Introducing Natural Breastfeeding: A Digital Lactation Home Study Program for Families

All mammals are born with responses that Mother Nature builds in to enable them to get to their food source and feed. Yet today, the way most nursing parents are taught to nurse ignores what our babies bring to the table, making early nursing harder than it needs to be. It’s no wonder then that during the first week after birth, 92% of the nursing mothers in one study reported major nursing challenges.

Instead of tackling individually each lactation issue—latching struggles, milk supply concerns, sore nipples--what if there was a single way to address many challenges at once? That’s what Natural Breastfeeding is all about.

What are the roots of this innovative new approach to early nursing? To create the Natural Breastfeeding program, obstetrician Theresa Nesbitt (“Dr. Theresa”) and I drew from the work of many: the Swedish breast-crawl researchers, UK scientist Dr. Suzanne Colson, international brain-science experts, the Prague School, and Americans Dr. Christina Smillie and Dr. Brian Palmer. When we put together these diverse-but-related puzzle pieces, what emerged was our new digital education program, Natural Breastfeeding: For an Easier Start.

Every baby is born with her own internal GPS, so baby knows where she is and what to do. If a nursing parent knows how to activate and use the baby’s GPS, it’s possible to avoid many common early nursing struggles. At the same time, Natural Breastfeeding allows nursing parents to relax completely, so they can nurse in comfort and rest while baby feeds. In most cases, they can even nurse hands free. By taking full advantage of an infant's inborn feeding behaviors, even a brand-new baby can be the active nursing partner Mother Nature intended.

The Natural Breastfeeding program is ideal both before an after pregnancy, with more than 60 short videos and 100 images of diverse women learning about and using Natural Breastfeeding. This interactive program, which parents can access on their tablets, computers, and smartphones, is user-friendly, jargon-free, and fun.

Amazingly, science has already weighed in on this 21st century innovation. One 2015 study found that tablet-based prenatal breastfeeding education can increase nursing initiation, duration, and exclusivity. In other words, this modern, high-tech approach works and can help more parents reach their feeding goals.

Before birth, the demonstration videos and simple exercises in the Natural Breastfeeding digital program make its concepts clear and integrate its moves into parents’ body memory. Even if their birth attendants are unfamiliar with this approach, after completing this program, parents should be able to make it work on their own.

Natural Breastfeeding is like the training wheels on a bicycle. While parent and baby are learning, it helps them avoid unnecessary pain, strain, and struggle. By making the most of what baby can do, Natural Breastfeeding helps parents use the behaviors built in by Mother Nature to successfully feed and nurture their newborn.

Intrigued? To view some of our basic videos, go to my YouTube playlist HERE, our "How-Tos" Prezi HERE, or browse the videos on my YouTube channel HERE.

During pregnancy, if parents want to prepare for nursing rather than just planning to nurse, they can download this program at www.NaturalBreastfeeding.com, or if their lactation supporter is a subscriber to the Natural Breastfeeding Professional Package, they can provide it to their clients.

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