Hi little O, it sounds like your friend has had a really rough trot. For most babies, right after they are born, they experience an alert period, where they are ready and open to try feeding. Once they have a big feed, they settle down for a big sleep. Like CPPM said, they are recovering from the birth.

Sometimes, if there are things that don't go according to plan at birth, they might miss the wakeful period after birth and baby will just got into big sleep mode. And that's ok. Not ideal, but ok. They are born with fat stores to get them through.

When DS2 was born, he had a massive session at the boob after he was born, then slept for almost 12 hours. The MWs keeps asking me "has he had another feed ever?" And I'd just say "Nope, I'm not worried" and they'd back off. But it can be tough if you aren't confident that everything's ok.

Everything that the others have said is great. Remove the pressure. Lots of skin to skin, lots of rest for mum and bub. Snoozing together. Lots of time together. Use the LC - make sure she asks for an actual diagnosis as to whether she has flat/inverted nipples or not. It can be hard to tell and if you introduce shields when there isn't an actual need it can be just another hurdle to overcome. Try and keep it simple - one feed at a time, one day at a time.

Remember she can ring the ABA helpline anytime - 1800686268.