The First Latch: 100 newborn observations in 100 days

89 days to go

This blog is titled The First Latch because this is how a newborn survives. Soon after birth, he or she has to figure out how to latch on to his mother's nipple. A good latch is the key to stimulating the mother's breasts to produce life producing milk. It means the nipple doesn't get damaged because the suction produced from the latch pulls the nipple way up inside, along with some of the areola.

I have observed that after birth it takes a little bit of time for the suckling reflexes to activate. Immediately after being born there seems to be a period of time dedicated to orienting to the environment outside of the womb. If the two to three hours after birth are undisturbed and the baby is skin to skin against his mom during this time he has the possibility to latch on and "imprint" what this feels like and how it is done. Usually after a few hours, the newborn baby falls asleep and takes a rest after the long series of events associated with being born.

One of the nurses I am working with has been taking an informal survey: when a mom in the hospital says to her, "my baby doesn't seem to like the left breast" she asks her which breast he latched onto right after birth. Her results? She claims that the preferred breast is always the first breast he attached to.