Symmetrical & Asymmetrical Latch for Breastfeeding

Video Transcript

"I'm going to be showing you the Symmetrical and the Asymmetrical Latch. You might want to try both to see which works best for you and your baby. For the symmetrical latch, you're bringing the baby straight onto the breast, like so. You're going to support the breast and bring the baby straight on like this and when the baby opens his mouth, you don't want to take a long time and wait, because then he'll close it again. So as soon as the mouth is open, you're going to bring him on, swiftly onto the breast. Now the asymmetrical latch is easier to demonstrate on the balloon. It's almost like if you were taking a bite out of a sandwich. You're going to be compressing your breast for the baby to latch on properly and if this is the baby's mouth and this is the lower lip and this is the upper lip, as soon as the baby opens, you're going to bring the baby's lower lip here and almost like bring his mouth over like he's taking a bite of a sandwich and that's the asymmetrical latch. You get a very very deep latch with this, so let me show you again. With your breast you can tickle the baby's top lip and then drop the breast in and hook the baby over the top of the breast like that, for an asymmetrical latch and now we'll move on to the different types of holds."