27 Reasons Why Breastfeeding Support Groups Rock!

This is a special post dedicated to my local breastfeeding drop in groups – the Milk Spot service which helps mums across Lambeth, South London and is run by the very fantastic Beverley Radley (check out the award she won here, much deserved!) I wanted to write a post about how fab this service is, because it’s such an amazing service and yet funding is always an issue. If you’re based in Lambeth, click here to find your nearest Milk Spot. Here is also a helpful NCT link with BFing support in SW London.

There is very much a need for this service and, instead of just me banging on about how fabulous it is, you’ve got the words of lots of other mums who use the service. And, I thought, why stop there – why not gather the words of women across the country who use their local BFing drop-ins and how crucial that support is to breastfeeding mums. So here you go!

Milk Spot Testimonials:

“I can safely say that without Milk Spot I would not be breastfeeding Baby Thor. It saddens me to think that there are women around the country who can’t access wonderful BFing support because there isn’t the funding, knowledge or training support available. It is a vital part of post-natal support in my opinion. There are too few health visitors and midwives and GPs – and mums – who really understand issues affecting breastfeeding mothers and the tricky early days. After Baby Thor was in SCBU with weightloss and other health issues – and had to have EBM by nose tube/bottle – it was thanks to Beverley and Sally that I managed to learn to breastfeed and wean him off the bottle. We have now been BFing for over 6months. I still attend my milk spot though, at Hitherfield, so I can chat to other mums and perhaps just provide a listening ear and a bit of cheerleading for new mums learning to breastfeed. I hope to train as a peer supporter so I can give back some of  the support I received. Milk Spot has also been good for Baby Thor, I am sure he is such a sociable baby because he has been socialising and meeting other mums and babies since he was 2 weeks old!” Streatham MilkSpot Mum

“Milk Spot provided me with invaluable support in the first few weeks and months of breastfeeding. My breastfeeding experience has been very difficult and if it was not for the wonderful, patient and knowledgeable midwifes at the Milk Spot I would have given up. They offer not only practical advice but also emotional support and most importantly encouragement. When I was unable to breastfeed my son at the hospital after he was born I was judged and made to feel like a failure by some staff there. I lost a lot of confidence because of this. Beverly and Sally always made the point of telling me how well I was doing. In addition Milk Spot offers a relaxed and non-judgmental environment to get more confident about breastfeeding in public, meet other mums and share our stories. I would recommend going to a Milk Spot to every new mum whether they struggle with breastfeeding or not.” Streatham MilkSpot Mum

Breastfeeding Preemies/Poorly Babies…R’s Advice + Story

Morning everyone!

I am making the most of Baby Thor’s nap time to schedule another post on here for you. Following on from the interest in C.A’s preemie breastfeeding journey and the milk donation post, here’s some more tips and info on establishing BFing with a preemie from another fab preemie mum. Please share and like and email this round – it might just a help a mum or a mum-to-be that you know!

“My son was born by emergency c-section at 38 weeks and spent the next 2 weeks in Intensive care at Kings College Hospital, London. After a few days he was fed my breastmilk via a nose tube, then through a syringe into his mouth, then through a teat / bottle. He also had a dummy from birth (it helps to develop the sucking reflex in babies who can’t be fed normally) and luckily never experienced any breast / nipple confusion or rejection.

Like in all special care baby units the nurses were very keen for mums to breastfeed as it gives the poorly and premature babies a good start. At kings they have 2 nurses specially trained to give support and guidance on breastfeeding and expressing.Other friends who had ‘normal’ births have told me that they got very little / no help with feeding and have often had trouble with expressing, so here are my top tips if you have to / want to express milk* (especially if your baby is in special care)

