# The breast crawl



## Pixxie

Has anyone heard about or experienced this? 

https://birthbliss.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/the-breast-crawl/

It would seem it helps newborns learn good breastfeeding habits and prevents early problems. xxx


----------



## KandyKinz

I've seen it done a few times... definitly a time consuming thing....

I liked that article as it illustrated many good points which more and more women should be made aware of... 

#1. Pain analgesia in labour EFFECTS breastfeeding negatively. Narcotics and epidurals are especially bad for this... nitrous not so much... 

#2. The majority of babies are very alert during the first 30 to 60 minutes. This is the BEST time for a baby to learn to breastfeeding and they learn by doing... After the first hour following the birth babies often become fairly sleepy for the next 24 hours which can make establishing breastfeeding difficult (but not impossible) if an inital latch has not been achieved. This tends to be an issue for c-section babies.

#3. Skin to skin contact = GOOD... Doesn't matter if baby is doing the breast crawl or not... skin to skin contact holds many benefits for baby. First off, it makes mom's breasts very accessible which definitly helps with breastfeeeding plus it stabilizes baby's temperature, respiration rate, and blood sugars which helps avoid unnecessary interventions... Also of note, skin to skin with dad is holds the same benefits to the babe (with the exception of assisting in breastfeeding establishment obviously). So if mom and babe are seperated after the birth eg in the situation of a c-section dad should be doing his part by going skin to skin with baby.


Anyways, I'm all for baby led latching but I'm not planning the whole breast crawl from my tummy thing when my baby is born... I figure I'll bypass the first twenty minute or so and bring baby directly to the breast and he/she can figure it out from there... as did my daughter... My reason being that there's lots of evidence that nipple stimulation (whether it be the baby nursing or just hanging at the breast) improves breastfeeding outcome and decreases the total amount of postpartum blood loss (I'm not intending on active management of third stage).


----------



## Pretty Sakura

I experienced this first hand and it wasn't time consuming for my dd. Within a few minutes she had already found her way to my breast. I had no epidural or pain meds..It was a wonderful experience and she is a great little nurser. Not sure if that's related but it's definitely worth a go. :flow:


----------



## lozzy21

I couldent do this with my baby, my boobs are that big baby would fall of me trying to find my nipple.


----------



## maisiemoo

KandyKinz said:


> .
> 
> #2. The majority of babies are very alert during the first 30 to 60 minutes. This is the BEST time for a baby to learn to breastfeeding and they learn by doing... After the first hour following the birth babies often become fairly sleepy for the next 24 hours which can make establishing breastfeeding difficult (but not impossible) if an inital latch has not been achieved. This tends to be an issue for c-section babies.
> 
> .


Although I didn't experience the breast crawl at birth, we do have alot of fun with this. I'll often place Olivia on my chest and she'll make her way to the boob. It's got the point though, where i'll have her on my shoulder and she'll wriggle her way down :) 

Also, my little girl wasn't put to the breast until two weeks after she was born. She's now a BF wizzkid.


----------



## bubbles

I'm hoping for baby to do the breast crawl, it is in my list of preferences (I don't have a birth plan just a list of things I want to happen after)


----------



## kfarb

I saw a study about it. It's really awesome. I'm doing skin to skin, but not gonna wait for the breast crawl. Just gonna latch him on ASAP, lol.


----------



## KandyKinz

maisiemoo said:


> KandyKinz said:
> 
> 
> .
> 
> #2. The majority of babies are very alert during the first 30 to 60 minutes. This is the BEST time for a baby to learn to breastfeeding and they learn by doing... After the first hour following the birth babies often become fairly sleepy for the next 24 hours which can make establishing breastfeeding difficult (but not impossible) if an inital latch has not been achieved. This tends to be an issue for c-section babies.
> 
> .
> 
> Although I didn't experience the breast crawl at birth, we do have alot of fun with this. I'll often place Olivia on my chest and she'll make her way to the boob. It's got the point though, where i'll have her on my shoulder and she'll wriggle her way down :)
> 
> Also, my little girl wasn't put to the breast until two weeks after she was born. She's now a BF wizzkid.Click to expand...

