4 Tips on Breastfeeding Newborns

Breastfeeding a newborn doesn’t come as naturally as many new mothers may imagine. But does that mean moms should abandon the idea of newborn breastfeeding altogether? Certainly not!

What it does mean is that moms wanting to breastfeed their newborn need to know a few things about newborn breastfeeding before they start actually trying to breastfeed their newborn. This will help create realistic expectations as many new moms who experience breastfeeding problems often think that something is wrong with them and that this is only happening to them, that every other mom is having grand success.

For that, we turn to the best-selling infant resource, On Becoming Babywise. Babywise breastfeeding, technically known as the Babywise Parent-Directed Feeding schedule, offers numerous medically and parent-proven tips and techniques. But for the sake of helping a new mom looking for quick insights into newborn breastfeeding, we’ll highlight 4 tips on how to successfully breastfeed newborns in this article.

Before looking at the top ways to successfully breastfeed your newborn, let’s dig deeper into what Parent-Directed Feeding actually is.

The Babywise Alternative: Parent-Directed Feeding

While some mothers thrive emotionally on attachment-style parenting, that is not the case for most women. A more user-friendly, less-fatiguing methodology is called Parent-Directed Feeding (PDF). PDF is an infant-management strategy that helps mothers to connect with their babies and babies to connect with everyone in the family.

PDF has enough structure to bring security and order to a baby’s world, yet enough flexibility to give mom the freedom to respond to any need at any time. It is a proactive style of parenting that helps foster healthy growth and optimal development.

For example, a baby cannot maximize learning without experiencing optimal alertness, and he can only experience optimal alertness with optimal sleep. Optimal sleep is tied to good naps and established nighttime sleep. These advanced levels of sleep are the end result of consistent feedings.

Consistent feedings come from establishing a healthy routine. PDF is the pebble that creates the ripple effect leading to all these outcomes, including true parent-child attachment. Embedded in the parent-directed strategy is a critical element for all aspects of infant care: Parental Assessment, an acquired confidence to think, evaluate and intuitively learn what a baby needs and how to meet specific needs at specific times.

So now that you know what Parent Directed Feeding is, how can it be applied to newborn baby breastfeeding? It can be boiled down to these 4 tips that focus specifically on the first 12 weeks of a baby’s life:

4 Tips on How to Successfully Breastfeed Newborns

1. Stay Alert

During the first week, stay mindful that newborns are sleepyheads, and sleepy babies are prone to snacking: a little food now, a little food later. A series of snack feedings do not add up to full feedings. Baby needs to eat, and the breastfeeding mom needs the stimulation that comes with full feedings.

2. Establish a Routine

For a newborn, the duration of time awake, including feeding, burping, diaper change, cuddles and kisses, will be approximately 30 minutes. Sleep follows the feeding and that takes up the next 1½ to 2 hours. When adding it all together, the entire feed-wake-sleep cycle averages 2½ hours until the cycle repeats itself.

3. Extend Waketime

Around the third week postpartum, your baby will begin to extend his waketime after each feeding. This time will eventually extend to 30 minutes beyond feeding. On average, waketime is followed by a 1 ½ to 2 hour nap.

4. Re-Assess Routine

At 6 weeks of age, feeding times are still approximately 30 minutes and waketimes begin to increase to 30-50 minutes, followed by a 1½ to 2 hour nap. By 12 weeks, waketimes could be a full 60 minutes or slightly more.

Breastfeeding Trends

Why do so many mothers choose against the nourishment, convenience and physical closeness of breastfeeding? Perhaps the decision to quit becomes a necessity for distraught and fatigued mothers who are unable to cope with the endless demands created by a lack of routine feedings and predictability in the home.

Mothers following the Babywise Parent-Directed (Breast)Feeding method have a different story to tell.

A retrospective sampling was taken of over 240 mothers following the principles of PDF. The survey showed that 88% of mothers who started with PDF breastfed, and 80% of those moms breastfed exclusively (no formula supplements). While the national average of mothers breastfeeding dropped to 17% at 6 months, a full 70% of PDF mothers were exclusively breastfeeding after 6 months. Add to these statistics the benefits of uninterrupted nighttime sleep, and at once you see the benefits of PDF.

Successful Babywise Breastfeeding

In summary, it should now be clear that newborn breastfeeding is not a ‘one and done’ process. To the contrary, breastfeeding a newborn is a process that requires parental assessment and one that evolves, especially over the first 12 weeks of a baby’s life.

When a nursing mother follows the 4 tips for how to successfully feed a newborn, she will find the confidence to develop a newborn feeding schedule that works with her baby’s individual needs while maintaining the benefits of the Babywise Parent-Directed Feeding approach. For more information on newborn breastfeeding advice, visit https://babywise.life/.