Breastfeeding Unplugged
Breastfeeding Unplugged
Everything You Need To Know About The Latch and the Hold
Our topic for this week is something that’s absolutely crucial to successful breastfeeding, yet completely mystifying to most new moms.
Today we’re talking about the latch and the hold - two terms that you might not have heard of until just recently, if at all. These actions are the ties that bind momma and baby from day one. So how can something so simple and natural be so complicated at the same time?
When you feed your baby for the first time, two things will effectively make things easy or hard. The first is how your baby latches or holds onto your nipple with his or her mouth while feeding. The second is the hold - the way that you position your baby so feeding is comfortable for both of you. As you probably guessed, feeding your baby is going to become a very consuming part of early motherhood, so nailing the basics is key. That's what we are going to help you do today.
We are thrilled to welcome our guest Leah Tribus to the show. Leah is a Virginia-based IBCLC with Nest Collaborative and a registered nurse. She has worked with moms and babies for 17 years, focusing on lactation for the last eleven.
We look forward to having you join us for today's show mommas!
[Intro] Breastfeeding Unplugged. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome mamas and mamas to be. A podcast dedicated to helping moms navigate their way through the tricky world of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding Unplugged. Breastfeeding Feeding. Welcome, mamas and mamas-to-be. And thank you for joining me for another episode of Breastfeeding Unplugged. I am your host Amanda Gorman of Nest Collaborative. And our topic for this week is something that's absolutely crucial to successful breastfeeding, yet completely mystifying to most new moms. Today we are talking about the latch and the hold. Two terms that you might not have heard of, until just recently, if at all. These actions are the ties that bind mama and baby from day one. So how can something so simple and natural, be so complicated at the same time? When you feed your baby for the first time, two things will effectively make things easy or difficult. The first is how your baby latches, or how they hold on to your nipple with his or her mouth while they're feeding. The second is the hold, the way that you position your baby so feeding is comfortable for both of you. As you've probably guessed, feeding baby is going to become a very consuming part of early motherhood. So nailing these basics is key. That's what we're going to help with today. I'm absolutely thrilled to welcome our guest, Leah Tribus, to the show to tell us all about the latch and the hold. Leah is an IBCLC and a registered nurse and has worked with moms and babies for 17 years, focusing on lactation for the last 11. Over the course of her career, Leah has enjoyed various roles as a mother-baby nurse, a nursery nurse and childbirth and breastfeeding educator. Keeping her busy in Virginia are three lovely little girls, in addition to her venture For All Momkind, which provides education and support to moms who are being treated for addiction. Leah, welcome to the show. It's so wonderful to have you with us.
Leah Tribus:Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Amanda Gorman:Before we start talking about this holy grail of breastfeeding success. I'd love to hear from you about your experiences with moms during their very first moments of breastfeeding. So what is it like to have that new baby in your arms feeling for the first time?
Leah Tribus:So for a lot of moms, it's it's overwhelming with emotions. It's very surreal. Moms are elated and overwhelmed, excited, maybe a little scared. I think it's all of their imagination coming to fruition at one moment getting to meet their baby for the first time. So I would say hormones are surging, emotions are surging for sure.
Amanda Gorman:Sounds- sounds familiar. If I think way back. All right, well, let me jump in right away with the latch. I mean, is it really that important?
Leah Tribus:So the latch is pretty much the foundation for success in breastfeeding. And it's how we get milk- how your baby gets milk. So a painful latch or a bad latch isn't just unfortunate for the mother. It's like kind of sucking through a coffee straw to get fed. So a lot of effort for just a small amount of food. And a good deep latch and a comfortable latch, get the most milk to your baby efficiently. So that's why this is sort of the cornerstone of breastfeeding.
Amanda Gorman:All right, well, like you said, you know, there is and can be some pain and I think a lot of moms that we talk to are afraid of pain. So can we break that down a little bit? Is it supposed to be painful?