I was primarily referring to the first 24 hours after the birth (babies tend to be most alert during their first hour during that time)... And often if breastfeeding isn't established during that time it can make establishing breastfeeding more difficult but it certainly doesn't mean every baby will have difficulty and it's absolutely wonderful that you're little girl became a pro at BFing after the two weeks delay of getting to the breast as many babies who experience that sort of seperation require more work.... though I certainly believe that any breastfeed regardless of what age they start at and the breast crawl is very good at encouraging that.


----------



## leena1

My third breastcrawled and it was brilliant, definitely had the least breastfeeding problems this time around!


----------



## Pixxie

I would love to try it but I dont think Im patient enough! x


----------



## LolaAnn

yep my baby did it after birth but he was really bad at bf for the first few days just not that interested infact he crawled there quite quickly but then just kinda mushed his face on my boobies lol. you should definately try but don't worry if they won't do it you don't wanna make them work too hard lol


----------



## Water Baby

We want to try this when our LO is born.

Like someone else said on here I then decided I was too impatient and would cheat a bit and have baby placed up near the breasts to then let it latch on itself.

However, I met our local BF counsellor and had a really good chat with her after our scan and she says for best results it is better to let the baby make their own way to the breast and that time goes so quickly once LO arrives that it wont seem like it takes long at all. 

She said most babbies are latched on within 50 mins so assuming I get the natural birth we both really want (Just found out we have a low-lying anterior placenta) then I think we'll stick to plan 'A' and go for the full on crawl.

We cannot wait :)


----------



## KandyKinz

I'm still in debate as to whether or not the crawling up is meant to be merely a survival reflex or a part of "natural" birth. It seems to me that the crawling up reflex is more of a survival reflex in that if mommy passes out postpartum... Baby would have a chance of making it to the breast to feed when needed until help could come..... And then "naturally" women tend to have an instinct themselves to pull their baby up to chest level immediately (when they're not planning or don't know about the chest crawl thing) and that's not one of those things superimposed by medical staff.

I don't think we'll ever know the answer though....


----------



## JenStar1976

After I gave birth to Alex, the midwives massaged my tummy to bring on a contraction to help me deliver the placenta naturally - it was 12 minutes from Alex being born to my placenta delivery. They explained to me at the time, that it was routine for them to do this as the massaging mimics the actions of a baby attempting the breast crawl. x


----------



## KandyKinz

JenStar1976 said:


> After I gave birth to Alex, the midwives massaged my tummy to bring on a contraction to help me deliver the placenta naturally - it was 12 minutes from Alex being born to my placenta delivery. They explained to me at the time, that it was routine for them to do this as the massaging mimics the actions of a baby attempting the breast crawl. x

Then why didn't they just let baby do the breast crawl? :shrug:


----------



## Water Baby

JenStar1976 said:


> After I gave birth to Alex, the midwives massaged my tummy to bring on a contraction to help me deliver the placenta naturally - it was 12 minutes from Alex being born to my placenta delivery. They explained to me at the time, that it was routine for them to do this as the massaging mimics the actions of a baby attempting the breast crawl. x

Wow, that's really interesting!

Even more reason to do this then as I'd like an entirely natural birth so don't want the injection to help deliver the placenta - thanks for the info x


----------



## LolaAnn

JenStar1976 said:


> After I gave birth to Alex, the midwives massaged my tummy to bring on a contraction to help me deliver the placenta naturally - it was 12 minutes from Alex being born to my placenta delivery. They explained to me at the time, that it was routine for them to do this as the massaging mimics the actions of a baby attempting the breast crawl. x

wow - can I have your midwives if I get preg again!!!?! amazing!


----------



## JenStar1976

KandyKinz said:


> JenStar1976 said:
> 
> 
> After I gave birth to Alex, the midwives massaged my tummy to bring on a contraction to help me deliver the placenta naturally - it was 12 minutes from Alex being born to my placenta delivery. They explained to me at the time, that it was routine for them to do this as the massaging mimics the actions of a baby attempting the breast crawl. x
> 
> Then why didn't they just let baby do the breast crawl? :shrug:Click to expand...

I had a water birth and was sitting up in the pool and already holding Alex quite far up by which time he'd already latched on. Not entirely sure, but I would imagine it really works naturally when you're out of the water and able to lie down? x


----------



## Krakir

They showed us a video similar to that at my prenatal class. My dr prefers it that way, although she said the nurses might push us to get her on the nipple ASAP.


