Thanks for posting that Upsy!

I feel really bad that you had such a difficult time, you'll be a fab support to new Mum's soon enough though.

Which is one good thing to come out of your experiences

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Hi. I read so many of the threads and replies and have never really plucked up the courage to have my say...so here goes. I have 5 children 3 here and 2 in heaven. I don't say this to upset anyone, its just I feel guilty if I say I have 3 children, it doesn't seem fair to the ones I've lost. Anyway.. Breast is Best or is it??

I started training as a breastfeeding counsellor a year before my first daughter was born (she is now 14years) and I was very pro breast feeding and even attended classes for mums to be to be as knowlegable as possible, I was determined that I would breastfeed my babies. But it was not to be with my first...sore cracked nipples, bleeding...breastfeeding counsellors..lactation consultants....it went on for 3-4 weeks and basically my daughter was a fractious unsettled and very hungry baby. She gained very little weight in this time and I decided to bottle feed her. I was terrified to go back to my nursing mothers group because I was no longer breastfeeding, yet I had made friends there and I needed some support. My group leader invited me to come along and somehow I found the courage to bottle feed in amongst all the breastfeeding mothers. The pressure I put on myself to succeed was enormous, I felt a failure.

Then came my second child who I was once again sure I could breastfeed. But within two weeks I was in a special centre for mums and babies having sleeping, eating, problems. They would weigh him after every feed and said he was getting very little milK??? I believed them and decided to complement his feeds with formula at every feed, we did this for 18months.

I had an missed miscarriage at 20 weeks and two days after the delivery,my milk came in... This was very difficult but I knew I had milk and that my body new what it was supposed to do.

A year later I had twins, my youngest little girl, bless her, died at 18 minutes after the birth.. and I had another beautiful daughter. I was encouraged to breastfeed.. and I wanted to .. but I think the stress and loss combination versus the pain of c-section and what have you, I gave it a 3 weeks when my daughter failed also to gain weight in the required amounts, I began bottle feeding.

So what does all this mean...That education about breastfeeding is vital and important and best for baby.. I have read the proof and I believe it too. But we are only human at the end of the day and our experiences of life (including breastfeeding) and the people who assist us is so wide and varied. I believe as a midwife I need to be genuine and listen to the mother, help where she needs it, be there for her, but most of all support her in all decisions, be her advocate.

I agree SUPPORT definately and LISTEN DONT ASSUME xx

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Access Course Student 08/09
Applying To Swansea Uni for 2009

Hi I thought I would add my thoughts to this thread.

I agree that mums need support, whatever method of feeding they choose. Also, that it needs to explained that breastfeeding can be difficult to establish, not to put women off trying it but so that they know what to expect and don't feel like huge failures if it doesn't work out for them.

I successfully breast fed my two boys and I put that success down to the fact that, during my first pregnancy, I decided that I would try breastfeeding, I always had the attitude that I would do my best but always bore in mind that it might not work out and I believe that by not putting myself under pressure to succeed was the secret to my success. I only knew that it might not work out because I was aware that both my mother and my grandmother were unable to breastfeed, although both tried.

However, I was also fortunate to have help at the hospital with getting my 1st son to latch on. I couldn't do it sitting up without help and one of the midwives suggested I try it lying down on the bed on my side with baby lying next to me, for at leat a month afterward, this was the only way I could successfully breastfeed! I did eventually learn, or I should say Sebastian learned to latch on sitting up.

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Student Midwife!!
Moderator
SMNet University Student Representative
Throughout the ages, the rainbow has been the symbol of hope, a promise of better things to come. The ancient Greeks personified the rainbow as the goddess Iris, the favourite handmaiden and messenger of Hera, the queen of the heavenly court of Olympus. Carried by her shimmering wings, Iris travels so swiftly that mortals can see only the trail of her rainbow-coloured passage across the sky.

I've got to admit, I have a really odd phobia of boob touching let alone a latching baby(this is only with my body - thank god otherwise i'd be a pretty useless midwife when it comes to this!)! I cant stand it!
So unfortunately as i was at a young age also my first child was bottle fed. Mind you I cannot recall any midwives talking me through this. I think an asumption was made that the baby would be bottle fed. However having my second child and being made more aware of the benefits, my daughter had breast milk... expressed mind, and that was a challenge!

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Cardiff Student Midwife 2008!!

Wow to everyone who shared their experiences!

I thought I'd had a hard time until I read these! I wish I could have read these posts when I had my daughter. I also had problems getting my daughter to latch on, mainly because she was a very very sleepy baby for the first couple of weeks. When I was still in hospital I got a lot of support and help, albeit with a lot boob grabbing and 'throwing' my daughter on while she was yawning - "quick, throw her on while her mouths open!" a quote from one of the breast feeding counsellors which I thought was rather funny at the time But baby was having none of it. I was advised by some of the midwives to stay on the ward until i had at least one successful feed and others were saying I should maybe just try formula feeding so I could get home. I opted to go home after 4 days and express milk and also use formula top-ups if needed and did this for 9 days before she latched on. I didn't really find pressure from other people to breastfeed, the only pressure was from myself, everyone kept saying it's not the end of the world, just give her a bottle, but to me with the way I was feeling, it was the end of the world, I had completely made up my mind I was going to breastfeed and there were no other options.
In those 9 days tho I became really depressed and upset every time I tried to feed her and felt like a total failure and it really affected the whole bonding process with my baby. I really feel for mums who have trouble breastfeeding, a lot aren't aware of the problems that can occur, and breastfeeding is sometimes portrayed as the most natural thing in the world in a lot of pregnancy reading material. The way I feel now is that breastfeeding is great if you can manage it, but it's not for everyone, and everyones choices should be respected and I'd encourage other mums to try not be hard on themselves. I totally agree with whats said above, that mums need support whatever method of feeding they choose. As long as mum & baby are both happy and healthy, and baby has a wee full tummy, then all is well!

Debriefing your own breastfeeding experiences (and birth experiences come to that) is a very important part of becoming a bf helper. Those of you that have tried and failed to bf, should work through why they think it didn't work. Quite often it is outside influences, impacting on confidence. Sometimes it is the drugs that were used in labour.

Biologically babies are built to breastfeed. It isn't always easy and it takes most women a good 6 weeks to get it going smoothly. Have a look at the baby milk action website for some information on how industry talks us into bottle feeding our babies!

Post a link, CG!

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You wish is my command!

www.babymilkaction.org

so true

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Duel X
3rd year student midwife
Moderator