Can I Become Pregnant If I Am Nursing
Nursing is natures contraceptivealthough not a very reliable one. Frequent nursing suppresses ovulation, making it less likely for a nursing mother to ovulate, menstruate, or get pregnant. There are no guarantees, however. Mothers who dont want more children immediately should use contraception even while nursing. Hormone injections and implants are safe during nursing, as are all barrier methods of birth control. Birth control pills containing only progesterone are a popular method of birth control for nursing mothers.
Watch For Hunger Cues
Babies may not be able to use words to let you know that they’re hungry, but they can tell you that it’s time to eat in other ways. A newborn is ready to eat when they are:
- Awake, alert, and active
- Moving their head from side to side
- Pulling up their legs
- Putting their head on your chest while being held
- Sucking their hands
- Squirming around
Your baby may show some or all of these signs of hunger. You may not notice that these are hunger cues at first, but as the days go on, you’ll begin to recognize them more easily.
When Should I Start Breastfeeding My Newborn
Its best to try to breastfeed your baby in the first hour after birth. By latching on and sucking rhythmically, he begins switching on the cells in your breasts to initiate your milk supply.1 It isnt known as the magic hour for nothing!
Ideally, your baby will be put on your chest as soon as hes born to give him access to the breast. He might feed, he might not but give him the opportunity to do so, says Cathy Garbin, an internationally renowned lactation consultant.
Support his body and let him attempt to find his way to your breast and self-attach . However, if your baby doesnt attach, healthcare professionals are usually very skilled at helping mums with positioning. Baby-led attachment, with mum in a semi-reclined breastfeeding position, is a good way to start.
So forget about weighing and dressing your baby in that special first hour, or at least until after the first breastfeed. Enjoy relaxed cuddles and plenty of naked skin-to-skin contact with him. This will get oxytocin the love hormone flowing in both of you, which is essential for the release of your first milk, colostrum.3
As soon as they were sure our son was healthy, the midwives gave us time as a family just me, my husband and our new baby to get to know each other. It was messy, emotional and utterly blissful, and he fed twice in that special hour together, remembers Ellie, mum of two, UK.
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Why Is It Important To Give My Baby Solid Foods After He Or She Is 6 Months Old
- Your baby has new nutrition needs. Your baby needs other foods to meet his or her nutrition needs when he or she reaches 6 months of age. He or she needs certain vitamins and minerals, such as iron, to allow for normal growth and development.
- Your baby learns eating skills. Your baby will learn to move food in his or her mouth and chew. He or she will also learn to hold and use a spoon to feed himself or herself.
- Your baby learns to try new tastes and textures. This helps your baby learn to eat a variety of foods from all of the food groups. This will help him or her get all the nutrients he or she needs when he or she is weaned from breast milk or formula.
What If My Newborn Is Eating Every Hour
Most newborns nurse eight to 12 times in 24 hours, or about every few hours. They don’t keep a schedule, so they may eat for different amounts of time with shorter or longer breaks in between. This is normal, but you may get your newborn to nurse for longer sessions if you keep them from falling asleep during feedings.
If you notice that your baby is eating more frequently, even as often as every 30 minutes, they may be cluster feeding, which is especially common during growth spurts.
Some babies will nurse for shorter periods of time, but nurse more frequently. If your newborn is snacking all day, it can feel like all you do is nurse in the early weeks. Rest assured, this is par for the course and as your baby gets older, this will change!
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How Can Someone Go Back To Working Outside The Home And Still Breastfeed
Women who plan to go back to work soon after birth will have to plan carefully if they want to breastfeed. If her job allows, a new mother can pump her breast milk several times during the day and refrigerate or freeze it for the baby to take in a bottle later. Some women alternate nursing at night and on weekends with daytime bottles of formula.
Supplement Your Baby’s Diet
Your baby’s doctor will talk to you about giving your nursing baby vitamin D supplements. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfed and partially breastfed infants up to one year old be given 400 IU of vitamin D daily. That’s because breast milk may not have enough of the vitamin for your baby. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and phosphorus, which help build strong bones.
The doctor may also recommend that your baby take iron supplements beginning at four months of age. The AAP recommends 1 mg/kg per day of oral iron until your baby starts eating enough iron-containing foods.
