Preparing for breastfeeding

Just like preparing to give birth to a child increases your chances that your birth will be successful, preparing for breastfeeding will help you get more pleasure from feeding your baby.

Prepare your breasts. Because pregnancy hormones prepare your breasts for feeding in a natural way, most women do not need a lot of chest preparation. Mothers with thin skin, whose nipples are often more sensitive than other women, can

harden their nipples by walking part of the day without a bra or wearing a nursing bra with unfastened calyxes to put nipples on the air and lightly rubbing their clothes. Try not to use soap for nipples and areoles( dark colored areas of the breast surrounding the nipples), as soap dries out the skin and causes cracking of the nipples. The glands around your nipples produce a natural lubricant, making lotions and oils unnecessary. If you feel insecure by manipulating your breasts, ask them to teach you the art of breast massage to a nursing friend or a lactation consultant. Massage will add to your confidence in handling your own breasts and will come in handy later when you master the technique of expressing milk by hand.

Take an antenatal inspection of the nipples. In some women, the nipples are flat or entangled, which makes it difficult for the child to properly suck to the breast and often leads to the fact that the nipples ache and the baby remains hungry. Here's how to determine if your nipples are flat or not pulled. Place your thumb and index finger on the opposite edges of the areola( nipple) and press as soon as you can - carefully but strongly. Your nipple should stay outside or go forward. If instead of this

your nipple becomes flat or pulled inward, the child may be difficult to grab it. Since you can not say that your nipples are not flat and not drawn, just looking at them, it is important to do this test. Sometimes the nipples seem normal, but they actually retract when pressed on the areola border. Let your nipples be inspected before delivery by a specialist who has experience in recognizing and treating retracted nipples. If you have flat or retracted nipples, that's how to "make a nipple": wear a breast shield, also called a milk cup, or a cup for the breast - but not a nipple guard( also known as a nipple pad, which should generally be avoided)- a plastic cup that is inserted into the bra and slightly presses on the areola, while your nipple is able to go out through a special hole. Wearing the shields for the chest during the last few months of pregnancy gradually pulls the nipple out.

Prepare not only your body, but your psyche as well. Linda, one of the mothers we observed, admitted: "I thought intellectually that I was ready for breastfeeding, but I was not emotionally".She knew that breast milk was more useful for her child, but she had no idea about the level of dedication that would be required in the first few weeks, when "the child

only wants to suck."And then she went on: "If only someone told me that after these first few weeks, breastfeeding will be less exhausting and more satisfying and satisfying."

Talk to your sympathetic friends. Look for those who support your choice about breastfeeding, and do not protest your parental approach. Nothing divides friends like different opinions on the issues of raising children. Murderous cliche "This is probably your milk" is used for any emerging problem: colic, constipation, diarrhea, nocturnal awakenings and so on. This is an insulting and unfair observation. Love for your child makes you especially vulnerable to any saying that you have bad milk, and therefore you are a bad mother. In fact, from mothers who have never breastfed, you can not get anything but the most critical statements. Surround yourself with friends who are able to provide support, which inspire confidence and approve of your choice.

Learn the right positions and techniques for capturing the nipple. In , see the certified lactation counselor before giving birth, to attend a breastfeeding course. Twenty-four or forty-eight hours after the birth of your child's

, ask the consultant to visually demonstrate to you the correct positions and techniques described in the next section.