungry within 30 minutes of one of our long nursing sessions. How?! I thought. There’s no way he can be hungry! Well, what do you know — he was. After that, I nursed him on demand.

How do I know if my baby is hungry? These are the most common signs, from “hungry” to “feed me now”:

Opening mouth and sticking their tongue out or licking their lips
Rooting: a reflex in which they turn their heads (to find a boob) and open their mouths
Sucking on anything they can find
Putting their hands to/in mouth
Fidgeting and turning their heads/bodies in an attempt to feed
Fussing
Crying

Cluster feeding is completely normal. You should also be prepared to embrace cluster feeding, which is when your baby feeds in quick succession, or clusters, over a certain period of time. Babies may also be fussier during this time — a sign that they’re hungry. For a lot of littles, this is the evening “witching hour(s).”.

Cluster feeding is totally normal and not something to be concerned about. Buckle down with some yummy snacks, a large glass of water, and a good book (if you can manage) or TV show.

But be sure they're eating frequently enough. While you don’t need to reduce the amount of time between feeds, you should be aware that your baby is feeding frequently enough.

According to Kelly Mom, if your baby is not waking up on his own at night, you should wake him every 4 to 5 hours if he’s under 4 weeks old. If your baby is older than 4 weeks, gaining weight, and producing wet and dirty diapers regularly, he should be fine to sleep as long as he wants to, uninterrupted.

Also, many babies get very sleepy when they nurse and may even fall asleep before they're finished! This is largely due to a mixture of hormones, including oxytocin and cholecystokinin (CCK). Keep your baby awake by tickling or gently poking his cheek. You may even get a cute little baby smile out of it! Kelly Mom offers some additional helpful tips.

5. Empty Your Breasts

Wow, for the longest time, I totally failed with this one. It was difficult for me to always tell exactly when my breast was empty. Occasionally my son would pop off and continue rooting — a sign he wasn't getting any more milk but still hungry. But often he’d stay snacking or comfort sucking long after my breast was empty. In order to avoid this, I’d switch him too soon, before I’d fully drained my first breast.

The thing is, emptying your breasts is sooo important. Here's why:

Balanced Milk Composition

At the beginning of the nursing session, the milk is relatively lower in fat. This is called the foremilk. As your baby nurses, the composition of the milk changes and becomes fattier. This is called hindmilk.

Note: your breasts only make one type of milk. Foremilk and hindmilk, though often different in fat content, are not different types of milk.

A lactose overload, also known as a foremilk–hindmilk imbalance, is when a baby takes in too much foremilk without enough hindmilk. This can cause the lower-fat foremilk to “rush through the gut faster than the milk sugar (lactose) can be digested.”

The symptoms* of lactose overload include:

Flatulence and gassiness
Green and foamy/frothy stools
Explosive stools accompanied by distress/screaming

* Always speak to your medical provider if you're concerned about your child or if she’s exhibiting these symptoms, which may or may not be related to a lactose overload.

Milk Production

Breastfeeding begets breastfeeding. To keep your supply steady, you need to empty your breasts to encourage milk production. If you’re not properly emptying your breasts, you risk lowering your milk supply.

Once I got more in tune with how breastfeeding worked, I would occasionally notice a “dip” in the size of a full breast or the length my son could feed on it when we’d accidently neglect that breast in favor of the other one.

Mastitis

Mastitis due to breastfeeding is when a build-up of milk creates a clogged milk duct, resulting in inflammation and even infection of the breast tissue.

I ended up getting mastitis not once but FOUR times. Twice I required antibiotics and on one occasion (my last) I even earned a trip to the Emergency Room. It was bad: I had febrile seizures, which involved uncontrollable shaking and shivering; nausea; intense pain in my left breast, which was swollen, hot, and red; and puss coming from my nipple.

Each time it hit me SO SUDDENLY. I felt fine (if a little blah) one moment and the next I was like, Oh no, this is not good.

Mastitis is a worse-case scenario. You can also experience uncomfortable engorgement as well as clogged ducts (which could lead to mastitis if not treated) if you don't empty your breasts sufficiently.

This is a great resource for learning the difference between mastitis and a plugged duct, and how to treat both.

Strategies for emptying your breasts**:

Newborns aren’t very efficient at emptying your breast. Whereas an older baby or toddler can drain a breast in as little as 5 or 10 minutes, newborns can take up to 20 minutes, often even longer.

20 and Turn. I started doing the "20 and Turn" routine. I’d nurse on one side for 20 minutes, after which I’d switch my son to the other boob for twenty minutes. I had a pretty significant supply (not oversupply, but I was producing quite a bit).
15 and Flip. If your supply is not heavy or your baby is a more efficient feeder, you might want to try “15 and Flip” (same concept, you just switch boobies after 15 minutes).
Haakaa. Once you’ve nursed on Breast A and have switched to Breast B, attach a Haakaa to Breast A to catch/draw out any excess milk. Once baby has finished Breast B, move the Haakaa to that breast. This ensures that you’ve removed most of your milk without upsetting the balance of breast milk your baby’s getting. (Unless Breast B is weeping/leaking at the beginning of your nursing session, I’d suggest trying to avoid draining the foremilk with a Haakaa.)

** To be clear, you can never FULLY empty your breast. Your breasts are constantly producing more milk (if stimulated by baby or a pump). The goal is to drain as much of the existing reservoir as much as possible. According to Kelly Mom, research has shown that babies on average drain 75–80% of the milk available from a breast.

