Sleeping near the baby facilitates breastfeeding at the earliest signs of hunger, thus helping build milk supply. Parents should be advised to continue this practice, even after they leave the hospital.

Bedsharing, in particular, has been shown to promote breastfeeding. There have been some concerns about bedsharing if not done safely. However, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine notes that there is insufficient evidence to routinely discourage co-sleeping. The ABM defines co-sleepers as those "who remain close enough for each to detect and potentially act on the sensory stimuli of the other, and this includes an infant sleeping alongside a parent on a different piece of furniture or object," as well as an infant who shares a bed with the parent.

Data about bedsharing show that such babies learn to respond to mother’s movements and breathing, and that mothers learn to respond to baby’s early feeding cues. Babies who bedshare have been found to spend more time nursing than babies who don’t, and this helps build milk supply. In addition, nursing the baby in the sidelying position allows both parents to wake up more well-rested in the morning.

Having the baby sleep in a separate room from the mother, even with a baby monitor, does not result in these benefits. Crying is a late sign of hunger, and it is important to feed the baby well before one can hear him crying down the hall. It is also harder to feed a crying baby.

If a mother shares a bed with her infant, it is important that she know how to do this safely.

• The bed should be away from a wall on both sides to avoid entrapment.
• Heavy blankets, duvets, or pillows should be avoided.
• Soft surfaces such as waterbeds, couches, and daybeds should be avoided.
• Neither parent should be under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs, or medications that would interfere with their ability to wake up.
• As with sleeping separately, the infant should be placed on his back.
• A baby should not sleep alone on an adult bed.
• No one except parents should share a bed with the baby.
• Because the risk of SIDS is higher in children of smokers, it is advised that parents who smoke do not bedshare, but can sleep with the baby nearby.

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Mothers who use pacifiers often find that they do not make enough milk. While some parents successfully use pacifiers after breastfeeding has been well established, pacifier use is inappropriate in healthy term newborns with possible breastfeeding problems (Warning Signs or Red Flags).

If a baby is awake and alert, making movements with his mouth, or sucking his fist, he is probably hungry and needs to nurse. Sucking on a pacifier requires different motor groups than sucking on a breast, so using a pacifier may make it hard for a baby to learn how to suck on the breast.

A baby who wants to nurse for comfort will likely get the satisfaction he seeks more quickly from the warmth of his mother's breast than from a pacifier. Comfort suckling may help a mother make more milk through nipple stimulation. It may be helpful to explain to the mother that the breast is not a substitute for a pacifier. In fact, elsewhere in the world, pacifiers are called "dummies" because they are substitutes for the breast. Bottle fed babies seem to have a need for pacifiers because they don't receive the comfort of the breast.

If a newborn is having trouble breastfeeding, feeding with a bottle may ultimately make the troubles worse. One must balance the potentially detrimental use of the bottle with the urgency of the situation. A baby who is very dehydrated or compromised may not feed effectively via alternative methods; in this situation, offering a bottle is the fastest way to rehydrate the baby, short of administering intravenous fluids.

Alternative methods include cup feeding, dropper or syringe feeding, finger feeding, or using a nursing supplementer, in which the baby drinks from a tube taped to the mother’s nipple. A lactation consultant can be helpful in this situation and can teach a therapeutic use of a bottle, especially in situations where longer-term supplementation might be indicated.

Use of formula without a medical reason may interfere with the establishment and building of the mother¹s milk supply. The more frequently the baby nurses, the more milk the mother will make, provided that milk transfer is effective. Using formula without a medical reason may cause a baby to be too full to nurse frequently.

Similarly, a prolonged feeding may mean that the baby is not getting enough milk, especially if the mother cannot tell if the baby is swallowing during this feeding. Mothers should learn to differentiate nutritive suckling from comfort suckling. In nutritive suckling, there is a sustained rhythmic suck-swallow pattern with occasional pauses. In comfort suckling, the movement is lighter, and does not tend to give a strong tugging sensation. Comfort suckling may help stimulate milk production by nipple stimulation; however if milk is not removed from the breast during nutritive suckling, milk supply will diminish. One sign of suboptimal breastfeeding is a baby who is feeding continuously for long periods but without audible swallowing.
Mothers should be encouraged to "watch the baby, not the clock." This means that mothers should respond to changes in swallowing patterns -- switching breasts when swallowing slows or when the baby takes himself off the breast. At one time, it was common for women to be advised to nurse "10-20 minutes on a side." However, there’s no evidence to support timing feeds in this way.

It is important to feed at the earliest signs of hunger: stretching, mouth movements, chewing on hands and rooting. Mothers should be counseled not to wait until the baby is crying to feed him. Feeding early and often helps build and maintain an adequate milk supply and good weight gain.