• STIMULATE: My son was born on a Saturday night and I was told to start trying to express by the Monday (see below for more on how to express) – the sooner you start stimulating, the sooner your milk will come in. Also, a warm shower where you let the water fall onto your breasts will help get things going. But best of all – sniff your baby! The pheromones your baby produces will get your body making milk. If your baby is in an incubator ask for a sheet that he’s been laying on. I had a brilliant ambulance transfer team who gave me the sheet that my son had been wrapped in straight after he was delivered. It was a bit bloody but all the more effective for that I was told! Also, just looking at your baby or a photo of him if he’s in the SCBU will help get the milk coming.
• MASSAGE: In the early days, this is the most important part of expressing and people are often not told about it! You can do this before your milk comes in (ie before you can get any milk out of your boobs) and should also do it every time you express for the first week or so. After that time you won’t need to massage as much to make the milk ‘let down’ (start flowing out) – it will ‘let down’ on its own. To massage your breasts, first make a fist in a ‘thumbs-up’ gesture. Gently roll your bent fingers down your breast towards the nipple a bit like you are softly kneading some dough! Keep rolling your fist from the outside edges of your breast towards the nipple. On the lower half of the breast you roll up toward the nipple. Do this all over your breast, rolling from the outer edge toward the nipple. Basically you are trying to stimulate all of the breast tissue to push it’s milk towards the nipple. Massage gently, don’t drag on the skin or bruise yourself. A gentle touch is enough to stimulate the milk ducts.
• EXPRESS: I was told to try to express by hand at least a few times but didn’t find it very easy. I would recommend that at first you use an electric breast pump (preferably the hospital’s own as they are stronger than most electric pumps you can buy and will get your supply established quickly) and then try manual expressing when you’ve got the hang of the electric pump. Don’t worry about ‘sharing’ the hospital pump – you should be given your own ‘kit’ of equipment to sterilise and look after for all the bits that touch your boob and the milk (eg the cup part that attaches to your nipple, the bottles etc). Use antibac wipes on the rest of the machine and sterilise equipment following the nurses directions. There’s no denying that the first time you express it will feel weird, but it soon becomes second nature.
• EXPRESS FOR THE RIGHT LENGTH OF TIME AND AT THE RIGHT TIME OF DAY: The first time you express just try for a few minutes. Maybe 3 minutes on a gentle ‘starting-off’ setting, then 3 more on a stronger suck, then another 3 on the more gentle ‘starting-off’ setting again (9 minutes total per breast). After a week or so you will be able to express for longer and also your milk will be more established so you will get more out at a time. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get much to start with – your baby only needs a tiny amount when they’re first born. It shouldn’t hurt,  so don’t express for so long that you get sore, and ask for help if it’s really hurting – you might have the settings wrong. Express at least 6 times in 24 hours (so every 3 or 4 hours) – make one of the times between 10pm and 2am – this is the time of day that your body sets its milk production levels – if you express during this time your body will make more milk. Don’t forget to massage your breasts before you start to get the milk to ‘let down’ and also gently massage as you express if your breasts feel very hard (engorged) or lumpy (massaging out any blockages to prevent mastitis). Just a reminder,  the suggested amount of times to express milk is for when you are solely expressing milk for your baby – not for if you’re breastfeeding them too!

I expressed milk for about 11 days until I established full breastfeeding with my son and have never had pains or problems with feeding. After using the hospital pumps (which have a very strong suck) my son’s sucking was very mild in comparison! I also came home from hospital with a big bag of my frozen milk (I started expressing before he started eating!) which was very nice as it allowed my husband to enjoy feeding our son too. So don’t despair if your baby has a traumatic start in life – you can still give him your milk even if you can’t hold him to breastfeed. My son is now 14 months old and still breastfeeds twice a day. I have loved breastfeeding him and haven’t really had any problems during that whole time, but I know it’s not so easy for everyone so I start my training to become a breastfeeding peer-supporter in January!

