Archive for September, 2007

Succeed with breastfeeding your baby

Successful Breastfeeding post by Lyndsay Elliott, Roger's wife. Although Roger is a talented guy, breastfeeding falls outside his remit. ;) Having given birth to my second daughter only 5 weeks ago, I am back into the swing of breastfeeding. Having successfully fed my first daughter for 15 months, I took it for granted feeding my second daughter would be no problem. How easily you forget! Breastfeeding may be how nature intended, but it still takes time and effort to get it established. Time wise, you have to get used to the fact you are never going to be more than a few hours from your child (unless you express milk but that’s way down the line for most new mums), both day and night. Your energy stores rapidly get sucked up, and things can get gloomy very quickly. (Yes, I admit to using the breast to get a few minutes reprieve from a wailing baby!) This time round my husband and I were under no illusions - the grannies are on a regular visiting schedule to share the load, and the ultimate luxury – we now have a cleaner! This left me with enough spare capacity to re-learn how to breastfeed, and encourage my daughter to do likewise. I made use of written material, I got my midwives to observe and coach me, and phoned a breastfeeding counsellor to answer a few technical questions (like why is my baby’s poo sometimes green?!). I had a few dark moments (and a sore breast), and the temptation to switch to formula feeding was strong. But with a lot of love and support from family, friends and professionals, I managed to stay on top of it and now a few weeks on, breastfeeding is going well (even if we still get the odd bout of bowel related crying!). One of the key instructions from a midwife was to drop my shoulders, relax and breathe. Oh yes, what is that my husband does again? Hypnotherapy. And what is that about? Getting people to relax. In a light-bulb moment, I helped my husband write a download to help breastfeeding mum’s like me, to relax, providing another layer of support to enable breastfeeding success. I trust it helps other mums too! PS In case you’re wondering, green poo is often because baby is getting too much fore-milk and not enough hind-milk. The solution is to keep the baby at the same breast for longer….the things you learn eh!