A newborn baby's stomach is the size of a cherry. A cherry! Its important that we're all educated about the anatomy of a newborn babe if we're going to get off to a successful start with nursing. The stomach is this small because its designed to hold just enough colostrum, which comes out in small amounts in the first few days of life. Often hospital staff, well-meaning family members and strangers alike will warn that "You might be starving the baby." when he or she cries a lot in the first days of life. Not true! You're not starving the child because colostrum is A) soooo vital in a new babe's gut; And B) meant to be what's in baby's tummy and nothing else.
The Best Start organization has a great chart breaking everything down for us. Where was this when I was a first-time nursing mom?!
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