Learn to nurse baby

In 1990 my eldest son was born. He did not nurse successfully before I went home from the birthing center, less than 24 hours after birth. I didn't know what I was doing and neither did he. By the third day he was so dehydrated that he only moved his eyes; he just lay there. The emergency room doctor immediately gave him a bottle of formula which he drank. Then we took him home. My husband and I couldn't afford formula; we had been gifted six months of cloth diaper service or we would have been scraping for that, too. So my mother held the now-screaming baby up to me while I squirted breastmilk into his mouth until he caught on that was its source. He went on to nurse for about 9 months.

Ironically the health insurance paid us 75 dollars for giving birth in the birthing center instead of a hospital, but because I hadn't learned to nurse they had to pay for an ER visit immediately after.