Lactation Consultant

In the hopital, I was told I would know my baby was properly latched if the entire areola of my breast was in his mouth while nursing. This in fact was bad information because it caused me to put the nipple in the middle of his mouth, instead of positioning it to be taken in at the top of his mouth, under the tongue. I found two wonderful video clips at www.breastfeeding.com. Scroll down the page and you’ll find the videos at the bottom lefthand corner under the heading “Breastfeeding Basics”. Once I figured out that my nipple should be going in at the top of his opened mouth, he was able to take in more of the nipple and use his tongue underneath to extract more milk. It didn’t matter that the top of the areola was still visible. Many women have large areolas which would be impossible for the baby to cover. Forget about the areola and focus on the positioning of the nipple and you’ll nurse like a pro in no time!