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Dr Pam talks you through the basic principles of the gestalt method using a knitted breast

Dr Pamela Douglas31st of Dec 202317th of Jan 2025

The gestalt method of fit and hold helps empower you so that you can enjoy pain-free and effective breastfeeding. In this five minute video, I run through an overview of the gestalt method using a knitted breast.

steps of gestalt breastfeeding intervention

Resources

  • You can find a video and animation of how babies suck at the breast here (short) and here (longer).

  • You can find an NDC accredited practitioner who is trained in helping breastfeeding mothers with the gestalt method here.

  • You can find a research study here which shows, using ultrasound imaging, how the gestalt method changes what happens inside a baby's mouth during breastfeeding. The mothers and babies in this small case series had a long history of breastfeeding problems and multiple prior consultations with lactation consultants, which hadn't resolved the problems.

  • The evidence-base to the gestalt method is also peer-reviewed and published here and here.

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Next up in working out for yourself what might help as you breastfeed your baby

Notice where your nipple falls when baby comes off the breast

The gestalt method of fit and hold is only one part of the Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC) or Possums breastfeeding programs (under development as Breastfeeding stripped bare), but an important place to start. This version of the gestalt method of fit and hold for breastfeeding women has been available since 2016. I'm hoping that Breastfeeding stripped bare, the comprehensive NDC approach to breastfeeding and lactation, will be publicly available by the end of 2024. Key elements of the NDC breastfeeding work are also found in The discontented little baby book, and in my research publications, starting here.

Selected references

Douglas PS, Keogh R. Gestalt breastfeeding: helping mothers and infants optimise positional stability and intra-oral breast tissue volume for effective, pain-free milk transfer. Journal of Human Lactation. 2017;33(3):509–518.

Douglas PS, Geddes DB. Practice-based interpretation of ultrasound studies leads the way to less pharmaceutical and surgical...

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