Are you an expecting mother?

Are you wanting to know what to expect with nursing your baby? Fifteen years ago, I didn’t know anything about nursing my new baby. On the contrary, I thought I did! Like the common saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know!” Turns out what I didn’t know actually put my baby and I at a disadvantage right from the start. I didn’t know what “skin to skin” with my newborn REALLY meant, or the REAL purpose behind it. Now, as a training lactation counselor…

I know now what I wish knew for my own experience, and it is this:

“Skin to skin contact has been shown to increase breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding while reducing formula supplementation in [the] hospital, leading to an earlier successful first breastfeed.” “Being in skin to skin contact with the mother after birth elicits the newborn infant’s internal process to go through what could be called 9 instinctive stages: birth cry, relaxation, awakening, activity, rest, crawling, familiarization, suckling and sleeping.” (Widström, 2007).

In the upcoming months, Autumn Oak will offer in-office lactation consulting by certified lactation counselors, who are also certified Speech and Language Pathologists! We are excited to help new mothers in navigating this journey with their newborn.

By: Deborah Sherwin, M.A., CCC-SLP

 

References:

The Swedish American Team for Baby Adapted Care of Health Infants in the First Hours after Birth, Widström, Svensson and Brimdyr, for Kom Ombo Hospital, Egypt, 2007 and from http://www.lof.se/patientsakerhet.