Birth Day

The first 24 hours after birth is a beautiful and sacred time 
of welcoming your baby into the world. 
Depending on your labor and birthing experience, your baby will
be awake and alert for the first few hours after birth. 
Medicated labors can often result in sleepier babies.
After this initial "golden hour" your baby may go into a deep 
sleep for many hours.
Laying your baby skin-to-skin(s2s) and inviting a latch during 
the first hour after delivery is a great start to breastfeeding.
Babies respond to the smell of the amniotic fluid and the 
colostrum to latch and suckle as a natural instinctual experience. 
Some assistance may be necessary to direct your baby's toward 
the lower areola to allow for a wide latch and to avoid sucking
on the tip of your nipple.
The nipple should be drawn all the way into the mouth towards 
the back of the throat,as opposed to being latched onto with
a small mouth.
The wider the mouth and the more breast tissue is drawn in, 
the less painful the latch and the more efficiently the small 
amounts of colostrum will be transferred to your baby.
Try to have baby s2s as much as possible
(with just a diaper and a cap).
Blankets wrap baby and mom together in a comfortable cocoon 
for baby. Parents often trade off to allow each to catch up on 
some sleep. S2s helps babies stay warm and use less 
energy on needing to generate their own warmth in wrapped 
blankets separated from Mom. 
In addition,being s2s results in calmer babies, as they are not 
using up their energy stores by crying or feeling stressed.
This period is considered "practice' time for breastfeeding. 
Every 3 hours or so, gently wake your baby and attempt
a feeding at the breast. 
Your baby might be showing signs of wanting to feed, 
but most likely will need to be woken by gently rubbing
your baby's back and legs/feet. 
Your baby will need this stimulation to keep active and 
feeding at the breast too. 
Babies tend to feed less in the first day after birth 
as they are recovering too!
Massage your breasts and manually express your colostrum 
before each feeding to entice  your baby to the breast.
Your colostrum will be thick and sticky (like honey) before
it becomes more watery and fluid as it increases and changes
to mature milk. 
Consider colostrum to be a concentrated magical elixir/medicine 
or condensed milk, 
as it is filled with immunogloblulins which are nature's 
best "vaccination" to grow and build up your baby's immune system.

 
Hand Expression 
First Drops