Breastfeeding is Natural, But it Might Not Be Easy

Breastfeeding myths flourish, especially in the age and space of online information and social media. It’s not all good information, and we are here to support families by making sure we share evidence-based advice and information. Something that we hear a lot is that people are surprised when breastfeeding isn’t easy. They hear that it’s natural, so shouldn’t they just know how to do it?

The Reality of Learning to Breastfeed

Breastfeeding IS natural! It’s the most natural and obvious way to feed our babies. We have the equipment and the product in place and ready to go. So, why can it be so hard to use it?

Humans are social animals. Breastfeeding is a learned skill. As a species, we’ve developed to learn the skill from each other. People used to grow up seeing breastfeeding all the time and still do in certain remote communities.

Babies were born, raised, and fed in view of the community, so a woman would go into her own pregnancy knowing what breastfeeding looks like. They also had the experience and support of mothers, grandmothers, family members, friends, and neighbors to draw on in order to help get them started and troubleshoot problems.

Most people don’t have that kind of support structure anymore. You might live far away from close family and friends, and you might not know your neighbors. Even if you do have supportive people nearby, it’s very likely that they have never breast fed a baby, and they can’t help you.

Why Connection Matters in Breastfeeding

There was a beautiful story in the news recently about Zoe, an ape in a zoo who had just given birth and was not feeding her baby. She was clearly attached to her baby and wanted to care for him, but she just couldn’t figure out how to nurse him. The vet and the keepers were getting very concerned for the welfare of the baby, and were considering how to intervene. They decided to ask another keeper, who was also a nursing mother, to bring her baby to the zoo and demonstrate breastfeeding for the ape. Zoe watched carefully as the keeper breast fed her baby and was nursing her own baby the next day.

Until then, this orangutan mother had never seen another ape breastfeed or care for an infant. She learned by watching.

We most definitely have this in common with Zoe. We are supposed to rely on other people to learn how to care for our infants. We just don’t exist in close communities like we used to. We move a lot, and we don’t have established societies. Even when we do, we might not see much infant care happening on a regular basis. Breastfeeding Success and other lactation support organizations exist to fill this gap. We step in to connect with you and be your community for infant care. It’s very normal to need us.

What Makes Breastfeeding More Challenging Today

Besides the changing landscape and structure of our communities, modern conveniences and interventions have often taken us far away from our “natural” ways of doing things. We don’t forage for food anymore or eat only seasonal foods, we don’t go to sleep when the sun sets and wake up at sunrise, and we don’t give birth the way we used to. This last list item is actually a very important one when looking for reasons we have difficulties breastfeeding.

When birth primarily moved into the hospitals in the last century, a lot of physiologic birth practices were interfered with. Women usually stay in bed and are less mobile, medications are most often used, IV fluids, antiseptics and antibiotics were introduced, cords were quickly clamped and cut, and babies were taken away from their mothers immediately after birth to be scrubbed “clean” and wrapped and returned to their mothers too late for them to get the benefits of immediate skin-to-skin contact (SSC) and “The Golden Hour”.

The results have been devastating. Interrupting some of these natural urges and processes means interfering with things that naturally set us up for breastfeeding success and great postpartum recovery.

When there is an interruption in the natural physiology of birth and early parenting, it can make breastfeeding more difficult. We are learning this, and changes are being made, but we’ve been doing things incorrectly for decades. It takes a long time to undo that kind of damage and write a new narrative. Most people still don’t understand the value in upholding this physiology, because they just don’t know. They’ve seen or heard the stories of professors, mentors, health care providers, friends, sisters, and mothers who did it this way and they were “fine”.

It’s true that “fine” can be a result, but for people who want to breastfeed with ease, “fine” might not be enough.

Steps Toward Making Breastfeeding Easier

We want to make a difference and get to a point in the world where physiologic birth and breastfeeding are the standard – the “norm”- instead of the exception. We have plenty of research telling us what the standard and healthy practices should be, but unfortunately, most people are not getting the message. We have too much misinformation being spread, and that looks very different from community to community. The interview shown below is about the specific struggles in one particular community in Nigeria, but there are obstacles to breastfeeding in all parts of the world.

First, we need to provide education. We can not assume that people enter parenthood knowing how to breastfeed. They may not have seen anyone do it before, and they might be getting bad information. We hope to connect with expectant families whenever possible. We know that when they understand the importance of certain birth practices and what to expect in the early days of breastfeeding, that they are more likely to find success. Our lactation consultants working in hospitals can clearly see the difference between a family who did receive some prenatal education, and those who didn’t.

Next, we provide support. Lactation consultants and peer groups are excellent resources for new families. When a parent is experiencing some of the normal insecurities and bumps in the road related to breastfeeding, it can be helpful to just talk to other parents who have gone through it successfully. We have free support groups for this, and La Leche League is another great global resource for this kind of support. If you have more complex issues or questions, getting care from a clinically trained Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) can likely help you solve your problem so you can continue to breastfeed with ease. The overwhelming majority of people get so much benefit from a lactation consult. It’s never too late, and you’ll likely feel much better when you do.