Leah Tribus:That's a great question. Usually there's somebody in your life a grandma, a girlfriend, who tells you to expect pain, or breakdown meaning cracks, nipples, bleeding, blistering, bruising. This is never a normal part of breastfeeding. So where pain is concerned, it should never be something that has to be endured for the breastfeeding relationship. And if a mom is in a lot of pain, it's always a good idea to have someone checking the latch, making sure that we can problem solve why that's happening.
Amanda Gorman:Okay, well, that's relieving. In terms of kind of preparing to breastfeed, should moms be like toughening up their nipples prenatally at all?
Leah Tribus:So that's another sort of misnomer. Our nipples will change. If you are pregnant now, you'll know that your nipples and your areolas have changed, likely, and they will change with breastfeeding. But what shouldn't happen is any sort of callous thing or toughening of the nipple, that again would be coming from damage. So there's no need to prep your breast or nipples in any way for breast feeding. Our bodies were made to do it and during pregnancy, our body gets ready to do it.
Amanda Gorman:Okay. So one thing that's not obvious is- or to most moms isn't very obvious is exactly which part of the nipple or areola should be going into baby's mouth. Like, is it just the tip? Is it the whole shebang? What should they be looking for to identify whether babies latched in the right position?
Leah Tribus:So that's a wonderful question. I've been doing this a really long time. So I've seen lots of breasts, different shapes, areola sizes, nipples, all of that. And if that's not something you do for a living, you wouldn't know. But they do come in all different sizes and shapes. So there was a previous teaching that would tell moms, you need to get your entire areola in baby's mouth. Well, for a mom with a quarter size areola, that's doable. But a mom with a much larger areola sand dollar size, it would be a lot harder. So that is not what's important, the areola. What's more important is that the baby has enough of the breast tissue in the mouth, for that effective transfer of milk and comfort to mama. So a baby who sucks on the tip of the nipple will hurt mom, and won't be massaging the milk duck, and therefore won't be getting the maximum amount of milk. So remember, a shallow latch is a bad- it's bad for all parties. So it's not something we ever want. And so for me, I kind of tell moms touch her nipple right under the baby's nose. This will get infant to lift the chin up, extending the neck, sort of like they're sniffing. And this allows what we call an asymmetrical latch. And that asymmetrical latch will aim the nipple towards the roof of the mouth where the baby can respond and suck. And then it will ensure that the nipple will reach back to the soft palate where the latch becomes really deep and comfortable for them.
Amanda Gorman:Okay, so what should we be looking for on baby in terms of signs that she or he is latched properly?
Leah Tribus:So if you kind of think about your geometry class, which I did not excel in, but you want your baby's mouth angled at about 120 degrees or bigger, and if math is not your thing, you want to think about your baby's mouth being about as wide open as it would be when the baby is yawning. So it's pretty wide open. Both that upper lip and a lower lip should sort of flange out, not be curled in, and the lower lip will cover a little bit more of the areola than the top lip. The top lip's really resting on top and kind of as a placeholder.
Amanda Gorman:Okay, well, that's really helpful. Are there any telltale signs that moms should be looking out for with regards to a poor latch or an improper latch?
Leah Tribus:Yes, absolutely. So we already said that pain is bad. So we already know that's bad. But if you're actually visualizing looking at the baby, if we see the actual nipples, they're not the areola when we're talking about anatomy. But the actual nipple in the corner of the baby's mouth or the base of the nipple is actually showing because the baby's so narrow, and if the baby's mouth or lips look pur- pursed, kind of like a kiss, that's typically going to be a poor latch or a shallow latch. And it also usually results in sort of like loud smacking sounds, that sort of indicate to us that baby doesn't have a good feel around mom's breast.
Amanda Gorman:Okay, so I mean, if if mom is suspecting that the latch might be off, how long should she try before reaching out to get help?
