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Regressive Therapy
Regressive Therapy Could Give You and Baby a Fresh Start at Breastfeeding
By Teri Brown
When Janine Wilcox had twins, she did everything she could to ensure that she would be able to successfully breastfeed them. She went out of her way to hire a lactation consultant who specialized in twins, and after following her advice, she felt prepared. Unfortunately, after giving birth to a beautiful – though small – set of twins, things fell apart.
"My daughter latched right on," says Wilcox, mother of three from Glastonbury, Conn. "My son, on the other hand, just couldn't get the hang of it."
After taking the babies home, Wilcox called another lactation consultant for advice. "She suggested that I crawl in the tub with him," Wilcox says. "The results were amazing, he latched right on."
Jennifer Tow is the IBCLC that suggested Wilcox try helping the baby latch on through regressive therapy, a technique that is designed to relax the baby almost by mimicking the birth waters. "Breastfeeding is a learned behavior for mothers, but it is instinctive for infants," Tow says. "Mothers learn to breastfeed by responding to the elicitations of the baby. When the mother responds appropriately, the infant is encouraged to continue to root, suckle, lick and seek the breast."
Tow says that the human infant is uniquely prepared to thrive in the environment for which it was designed: the body of the mother. Removing the infant from this environment, especially after an interventionist birth, can short-circuit the infant's hard-wired instincts and disorient him, leading to an inability to initiate breastfeeding.
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