Since nursing openly is still rare, where can an expecting mom find human boobie behavior to mimic?
What an excellent question! You must know that breastfeeding is a learned behavior. If you don’t have friends nursing babies who would like to model for you, here are a few other options.
Breastfeeding support groups.
New moms are usually thrilled to share what they’ve learned about mommying. Not only will you get to pick the brains of those in the group, you’ll hear the questions they ask the group leader as well as the answers. Being privy to these discussions gives you a huge leg up in the “setting realistic goals” department.
Of course, you’ll get to see nursing in action–positions, holds, big babies, little babies, big boobs, little boobs, all of it. I recommend you find the littlest baby in the room, and see if his milk maker is okay letting you watch up close. Because what you really want to see is what it looks like when a little baby is moving milk. Ask for help picking out the swallows.
This is THE question you are going to be trying to answer from latch 1, straight out of the gate. This is the golden ticket.
Videos
If you are unable to attend a support group, videos are the next best thing.
I love the library at Global Health Media, which groups a series of short, topic-specific videos on breastfeeding in the same place. They are well produced and evidence based, and they use very small babies! Newborn nursing looks a lot different than nursing older babies, so it’s very helpful to have a visual representation of this.
This is one of my favorites, because it has side-by-side footage of a newborn who is moving milk well with one who isn’t.
https://globalhealthmedia.org/videos/is-your-baby-getting-enough-milk/
Check out the collection:
https://globalhealthmedia.org/language/english/?_s=breastfeeding
Until breastfeeding again becomes a natural part of our social landscape, this is vicarious learning in the 21st century. Dive in!