Leah Tribus:So it's always good to feel like you have a basis when you start. Obviously, you don't want to go into this completely blind. And maybe that's part of the reason why you're listening to this podcast. But it's helpful to kind of know what is normal and what is not. So now that you understand that, you know, latching shouldn't be painful. You should never suffer through a feeding because one bad latch one bad feeding could cause damage to the nipple, and then we're having to do a lot of work to get mom comfortable again. So it's always a good idea, especially if you birth in a hospital or even a birthing center to have someone take a look. If you are unsure if the latch is correct, if you're having some pain, ask your nurse, ask the lactation consultant to come say, hey, how does this look? Does this look correct? Because it's bothering me a little bit so that we can intervene sooner rather than later.
Amanda Gorman:Okay, now, I know from my own personal experience, I actually didn't have problems in the hospital but they kind of started once I got home. So what resources are out there for moms who don't start to get into the trouble zone until they are out of the hospital?
Leah Tribus:So I think this is actually a really common problems. So if anyone's listening that has a baby and has gone through this, they've probably experienced a similar issue. There tends to be in that first week of life, a lot of critical- critical changes what with the milk coming in, the breast getting engorged, and these sort of things that make little speed bumps to our breastfeeding journey. So I find that without support, so without a phone call, a visit to someone who knows what they're doing, parents are really blindly trying to navigate, which is really hard. And it's completely okay and expected to ask for help. So, I find that there is a couple good sources out there. One is if it 2am and you're looking for some solid information I really, really like kellymom.com. It's very reputable information written by pediatricians, lactation consultants that have experienced. And it's a go to for me sometimes when I'm not sure of something. So that's a great place to do some research rather than Google. Secondly, most hospitals do offer some outpatient, at least telephone support. I know at one of the hospitals that I work, we do offer that. So at the very level that nurse can or lactation consultant can triage for you and say, hey, I think this warrants you having a telehealth visit, or if it's something more serious, having an actual outpatient visit. Some pediatricians office will have lactation consultants on staff and some pediatricians are actually certified themselves. But what you have to kind of ask yourself is is this person doing lactation all the time, or just some of the time? So it's always good to seek out professionals that do this pretty much all the time, because they're seeing the same issues and can help you with them. So I love the idea of reaching out for maybe some triage information from the hospital if that's available. And then going straight to telehealth if it's available, like with Nest Collaborative, and then they'll let you know. Do you need to see a person in person to get a weight check or any other thing that your baby might need?
Amanda Gorman:Okay, that I love it. That's great. And that's really good for moms to know what their options are once they're once they're home. So for second times moms, is it- is it the same necessarily from one baby to another for moms who were successful with one? Are they you know, is it pretty much a sure shot for baby number two, or vice versa? If mom struggles the first time should she expect the same issues with her next baby?
Leah Tribus:So that's also a great question because every baby is different. I explain this a lot to moms when they get varied information from one pregnancy to another, from one baby to another. And I remind them that we're not robots. So one solution for one baby might not be the solution that works for another. One problem might not be the same exact problem. So we have to look at each baby pretty individually. Now if a mom had an issue, something with her supply, we are going to watch her really closely to see is that going to occur a second time. But with babies, typically, if it was a mouth anatomy issue, or just mom not understanding that she needs to ask for help, we can certainly help her earlier on. I have situations all the time where parents have had a rough experience with the first baby know what to do and what to ask the second time, and therefore have better success and are calmer the second time around. So it's not always that case, it can go the opposite. Some of them have wonderful luck with their first baby, my firstborn was an absolute dream when it came to breastfeeding. And my second was a challenge. So you certainly can have the opposite happen. And that's where, again, reaching out for support is so important. Just because you're a second time mom or third time mom, doesn't mean that you're not allowed to ask questions.
Amanda Gorman:No, absolutely not. super helpful. Thank you so much. One more question I have here is can a baby latch differently on one boob than she does on the other side?
