Blog Posts

Breastfeeding through pregnancy and beyond

12/7/2017

Let’s imagine you are breastfeeding your toddler and you discover you’re pregnant. It’s a much wanted pregnancy but perhaps you weren’t expecting that positive test quite so quickly. And now here you are, pregnancy test still drying, teeny tiny new person inside you and less teeny person on the outside, very much still in love with breastfeeding.

By still feeding your toddler, you’ve already been up against it in terms of what most modern cultures find comfortable and acceptable. Now you’re ticking the box for another misunderstood area of breastfeeding: one full of myths and nonsense and one lots of uneducated people claim to be experts about.

A useful starting point is finding a group online of mothers who have breastfed through pregnancy and beyond. That can be reassuring and immensely helpful but it’s worth remembering that every woman’s experience is different and it’s very hard to make predictions about how things will go for you.

I’m going to guess that when many people are looking at the drying pregnancy test, their thoughts shift to the consequences for their current nursling. Then soon, you wonder about the baby-to-be. Is breastfeeding during pregnancy ‘safe’?

What does the research say?

Let’s look at this study from 2012: A comparative study of breastfeeding during pregnancy: impact on maternal and newborn outcomes. Madarshahian F, Hassanabadi M. The study looked at 320 women in Iran, some breastfed during pregnancy and some did not. It showed that, “Results found no significant difference in full-term or non-full-term births rates and mean newborn birth weight between the two groups. We further found no significant difference between full-term or non-full-term births and mean newborn birth weight for those who continued and discontinued breastfeeding during pregnancy in the overlap group.”

So, breastfeeding during pregnancy didn’t ‘take nutrition away from the baby’ and it did not cause prematurity.

Another study of 57 Californian women from 1993: Breastfeeding during pregnancy. Moscone SR, Moore MJ. Just under half continued to breastfeed through pregnancy and after the new baby arrived. The new babies were healthy and appropriately sized.

However, it’s not all clearly positive. Another research study on 133 women in Peru found a link between breastfeeding through pregnancy and 125g on average less weight gain for the new baby in the first month. (Postpartum consequences of an overlap of breastfeeding and pregnancy: reduced breast milk intake and growth during early infancy. Marquis GS, Penny ME, Diaz JM, Marín RM. 2002)

Another study looked at 540 women in Egypt with sub-standard nutrition. Effect of pregnancy-lactation overlap on the current pregnancy outcome in women with substandard nutrition: a prospective cohort study. Shaaban OM, Abbas AM, Abdel Hafiz HA, Abdelrahman AS, Rashwan M, Othman ER (2015). This was not all positive news with increased risk of maternal anaemia and issues with infant growth. BUT there was NOT an increase in miscarriage risk when women breastfed through pregnancy.

How’s your nutrition and how are your iron levels? If you are a mother with access to good nutrition, it appears you have less reason to be concerned.

Does breastfeeding trigger early labour? Even for those women who were struggling with other issues, it doesn’t appear so.

Hilary Flower is the go-to person on the subject of breastfeeding during pregnancy. Her book, “Adventures in Tandem Nursing” is considered the bible on this subject. It was first written in 2003 and is now out-of-print but a second edition is currently being worked on. Her focus was on bringing the facts to pregnant mothers and she looked at this idea of triggering contractions or early labour in detail. She reminds us that we need oxytocin to trigger a milk ejection reflex (the letdown reflex) and this is also the hormone that can trigger uterine contractions. However, this doesn’t mean that breastfeeding in pregnancy triggers risky contractions and there are several safeguards in place. We need hormone receptor sites to exist before hormones get acted on by the uterus and they remain small in number until around 38 weeks of pregnancy. And even the hormone receptors that are in place can’t really do their job of causing contractions as there are oxytocin blockers in place like progesterone (made by the placenta) and proteins missing which would act as special agents to help the oxytocin do their job. Triple protection! So, oxytocin can carry on doing its breastfeeding jobs while baby remains protected in the uterus.

I think we can say science is on our side. Which makes sense when you think that throughout history women have been breastfeeding older babies and having sex and getting pregnant.

Do you know anything about the history of pregnancy testing? Today, we might know we are pregnant days after conception. For generations, it was based on guess work, someone examining your urine’s appearance and something about rabbits (early 20th century pregnancy tests involved injecting urine into a rabbit and observing a change in their ovaries). A lot of breastfeeding women couldn’t rely on whether they had missed a period as periods may only just be settling in or may not have even appeared yet. Some breastfeeding mums get pregnant without yet having a period. They ‘catch the first egg’. Then they go and see their doctor and the doctor brings out the chart that predicts due date based on last menstrual period, “errr…2015?”

