Why I don't use the word 'latch' to describe babies coming on to the breast

I don't use the word 'latch' because it puts the focus on a baby's capacity to perform, which is misleading

The word 'latch' derives from 'laeccan', an Old English word which means 'to seize' and which was originally Germanic. The* Collins English Dictionary* defines 'latch' as:

1. Noun. A fastening for a gate or door that consists of a bar that may be slid or lowered into a groove, hole, etc

2. Verb. To fasten, fit or be fitted with or as if with a latch.

Wikipedia describes a latch as "a mechanical fastener that joins two or more objects or surfaces together while allowing for their regular separation, often made from metal."

But 'latch' is widely used in English as both a noun and a verb when discussing breastfeeding. I try to avoid using the word 'latch' when I’m talking with breastfeeding women. Mostly I simply refer to baby taking the breast, baby getting on or coming onto the breast, or baby suckling at the breast.[2]

Personally, I hear a metallic ring buried in the word 'latch'. For me, latch seems to imply a seizing of the breast, a fierce fastening on, even an aggressive lock-on. I worry that the word itself makes us tighten up a bit, as if bringing the baby on is going to hurt.

The word 'latch' is often used to blame the baby

I also don't like to use the word latch because it directs the focus onto the baby's capacity to perform. When we use the verb 'latch' or 'latch on to the breast', it suggests that the baby is responsible for this act. Many phrases used by breastfeeding support professionals arise from outdated biomechanical understandings of suckling, such as

• “the baby won't latch”

• “the baby won't stay latched on”

• "the baby has a shallow latch"

• “the baby’s latch is causing his mother’s nipple pain”.

• "the baby can't latch because his chin too small or retrognathic"

• "the baby can't latch because her lingual frenulum or upper lip frenulum is too tight or his tongue is too short or his palate is too high and too narrow"

• "the baby can't latch because the mother's nipple is flat or because her breasts are big".

The gestalt method uses quite different language to describe women's breastfeeding experiences. You can find out about this here.

If the baby 'won't latch', either the baby's or mother's anatomy are blamed - as if our own bodies are failing us. Sometimes they do. But often it's because the anatomy is being considered all on it's own, not as a part of a dynamic, interacting system.

The way a baby comes onto or fits into the breast is contextual and dynamic. Many factors interact and come into play. I am interested in functional anatomy, anatomy in motion, anatomy of both mother and baby responding to their changing contexts and I’ve looked for words that better capture this complexity.

Latch puts the blame on the baby for what he does with his mouth at the breast (or his failure to do the right thing by latching). But in fact, what the baby can do with his mouth at the breast is severely constrained by the way that little one is fitting into his mother's body.

The word ‘positioning’ in breastfeeding also seems to imply something that the mother does to the baby. These days there is a trend to suggest that babies can self-attach for successful breastfeeding.

However, what’s called 'self-attachment’ ( if breastfeeding is to work) always involves the mother physically interacting with her little one and changing baby’s fit and hold.[4] In the terms 'latch and positioning' or 'attachment and positioning,' the dynamic interrelatedness of the multiple parts of a baby coming onto the breast are overlooked.

This is why I coined the term 'fit and hold' instead of 'latch and positioning' or 'attachment and positioning'. Fit and hold refers to the whole of the baby interacting with the whole of the mother, the woman and baby fitting their bodies together, supported by the mother's arms. Fit is less specific than the mouth-focussed 'latch’. Hold refers to ongoing interactions which are more than just positioning done to the baby, but which allow for the baby's autonomy within the mother's act of holding the baby and supporting him against gravity and in relation to her own body.

The way baby comes onto the breast depends on the way you fit your little one into your own breast and body

When a baby fits into his or her mother's breast, there are many different kinds of sensitive living human tissues coming together, interacting, shaped by underlying fibrous tissues and fatty tissues and fascia, cartilages and bones. The fit between anatomies is constantly changing, and the shapes of important anatomic features change too. For instance, the shape of the tongue or the shape of the nipple and breast tissue inside the baby's mouth change according to how much or how little breast tissue drag there is, as well as according to the elasticity of the woman's breast tissue.

The anatomies of a woman's breast and body, of a baby's face, oral cavity and related structures and the little one's body, are incredibly diverse, like humanity itself. Vacuum is created and all parts of the interior of the baby's mouth are bathed in mucin and moistness. The edges of the tongue rise up to nestle around whatever breast tissue has been drawn up into the mouth (nipple and the areolar and the glandular tissue that sits under the areola) in a sensory bath.

This is dynamic interplay, a complex and sensitive interaction between a woman's body and her baby's body. The baby's saliva is an extension of his immune system, rich with microbiome and anti-bacterial enzymes and immune cells. When a baby feeds from her mother's breast, two immune systems become one complex and dynamic ecosystem (or complex adaptive system). A woman's body with her milk and skin microbiomes and micronutrients and immune system factors becomes her baby's body, lines the baby's gut, primes the baby's blood and organs and bones with immune protection. Breastfeeding is the baby's primal sensory-motor experience, so that his nervous system is dialed down by the sensory and motor satisfaction of suckling, of relaxed and supported interaction with the maternal body. In breastfeeding he practices movement against gravity, exploring the world of his mother's body through his senses.

I'm interested in basic principles which help all women and their babies fit together for pain-free, efficient breastfeeding, in the context of our wondrously variable anatomies! This is an authentic kind of bodywork, and I've called it the gestalt method of fit and hold. This distinguishes it from other methods currently in use, which draw on poorly defined biomechanical models of infant suck.