From the author: Dedicated to young mothers... Recently, new mothers often turn to me for advice: how to establish breastfeeding. In this article I share my knowledge and experience. I am a happy mother of two children. There are many young mothers around me who face various difficulties and have a lot of questions about parenting. And they often turn to me for advice. Particularly frequent questions are related to how to ensure successful lactation over a long period of time? After the birth of my first child, I faced various difficulties, and since I like not only to find ready-made instructions for action, but also to find out where the legs of my problem “grow” from, I processed huge amounts of information. Now many questions are simple and understandable for me, including the question of how to organize successful breastfeeding. I want to share my knowledge and experience today. The first thing you need to start debriefing with is the question: “Is it really important for you to breastfeed your baby?” You know, this is a fundamental question, because by answering it honestly, a woman can understand the reasons for her failure. If the answer is “Yes,” then it’s easier for mommy to establish lactation. If feeding the baby is not in the first place, then you should figure out why this is so. Well, as in any business: the desire is strong, the motivation is high - there are more chances for success and vice versa... You understand, right? Another quite important topic is the anxiety of a young mother: “Will the milk come? Will it be enough? Will I be able to feed as much as necessary?” Dear girls, I have a counter question: what doubts can there be here? Let me explain with an example. Normally, when a man is about to have sex, he is not nervous and does not doubt that he will succeed. This is natural male strength and there is no doubt about it. So, a woman’s strength lies in the ability to bear, give birth and feed her child. This is how nature intended. If you were able to carry and give birth to a baby, rest assured, your body has enough potential to provide the baby with the necessary amount of milk. Well, now I will share the conditions for successful breastfeeding that help me personally: Correct attachment to the breast: the baby should deeply grasp the areola around the nipple, his chin pressed to the mother's chest, and his tummy pressed to the mother's stomach. If the baby does not latch correctly, then the mother is faced with the problem of cracked nipples (well, a very painful thing and, most importantly, it goes away over quite a long time), and the baby also develops the notorious gas and colic. Feeding on demand. While in the womb, the baby receives nutrition as soon as it needs it. Can you imagine how stressful it is for a baby when, after birth, it turns out that he is not only physically separated from his mother, but is also given food not when he asks, but when his mother decides? It is worth considering that sucking for a child is not only a way to get nutrition, but also a condition of psychological comfort through contact with the mother. Lack of rubber mother substitutes. If the baby wants to suck, offer him the breast! Milk is produced according to the supply and demand principle, i.e. The more the baby stimulates breastfeeding, the more milk is produced. By offering a baby a pacifier, we seem to satisfy the baby’s need for sucking and free ourselves from the need to constantly sit with the baby (especially for newborns), but at the same time we violate the law of supply and demand. It turns out to be some kind of disservice... Enough drinking in the mother’s diet. If you consume little water, then there will be less milk, and the mother will feel symptoms of dehydration (dry skin, dry mouth, etc.). By the way, I’ll share a life hack. Before feeding, it is better to drink hot water (or any other drink), this stimulates milk production. This is probably the basis for the myth that tea with condensed milk increases the amount :)