Hi everyone,
Just saw this thread and felt that I would like to add my experiences. I agree with midwifemissy not to touch when assisting with breastfeeding but on the other hand watching them struggle while you are trying to verbally help can be frustrating for both the mother and midwife. More often than not i guide the baby on to the breast when they have a nice wide open mouth and i have no need to touch the breast at all - the mother usually attends to that herself. I do have a community midwife mentor who makes no bones about grabbing the womans breast and shoving the baby on forcing the baby's head to stay in position.
When I had my children, 20 years ago - I was a young mum- i received no instruction or help with breastfeeding. I breastfed my daughter for 5 weeks and my son for 3 weeks and my youngest was bottle fed. I feel cheated that I was not given any information like the benefits of breastfeeding, just told it was good for baby, or encouraged that I was doing it right. If i knew what I know now i would have breast fed for longer and not touched formula at all because in hind sight I didn't need to but i was young and naive and I just did what I was told - sad isn't it.
I am not adverse to bottle feeding, that is not the problem really, the issue is giving breast milk or artificial milk - the baby still benefits from breast milk whatever way it is given but breastfeeding needs to be brought to the forefront and we as future midwives have the power to make a difference but we all need to be proactive and not fall into the trap of not having enough time to spend with our women. Sorry that i have had a bit of a rant but feeding our babies ourselves is a unique thing that only we can do and at one point in time it was in danger of becoming extinct. We need to be able to fully inform mothers and support them with whatever help they need be it practical or emotional.

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Year 1 Student Midwife and lovin it