Nature isn’t daft. If breastfeeding during pregnancy was hazardous, I doubt you nor I would be here. Hilary Flower mentions that if you have a high-risk pregnancy, you should talk to your health care providers about your specific situation but if you are safe to continue sexual intercourse, breastfeeding is very very likely to be fine too.

Science might say that breastfeeding during pregnancy is safe but that doesn’t mean you have to do it, or that it’s super easy for everyone. There is a wide range of experience and you need to reflect on what feels right for you.

The age of your current nursling might be a factor in your decision. If they are 7 months, you might feel differently than if they were 4 years old and you were getting a bit tired of breastfeeding a plastic truck several times a day.

If your baby is 7 months, or at any age where milk is still a significant proportion of their nutrition, you’ll need to do some thinking. It’s likely they will need an alternative source of milk (still doesn’t mean breastfeeding needs to end). Most women who are breastfeeding when they are pregnant do notice a decrease in milk supply – often a very significant one. This can start as early as the first few weeks after that positive pregnancy test. Whatever you do, your body will be resetting in its lactation story and you will go back to making colostrum during your pregnancy. It happens at different times and some mums might go through a period of feeling like they have virtually nothing and their child is ‘dry nursing’ before colostrum then appears and quantities seem to increase again.
Nurslings behave differently during the changes of pregnancy. Some self-wean as the quantities drop. Some self-wean when things seem to taste a bit different. Some care not a jot that changes are happening and would carry on breastfeeding whatever was coming out or if nothing was. Word of warning: colostrum has a laxative effect. That’s one of the reasons it’s so great for newborns as it helps them to pass meconium. Potty training a toddler? Brace yourself.

What else can you expect? For some women, not much else. Pregnant and breastfeeding felt a lot like not pregnant and breastfeeding. You’ve just got to worry about the bump being in the way towards the end. (This was my experience).

Other women struggle with sore nipples from increased sensitivity that probably has something to do with hormonal changes and sometimes aversion to breastfeeding can be a problem.

The reduction in milk supply can also be upsetting for some. It can come at a time when we might already have mixed feelings about giving birth to another child. We know what positives a new sibling can bring for your toddler but there’s sometimes a feeling of loss or even guilt as we’re concerned how their life is going to change – especially in the first few months. And when milk seems to be going too – that can feel doubly hard. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to increase milk supply in pregnancy when changes are starting. All the usual stuff doesn’t work: pumping, herbs, just feeding more frequently. Many herbs that we might consider when we want to increase production are not thought to be safe in pregnancy. It appears that milk storage is affected for almost all women (only a small minority don’t feel their supply has diminished). You might want to consider using a supplementary feeding system at the breast, so baby can remain attached and get other milk through a lightweight tube.

It’s important to remember though (and this is engraved on the heart of many of us in breastfeeding support) that BREASTFEEDING IS NOT JUST ABOUT MILK. Your little bloke with the plastic truck might not care a jot if supply diminished and milk tastes different because this is only partially about milk. It’s also about connecting to you, relaxation, safety and contentment. That big world out there is only getting bigger and breastfeeding is home.

If you are happy to continue with that, breastfeeding is still working.

You might also be wondering what life is going to be like when the new baby arrives. How does breastfeeding work when there is a newborn and a toddler? Pretty much like it did the last time there was a newborn – nature gets on with it. While breastfeeding during pregnancy doesn’t ‘use up’ colostrum, during in the first few days after the birth, it’s sensible to let the newborn do their thing first before the older nursling gets a turn. And once your mature milk transitions, you can make decisions based on how your newborn’s nappies and weight gain are getting on. Sometimes there is talk of restricting a baby to one breast and a toddler to another. Most lactation consultants agree that’s not sensible. Ideally you want the newborn to have the option of both and continue to have the option of both fully lactating as their breastfeeding experience continues. Toddlers feeding after newborns are very effective at helping a milk supply to develop and tipping into oversupply is more of a worry than running out of milk. A toddler is also fabulous at relieving engorgement in the early days post-partum. Flashback to my 3-year-old son announcing proudly to his grandmother (not entirely on board with natural term breastfeeding) that he ‘helped mummy because her milkies were really full’!

