Dr. Emmanuel L. Yanthan, MS (OB-GYN)
Obstetrician & Gynecologist · Updated August 2026
Breastfeeding is described as natural, which leads women to assume it should be easy, which leads them to conclude that struggling means failing. It is a learned skill for both of you.
And most of the early problems — the pain, the apparent low supply, the baby who never seems satisfied — trace back to the same thing: how the baby is attaching. Fix the attachment and the others frequently resolve on their own.
What a good latch looks like
- The baby’s mouth is wide open, taking in a good portion of the areola — the darker area — not just the nipple tip
- Chin pressed into the breast, nose clear
- Lips turned outwards, not tucked in
- Cheeks rounded, not hollowed
- Slow deep sucks with pauses, and you can hear swallowing
- It should not hurt. A few seconds of tugging at the start, then comfort. Continuous pain through the feed means the latch is shallow
Fixing a shallow latch
Break the suction gently with a clean finger at the corner of the baby’s mouth, and start again. Hold the baby chest to chest, nose level with your nipple. Wait for a wide open mouth — brushing the nipple down across the upper lip prompts it — then bring the baby onto the breast quickly, chin first. Aim the nipple towards the roof of the mouth, not the centre.
Repositioning takes a few seconds and you may do it several times a feed at first. That is normal.
The supply worry, and why it is usually wrong
A newborn feeding every hour and a half looks like starvation and is usually normal. Breastfeeding works on demand: the more milk removed, the more produced. Frequent feeding is the system calibrating, not failing.
The reliable signs your baby is getting enough are wet nappies — roughly six or more a day once your milk is in — and steady weight gain. Not how full your breasts feel, and not how long the feed lasts.
Two things to treat rather than endure
Engorgement — breasts hard and painful, usually in the first week. Feed often, warmth before a feed and cold afterwards, express just enough to soften the areola so the baby can attach.
Fever with a red, painful area on the breast — this may be mastitis, and it needs to be seen the same day, not waited out. Keep feeding from that side; it helps rather than harms.
The first milk
The thick yellowish colostrum in the first days looks like almost nothing and is not almost nothing — it is concentrated nutrition and antibodies, and the small volume is exactly what a newborn stomach is built for. It is not a sign that your milk has failed to come.
Struggling with feeding?
Postnatal and breastfeeding support are part of the care here. Message us — a latch problem is usually sorted out faster in person than over any number of articles.
General information, not advice about your particular situation. No article can replace being examined. Evita GyneCare provides antenatal care, gynecological consultations and outpatient diagnostics; we do not provide childbirth or caesarean section services.