Cue Feeding

Breastfeeding works best when it is done "on demand", in other words whenever the baby wants to or shows cues of wishing to nurse. That can even mean up several times an hour in the beginning. First of all, infants have very small tummies and breast milk digests quickly, so the smaller the baby, the quicker she will be hungry again. Also, babies don't nurse for food only but also for comfort and security. Western culture values independence and visible accomplishments, which is seen also in the parenting advice one often sees: mothers are told to have infants sleep in a separate bed, force them to sleep through the night without nursing, or nurse on schedule. Wearing/carrying the baby a lot, and valuing the time spent breastfeeding are not emphasized. But even science has now found evidence that this is not the way to go.

Also, if you nurse on schedule, you may experience milk supply problems after about 3 months of nursing. This seems to stem from the fact that in the early months the milk-producing hormone prolactin plays an important role building the milk supply, but after a few months postpartum a different process, autocrine or local control takes over.