BFing the first day

[kfarb]

I took a BF class and read The Breastfeeding Book. So I know the first few days to put the baby to the breast as often as possible. So I was thinking about every hour or so, but how long on each breast? It will just be colostrum, so it wouldn't take that long, right? I don't want to get sorer then necessary, and I heard it's a no-no to go for long stretches at a time, like 45 minutes. But I also want to build my milk supply.

 

[MelanieAnn]

There are a couple of great videos here: https://breastcrawl.org/video.shtml
https://dou-la-la.blogspot.com/2010/06/weekend-movie-fabulous-instructional.html
https://www.biologicalnurturing.com/video/bn3clip.html

Most babies feed 8 - 12 times / 24 hours and 5-40 mins/feed (longer would suggest that the latch wasn't quite right leading to inefficient milk transfer) but often cluster feed all evening. The first 3-4 days may not be like that, though, as they may be sleepy depending on drugs during deliver.

Melanie

 

[fernie3]

The first day my baby fed roughly every 3 -4 hours and for between 10 minutes and 20 minutes each time, I woke her sometimes as she was sleeping longer than 3 hours. By three days this had totally changed (my milk came in at three days) and she was feeding at least every 2 hours for up to 40 mins at a time (she was sucking longer but not swallowing - she still does this if she is upset).
I let her feed as long as she liked but have never had any problems at all with soreness or pain of any kind (touch wood)