If you ask your mother what the words “nipple preparation” bring to mind, she will probably recall some detailed and uncomfortable practices she was advised to do during the final weeks of pregnancy. Depending on when you and your siblings were born, they might include some gentle massage with wool fat (lanolin) and exposure to sunlight - or if she was unlucky, rubbing with nail brushes and methylated spirits!!

Nearly all breastfeeding problems in the early days come down to one thing:

a baby who is well-attached to the breast can effectively remove milk which satisfies hunger and maintains milk supply

It sounds simple yet it is probably the biggest barrier we face in meeting our breastfeeding goals.

Older babies can breastfeed in almost every position imaginable! But in the early days, they are most likely to attach well if held close against your body. Every mother finds her own most effective way to position, which can change from day to day, feed to feed - and even breast to breast! Explore your options and find what is most comfortable for you and your baby.

Although Laid-back Breastfeeding has a lot in common with Baby-led Attachment, it is not only a technique to help new babies learn to attach to the breast but is also an approach to breastfeeding which enables rest and relaxation for mother and baby.

Also called Biological Nurturing, the idea of reclining to breastfeed somehow disappeared in the dark years of the 20th century when the modern world almost lost all wisdom around feeding our babies at the breast. When bottle feeding became normalised and breastfeeding became a hidden task not seen in public, the only image of feeding babies was the upright position sitting on a chair.

Nearly all breastfeeding problems can be fixed. But you need to find the right help when you need it and that can be hard. . It can feel like your calendar is filled with appointments with your child health nurse, local doctor, IBCLC lactation consultant and breastfeeding counsellor. Each will have different opinions and strategies for you to try. And then there are friends and family members whose own experience of breastfeeding might be limited. They might be more comfortable talking to you about formula feeding and seem unsupportive.

Nature designed a perfect system: keep the baby within reach of the breast day and night. Create subtle feeding cues easily noted by their mother long before the desperate crying which will alert predators. Allow the mother to quickly move the baby to the breast from their position on her chest. When baby falls asleep at the breast, continue to keep them close. In the learning days, lean in to staying close. Contact naps lead naturally into baby-led attachment. Nappy changing can nearly always wait until a break between breasts or even longer. Aim to move baby from chest to breast with minimal delay in the early days.