| Mother2Mother Services |
| Education and Support for Nursing Mothers |
| Latch and Positioning |
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| Breastfeeding is not supposed to be painful! In the beginning, it is not ususual to experience some pain upon initial latch, but the pain should not continue for the entire feeding. A latch may look good but still be wrong -- if you're experiencing pain, and/or if the baby is not gaining weight properly, the first suspect is a bad latch. If your nipples are becoming actually physically damaged, cracked, bleeding, or coming out of the baby's mouth misshapen (elongated is fine, but creased, squashed, or lipstick-shaped is not), then there is a good chance that your baby may have a bad latch. If the latch looks awful based on pictures & descriptions you've seen, but isn't painful & the baby is getting an adequate amount of milk, then there's really nothing wrong with the latch. Unfortunately, latch is difficult to learn from a book or website. This is one of the things in-person help is most especially useful for. However, if you are having issues with painful nipples, you might want to check over these links on latch and positioning to see if you can solve the problem yourself before seeking professional help. |
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| Last Updated February 2, 2004 |
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