**UPDATE I fed my first son until he was 2 years and 1 month (couldn’t quite bring myself to stop dead on 2 years) and then went on to feed my second son again for 2 years and 1 month (for fairness obviously!) I loved breastfeeding and will do it again if we have any more children.**”

Thanks,

Becky + Baby Thor

A slightly different journey… Breastmilk donation – A.R.’s Story

And now for something completely different! Well, sort of….Have you ever heard of Milk Banks, had an over-supply of breastmilk or had a preemie baby? Well all of those are linked together in the story below from Abi Ross and her story about donating her breastmilk…

“I was inspired to donate milk after my first daughter was in SCBU having arrived 6 weeks early – I had plenty of milk and expressed regularly for her for 6 months as she needed it – and kept feeding her till almost 2.  I knew I produced a lot and wanted to pay back a little for the care we had received for those first two weeks she was in special care. There were so many more, much sicker babies than mine and I knew that giving them EBM would help them no end to grow a lot stronger than on formula.  So for my second I decided that if I could I would donate and give some others the same start mine had – it didn’t matter what the issue the mother may or may not have had it was good for the baby.

Initially my second also had sucking problems to begin with and wasn’t gaining enough.  Therefore at two weeks old I started expressing again.  I was again producing a big surplus for what she needed – small top ups – so thought what better thing to do than give it to babies that need it.  I was already going with it so contacted the milk bank.  I had to go in to the hospital for an appointment anyway so combined it with one of those visits to sort it all out i.e. do the bloods they needed.  They were happy if my hygiene was good to accept the milk in the bags I had been storing it in until I could change to their bottles.  I filled many more than I think they were expecting and still kept a little back for my daughter.

I had to stop a few times as I had a cold on more than one occasion and they don’t want that milk. I only pumped once a day, after the morning feed and got between 6 -10oz.  After a while I was solely pumping for the bank although I could keep some for S if she needed and so had an emergency stash in the freezer!  I had a double pump with variable speed and suction so it was quite efficient and so I still managed to be out of the house at 8.45 to get my oldest to nursery despite expressing in the morning.  I used to set up the steriliser the night before and turn it on and it would stay sealed and sterile until the morning.

I donated from when my LO was 6 weeks old until she was about 6mo – I went away and stopped pumping that week as it didn’t make sense to carry on while I was away.  It was a natural point to stop; S certainly wasn’t affected at all by my donating –  she is healthy and sitting on 75th centiles for height and weight at 10 months old.  It was a good experience and something that was easy for me to do.   Although I couldn’t carry on donating for as long as I would have liked, I was pleased that I was able to donate the early milk in particular, as it is richer so it was the stuff they really wanted.  I hope my litres helped a few babies grow bigger and stronger and it did help me lose a bit more of the baby weight quicker! “

I would have loved to donate milk but didn’t have a big excess. If you’re interested in finding out more about donating, visit the UKAMB website and you can follow them on Twitter. You can also contact your local hospital/SCBU department to see if they will accept it. If you’ve considered donating – or have donated – please do tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Thanks,

Becky + Baby Thor

Celebrating A Breastfeeding Milestone!

So today, Baby Thor is 6 months old!! How did that happen? Weird to think that this time last September he was my teeny tiny weeny bean. We’ve had lots of ups and downs (mostly ups now) breastfeeding and it’s been an amazing ride so far. Never thought I would get to 6mo BFing – never thought I’d get to 6 days…

So here’s a little comparison for you – then and now. Happy 1/2 Birthday Baby Boy!

Hope all of your breastfeeding journeys are going well. To use a cliche, it seems to me it’s not just about the destination (6mo/1 year) but it is very much about what you learn and what they learn along the way 🙂 If you’re feeling down or blue or uncertain and need some help, don’t forget to check out our resources page or come at chat to us in the Late Nite Mummies Club.

Thanks,

Becky + Baby Thor

**Guest Post** Breastfeeding Beyond 12 Months….

I am delighted to announce that this is our very first guest post and it is from Heather Francesca from One Born Every Minute. Some of you may remember her `Glabour` birthing outfit. You can read more about Heather here on her awesone blog (highly recommend you follow) and her glabour outfits here – and her Baby Friday clothing range. Here is Heather’s story, reproduced with kind permission, from her own blog back in January.

