Starting Off Right
Skin-to-Skin
There are many proven benefits to skin-toskin contact between a newborn and mother immediately after birth . Newborns who are held skin-to-skin are twice as likely to breastfeed within the first hour . Skin-to-skin improves breast milk production and aids your baby ’ s ability to absorb and digest nutrients .
Self-Attachment
In the same way that animals have the instinctive ability to find their way to their mother ’ s nipple after birth , healthy , full-term newborns can do the same . This is called selfattachment ( also called baby-led breastfeeding or the breast crawl ). After the initial cry and calming ( often between fifteen and forty-five minutes after birth ), you may begin to notice these signals that your baby is ready to latch :
Laid-Back Breastfeeding
Laid-back breastfeeding , when you lie back at a 30- to 45-degree angle , is often the easiest position for attachment . This approach allows gravity to help baby take the nipple into their mouth and encourages a deep latch . In this position , baby can breastfeed facing almost any direction .
• Licking or sucking , either on their hands or on your skin .
• Kneading your breast .
• Moving or scooting toward the nipple through arm and leg movements .
• Bobbing or bouncing head up and down .
• Opening mouth at your nipple .
Preview
There are many benefits to allowing baby to work through this sequence and self-attach . They may achieve a better latch and feed more effectively when guided by their instincts . A difficult labor , medications , or other factors may interfere with these instincts temporarily . Spending a lot of time skin-to-skin provides many opportunities for them to learn how to breastfeed . If baby needs extra help , see page 11 for latching tips .
6 Breastfeeding Your Baby