6. Babies Don't Just Breastfeed for Nutrition

I just had to give this one its own bullet point. It completely blew me away.

Babies (and toddlers!) don't just nurse because they're hungry. They also nurse for comfort. This is called non-nutritive sucking, or comfort nursing. Sometimes they'll snack a little while comfort nursing, but they're really at the boob for warmth, connection, and reassurance.

Sometimes, your baby wants to nurse because they want mama — they want you.

7. Try to Avoid the Bottle (But Don’t Sweat It)!

There’s a lot of confusion and disagreement about “nipple confusion” and whether it actually exists.

Nipple confusion is when a baby has trouble switching between the breast and the bottle. She may have trouble latching or resist latching (to either) due to size, texture/feel, taste/smell, temperature, and any number of reasons.

The biggest fear among new mamas is that a few bottle sessions might lead their baby to ultimately reject the breast.

Although there is no hard scientific claims supporting nipple confusion, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that it is indeed a thing.

For this reason, I was told NOT to introduce my newborn to a bottle or a pacifier within the first month of his life. He needed to first master the breast before we were to start with the bottle. Ultimately, he never did accept the bottle, staying firmly committed to Team Boob.

That said, please don’t go crazy over this (like I did). You need to do what works best for both you and your baby, as a unit. You may find yourself occasionally in a situation where you cannot breastfeed your under 4-week-old (due to emergency commitments, illness, pressure to return to work, etc.) and need to break out the bottle.

Yes, there’s a chance nipple confusion could happen. But there’s also a good chance that it won’t. And the best thing for your baby is that she is fed. So please, take a deep breath. All will be fine!

A note on pacifiers. It is also recommended that you try to avoid pacifiers for the first 4 weeks for the same reason.

8. Girl, Eat.

Every body is different and has different caloric needs. This is dependent on genetics, body type, muscle mass, activity level, sleep, and so on. When you’re pregnant, you need to up your caloric intake by around 200 calories in your second trimester and 400 calories in your third. This is just a general guideline.

When you’re nursing, you need even more: an extra 450 to 500 calories per day.

I was NOT expecting this. I felt hungry all the time when I was nursing, especially at the beginning and during the first year, when my son was nursing a lot. It takes a lot of energy to produce breast milk.

I was eating enough to support him, but not myself. Listen to your body, and feed yourself when you need the energy and nourishment. Focus on whole foods like complex carbohydrates, no-sugar-added diary, lean meats, fatty fish, nuts, health fats, and all the fruits and veggies.

Too much sugar is going to leave you sluggish and bottom out your blood glucose levels, making you feel foggy and jittery. When I wanted something sweet, I often turned to energy bars like chocolate sea salt rxbars, chocolate + peanut butter GoMacro bars, and dark chocolate coconut Zing bars.

Lactogenic Superfoods

Lactogenic foods, or galactagogues, are said to boost your milk supply. While there is no substantial medical evidence to back up these claims, women the world over have reported that these foods have benefited them.

One of the most well known milk-boosting foods is oats, hence all those oat-based lactation cookies you see!

The following list of lactogenic foods has been adapted from Milkology. (Milkology also offers phenomenal courses that are lower in cost compared to Lactation Link. I highly recommend that you check them out!)

Top lactogenic foods:

Dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, swiss chard, arugula)
Whole grains (oats, barely, brown rice)
Legumes (beans, lentils, peas)
Nuts and seeds (cashews, almonds, flax seeds)
Dried fruit (dates, figs, apricots)
Oils and fats (butter, olive oil, coconut oil)

Bonus lactogenic superfoods:

Brewer’s yeast
Green papaya
Asparagus
Fennel and fenugreek
Ginger
Spirulina
Garlic

Pro tip. Drink a ton of water. Staying hydrated will help keep your supply and energy up.

9. Relax. Breathe. Enjoy.

This may strike you as simple, even obvious advice. But I assure you, it's easy to get distracted and not really savor the moment.

This is a time to bond with your baby. Look him in the eye, speak to him, sing, snuggle, make silly faces.

Use this time also as "me time" to rest, relax, and recharge. Watch TV, listen to music or the radio, talk to friends or family, eat some tasty snacks, meditate.

Relaxing while enjoying some skin-to-skin contact also facilitates breastfeeding by encouraging the release of oxytocin (oxytocin, in turn, encourages relaxation). You may be familiar with oxytocin as "the love hormone." Well, it's also known as "the mothering hormone."

Here's a helpful visual explanation from Milkology of how oxytocin triggers your letdown, thereby releasing breastmilk.

Breastfeeding can be really stressful and painful at first. But it usually gets better. I wish I'd know this. In the beginning, I looked at breastfeeding as a chore, something I even dreaded.

And if it doesn't get better for you, don’t sweat it. You have enough going on mama, and there are solutions available to you. Move on to either exclusively pumping or formula feeding, for example, and don't look back. You need to feel healthy and happy so that you can show up for your baby!

10. Ask for Help

If you’re suffering or if you have any concerns about breastfeeding, please reach out for help. You can find local support through an organization like La Leche League, for example. You can also contact the hospital where you delivered.

A reputable online course like this one can empower you by giving you the tools and confidence to reach your breastfeeding goals!

If you have medical concerns, either about yourself or your baby, please contact your physician immediately.

Additional important newborn breastfeeding tips and resources:

the 10 best breastfeeding tips my lactation consultant taught me

10 breastfeeding tips my lactation consultant taught me