“As soon as my baby girl arrived, I was looking forward to feeding her, the bond it created was so appealing to me and I was determined to do everything I could to make it work. I was always told that ‘breast is best’ and that’s certainly what I wanted for my daughter.

A question I kept been asked whilst I was pregnant was ‘are you going to breast feed?’ To which I would answer,Yes, of course. I was shocked by the amount of responses that said ‘well, you might not be able too.’ I couldn’t understand how something we were made to do wouldn’t work, I blocked out those comments as I didn’t want to go into something feeling I was going to fail before I had even tried. Although I understand in some circumstances it can be impossible for some women to breast feed But i didn’t want to believe this was the norm. I was sticking to my guns and wanted to trust that my body could do it.

A catch up, some messy pictures and….a give-away!

Hi Everyone!

We’ve had lots of new readers and attention, so thought it would be good to do a bit of a round up of what’s been going on!. In case you didn’t know, this site has only been going since the end of January 2013 but we’ve already got about 20 stories up on the site, over 70 members of the Late Nite Mummies club and lots happening on Twitter too 🙂 In case it helps, here’s a bit more about why I set the site up, and about the site itself. Finally if you want to get in touch, here’s how!

…Here’s some other stuff that’s been happening….

• I have heard back from The Baby Show and they have taken on board my feedback re: breastfeeding (see this post) so I will keep you updated when I know more 🙂 
• Our Late Nite Mummies group is going great guns with lots of chat – unfortunately because none of us are having much sleep. If you’re interested in joining, click here.
• We’ve also got some fab new pictures in The Milk Drunk Gallery – don’t forget to email yours to ourbreastfeedingexperiences@gmail.com .
• Finally, all the sections are almost complete – with a great addition on the Myths vs Truths page thanks to some fab input from the Dispelling Breastfeeding Myths facebook page.
• The most popular story is C.A’s inspiring journey with her preemie baby, read it here!

Please do wander around the site, check it all out and let me know what you think. Feel free to comment and share!

…Want to win a goodie bag? Here’s how…

Finally, I got so much swag from The Baby Show that instead of keeping it all to myself, I thought I’d do a little giveaway on the blog and it can wing its way to one of you lucky readers. You’ll be getting two magazines, some little Tommy Tippee spoons, sample sizes of nappies and wipes, sample sizes of nappy creams *and* a Funky Giraffe bib picked by me, all in a lovely Stokke cloth bag. Here’s a picture of some of it for you 🙂

So if you’d like to win a little bag of goodies, all you need to do is share and tweet and comment on this blog post as much as possible before Friday 15th March 🙂 Good luck and fingers crossed. If you submit a picture to the Drunk Milk Gallery, send in your story or tell us why you love BFing/the weirdest place you’ve BF’d, that all counts as an extra entry – so get sharing and liking and hopefully you’ll be our winner!

…What’s Baby Thor been upto?…

Well he’s been a *very* busy baby. Not only have we started swimming lessons and Monkey Music, he has also had chicken pox <weep> and started having some food as well as breastmilk.  Here he is enjoying a yummy apricot puree with the help of his MAM little dipper spoon – which I discovered in Sainsburys this week, the perfect size for his little hands!

Hope you all have a fabulous Mothers’ Day – do let us know what you’re up to!

Thanks,

Becky + Baby Thor

A Tough but Successful Journey involving formula + high needs baby – Z’s

In this story we hear from Z who managed to feed successfully after a rocky start –  general anaesthetic, c-section, milk delayed, “high needs” baby, she also had to  supplement with formula, but then fed until her LO was almost 5 years old – wow!!

“My daughter was born by emergency C-section under general anaesthetic and I ended up on the High Dependency Unit afterwards. It took me an hour and a quarter to come round and when I did, she was put to my breast almost immediately. It felt so odd – like a mixing machine! – but I was so pleased to be feeding her.

