It’s something we hear a lot when we’re out and about supporting mothers.
That baby fusses more on one side, they don’t feed as effectively on one side or that they don’t feed at all on one side. Lots of mums get quite worried about this, that it’s going to cause problems. It does seem to be a thing that babies have a preferred breast.

Perhaps mum is more comfy holding baby in her more dominant hand. Perhaps baby is, for example if they’re a bit bruised from birth, they might be more comfortable on a certain side.

It could be down to mums own ‘personal plumbing’…… one side may just be a bit of a better producer and once there’s been a few extra feeds on that side the milk flows even more effectively increasing that preference further

So, is there anything we can do about it?

We can try being a bit sneaky with positions. Perhaps starting them in a rugby ball and moving over to a cross cradle or the other way round, or experimenting with some completely different positions.

If baby is feeding significantly less on one side we can use expressing on that side to keep supply up and even in both breasts and with time, baby will hopefully start to even out those feeds a bit more.

And worse case scenario, it’s completely possible to exclusively feed a baby from just one breast! Mums may worry that one breast means half the milk, but it’s simply not true, the breast will respond to the needs of that baby and produce enough milk- it’s how we’re able to breastfeed twins and multiples!

All that will happen is mum may be left slightly ‘uneven’……nothing a baggy top or bit of padding can’t resolve!

So don’t worry, you can continue to breastfeed even if two become one!