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Breastfeeding Your Newborn: What To Expect In The First Week
The first week with your baby is exciting but can also be daunting particularly if youve never breastfed before. Read our breastfeeding advice to help you get off to the best possible start.
How do I know when to feed my baby?
After giving birth life can seem pretty bewildering youre getting to know your newborn while recovering from the delivery. Your emotions might be all over the place (especially between days two and five when many women get the double whammy of their milk coming in1 and the baby blues.2 Plus, theres often expectation and pressure to be up and about quickly and generally be a supermum. But one of the most super things you can do this week is just be with your baby and get breastfeeding on track.
Whats A Normal Amount Of Time To Breastfeed
Its a question that often plagues new parents, but clues from our evolutionary past can help explain why we wean and when.
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This story was originally published on Sept. 3, 2019 in NYT Parenting.
I never intended to be one of those people who would whip out a boob for a toddler old enough to demand milk using full sentences. When I was pregnant, I hoped Id be able to breastfeed at all. If things worked out, I thought, Id continue for a normal amount of time and stop before it got, you know weird.
But whats a normal amount of time to breastfeed? The American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization suggest feeding a baby only breast milk, if you can swing it, for six months. After that, the A.A.P. recommends supplementing breast milk with solid foods until age 1 the W.H.O. goes further by recommending some breastfeeding along with solids until age 2 or beyond.
What is normal?
Turns out, the average human mother is a pretty weird kind of mammal. Were driven to make decisions not just by our biology, but by the judgments of ourselves and others, and the flexibility of our social structures. And compared with our closest relatives like chimps and orangutans, what makes humans unique and possibly so successful as a species is not so much how we nurse, but how we stop nursing.
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Extended Breastfeeding: Can You Nurse For Too Long
When you start breastfeeding, you probably dont have a timeline in mind of how long youre going to do it. Youre just trying to make it through the sore nipples, sleeplessness, and marathon nursing sessions. Likely, your main goal is to get the hang of breastfeeding and stay sane in the process.
But then you hit your stride. Your baby has their latch down, and you begin to get into a nursing routine. For many, breastfeeding eventually becomes second nature, and you may begin to enjoy those times that you can finally sit down and snuggle and feed your little one.
If youve gotten to a place where breastfeeding is working well for you and your baby, you might be starting to wonder: When am I supposed to stop? You may have even heard about something called extended breastfeeding or wondered what it was like to breastfeed an older baby or toddler.
As you ponder the idea of nursing beyond the first few months, or even past the first year, youre probably full of questions. So many questions. Thats totally normal. And youve come to the right place, because weve got answers. Read on
Finding Support For Breastfeeding A Toddler
If you see your breastmilk supply dwindling as your child gets older, dont despair. Take action.
Many moms see their supplies drop and mistakenly assume it wont return, Dr. Wiswell notes. Learn how supply works so false alarms wont rile you. Talk to a lactation consultant because they can explain supplys natural ebbs and flows, including during growth spurts and how your body adjusts over time.
If a supply boost is needed, you have some options:
- Nursing more Add sessions as long as your child will nurse. If you work outside the home, try early evenings, mornings or weekends.
- Pumping strategies An extra session or several short power pumping sessions of five to 10 minutes throughout the day for several days in a row will tell your body that more milk is needed.
- Breast massage and compression Easy-to-learn techniques can improve drainage when nursing or pumping.
- Take care of yourself Reduce stress, rest when possible, hydrate and eat a balanced diet with an extra 500 calories a day to support breastfeeding. Dont lose more than 1 pound weekly if youre still trying to shed baby weight.
- Galactagogues These supply helpers, such as oats, fenugreek, blessed thistle and alfalfa, can increase milk output. Speak to a lactation consultant to see which one or combination is right for you.
Reach out to your pediatrician or obstetrician if you are interested in obtaining donor breast milk because they often need a prescription from your physician, says Dr. Szugye.
