Here - Health Promotion Agency

The first weeks
HINTS FOR
BREASTFEEDING
After the birth, hold your
baby in skin-to-skin
contact for as long as you
both wish.
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Feed your baby as often
and as long as he or she
needs.
Check your baby is well
positioned and attached
for feeding.
Avoid using dummies or
formula while
breastfeeding as these can
confuse your baby and
reduce your milk supply.
Keep your baby in the
same room as you day
and night.
Eat and drink when you
feel hungry or thirsty and
try to eat a wide variety
of foods (see page 10).
Avoid drinking too much
strong tea or coffee.
Different kinds of breast milk
For the first few days after birth, your
breasts produce a special food called
‘colostrum’, which looks like rich
creamy milk and is sometimes quite
yellow in colour. This contains all the
food your baby needs. This also
contains antibodies, which pass on to
your baby your own resistance to
infections.
The change from colostrum to milk
begins on about the third day, and is
known as ‘transitional milk’. It
becomes ‘full’ breast milk after two
weeks. Don’t worry if the milk looks
very thin or appears blue-white in
colour – this is normal. The make-up
of the milk also gradually changes
throughout the course of the feed.
The first milk which your baby takes
flows quickly, is thirst-quenching and
means your baby gets a drink at the
start of every feed. As the flow slows
HOW TO BREASTFEED
down during a feed, the amount of
fat in your milk increases.
How your baby feeds
If your baby is positioned and
attached correctly, it will feel
comfortable and your baby will
feed easily. Your baby needs to be
able to compress the dark area
around your nipple (the areola) to
receive milk. The breasts are never
empty, but the milk is ‘let down’ so
that it can gather behind the nipple
and areola. When a baby sucks on
just the nipple, he or she doesn’t get
much milk and it feels painful.
The following step-by-step guide
to breastfeeding will help you learn
how to hold your baby and how to
help your baby attach well.
Sometimes it can take time for both
you and your baby to learn this skill.
1 Start by holding your
baby close to you. Turn
your baby’s head and
body towards you in a
line, not twisted.
Support your baby
behind the neck and
shoulders and avoid
holding the baby’s head.
8