Leah Tribus:I mean, again, typically we're not- we are breast shape, size, nipples shape, size, might not be identical. There may be some differences also with your comfort level. So if you're right handed, you may be more comfortable in certain holds on the right breast than you are in the left breast. And some babies, some babies can actually scent that- sense that. So I think it's really helpful to recognize that breast preference is what moms will say, my baby prefers the right, you know, or my baby prefers the left, is often something a combination of mom's anatomy, maybe one nipple is larger than the other therefore easier for baby to take. It could be the amount of colostrum coming out of one side versus the other. And then on top of that we layer in your comfort level. Maybe you have an IP in one of your hands and it makes it a little bit difficult. So certainly babies can prefer or one side can feel easier, but that does usually level off with good support, problem solving, and then once the milk comes in, I do find that babies are a little less picky, because the volume is there, and they're just excited to be fed.
Amanda Gorman:Of course, aren't we all? All right. Wow, well you've really given us a lot to think about already. I would like to pivot a little and talk about the best positions to hold baby. But before we do that, we're going to take a quick break, so mamas stay with us. Like many of us, I've been trying to use less plastic in our household. I just tried Shambar, a new sulfate free shampoo and conditioner in a bar, and it blew me away. Here's what I loved about Shambar, no yucky stuff, no synthetic fragrances, or harsh color fading sulfates. As a mom, it feels good to know that I'm using a safer product, that my hair is healthier, and it's saving me more trips to the salon for coloring and more highlights. Each Shambar replaces two 18 ounce single use plastic bottles. It's a family business. And for every order, they donate a month's worth of soap to a family in need. What a relevant give back to make sure all families have the resources that they need a win win. Get your first bar absolutely free when you use the code first free. All one word. F-i-r-s-t F-r-e-e on one of their flexible cancel anytime super easy subscriptions. Find out more at Shambar.com. Hey, everyone, we are back with Leah Tribus, who has really given us a fantastic one o one on what to expect when a baby latches on the breast for the first time. But now I'd like to change gears a bit and chat about the hold. And how moms can support their babies in a way that's comfortable both for their little one and themselves. So Leah, let's start talking about the most basic aspect of holding the baby while breastfeeding. Why is positioning so important for it?
Leah Tribus:So it's interesting because I do feel that we focus always on latching. And it is so important. But it's important to know that without good positioning, a good latch can't be achieved. So they really go hand in hand, it's really you must have one to have the other. So I see a lot of moms who have seen pictures of mom holding their baby in the crook of their arm like that traditional cradle hold. And that's what their default is they kind of go to that position thinking that's the way we all breastfeed. And it's actually much more than that. So I find that, you know, to get that comfortable latch we've been talking about, we really have to focus on body mechanics. You know, as adults, we're told how to sit at our desk and where our monitor height should be. And we have to remember that body mechanics for our newborns, is just as important. Babies can't swallow well or maintain suction when they have poor body positioning.
Amanda Gorman:Well, that makes total sense as I straighten up in my chair here. So a lot of moms are afraid that their baby can't breathe while they're feeding. Is that true? Or, how can they be assured that baby's breathing fine, when it might not look as though that's the case?
Leah Tribus:Yeah, I mean, that's, that's valid. Some moms with larger breasts really worry about that, especially if their breasts are what we call pillowy, nice and soft, like a pillow. But again, with proper body mechanics, kind of getting that asymmetrical latch like we've chatted about. It will help facilitate a position in where baby's nose isn't buried in mama's breasts. Also, it's kind of interesting to note that baby's noses are actually a bit flat at first. And this is specifically so that- because they are meant to kind of press against mom's breast. And this lets them get a deep latch and they still can breathe. So my typical rule of thumb is if you can semi visualize one nostril from the side, we're pretty good. And I usually show examples of you know how you can breathe. If you put your hand up to your nose, you actually can still breathe okay. So I'll have parents kind of try that. So they can be like, oh, yeah, okay, that baby can breathe.
Amanda Gorman:Okay, well, that's easy. What do you think are really the best positions for newborns who are learning to nurse?
