Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants

by Catherine Watson Genna

Overview

Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants, Fourth Edition is an essential resource for healthcare professionals working with new breastfeeding families and infants. Using a multidisciplinary approach, it incorporates the latest research on infant sucking and clinical strategies to assist infants with breastfeeding. With an emphasis on skills, it focuses on normal sucking function in addition to difficulties based in anatomical, cardiorespiratory, neurological, or prematurity issues. The Fourth Edition has been extensively updated with new photos throughout and additional information on breastfeeding modifications for infants with structural issues, including micrognathia, orofacial clefts, and torticollis. The contributing authors also reflect on the latest breastfeeding research, including the mechanics of sucking, the normal anatomy of the floor of the mouth, the role of tongue tie in feeding difficulty, as well as strategies to support infants with neurological conditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781284255386
Publisher:	Jones & Bartlett Learning
Publication date:	09/07/2022
Edition description:	4th ed.
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	841,227
Product dimensions:	7.02(w) x 8.97(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in New York City. Certified in 1992, Catherine is particularly interested in helping moms and babies breastfeed when they have medical challenges. She serves as an active clinical mentor, and speaks to healthcare professionals around the world on assisting breastfeeding babies with anatomical, genetic or neurological problems. Catherine is collaborating with Columbia University and Tel Aviv University Departments of Biomedical Engineering on research projects investigating the biomechanics of the lactating nipple and various aspects of sucking and swallowing during breastfeeding. In addition to this volume, she is the author of Selecting and Using Breastfeeding Tools: Improving Care and Outcomes (Hale 2009) as well as peer-reviewed journal articles. She currently serves as Associate Editor of the Unit ed States Lactation Consultant Association’s official journal Clinical Lactation.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Breastfeeding: Normal Sucking and Swallowing
Chapter 2 Breastfeeding and Perinatal Neuroscience
Chapter 3 Impact of Birth Practices on Infant Suck
Chapter 4 How Infants Learn to Feed: A Neurobehavioral Model
Chapter 5 They Can Do It, You Can Help: Building Breastfeeding Skill and Confidence in Mother and Helper
Chapter 6 The Goldilocks Problem: Milk Flow That Is Not Too Fast, Not Too Slow, but Just Right (Or, Why Milk Flow Matters and What to Do About It)
Chapter 7 Breastfeeding Preterm Infants
Chapter 8 The Influence of Anatomic and Structural Issue s on Sucking Skills
Chapter 9 Minimally Invasive Treatment for Posterior ­Tongue-­Tie (The Hidden ­Tongue-­Tie)
Chapter 10 Hands in Support of Breastfeeding: Manual Therapy
Chapter 11 Sensory Integration and Breastfeeding
Chapter 12 Neurological Issue s and Breastfeeding
Chapter 13 Therapeutic Positioning for Breastfeeding
Chapter 14 Counseling Mothers of Infants with Feeding Difficulties

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Rachel S Simmons, PhD, DNP, WHNP, ANP, PMHNP, IBCLC (WellMed at Dr. Phillips Outpatient Psychiatry Group)
Description: Breastfeeding is a complex biopsychosocial process that facilitates maternal and infant health. The intersectionality between maternal and infant brains via intrinsic synaptic connections allows heuristic bonding that aids infant growth and development. This book encompasses a compilation of nuanced research that enhances our knowledge of infant suckling to optimize and augment clinical strategies for breastfeeding. The book's title captures the summary of the content and internal works while piquing readers' interest. Unique structural elements in the book include theoretical charts, evidence-based graphs, enhanced optics of malformed breasts, and infant orofacial structures. Chapter contributors are breastfeeding experts holding the International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) designation. The linear and logical manner of the book's content is highly descriptive, analytical, and critical for comprehending the infant suckling evolution. This fourth edition is preceded by three previous versions written in 2012, 2016, and 2022.
Purpose: The author prefaces the book's simple but complex purpose of providing evidence-based information and strategies to resolve infant-related challenges to normal breastfeeding. Updated editions with progressive objectives are needed to appraise diverse interdisciplinary health professionals of up-to-date, evidence-based research to inform best practices and clinical judgments. The dissemination of evidence-based research aids women, infants, families, and communities by reducing morbidity and mortality. The author meets the stated objectives of expanding knowledge of the infant feeding process to support suckling skills. The achieved objectives are compiled in 14 exemplary chapters covering normal to pathological breastfeeding.
Audience: The author wrote the book for an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals as stakeholders in breastfeeding. The scholarly and research-laden material is appropriate for breastfeeding experts, medical and nursing students, and breastfeeding advocates in clinical settings. The targeting of the book to highly selective health professionals assists with meeting the needs of these advanced and multifocal specialists. The author is a recognized breastfeeding expert as an IBCLC, regularly working with mothers, infants, and clinical partners to optimize breastfeeding, particularly for infants with suckling challenges. Publication of this fourth edition solidifies the author as an established expert in the breastfeeding field.
Features: The book covers diverse issues impacting infant suckling. Infants with structural anomalies such as orofacial clefts, micrognathia, hemangiomas, torticollis, and various congenital heart and lung anomalies are particularly challenged to suckle. The book includes strategies to circumvent these challenges based on nuanced research surrounding the anatomy of infants' mouth floors. The anatomy of the infant's floor, as confirmed by prominent National Institute of Health researchers, confirms the complexity of various orofacial infant structures that often impede breastfeeding. Real-life images of structural anomalies of neurocognitive-challenged infants rank as the book's best aspects, as health professionals are often challenged to comprehend various presenting abnormalities. These images are pivotal to enhancing healthcare professionals' knowledge of the problem. Forewords from previous editions highlight the importance and progression of each book and the impact on infant suckling. Though there are minimal shortcomings in the book, several prominent national organizations aim to increase breastfeeding for Black women. A small section toward the back of the book is dedicated to the challenges faced by these women. Including up-to-date references from prominent Black breastfeeding researchers with direct insight into the problem would give more credence to this group's disparate issues. Additional images of minority mother-infant dyads would be valuable for all providers seeking to aid breastfeeding mothers. The author is highly complimented for including some of these women's unique challenges.
Assessment: The up-to-date and evidence-based content, chapter organization, and exceptional visuals make this a quality addition to breastfeeding education. The book offers a critical appraisal of diverse issues impeding infant suckling. The content is useful for healthcare professionals seeking to improve clinical strategy and therapeutic communication while utilizing breastfeeding theory. The book has similarities to Physiology of Human Female Lactation, Alekseev (Springer, 2021). However, the current book on infant suckling is a multidisciplinary work surrounding various issues that challenge infant suckling and the lactation process. The fourth edition of this book is a justified representation of evolutionary breastfeeding research expanded to inform didactic and clinical knowledge.

Doody's Review Service