Plenty of support on offer to help you on your way
Breastfeeding has long-term benefits for your baby lasting right into adulthood. But it can take weeks for babies to get the hang of it. Luckily there is support available as Mark Smith explains...
Breastfeeding offers a whole range of health benefits for both mum and baby. Breast milk is perfectly designed to protect babies from infections and diseases, and lowers the risk of childhood obesity.
It can also help mum and baby build up a strong emotional bond in those crucial first few weeks, months and even years.
But for many mums, perfecting the technique of breastfeeding – and getting the baby to latch properly – can prove difficult and distressing.
To combat this, breastfeeding groups have been set up throughout Wales to support mums through this process.
The Latch On NCT Breastfeeding Support Group, in Cardiff, which has recently marked its fifth birthday, is a good example of the help available.
It is run by a team of trained volunteers, known as breastfeeding peer supporters, and is led by an NCT breastfeeding counsellor.
The volunteers, most of whom themselves have young children, have offered information, support and practical help to hundreds of pregnant and breastfeeding women over the years.
They offer help with antenatal feeding, assisting mums to position their babies correctly and introducing solid foods into their diet.
They also provide information to help parents understand their baby’s behaviour.
The group celebrated their fifth anniversary in May in the best way possible – by getting together over a cuppa and a slice of cake, sharing their experiences of breastfeeding and offering support to one another. Emma Catherine Nicholson: The group offered me an invaluable source of local support through the early weeks of struggling to breastfeed. I had a Caesarean birth. The fact that I could walk to the group meant I could go on my own and regain some independence. In the following months I made a close group of friends and settled into breastfeeding. Now my son, Ben, is nearly 11 months old and I continue to enjoy the meetings as a place to talk and learn and drink tea.
BSara Jones: After attending the group for support with breastfeeding my first daughter, I was motivated to train to be a peer supporter myself. This group has been a lifeline for me and continues to offer me great support, great friendships and a lovely hot cuppa when I have had a difficult day. Susan Young: Going to groups like this, meeting like-minded parents, finding that there’s someone else out there who isn’t enjoying breastfeeding or isn’t finding breastfeeding as straightforward as they thought, makes you realise you’re not alone.
It can really make the difference between stopping breastfeeding before you and baby are really ready, or continuing for a few more days, weeks, months or even years.
There’s obviously a lot more to say about why these support groups are invaluable – troubleshooting, normalising breastfeeding, doing our bit for health promotion, making life-long friends, and the opportunity to volunteer or train as a peer supporter to give something back. Sara Davies: Latch On was there for me throughout the breastfeeding journey with my daughter.
From the early days of re-establishing breastfeeding after a traumatic birth, through biting phases (ow!) and two feeding strikes and baby-led weaning, through to the end of our breastfeeding journey aged two years old.
I’ve made incredible friends and enjoy giving back by supporting fundraising. I hope this resource will be available to other mums for many years to come. It made such a difference to us.
Latch On meets each Thursday at the Ararat Centre for the Community in Whitchurch, Cardiff, from 1pm until 3pm. The group is free to attend and open to all, although donations are gratefully accepted as the group is funded via the Cardiff and Caerphilly branch of NCT, the UK’s largest parenting charity. What you should see during breastfeeding:
baby tucked in as close to you as possible
chin against your breast, rather than tucked down, so head slightly tipped back wide-open mouth nose not pressed into your breast deep jaw movements if some of the areola is showing, there will be more above the top lip than below the bottom lip. What you shouldn’t see: cheeks sucked in lips looking like sucking on a straw squashed nipple at the end of the feed when your baby comes off. What you should hear: soft sounds of milk being swallowed What you shouldn’t hear: clicking noises lip smacking. What you may feel: a feeling of being ‘firmly gripped’ the let-down reflex – a tingling, ‘drawing’ feeling in your breasts
a fleeting pain at the start of the feed in the first few days or weeks. What you shouldn’t feel:
pain while your baby is actually feeding, or persisting after the feed.