----------



## hopedance

this is quite fascinating! i did feel that that video was quite pushy though, with all the facts in slow motion.. just so long as women all know that you can breastfeed without the crawl, like one of the earlier posters, i didn't get to breastfeed my baby until he was nearly 4 weeks old, and he's a fab BFer. at the moment i'm trying to persuade him to stop and he's not impressed lol.


----------



## leelee

I did it with my LO and he latched on after about 1/2 hour. He never latched on after that though, so in my case it didn't help with BF but it was a wonderful experience to see him make his way up to the breast.

I would defo do it again and hopefully be more successful the next time.


----------



## Mrs Doddy

It works after as well, my 5 week old did it yesterday - although she wasn't quite there as she fell alseep on the boob when she got there !


----------



## winterleaves

thank you for sharing that link, I found it really interesting. Are hospitals quite supportive of this idea? Its something I would really like to try, but worried they will want to pressure me to take baby away first to clean up and for weighing.


----------



## Pixxie

winterleaves said:


> thank you for sharing that link, I found it really interesting. Are hospitals quite supportive of this idea? Its something I would really like to try, but worried they will want to pressure me to take baby away first to clean up and for weighing.

You can say that you don't want them to take the baby for cleaning, it's in my birth plan that I want at least an hour with the baby before they take her to be weighed and cleaned :thumbup: It's your baby, tell them to get their mitts off! :D xxx


----------



## winterleaves

> You can say that you don't want them to take the baby for cleaning, it's in my birth plan that I want at least an hour with the baby before they take her to be weighed and cleaned It's your baby, tell them to get their mitts off! xxx

thank you!! Will put that in my request as well :) xx


----------



## melorablack

I tried it but my lo just kept almost falling off me...I think it would be a wonderful experience if it worked!


----------



## flubdub

Aww the last image in that film is beautiful :)
It really is amazing stuff and very good to know :thumbup:


----------



## flubdub

JenStar1976 said:


> After I gave birth to Alex, the midwives massaged my tummy to bring on a contraction to help me deliver the placenta naturally - it was 12 minutes from Alex being born to my placenta delivery. They explained to me at the time, that it was routine for them to do this as the massaging mimics the actions of a baby attempting the breast crawl. x

Thats what I've heard too - the kicking of the babies legs causes contractions to start which expells the placenta. Always good imo because the injection they give you to make it come out always makes me :sick: and I WONT be having it this time.


----------



## MumToBlanka

I've seen that video before and it BLEW.MY.MIND!!! I had NO idea that that was possible, did you? I read it within the context of a post about waterbirthing - basically that newborns make their way to the breast by following their nose and that in water birth, mommy smell is washed off. Who cares, really? Put the baby on the breast. But I was really amazed by the abilities of a newborn to do something like that.


----------



## Jenniflower

MumToBlanka said:


> I've seen that video before and it BLEW.MY.MIND!!! I had NO idea that that was possible, did you? I read it within the context of a post about waterbirthing - basically that newborns make their way to the breast by following their nose and that in water birth, mommy smell is washed off. Who cares, really? Put the baby on the breast. But I was really amazed by the abilities of a newborn to do something like that.

I was just going to ask if it's still possible for this to work during a waterbirth so it's good know that it doesn't exactly. Doesn't put me off the waterbirth though. I'll just have to help LO along :)


----------



## 9isDivine

Hi!

I think that, like stated before, getting baby to breastfeed right away is very important for both mom and baby. I personally don't think that the baby becomes a superior nurser because of the "breast crawl", though I don't have any problems with it if that is what a mom wants to do.
I think the main reason that babies do well with this is that if a mom is attempting to do theis, then she has likely done a fair amount of educating herself about the proper ways to get baby to latch on,etc. This will make a huge difference in how the baby learns to nurse. Starting out properly will absolutely help eliminate troubles with breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding also helps mom's uterus to clamp down as it should and gets those hormones rolling for getting milk to come in.

Breastfeeding and skin on skin also helps baby a ton! It helps regulate any irregular breathing and calms baby. It was quite stressful being born you know!

Yes, you can get a baby to nurse well without all that, but it can be more difficult for some babies. I have had babies that had some trouble with nursing (latching issues) and I was watching carefully and knew what to do! 

Hope that Helps!
Kim
mom of 9


----------