Leah Tribus:So I think things that provide good body mechanics for both mom and baby are the best. And so my two favorite holds for newborns are going to be the cross fetal position and the football hold. Before I kind of explain what those are, I do like to explain just kind of the basics of a hold. So in any breastfeeding hold, the baby's body should be aligned. And what I mean by that is the baby's ear, shoulder, and the hip should all be in a line. The head should kind of be straight on and shouldn't be twisting to one side or the other. And that's important as like the very basis for effective and comfortable feeding. And we talked about before you lining your nose up with baby's nipple and by aligning your nipple up with baby's nose, touching the baby right under the nose, which will allow baby to lift like they're sniffing and get that asymmetrical latch. And where mom's supporting hand will be is between baby's shoulder blades on the back, and the nape of your baby's neck will rest between mom's fingers and thumb. This hold really allows flexibility of movement for baby because babies don't rigidly attach to the breath. And it allows mom a lot of control over baby's head and neck versus the traditional cradle hold, for example. So both the football hold and the cross cradle kind of achieve these things, which is why they're my favorite. They're also my favorite given baby sizes. So a three months old, you can throw in the crook of your arm, they know how to self attach, and the cradle ho- hold works just fine. But for those new tiny babies that need so much assistance to get to the breast, we really want to make sure that we have full control if we can. So cross cradle, mom should be slightly reclined, this always helps- gravity is going to help hold baby to mom's breast. So she'll bring her baby tummy- so baby's tummy to mom's tummy. And when mom looks down, she'll see that good body alignment we talked about. And in this way, the baby can push that chin into the breast, the neck will be extended, and the nose and forehead will be slightly rocked or angled off the breast, and the baby lays across mom's belly. And that's in that semi reclined position. And it really once we kind of tweak that and get that right. It's a beautiful, wonderful, comfortable position. Some momma's have more successful football, especially if they've had a cesarean and they're nervous about having the baby lay on their stomach. So in the football hold, the baby's sort of wrapped around your side turned into you again. But it's more like baby's tummy onto your ribs or your side. And you kind of have them tucked in like those quarterback people, you know, run around with the football, which is where it got its name. So but really what you're doing is you're- your supporting arm is holding the baby close to the body. And the other hand is going to sandwich your breast in a V-shape. In any hold we use when we compress the breast like a sandwich, it allows better control of the breast, and that deeper latch we keep talking about.
Amanda Gorman:So helpful. Thank you. Will- well you just spoke a little bit about- so it seems that positions will change a little bit as the baby gets older. Is that something that's more of a preference for baby or just natural as the baby grows and develops.
Leah Tribus:Yeah, I think it's really a natural progression. I think as moms become much more comfortable with what that latch is supposed to feel like. So when they start to learn, the difference between this is really wrong, or yay, this is right, then they can start kind of modifying their positioning, because they know if they make a minor adjustment and it hurts, oops, I got to change back to that other hold. So it really allows moms once they're comfortable to experiment a little bit and figure out- I kind of say there's no wrong when it comes to latching unless it hurts or positioning. So moms are allowed to try a variety of different things. If it's working for them, I say go for it. And I find that again, once you're at home in your environment where you can kind of freely have no shirt on, snuggle your baby a lot, and nurse in a variety of places, you will start to develop preferences. And it's based on both of you. So I think once baby can self attach much better. And once you get that comfortable latch, you really can try a bunch of things that work work very effectively. But for that newborn period those are my favorite.
Amanda Gorman:Gotcha. So what about twins? When you're trying to hold twins do you do one baby at a time? Two babies at once? What does that look like?
