When I was pregnant with my first I remember my childbirth educator telling us that Baby will need to nurse every two to three hours. She had a us look at a clock and picture how we would integrate that breastfeeding schedule into our daily routine.
Moms are inundated with numbers when it comes to pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Numbers of hours for pushing, numbers to represent progress with cervical dilation, numbers of wet diapers to watch for, and also numbers of times Baby will need to breastfeed in 24 hours. Unfortunately, a common number dished out regarding frequency of nursing is 8-12 times in 24 hours. That would more accurately describe an older infant, but when told to the mother of a newborn, that one makes me cringe.
Every baby is different, and every breast has it’s own unique breast storage capacity. Only rarely would a newborn, if given almost constant access to the breast, nurse 8 times in 24 hours. Many moms will admit that a more accurate number would be 12+. Personally, I like 12-16+. Because the reality is that newborns have a very high sucking need, and in the first days, if this need is fulfilled at the breast, milk production down the road will be much higher.
Telling moms of newborns that baby should nurse 8-12 times in 24 hours is a little misleading because some babies will nurse much more frequently than that for part of the day. For the healthy full-term newborn baby, this frequent nursing is not indicative of a problem.
I work with moms and a common concern is that Baby wants to nurse “all the time”. Educating moms early on of the normalcy of this is a great step in avoiding confusion in the early weeks. One of my favorite pieces of advice: Watch your baby, not the clock!
If you live in the Sacramento area and would like information about my Breastfeeding Basics class, check out Gentle Birthway.