Should you switch breasts while breastfeeding?

Motherhood is different for everyone as different as people are from each other. The road to motherhood is strewn with new experiences and decisions that one has to make at nearly every step.

Breastfeeding is an entirely new experience for a new mother and can be difficult to manage in the beginning. The decision to offer one breast or both breasts at each feeding ends up confusing a lot of women. However, it is just a matter of preference as long as the baby is getting enough milk and the growth of the baby is growing healthily.

Even though you should go for what is easiest and most convenient for you and your child, here are what both the choices entail and what experts have to say.

Building up a healthy supply of milk is just one of the advantages that alternating breasts during feeding offers. In addition to this, a baby sleeps longer and also provides more breast milk at each feeding for a newborn who needs to gain weight.

Also Read: Pregnancy fears: Know which are real and which are not

Alternating breasts can also stop your breasts from becoming too uneven in size. Needless to say, it also helps you feel even on both sides of the chest region in terms of pain and discomfort.

This method of breastfeeding is convenient and might end up becoming the only choice that one has because of a health issue. Sometimes your baby can also develop a preference for one breast in which case, trying to alternate may not help. In case you have no option but to use only one breast to feed the baby, you should know that feeding from just one breast can lead to a reduced supply in the other breast.

In case you have an overabundant supply of milk, you should consider going for this because the baby will have enough supply of milk and its growth will not be affected. Benefits like reduced gassiness, fussiness, and symptoms of colic in your body are other benefits of feeding using just one breast.

Professionals are of the opinion that it is recommended to alternate breasts in the first few weeks of your baby being born. This helps stimulate the production of breast milk while you’re establishing a healthy supply of milk. Problems such as breast engorgement, plugged milk ducts and mastitis are also kept at bay by this practice. Once the baby develops, after about four to six weeks, you can start using just one breast for feeding the baby or simply use whatever method suits you and your baby well.

Also Read: Birth control does not affect fertility

Once your baby develops properly, learn from what it does. Let them breastfeed from one side for as long as they want and when they stop, remove the baby and burp it, change the diaper and offer the other side. Then let it nurse more if it wants to.