It wasn’t long before it seemed more of a nightmare. She never stopped crying. All this “new babies sleep a lot” rubbish! All she did was scream – and feed. The feeds seemed never ending. Midwives tried one after another to help and all showed me something different. I was put on expressing machines for 20 minutes at a time and would end up with 8 drops of colostrum. My milk didn’t come in until day 5. I was never engorged and never leaked and never had success with expressing. My daughter lost weight and lost weight and screamed and never slept. I was beside myself with sleeplessness and shock over her delivery, but determined to continue – not least because I wanted to reduce her risk of diabetes, which runs strongly in both our families and which I had had during pregnancy. My nipples were covered in blisters, white bloodless areas, and blood.

By 9 days she had dropped 14% of her birthweight. The midwife told me I had to top up with formula. In hindsight this was the wrong advice – feeding was just starting to improve, her weight loss had ceased, and she was weighed on different scales. But at the time I wasn’t up to thinking straight let alone arguing, and we gave her 2-3oz formula after each feed. I cried because I felt my body had let her down again.

Being Positive (and surviving Mastitis, an Abscess *and* Thrush!) – SL’s story

Today we have an upbeat positive story despite surviving tongue tie, thrust, breast absesses and mastitis! SL I think you deserve a medal. Read on for more…

“My mum breastfed the three of us and my younger sister had breastfed her three children so for me I was always going to breastfeed. I started leaking milk at about 20 weeks pregnant, and was told that it was likely I would have a lot of milk (I really did!!!).

Anyway I had a long birth, 22 hrs, 3 failed epidurals, epsiotomy and 10 stitches, so by the time the mw had stitched me up and sorted things out it was probably 1-2hrs after the birth, but whenever T was placed by my nipple he latched on and started sucking right away, it was amazing and to be honest I loved it. T has a tongue tie and it can be usual for babies with this to find bf difficult, I was fortunate that it didn’t cause us too many problems.

Once on the ward, a lovely mw showed me how to latch him properly, I have very large boobs (38G/H) and found that the rugby hold position was best for him. Milk came in within 2 days and because I had such a greedy little boy I didn’t get engorged. I had the usual blocked ducts – about once a week for the first 4-5 weeks but massage and hot flannels usually cleared them within 24hrs.

Then at 12 weeks I developed mastitis and an abscess on my left side, it was horrendous, and for 2.5days I couldn’t feed on that side, I was on antibiotics and was expressing (which although excruciating meant I could control the pain), once the poison was out of the abscess I started feeding again because I missed feeding him. To be honest if I had developed the mastitis at the beginning then I don’t know if I would have had the will to go on with it, but because I had had so long with bfing, I knew that I missed it and continued.

Anyway about 5-6 days after the mastitis I started waking up with these pains in the same side like someone was stabbing needles in my nipple, another trip to the docs….. I had thrush (oh the joys of antibiotics) anyway the thrush took about a week to clear up (with cream from the docs). We are fine for a few more weeks and then I developed a sore but some Lanisol sorted that out, we are now at 5 months and we are mix feeding, probably 1/3 ff and 2/3 bf….. Not sure when I will stop because I love the feeling that it’s me making him grow… on the other side though I would love to get back into nice underwear!!”

I hear you about the nice underwear! I know there are some pretty nursing bras out there but they are so expensive, rarely come in a large range of sizes (I’m a 30J…!) and most of the time end up being sicked on/covered in Lansinoh….not exactly sexy. If anyone has any suggestions thought, please comment below 🙂 If you liked this story please do share!

Thanks,

Becky + Baby Thor

A Smooth Journey Second Time ‘Round – A.D’s experience

A short but sweet story from A.D about her experience of feeding her daughter H. After a tough time with her son, she wasn’t looking forward to feeding this time round, but managed to get to 8.5 months! Here’s what she had to say….

“After being unsuccessful with breastfeeding my little boy C, I was nervous to try again when I fell pregnant with number 2. I started going to an antenatal class ran by a very pro-breastfeeding lady. She was fantastic – she really gave me the confidence to try again.

