The Breast Crawl – Baby Wants Colostrum!

Have you heard of the breast crawl?  When placed on the mother’s tummy immediately after birth, a baby will gravitate towards mom’s nipple to initiate the first feed on colostrum.  This is nothing short of amazing and exhibits one of the many innate abilities that babies are born with.  Colostrum is present in very small quantities at delivery since the breast begin to produce milk inside of the milk ducts weeks, even months before delivery.  While the baby’s stomach is the size of a cherry when comparing storage capacity, you’ll see that it’s not yet time to be concerned if baby is getting enough “milk”.  

Here is a short video compiled of photos from a birth documented by a birth photographer.

Video credit:
Leilani Rogers, Photographer
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfRNn8yhGErfzXBmoGP90PQ

What Is Colostrum?

Composed of fats, proteins, antibodies and growth factors, colostrum provides your baby with a boost in natural immunity and digestive properties that will help your baby thrive. Once ingested, colostrum will distribute healthy bacteria throughout the gut to help initiate and stabilize a healthy flora in the digestive system. Along with establishing a healthy digestive system, colostrum will also transfer antibodies to the baby. Antibodies are created in response to mom’s body and her natural ability to protect baby’s immune system.

How To Feed Colostrum

Colostrum is expelled from the breast once breast and nipple stimulation is initiated. There are various ways and factors associated with how colostrum can be transferred to your baby. You may be asking why are there various methods for various gestational ages. Term babies will have better developed cognitive abilities to feed than a pre-term infant. It will be important to use any and sometimes all methods available to stimulate the breasts and get the milk making factory working so that baby can receive colostrum, especially if admitted to the NICU.

For Term Babies (37 weeks gestation+):

• Latch and feed on-demand
• Frequent nipple and breast stimulation
• Spoon feeding
• Cup feeding

Late Pre-Term (34-36 weeks gestation)

• Latch and feed on-demand
• Frequent nipple and breast stimulation
• Syringe collection
• Spoon collection
• Cup feeding

Pre-Term (<32-34 weeks gestation)

• Syringe collection
• Add to tube feeding

Want to learn more? Send me a message, I’d be happy to help!