Do we ever see newborns that aren’t motivated or able to breastfeed right away? Yes, we do!
This can be due to tongue/lip restrictions, fatigue from the birth experience, or other reasons.
Instead of trying to pump colostrum, we encourage moms to manually express colostrum onto a spoon and offer it to the newborn. Newborns have a reflex that helps them to lick the milk up from the spoon. This is a way we can ensure that the baby is getting some colostrum, even if they don’t have the energy or ability to latch on and transfer milk from the breast.
Spoon-feeding also helps prevent nipple confusion so that the babies don’t get used to drinking from a bottle before establishing a great breastfeeding relationship.
