This Website as an Answer to the Cry for Truth
Mothers keep calling us. They are worried because their baby has lost weight, often over a pound. Their wrists, hands, shoulders, backs, and necks ache. They have sore nipples yet they keep trying to nurse. Often they are pumping to ‘build up their milk supply’. They have been told that their baby is having latch on difficulties. They are told that their baby is having difficulty with ‘milk transfer’.
They are sold pumps, supplemental nursing systems (SNS), and nipple shields. They buy special breastfeeding pillows, gel packs, and herbal supplements. They spend hundreds of dollars on lactation consultants (or their insurance pays for it). Sometimes they spend hundreds of dollars for cranial sacral adjustments for their newborn. They may be using ‘triple nipple cream’, an interesting name for a cream that contains steroids, that the baby sucks on for hours while nursing each day.
The mothers are readers. They read that breastfeeding is natural and they are trying to obtain the benefits of breastfeeding for their baby, for themselves, for their husband, for the planet.
They are doing what the professionals around them tell them to do and what the books and websites they read tell them to do. And they are still having severe breastfeeding problems.
Many wean prematurely. They grieve and wonder what happened? What did they do wrong? Is there something wrong with them? Is there something wrong with their baby?
How will this disappointing breastfeeding experience affect the future relationship of the mother and child, when the mother tried so hard to make it work and it looked like the baby was rejecting her? What will the loss of the benefits of breastfeeding mean to the future health of the child? of the mother?
Since 1996, we have been seeing mothers use the cross cradle hold and other HSH (hand supporting the head and neck) holds. All have had problems because of it. We have worked with hundreds, (thousands?) of mothers suffering because they were doing what the books and lactation professionals told them to do. The rest of this website goes into greater details about this.
What I want to share here is for all ears, but especially for lactation professionals.
If you truly want to help mothers and babies succeed at breastfeeding, then please read my information.
Please ask yourself these questions as you work with mothers;
-what position(s) is the mother using?
-what product(s) is she using? (pumps, bottles, nipple shields, SNS, gel packs such as
soothies or Breast Nurse, special breastfeeding pillows)
-does the mother have sore nipples, wrist, hand, shoulder, or back pain?
-has baby lost weight?
-is baby having latch on difficulties?
-do you really understand how to teach the cradle hold correctly? Where can you find
information to learn how?
-do the mothers that you work with end up with a natural breastfeeding experience or
do they end up with a product oriented experience where much money is spent?
Even if a mom says that she has a problem that doesn’t sound like it is caused by positioning, for example; if she suspects that she has thrush because her nipples are sore, ask about her position(s). Ask her where her hands are when she is nursing on the left side and then ask her where her hands are when she nurses on the right side. This will give you the information to know what position she is using. If she is using any of the HSH positions for any amount of time, they are probably causing problems.
Please understand that mothers are often calling positions by different names. For example; we often have moms tell us that they are using the cradle hold, but after we ask where their hands are, we learn that they are really using the cross cradle hold. So please always ask where their hands are.
The Breastfeeding Positions page in this website gives clear examples of the different positions, all on one page. Feel free to show it to mothers to determine the position(s) she is using.
Please understand that to help mothers having problems from the HSH holds takes time. One must
help the mom to learn the correct cradle hold or lap nursing hold, and one must help the mom to
re-learn correct breastfeeding techniques. Remember, probably everything that the mom has learned has taught her improper positioning information, and the mom needs time to understand this. I tell the moms that they don’t have to believe me, I just ask them to try the correct cradle hold for a period of time (6 hours or 12 hours) and not to use the HSH holds, and see what they think. Many moms immediately say how much more comfortable the cradle hold is, they tell us; ‘I can do this!’
Once the moms are using the correct cradle hold or lap nursing hold, and are NOT using any HSH holds or products, the other problems start to heal. If nipples are sore, the damaged nipple tissue will heal quickly.
Please remember that whenever there are breastfeeding problems, one needs to get back to basics; mom, baby, and correct positioning. This means no products. This means the correct cradle or lap nursing hold.
That’s where this website will help you and the mothers that you work with.
Feel free to show this website, www.cradlehold.com on a computer or cell phone to the mom as you work with her. On the home page is a short video showing correct latch on technique.
The International Breastfeeding Symbol is used in this website to access the
‘For Quick Latch On Help with Video’ page.
And, please help me to correct all lactation literature and websites. Please stop teaching and writing information that sabotages mothers efforts to breastfeed. If you nursed your babies for any length of time then you know that the correct cradle hold (and lap nursing hold) work. You benefitted from the advantages of breastfeeding, please help others to do so, too.
Please stop being part of the cover up of this issue. If you work with mothers, you have seen the problems;
-you have seen babies losing dangerous amounts of weight
-you have seen the ‘latch on’ problems
-you have heard the mothers describe their sore nipples, sore wrists, arms, shoulders, and backs.
Please make the connection, these problems are usually caused by the position(s) the mother is using. The mothers are doing what the lactation professionals and literature are telling them to do and that information is causing their problems.
We have seen this since 1996. Professional lactation groups and magazines refuse to print our information. When lactation personnel hear our information they ask each other, ‘have you seen the cross cradle hold cause problems?’ And the other lactation professional says ‘no, I haven’t.‘
But they have taught mothers to use the cross cradle hold or football hold or log hold and have seen those mothers have many problems. They have seen babies lose dangerous amounts of weight, they have seen mothers with sore nipples, wrists, etc. They either are not making the connection that the breastfeeding position is causing those problems or they are denying that truth as part of a cover up.
I say, ask the mothers who are suffering because of these poor positions. Ask the mothers what positions they are using, they are the ones that should be researched. My personnel counseling of breastfeeding mothers documents over 300 mothers who suffered because of the poor positions. The mothers were taught the cross cradle hold, football hold, and log holds, had problems, paid professionals to help them solve their problems. When the information they paid for did not solve their problems, they try us, often as a last resort.
The solution is not difficult, teach them how to nurse in the correct cradle or lap nursing hold position. It is not rocket science, it is what we were taught with our babies.
People are making money from the poor positioning information. Books are sold that teach the hand supporting the head and neck holds, then products and lactation services are sold when the problems arise from those poor positions. Many mothers end up pumping and feeding breast milk in a bottle. This is far from the natural breastfeeding experience that mothers seek.
La Leche League was founded in 1956 by 7 mothers who worked to get natural breastfeeding techniques to families seeking that information. They did this at a time when the culture was telling moms that bottle feeding was just as good, if not more scientific than breastfeeding. LLL grew into an international organization because it helped families learn about the gift of breastfeeding.
Today our culture is again regressing to where the LLL founding mothers were in 1956. While we have the advantage of knowing about the benefits of breastfeeding, we now have a generation of mothers whose efforts to breastfeed were sabotaged. We have a generation of lactation personnel that are teaching poor positioning and when the problems arise, they don’t know how to fix those problems.
When we don’t study and learn from history, we are destined to repeat those same mistakes.
This website explains the issues and how to fix them. For free. Please share this website with all women who are pregnant, who have a baby, or who are thinking of having children.
Please share this information with all lactation personnel, with the hospital nurses and doctors that you interact with, with grandparents, childbirth instructors, and with strangers in the grocery store that may be helped by this information. You may be the only person that gives them this information. You could save the breastfeeding relationships of countless children.
Feel free to email this website; www.cradlehold.com to all in your address book.
May God bless you and your families.
May God’s gift of breastfeeding be a blessing to you and to all people.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil
against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in Heaven.
Matthew 5:11-12
