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What Babies Know & All Mothers Need to Know

Babies know how to find their mother's breast and how to feed themselves

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We used to think that mothers had to teach their babies how to breastfeed. (Many midwives used to push the baby’s face into the mothers breast to get the baby to latch on, some still do). Current research however shows that the baby is born knowing how to breastfeed and that given the opportunity, it is the baby that can teach the mother. All the mother has to do is to lay her newborn baby in the right position, one which will give her baby access to her breast. This can be done immediately after birth, simply by laying the baby tummy forward on the mother’s tummy, with the baby’s head and shoulders on her chest.Guided by his sense of smell and given a few minutes time, the newborn baby will kick and arch and without help will find his way to his mother’s breast and latch on and feed. The baby also knows how to suckle, which soothes and calms the baby and prepares his intestines to absorb and digest the milk that follows.

It is now considered that it is also the baby that determines the content of their mother's milk. This can change according to the baby's needs, within a single feed, from feed to feed and from month to month. This is more obvious with premature babies where their mother's milk contains a much higher protein content than the mother of a full term baby.

In the first hour of life scientific research confirms what every new mother knows, that it is essential that mother and baby remain together.This is the hour or so after birth when the newborn baby, if unaffected by anaesthetic and separation from his mother, will crawl intuitively to his mothers breast and start to suckle. It is the baby who chooses to breastfeed and given this choice makes breastfeeding far less complicated.

"Emerging into the world, she is placed skin-to-skin on her mother's chest. She rests quietly then blinks open her eyes, peeping at her mother's face. She smells and touches her mother's skin. After 20 minutes or so, she is very much alert and begins to scan her mother's chest, turning her head from side to side. Before long, she opens her mouth, sucks at her knuckles, the rooting reflex very strong.

She starts to inch towards her target - the brown of the areola. She smells colostrum and the odours coming from glands in the nipple and areola. She nuzzles a breast; mouths a nipple. Her mother gently helps her to attach properly. When attached, she suckles till she nods off, full and content".

Wendy Nicholson, Melbourne midwife and lactation teacher.

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