Bet you didn't know about this breastfeeding technique

Imagine for a second that you’ve been up for two days, going through 30-plus hours of labour, pushing and pain. Now baby has finally arrived and the nurses are pressuring you to try breastfeeding. Not nly are you exhausted, but so is the new baby who does not feel like latching.

This is a pretty common experience many new moms face post-birth. But luckily, there is another way — and one that very few people seem to know about.

Carriage House Birth recently posted an image of Rebecca McKeever on their Instagram account feeding her newborn daughter Andromeda moments after birth.

“A lactation consultant came to our hospital room to ask if we needed help,” McKeever tells The Huffington Post. “She saw that I was expressing colostrum but that Andromeda wasn’t latching, so she brought in little cups and syringes so we could get some food in her. I expressed some colostrum into a cup, then put it into the syringe and fed her little drops at a time.”

“She smiled and melted with each drop,” McKeever says. “Then, a few minutes after getting that nourishment, she woke up a bit more and actually tried the breast! We had to do a mix of syringe feeding and breastfeeding for the first week.”

A doula herself, McKeever was aware of the syringe feeding technique but hadn’t thought to try it out until the lactation consultant reminded her. When the image got nearly 2,000 likes on Instagram, she realized this was something many new moms weren’t aware of and that it offered a great solution for moms hoping to breastfeed exclusively.

“In that moment, I felt so empowered and happy to be able to feed my baby,” McKeever says. “Even if it wasn’t in the ‘traditional’ way, it didn’t matter to me! I knew it might take some time.”

“I hope sharing our experience will encourage other mamas to meet their babies where they are at and go with the flow! And to not give up.”

Were you aware of this breastfeeding technique? Let us know by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.