Clinical pearl: Give baby until 4 days past his due date to get the hang of breastfeeding

My pearl of wisdom is for moms who are having difficulty with breastfeeding that they need to give the baby until 4 days past his due date to get the hang of it, We see so many c-sections and planned inductions that some days the majority of our babies are 2-4 weeks early. Moms seem to understand this and many seem willing to try the extra work to get to this date (keep supplementing, keep waking, keep pumping). Of the mom and baby pairs that have continued to BF only 2 babies let me down by not catching on by the date. One of them had developmental delay. – ABM Member Gail Hertz, Pennsylvania, USA.

At ABM’s 2010 Intenational Meeting, members from around the world submitted their breastfeeding clinical pearls and mythbusters. We’ll be sharing the Top Ten winners on the blog this week. Clinical pearls reflect the opinions of individual ABM members, not the organization as a whole.