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Home › Articles › Your Growing Baby › Cluster Feedings and Postpartum Recovery

Cluster Feedings and Postpartum Recovery

3 Steps to Success

By Jennifer Hodges

Pages:  1  2  

For many women, the joy of childbirth can be quickly overshadowed by around-the-clock nursing sessions. These nursing sessions are often called cluster feeding. Cluster feeding occurs throughout Baby's first year of life, and is most difficult during the first month when Mom is recovering from birth and Baby is adjusting to life outside the womb.

For many first-time moms, these frequent nursing sessions cause fear and confusion. "Oh no!" thought Stacy Hunt of Pittsburgh, Pa. "He's not getting enough milk." This is a very common concern of new moms when babies seem to eat around the clock. Jane McKissock of Tampa, Fla., had heard of cluster feedings before the birth of her first child but was still surprised at how long her newborn daughter wanted to nurse "I would nurse her 20 minutes on each side, and then within one minute of unlatching her, my mom would be bringing her back to me saying she was hungry again," McKissock says.

1. Know It's Normal
Debbie Albert, doctorate in counseling and certified lactation consultant, says that cluster feedings are "completely normal, and moms need to accept them as a fact of life as Baby uses these feedings to increase milk supply." She says to think of Baby's belly like the gas tank in a car. "Cars need gas to run, and most vehicles always get the same miles per gallon," she says. "If your car increases in size, so does the amount of gallons needed in the gas tank to keep it running. A baby is the same way; as Baby increases in size, so does the amount of milk it needs. This is where cluster feeding comes into play. Baby seems to nurse around the clock to signal the breast to make more milk for the increase in Baby's size."
2. Know It's OK to Have Help
So how is a new mom supposed to recover from childbirth either a vaginal birth or a Cesarean section while tending to the feeding needs of her newborn? Both Hunt and McKissock allowed themselves to be taken care of by their mothers. "The cluster feedings didn't make recovery any harder for me," McKissock says. "My mother stayed with us for the following two weeks, which was really helpful." While McKissock nursed her newborn daughter, her mother would bring her food, a book, turn on the TV or just sit on the edge of the bed to keep her company.

Hunt had a similar situation at her house. "My husband and mother took care of everything other than the baby so that I could spend most of my time on the couch with him, feeding and watching movies," she says. "I was a very lucky girl in that I was waited on hand and foot, which allowed me to wait on the baby."

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