In Search of the perfect latch

Sugarbaby 1 week old. Photo by Kelli Elizabeth Photography

“I’m really scared of breastfeeding.”  Pregnant with her first my friend subconsciously rubbed her 34 week belly as I made dinner and we chatted.  Puzzled, I asked her why.  She said she googled and learned that it can be so painful, particularly if they don’t have a good latch.

“How do you get a good latch?” she asked me.  She went on to explain that she had read different blogs and forums about how hard it was to get a good latch, women with bleeding nipples, and babies not gaining weight.  She wondered what was the secret to a good latch and what if it didn’t happen for her.  It’s true that these issues do happen and probably far too often but here she was, weeks away from having her little baby, scheduled to take a breastfeeding class in the next couple of weeks, and worried that she was facing a world of pain if she couldn’t get this elusive latch and not find the secret for it ever to happen.

Earlier that same day I had coffee with a good friend, an IBCLC at a local hospital.  The topic of the elusive perfect latch came up and she surprised me by telling me that she thinks we make too big deal about the latch.

“If mom isn’t in pain and baby has plenty of soiled and wet diapers, why do we need to mess with anything?  Sure, if there’s a problem such as pain or a dehydrated baby then we need to fix what we can but so what if that bottom lip is curled in if it’s not bothering anything.”

In other words, if it’s comfortable and it’s working, it’s a good latch.  There is a wide range of normal.

I love this woman, she often says exactly what I’m thinking.

In general, if everything is working right, babies are ready to breastfeed and mom’s breasts are ready to feed.  It just works and we really don’t need to mess with it, it doesn’t have to be this complicated endeavor.  Maybe it will be difficult but we don’t have to expect trouble.  More often than not moms need support simply because breastfeeding isn’t so common in our society and women don’t see breastfeeding as a part of normal life making the learning curve steeper than it would be if seeing breastfeeding was commonplace.  There would be less stressing about the perfect latch if more women saw what it looks like when a baby is at the breast as they go about daily life.  Their moms, sisters, aunts, friends, coworkers, or even strangers breastfeeding would have already demonstrated a baby feeding well.  The wide range of normal would be seen and experienced.  Today a woman may never see another woman breastfeeding until she’s feeding her own baby for the first time.  Seeking out support she may look online or join a breastfeeding support group, seeing breastfeeding dyads in a very specific setting that she had to find.  If she is experiencing difficulty with pain or ineffective milk transfer for her baby, because she hasn’t been exposed to breastfeeding pairs, she may not even realize that the way her baby is latched could be what’s causing the problem or that it may even be a fairly simple fix.  When there are issues such as poor weight gain for baby or bleeding nipples the first thing to consider is a poor latch.  After I shared a few pictures of Sugarbaby’s latch on Facebook, there were several comments and I received several emails from moms stating that they never knew saw what a latch looked like and had endured pain in breastfeeding because they didn’t realize something was wrong.  Side note: if you are ever experiencing pain with breastfeeding that is more than a brief moment of discomfort or lasts beyond initial latch please seek out help, pain is usually an indication of a problem than can be corrected.  This doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong, it just means you probably need help.

 I talked with my friend Star Rodriguez, IBCLC of Lactastic Services and WIC peer counselor for the following lists.

When do you need to consider latch issues and improving your nursling’s latch?

  •  When breastfeeding is painful beyond the initial latching.
  • When there is tissue damage to your nipples.
  • When there are weight gain issues for the baby.

What latch pointers can moms try?

  • Mom is in a comfortable position and has brought the baby to her level to her instead of leaning down to the baby.
  • Baby has wide open mouth.
  • Baby’s body is facing yours and baby’s arms are not pushing away at you.
  • It is best to let the breast fall naturally if possible.
  • If large breasted or when milk first comes in, it may be helpful to hold your breast with your hand.
  • Aim baby’s nose toward the nipple; if necessary to encourage a wider mouth, tickle the very top of the baby’s upper lip with your nipple.
  • Latch should be asymmetrical. Chin will touch the breast, nose will be unobstructed. You do not need to push your breast away from your baby’s nose in a good latch.
  • You will hear or see baby swallowing – short sucks/swallows at first, longer ones as milk starts to let down.
  • If using a nipple shield, ensure that the nipple and surrounding tissue is being pulled into the shield.

What can a mom do to try to improve a painful or ineffective latch?

  • If baby isn’t opening mouth wide enough, attempt to show baby by opening your own mouth wide.  Many babies will subconsciously mimic this.
  • Make a “breastwich” with your hand in the shape of a C behind the areola to help baby get a bigger mouthful.
  • Get baby as naked as possible for skin-to-skin or lightly dressed.
  • Hold baby securely, a snug, close hold will help.
  • Pull baby in quickly when mouth is open wide.
  • It is common to experience some discomfort at latch in the first few weeks of breastfeeding.  It should go away as the feeding continues.  If it does not end after around 30 seconds, you may need to remove the baby from the breast and reposition the baby.  Break the suction by placing your little finger into the corner of the baby’s mouth and trying to latch again.  Some lactation consultants can show you ways to fix a latch without taking the baby off the breast, but those are easier to learn from being shown rather than told.  You may need to put the baby in a different nursing hold or position.

