Top Tips for Breastfeeding Mums
As a breastfeeding counsellor and author of Breastfeeding - the essential guide, I am all too aware of the common concerns (not necessarily problems) associated with the early days of breastfeeding. If diagnosed promptly by someone who really understands how breastfeeding works it is possible to correct any aspect of the breastfeeding technique.
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Central to this process is confidence building. Being a new parent is stressful and evidence shows that mothers who receive support from someone who believes they can breastfeed will breastfeed for longer. Supportive advice from someone mothers trust, together with support from peers (family, friends or breastfeeding support group) is of most help. This situation will not change overnight, but the more aware we become of the short- and long-term benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby, the more we will understand the need for effective breastfeeding support to be a top priority rather than an afterthought. To achieve this, we must ensure that health professionals are adequately trained. However, it is also essential for support to be targeted more effectively in the early weeks of breastfeeding and for a national helpline manned by lactation consultants to be established.
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There are very few difficulties that cannot be resolved and even fewer reasons why women cannot establish successful breastfeeding. To help new mums I have designed a one page toolkit as a quick guide.
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Download Breastfeeding Toolkit
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Just to keep you going here are a few breastfeeding facts that you may not be aware of:
- 90% of the world's mothers breastfeed!
- The western world has the lowest rates and the UK is lower still!
- Extended families are less common, so the skills required to succeed are harder to learn.
- Fear of failure often leads women to formula feed.
- If this trend is to be reversed, then early education is vital.
- You can succeed whatever the size of your breasts!
- Breastfeeding will not ruin the shape of your breasts in the future. Once you have finished feeding, they will return to approximately their pre-pregnant size!
- Inverted or flat nipples need not be a problem and many women breastfeed successfully with little or no help.
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that you should exclusively breastfeed for a minimum of six months, with continued feeding for two years and beyond. But why stop there?
- You can continue to feed your toddler even if you are pregnant with another baby!
- If you exclusively breastfeed, then your periods may not return for up to a year! This is nature's way of making the natural, and therefore safer, gap between children longer. This benefits both mother and infant. However, breastfeeding should not be relied upon as a method of contraception.
What’s TIPS been up to lately?
Our largest ever trial of Baby Skincare Products which I mentioned in the last newsletter has been delayed by the Xmas holidays, postal strikes and more recently the awful weather! I had hoped to bring you the results in this newsletter but you will have to be patient for a few more weeks. I expect to bring you news of all the winners in the May issue.
Meanwhile if you have any particular questions relating to breastfeeding, your little one’s skin (or any other parenting topic for that matter) please feel free to email me.
See you next time
Sharon
Sharon Trotter©2010
For more information go to: www.tipslimited.com
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