Leah Tribus:So that is- that is something of course that twin moms want to know a lot. And what I find I always try to do with my clients and patients is provide for them a achievable goal. And I think while tandem feeding is beautiful and wonderful. It's like we talked about with these little bit more advanced positions that we get into when we're comfortable. It sometimes can be tricky, not for everybody. But in the first early days, it can be tricky for new mamas. And I don't ever want a mom to feel like they're set up for failure. So we always will practice I tell them to try to do a little bit of practicing. But I also allow them that space to know that if they need to feed one baby and then feed the second baby, that's also totally okay. So it's really mom's preference. Tandem feeding can be wonderful and very time saving when we get that down when we kind of achieve that. But understanding that twins can have a lot of different nuances, that they're a little bit early, and things like that. That can make a difference in how often tandem feeding is successful and that newborn period. Once we do want to try it though, the positions that we talked about work really well. Usually you need a much larger surface area. So some pillows, there's a couple breastfeeding pillows that are meant for twins, they give you more real estate to work with. And so usually if you have someone nearby to help, you can do the football hold attaching one baby. And then there's the- your helper can help bring the second baby under your other arm. So you can do football on both sides. Once they're there, you do great. You can also do one side football and one side prop cradle. That also seems to work really well for some mums. But you definitely need those like extra pillows for support. And sometimes you need an extra hand or two in there to initially get babies latched. This also works the same, if you're breastfeeding a toddler and a newborn. You can do various positions, depending on where you're sitting, where your toddler is kind of on one side with the body away from you. And then you're you can focus more on the newborn, because your toddler knows how to attach. So tandem feeding for an older child and a baby can be a little bit simpler.
Amanda Gorman:Gotcha. Yeah, we do don't- we know those toddlers like to move around a lot too.
Leah Tribus:Right.
Amanda Gorman:So what would you say are some of the kind of common positioning mistakes that moms might be more apt to make?
Leah Tribus:So I touched on it a little bit. But that traditional cradle hole that we so often see pictured, I actually find I see it a lot with second time moms. So I have a second time mom, she comes into the office telling me, you know, I feel like I should know what I'm doing. But this latch that my baby's doing is painful, please help me. And what it ends up being is that they have the baby not aligned properly. So either the baby sort of sitting in their lap with the neck twisted towards their nipple, and baby's yanking on the nipple kind of not square on but sort of pulling, or the mom has a baby in the crook of her arm. And that cradle hold with the baby a little bit too far to mom's armpit. And when the baby's not in front of the breast, so I touched on keeping the nose across from mom's nipple, when that's not happening, if the baby brings the chin to the chest. So instead of that sniffing position, it's kind of the opposite the chin is headed towards the chest, the nipple gets mashed on the hard palate, which is not comfortable. And it also results in that more shallow draw and transfer of milk as well. Um so that's really the most common issue I see is that chin kind of resting against the chest, we can't slide a finger between the chin and chest, baby's nose is buried in the breast. And moms are complaining of this pinching or clamping or biting. And that's really, really common again, because a lot of times in the delivery room, you're kind of like left on your own to figure out this breastfeeding thing the first time. And when that happens, you're using only what you've seen. And you're kind of assuming what the positioning is. And so that traditional cradle hold with that chin against the chest would be like the most common issue that I see that causes discomfort.
Amanda Gorman:That makes total sense. Also another great reason why it's so helpful to have a little bit of prenatal education going in, because some of this stuff you can discuss and know ahead of time.
Leah Tribus:I'm sorry, can you repeat that?
Amanda Gorman:I said, it's why it's so good to have some prenatal education before baby arrives on breastfeeding.
Leah Tribus:It's amazing. And I find that moms that are prepped and come in prepped have already started that football hold, have already started the cross cradle, they have minor tweaking questions. It's really such a wonderful resource because your brain is much clearer during that pre baby stage than right after the baby's born when it's really hard to absorb all the information.
Amanda Gorman:Mm hmm. A lot going on. Alright, so baby's hands, they're always getting in the way. Do you have any suggestions for how mom can kind of get them a little bit under control so she can really work on that latch?