So 1st February 2007, baby H was born – within minutes of the placenta being delivered and the midwives giving us some time alone I put her to the breast and she started to feed. It was going great – with C’s first breast feed, he fed for about 5 minutes and even then that was a struggle, but H took to it brilliantly and had a good feed. Of course 5 minutes later she vomited it back up but I still felt great that she’d taken a decent feed. I had planned on staying at the birthing centre for a few days to ensure breastfeeding was established – but I left the following morning as she was just doing so well.

Of course, within a couple of days things changed a little bit – I started getting a little bit sore and I was exhausted by the constant feeding. I started going to a Breast feeding support group who truly were great – they helped me adjust the latch which was a little bit wrong and that stopped the pain and I learnt how to feed lying down which made it easier during the night.About 3 weeks after H’s birth we were still going strong – her latch was fantastic and the pain had stopped – I’d already fed longer than I had with C and I was feeling great. Still pretty exhausted by the night feeding – but I just tried to rest as much as I could.

Things went well for a couple of months – then we had a bad day – H just would not feed! Every time I put her to the breast she would scream – I tried to force the breast into her mouth but she wasn’t having any of it. I pretty soon got sore as my boobs were filling up and I was panicking as she hadn’t taken any liquid all day. By about 6pm I was distraught so ran to the doctors and demanded to be seen. The doctor could see that she was unsettled but couldn’t explain why she wouldn’t feed – she said if she hadn’t had anything by 8pm we were to take her to A&E because she would soon get dehydrated. I went home and tried to feed her again – still no good.

Then I remembered I still had a breast pump from when I had C – I dug it out and sterilised it, along with one of C’s bottles – I began to express – oh my god, the relief in my boobs was immediate. I gave H the bottle and she fed from it straight away – what a contrary little madam! I was then devastated – convinced this was the end of breast feeding – but when her next feed came round she took her milk from the breast with no problems – I have no idea why she wouldn’t feed that day but it just seems to have been a blip!

I fed H for 8 and a half months – I desperately wanted to get to a year but then teeth came through and Hope started biting. If I’m honest I just didn’t have the patience to get her to stop – I tried a couple of things but it was just so painful when she did it, it made me cry so I decided to stop and put her on bottles. It took a couple of days to get her to take formula – but now she’s fine. Its improved her sleep, and my H can now help me during the night which is fab. But I do miss my little cuddles with her – she’s quite independent and insists on holding her own bottle and doesn’t like to be cuddled whilst she feeds.

But I am very proud that I fed for so long compared to the 10 days with C and its definitely given me the confidence to try with number 3. Oh oh oh – and I breastfed in public and in front of my inlaws – something I thought I’d never do!”

Thank you,

Becky + Baby Thor

A Bit of a Learning Curve – P.B’s story

Evening everyone, hope you’ve had a great day! Thanks so much for all the positive feedback on the previous post – we#ll be featuring some more preemie baby BFing stories very soon. Tonight’s post is from PB and Baby C, and their journey. A wonderfully inspiring read also…

“I didn’t particularly enjoy being pregnant – I had numerous scares throughout it and never really felt prepared for what lay ahead. I didn’ attend any ante-natal classes or even write a birth plan, but one thing I knew is that I wanted to breastfeed my baby. I don’t even know how or why I made that decision, it just felt right to me.

C was born by ventouse in January 2006 after I was induced. She had to have a little help with her breathing after she was born (I still don’t know what that means) but it was about 30 minutes after she was delivered that I first held her. It was at that point I first put her to my breast. I remember saying to my husband at the time she’s doing it, she’s feeding! I was overwhelmed, exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time. As with most things relating to my pregnancy, the birth and care of a new born baby, I knew absolutely nothing about breastfeeding. I hadn’t done any background reading, I knew nothing about what to expect, potential problems, what was right, wrong etc.

What followed for me was a steep learning curve, but also, and I know how lucky I am, a very successful one.