Educating a breastfeeding woman about how her baby sucks and swallows at the breast is, to my mind, a basic form of public health education. I advocate for a breastfeeding woman's right to knowledge, which allows her to take control of her breastfeeding relationship with her baby, and to feel empowered.

You have the right to be educated about the biomechanics of breastfeeding, and how to best protect your breasts. You have the right to know how to maximize the amount of nipple and breast tissue that is drawn up into your baby's mouth during breastfeeding, by minimizing breast tissue drag. You have the right to be informed about strategies which will help you fit your little one (with her unique anatomic variations of palate, oral connective tissue, tongue length, and chin and facial bone structure) into your own uniquely anatomically variable breasts and body and arms, in a way that works for most mothers and babies most of the time.

This is not too 'left brained' for women to cope with during a 'right brained' time of life, as one leading breastfeeding medicine physician and educator once announced rather grumpily to me! You can find out how a mother's brain works in the postpartum period here.

Once you understand how your baby's sucking works, things tend to go so much better. If every woman was helped to understand the biomechanics of sucking prior to giving birth, or had someone to help her with this information as soon as she feels any discomfort or pain, I believe that much of the terrible nipple damage which occurs in the first hours and days, and also much of babies' distressingly fussy behaviour at the breast, could be prevented.

• You can find out about a woman and her baby's anatomic variations in breastfeeding here.

• You can find a video and animation about how babies suck at the breast here.

• You can find the antenatal videos called When baby comes home starting here.

Selected references

O BO, O'Sullivan EJ, McFadden A, Ota E. Interventions for promoting the initiation of breastfeeding. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2016;11(CD001688).

Lumbiganon P, Martis R, Laopaiboon M, Festin MR, Ho JJ. Antenatal breastfeeding education for increasing breastfeeding duration.Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2016;12(CD006425).