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How Will I Know When My Baby Wants To Breastfeed
Your baby will “cue” you, or tell you she needs to be fed, by sucking on her hands, making mouthing movements, rooting with her mouth wide open, making little sounds or crying. It’s often best to breastfeed when she signals you with the earlier, more subtle feeding cues, rather than waiting for her to cry. Once she’s crying, you may find it’s harder to get her onto the breast and you may need to calm her first before she can breastfeed.
When Should I Feed My Baby
As a rough guide, babies need to feed at least eight to 12 times over 24 hours during the first few weeks . That means theyll probably need to feed every two to three hours.
Watch our video for tips on how often and how long to breastfeed your baby for.
Its best to feed babies responsively or in a baby-led way rather than sticking to a feeding schedule . Letting your baby feed when they want will help them get the milk they need. It will also stimulate your milk supply .
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If I Choose To Breastfeed Is There Any Right Way To Do So
According to the FDA, the following advice should help make breastfeeding a pleasant experience for the mother and baby.
Between Days 6 And 10 Start Settling Into A More Predictable Breastfeeding Routine
Because your baby is likely receiving more milk than she did before, you may notice a more regular pattern of nursing, sleeping and alert periods after your milk comes in. If your baby likes to suckle for comfort, you may find that she prefers to cluster feed at certain times of day, meaning shell nurse almost continuously for a few hours, rather than nursing only once every two to three hours.
By this time, your baby should be producing four or more yellowish bowel movements and six or more wet diapers every 24 hours. Consult the A.A.P.s breastfeeding guide to help ensure you and your baby are still on the right breastfeeding path. Its also important to continue to find time to rest when your baby is sleeping.
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How Long Should I Breastfeed My Baby
That’s a personal choice. Experts recommend that babies be breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months. Then, breastfeeding can continue until 12 months if it’s working for you and your baby.
Breastfeeding has many benefits for mom and baby both. Studies show that breastfeeding can lessen a baby’s chances of diarrhea, ear infections, and bacterial meningitis, or make symptoms less severe. Breastfeeding also may protect children from sudden infant death syndrome , diabetes, obesity, and asthma.
For moms, breastfeeding burns calories and helps shrink the uterus. In fact, breastfeeding moms might return to their prepregnancy shape and weight quicker. Breastfeeding also helps lower a woman’s risk of diseases like:
What If The Birth Doesnt Go To Plan
If you have a c-section or there are other complications, you may still be able to have skin-to-skin time with your baby and breastfeed in the first few hours.
If you arent able to hold your baby, the next best thing is for him to have skin-to-skin contact with your partner instead. This will help keep your baby feeling safe, loved and warm until youre ready, says Cathy.
If your baby is unable to breastfeed, then its a good idea to start expressing your milk early and frequently until he is able. While breastfeeding directly as soon as possible gives mum and baby a good start, its not essential, reassures Cathy. Whats more important is to initiate your milk supply so you can work towards breastfeeding later if needed.
You can hand express and use the hospital breast pump to help initiate your milk supply in the beginning.5 The precious colostrum you collect can then be given to your baby. This is especially important if he is premature or poorly, because your breast milk has so many wonderful health benefits.
Dont feel like breastfeeding is unachievable if your baby arrives early or has medical complications that stop him feeding at the start, either. Ive worked with many, many mums where their baby hasnt breastfed directly from the breast at all in the first six weeks due to a premature arrival or other difficulties, and theyve gone on to breastfeed successfully, says Cathy.
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How Often Should Baby Be Nursing
Frequent nursing encourages good milk supply and reduces engorgement. Aim for nursing at least 10 12 times per day . You CANT nurse too oftenyou CAN nurse too little.
Nurse at the first signs of hunger dont wait until baby is crying. Allow baby unlimited time at the breast when sucking actively, then offer the second breast. Some newborns are excessively sleepy at firstwake baby to nurse if 2 hours or 4 hours have passed without nursing.
How Often Do Newborns Feed
For the first two to four weeks after birth, your new arrival will likely be a voracious eater and should be fed on demand which usually looks like every one-and-a-half to three hours or around eight to 12 times in a 24-hour period. This means youll need to feed them throughout the night as well as during the day. And yes, night-nursing is important it can help your baby gain weight while also building your milk supply if youre breastfeeding, and its important that your newborn doesnt go without a feed for more than four hours. .
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