When should a lactation consultant be called?

  • Repositioning doesn’t work
  • If there is sudden soreness after there has been painless nursing
  • If you feel stabbing or burning pain in breasts or at latch
  • If you have cracked or bleeding nipples
  • If your latch is not painful but your baby is not having a good amount of wet and dirty diapers

Check out these other resources on latch:

11 Common Pitfalls When Latching a Newborn

 

Latching and positioning resources

Latching: Thoughts on Pressing Baby’s chin down

 The Mother-Baby Dance

 

Coming soon a photo gallery of latched on babies and their mother’s commentaries on their latch experience illustrating the wide range of normal and potentially problematic latches. 

 

Nipple Shields: life-saver, supply -wrecker or just another tool for nursing mothers?

 by Jenny Thomas, MD, MPH, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM

I confess, I didn’t know what a nipple shield was back in the day when I was still a very smart but breastfeeding “knowledge- challenged” pediatrician. I did know that whatever they were, they were bad. Very bad. “Never” use them under any circumstances. Ever.

Later, when my niece was born, in a hospital hundreds, nay thousands, or millions of miles away from me, imagine my horror as I found out that she needed a nipple shield to latch. This was bad. I didn’t know why. But it had to stop. So, as unsupportively as I could imagine (in retrospect) I told my sister to stop using that thing! I hadn’t met my niece yet, but I knew that she was less than 5 pounds soaking wet and that nipple thingy was going to ruin her chances of getting into the Ivy League.

One of my dearest friends in the world needed to use a shield when her second child was born. She asked for one when her third was born and was told “no” by the staff caring for her in the hospital. To me, it just was further proof that their use was fraught with problems.

I’m smarter now, at least I’m less breastfeeding-challenged, and I know better than to use the words “never” or “always” and to deny to a request without providing education and informed consent. And I’ve heard too many stories of success to discount the benefits of nipple shields for some mothers and babies. But the fact remains that we have no guidelines for nipple shield use. We have few studies rigorously done that show they are effective.

A nipple shield is a gadget that is placed over the nipple and areolar area. It looks sort of like a nipple (sort of), or a sombrero, but is made of plastic and there are different types. You can get them online and over the counter. The problem with them stems from studies (with flaws in the method in which they were done) that concluded that the use of the shield could decrease milk supply, were associated with more supplementation, and lead to early weaning.

That meant that if they were to be used, the dyad using them would need to be carefully followed, but many mothers were getting them and no follow up was scheduled. I’m not sure the logical result of that should be a compete ban on their use, but, well, they were highly discouraged. Of course, those studies were with older versions of the shield, and other research (with flaws in the method in which they were done) with newer versions of the shield suggested this wasn’t as a big a problem as we thought. But many of those same concerns exist. We honestly don’t know the short-term or long-term effects of nipple shield use.

Nipple shields are often given out in the nursery for “flat” nipples. My guess (no data, so definitely flawed study method) is that the nipples are puffy. And if that’s the case, this might be something to try.

They are often given out for a poor latch as a quick fix to a more complex problem, but we need to remember basics: skin to skin, baby-lead latch, biological nurturing. And asking for help from someone who is board certified in lactation, an “IBCLC.” The shield should not be a first step.

If it’s given to you because your nipples are sore, then in addition to the shield, we need somebody to fix the underlying problem and be your cheerleader and you heal and transition back to the breast. (Find a Lactation Consultant!)

So, suggestions:
If you are given a nipple shield ask why. Informed consent for any intervention means that you are given the required information, in an understandable manner that allows your voluntary participation and that helps in making a decision for a course of action. Questions you can ask to help fulfill informed consent: Why am I getting this thing? How long do I use it? How will it help? Might it hurt? What other things might I try? What type of follow up do I need?

If you are given a shield, and it works, well, cool. You need follow up by somebody who knows something about breastfeeding so we can work on the underlying issue that initially caused the need for the shield.

If you were given a shield and don’t like it, well, let’s get you some assistance and fix whatever the issue is that requires a gadget to fix it so we can go gadget-less.

Shields are meant to be temporary solutions. If you are still using it when your baby is months old, we really should be able to help you stop using it, if you want us to.

If you are given a shield, it works well, you baby is growing and you’re happy but everyone around you is like “ooooooh, those things are bad’ you have my permission to hear everything that that person says after that in the voice of Charlie Brown’s teacher (you remember that voice, or am I showing my age?)

Resources:
Baby led- breastfeeding:http://www.geddesproduction.com/breast-feeding-baby-led.php
Biological Nurturing: http://www.biologicalnurturing.com/
Skin-to-skin http://massbfc.org/providers/SkinToSkin.pdf
Find a lactation consultant: http://www.ilca.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3432

Health professionals’ attitudes and use of nipple shields for breastfeeding women. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20524842
Nipple shields: a review of the literature. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20807104

 

 

 

Dr. Jenny Thomas, MD, MPH, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM is a general pediatrician and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in southeastern Wisconsin. Find her sound, evidence-based and helpful advice on parenting at www.drjen4kids.com and Lakeshore Medical Breastfeeding Medicine Clinic.