Leah Tribus:Yeah, so I've been doing this like, you intro'd me for a long time. And I have never done a lot of research about baby's hands. Just wasn't something that was on my radar. I knew they got in the way and that sometimes they were a barrier, that baby was sucking on the hand instead of kind of rooting towards mom's breast. And recently, I found this article by the San Diego Breastfeeding Center. And it had this great information about how the baby's hands have this purpose. So they seem like a nuisance, but they really have this purpose. Newborns have really poor eyesight, which all of us probably learn a little bit in our prenatal research. So they have to use all of their senses to find our breast. So they will use their hands to sort of ground themselves. If you were falling forward, you would want your hands out. You wouldn't want your hands behind your back. So babies use their hands to ground them. They also use the hands to search around and help them find the breast and the nipples. So, when babies get stuck in sort of this like mood where their hands are up really tight against their body, which can happen when they're a little over hungry, and they're really gnawing at their hands, if you move your- if you kind of move your nipple or your breast over to baby's cheek and face, sometimes that will result in them moving that hand out of the way. And then therefore, subsequently latching at the breath. Um the other thing you can do is gently let baby grip a finger. So sometimes I do this when I'm in a consult, and I gently move the hand up above the breast. So I'll usually have one hand under the breast, and one hand over the breast, kind of like the baby's hugging the breast. And that keeps them really grounded and keep their mouth and area we need it to be which is right at the nipple.
Amanda Gorman:Helpful, very interesting, because you think sometimes you just think oh, swaddle that baby, and get those arms out of the way. But it sounds like that they need them.
Leah Tribus:Yeah, and I mean, some moms will swaddle and will actually like forcibly hold the arms down thinking like that's going to help the baby. But often, this can disorient them. So, you know, again, imagine having your hands tied behind your back and trying to eat off a plate, it would be pretty tough.
Amanda Gorman:Good point. Okay, so lastly, is there any gear or accessories that might help baby latch better or help mom hold better. Anything good for moms to have before baby's arrival?
Leah Tribus:So that's a wonderful question. There are a lot of tools out there. And I feel like in the last 10 years, more and more things have been developed and become available to mom. I'm always trying to stay up, my youngest is 10 now, so I'm always trying to ask my friends that are having babies, what's the new, what's the scoop? What are the new brand names and what's going on. But one thing that has been around for a long time, and I find very helpful is the Breast Friends Pillow, they have the regular version and they have a twin version. And what I like about this pillow is you adjust it to fit your specific waist. As you lose your baby belly, it will get- you can tighten it and it will get smaller. And it provides really firm support. And I think that's really important in the early stages. Because really soft, squishy support can be much harder to kind of manipulate to work for you. So I don't think you need a pillow. I think you need pillows, I don't necessarily think you need a breastfeeding pillow. But if we're getting one, if you're putting one on your registry, that's the one I like. And other than that regular pillows work great. Sometimes a regular pillow slid underneath the Breast Friend Pillow is really helpful until the baby's bigger. But having some support under your arm, across your your waist is really helpful because what we don't want to do is round our back and try to stretch our breast down to our baby. We've seen images of bottles our whole lives. And sometimes I see moms treating their breasts like they're a bottle like they're gonna come off their body and go down into the baby's mouth. So to fully kind of take advantage of all of baby's reflexes and innate features that make them be able to breastfeed from an early hours of life, is to bring baby up to you, not yourself down to the baby. So whatever tools you need to help facilitate that. I say go for it and every mom is different. But definitely know that you're going to need some like firm back support in your bed if you're going to try to breastfeed in bed and then having something under the baby or under your arms to support the weight of the baby is also very helpful.
Amanda Gorman:Awesome, Leah thanks so much. I feel like you really nailed everything and explained everything so well. It's been amazing and I really thank you for joining us today. If I may-
Leah Tribus:It was fun thanks for having me-
Amanda Gorman:Yeah, no, no if our listeners do want to get in touch with you what is the best way to do that?
Leah Tribus:You can use my email address which is Leahtribus "Leah Tribus" lc (as in lactation consultant)@gmail.com.
Amanda Gorman:Awesome. Well, excellent. Thank you so much.
Leah Tribus:Thank you.
Amanda Gorman:To our mamas and mamas-to-be that is all of today's show for you today. As you know by now, we are all about tackling your need-to-knows so please don't be shy. Reach out to us at www.breastfeedingunplugged.com or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram@breastfeedingunplugged to ask your burning question. Until next week. It's me Amanda saying thanks for being with us today. Boo bye.[Outro] Breastfeeding Unplugged. Breastfeeding Unplugged.