What does it mean to breastfeed on demand and why is it important? Could it be that babies know how often they need to eat? But could it also mean that your breasts know when they need to empty? Duh!
Breastfeeding on demand is a two way street. Some women say they are hungry for their babies, meaning their breasts are full so it's time to put the baby to breast. At other times your baby shows her hunger cues and it's time to feed her. How has our western lifestyle and way of thinking altered breastfeeding?
When my first baby was born, I was so "in control". I scheduled poor David's feedings thinking I was the smart, wise mother. I remember when he was just a few days old my mother was on the phone with me asking me if he was hungry, as she heard him crying in the background. "Oh no, I answered. He doesn't eat again until____."
How I shutter when I think back to those days. How was my thinking so distorted from the truth of what babies need? But I listened to my friend who had eight children and they were all so wonderfully behaved. Surely she knew what was best for babies. I have kicked myself so many times for not just watching and listening to my baby and my boobs.
David is 27 now and he often skips meals, let's his blood sugar drop and then gets a reminder from his sweet wife, Jane, that perhaps he needs to eat? I will always feel that this has to do with those scheduled feedings as a baby. Well one thing for sure, we can't go back and do things over again as parents. It has taken me years of feeling guilty before finally come to terms with the knowlegde that I did the best I could do given the resources I had. Surely this is what fueled my passion to help women breastfeed with confidence and joy.
So what is breastfeeding on demand in the first six weeks?
- Feed every time your baby wants to suck.
- Feed every time your baby is awake.
- A crying baby is a hungry baby.
- A very sleepy baby— difficult to keep awake— is a hungry baby.
- Expect your baby will want to feed 10, 12, 14 times a day, unless you are one of those lucky women that produce and store so much milk that junior just hangs under the waterfall and drinks a ton each feeding.
- Feed when your breasts are full. They're telling you to empty them!
- Keep your baby in skin to skin contact— it means more feedings and more milk, both of which are good things.
- Make sure your baby is drinking: Is she a peeing, pooping machine and your breasts soften with feeding?
- Around six to seven weeks, your baby will probably settle into a more consistent pattern of feeding.
Breastfeeding on demand in the early hours and days
is crucial for milk production and baby's weight gain.
Gwen Dewar, PhD., Anthropologist, founder of the website Parenting Science, article on breastfeeding on demand offers the most complete information on this subject that I have seen. It is well worth reading. She writes about evidenced-based parenting and child development.
I think of the wide range of parenting styles that humans have developed throughout the world, and I know that the parenting practices associated with my culture—the 21st century, English-speaking West—are neither universal nor biologically-determined.
Did you breastfeed on demand starting the first hour of life? How was your milk production?
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