Your role as a dad is very important in your new breastfeeding family. While it may seem that mom and baby have all the work to do, you don’t have to feel left out. Even if at first it seems strange being a part of the breastfeeding experience, your help with support, encouragement, and bonding are crucial to the success of your family’s breastfeeding plans. Here are some quick tips on ways you can help and where you fit in:
9 Ways Dad Can Help Too
1. Go to appointments
You are most likely doing this already with doctor visits, but you can also be supportive by going with mom to her appointments with her lactation consultant. Watch and learn as much as you can because when you get home, you will be the trusted companion who will need to provide help and assistance during those middle of the night feedings when no one else is around. Listen and ask questions. Your mere presence will show your support but you will also find that you are able to learn the basics and be a valuable coach in the process.
2. Help with the latch
If your baby is having difficulty latching properly, you can help mom with this. In addition to the challenges of having to hold her baby, offer her breast, and cradle properly, it can be awkward for mom to be able to check for proper latch. From your perspective, you will have the best view of whether or not baby is latching correctly. If baby is not latching properly, use what you have learned at the LC. Adjust baby’s chin by pushing gently with one finger. (Try this on yourself and you will see how it pushes your tongue out.) Only with baby’s tongue sticking out and mouth open wide, can baby achieve a good latch. Of course, there are many other techniques you and mom will learn from your LC. Work together to make sure mom and baby achieve a comfortable breastfeeding experience.
3. Burp your baby
After baby is finished feeding, you can give mom a break and take over. Because babies can end up swallowing air during feeding, your baby may need to be burped. While your baby’s chin is resting on your shoulder, gently pat baby’s back. You did place a towel over your shoulder first, right? Good.
4. Calm baby and mom – There may be times that everyone is crying, except you…yet. When the baby is fussy (but not hungry) and mom is upset too, this is your chance to step in. As dad, you will have a great ability to calm your baby. When baby is feeling scared, lonely, cold, or just generally agitated, your comfort and touch will help calm your baby down. Your smell and touch is obviously different from mom and your baby will recognize this and be able to relax.
5. Learn to swaddle
What does this have to do with breastfeeding, you say? Lots. In the first few weeks, you baby may feel much more content when swaddled. The womb was a comfy place and the world can be big and scary not to mention cold. By learning the proper techniques for swaddling your baby, you will be the hero of the hour as the baby goes back to sleep and then so can you and mom.
6. Suck action practice
Your baby is naturally born with the sucking reflex. When holding your baby, allow baby to use your finger to practice this calming technique. Your baby may already use her own thumb or fist for this. Don’t worry, it doesn’t necessarily mean she is hungry.
7. Bath time
Bath time for your baby is an excellent time to bond. After your baby’s cord falls off, you can begin giving your baby a bath or even taking baby into the shower with you. Babies love this. (Be careful though, they get slippery.)
8. Feeding expressed breast milk
If mom will be going back to work or will need to be away from baby for any length of time, you may want to consider introducing a bottle of expressed breast milk before this situation arises. It is important to practice this before your baby is 4-6 weeks old or you run the risk of baby not accepting a bottle at all. Have mom pump breast milk and then leave the area. With you and baby alone, introduce the breast milk bottle. Be patient here. Your baby needs to eat at her own pace.
9. Play and Reading – Of course you don’t need to be reminded to play with your baby, but it is good to remember how important this time is as a part of the bonding experience. Talk to her and tell her all about her surroundings. Take your baby on a tour of her world. Read to your baby. Babies are ever interested in your voice and their surroundings. Enjoy these moments. Your baby certainly will.
By following these tips – and many more that you will discover – you will be an integral part of your family’s breastfeeding and nurturing plan. Assure mom that she does not have to do this all alone. You should feel a sense of gratification at having a real role in taking care of your family. Congratulations!
Photo from: http://www.lifestyleplanet.org/10-ways-to-help-your-man-bond-with-baby/
Source: Simplisse breastfeedings tips (through Heintz Marketing Inc.)