Does the toddler feel jealous of the baby having ‘their milk’? I have yet to meet a mother who feels that’s been a problem. In fact, many feel that it can help in the arrival of a new member of the family. Toddlers are likely to need some extra support, but breastfeeding is still there for them. The thing that has always provided comfort and reassurance. And good news! It’s changing back to regular milk and there’s lots more of it! What might not be sensible is weaning a toddler in the last few weeks of pregnancy so if you are thinking tandem breastfeeding really isn’t for you, it might be wiser to wean sooner rather than just prior to baby arriving. If that’s you, I wrote an article on weaning an older child which you might find helpful:
http://www.emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com/twitter-and-blog/weaning-toddler-bob-and-pre-schooler-billie-how-do-you-stop-breastfeeding-an-older-child

It sometimes happens that an older child who hasn’t breastfed for a while asks to do so again when a new baby is on the scene. That might be because they weren’t a fan of the colostrum. Or there might be some other things going on in their head. Are they ‘testing’ whether they still get to be your baby? Are they just curious? Some resume breastfeeding at this point. Some are happy to have a taste of expressed milk in a cup. Some ask and run away giggling and don’t mention it again. There’s no right or wrong answer on how to deal with this but ideally, we’re looking for ways to minimise rejection and any refusal is done so as gently as possible.

Still think it’s a bit hippy and ‘risky’? This is the American Academy of Family Physicians (folks on the opposite end of the spectrum from hippy and risky):
“Breastfeeding during a subsequent pregnancy is not unusual. If the pregnancy is normal and the mother is healthy, breastfeeding during pregnancy is the woman’s personal decision. If the child is younger than two years, the child is at increased risk of illness if weaned.
Breastfeeding the nursing child during pregnancy and after delivery of the next child (tandem nursing) may help provide a smooth transition psychologically for the older child.”

We can’t guarantee it’s all smooth but breastfeeding through pregnancy and beyond is something mothers have been doing for millennia and there’s very little to fear and lots to embrace. Those of us who do it are often those who have taken the path of child-led weaning and it instinctively feels right to let the nursling make the call. But you’ll make the decision that’s right for you.

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Breast language: 'Breastfeeding' is incredibly unhelpful.

11/7/2017

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We all know the power of language and there surely can’t be a time when it matters more than in the world of maternity. New mothers and parents need to speak and be heard when it comes to their birth and in describing their own feelings about this new stage in their lives.

Those of us who support them need to ensure we listen and empower parents to make their choices with all the available information they have.

And what a pain it is when the basic vocabulary we have at our disposal sends unhelpful messages and puts roadblocks in our way. Even when we set out with the best intentions, the tools we have been given trip us up.

As a lactation consultant, I’m talking about the word ‘breastfeeding’. It’s a word I use a hundred times a day and it’s incredibly unhelpful. It creates enormous misunderstandings and confusions that do babies and their carers a massive disservice.

It wastes so much of our time.

For starters, we’ve got ‘breast’. It’s a word not all of us want to us to describe a part of our bodies. Some prefer ‘chest’. Some prefer ‘boobs’ which might feel friendlier. Some have historically felt that highlighting the label for the part of the body which our society has so powerfully sexualised, immediately puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to encouraging new mums and new acceptance in a bottle-feeding culture.

‘Nursing’ is often used as an alternative in the English-speaking world but I don’t know many outside of the USA who are comfortable with that. For me, it feels like a step too far to avoid saying the word <whispers> breast. If you told me that you’d seen a woman nursing in the local library, I’d assume that meant she was dishing out some bandages. I’ve got three dictionaries in front of me and nursing is all about caring for the sick, infirm and elderly. New babies are powerful and wonderful and far from ‘sick’. Wet nurses may have done some ‘nursing’ but that hasn’t always been to the benefit of mothering or new baby and parent relationships. And if we’re going to call breastfeeding ‘nursing’, the internet search is going to become a very confusing experience.

I can cope with the word breast.

It’s the attached word ‘feeding’ that I really object to.

If we spend an hour talking to a new parent about ‘responsive parenting’ and ‘relationship building’ and how we expect babies to come to breast frequently and how communication with your baby is paramount, to then call it ‘breastfeeding’ is potentially damaging. We can write essays on responsive parenting and skin-to-skin and how the breast is multi-purpose and then we undo it by calling it 'breastfeeding'.

“I can’t work out if he’s hungry.” “He can’t be hungry. He’s only just fed.” “I’m trying to stretch him a bit between feeds so he’ll feed better.”

There are apps for measuring feed length, gadgets that measure how much a baby is swallowing, parents who are renting scales and weighing babies before and after feeds to assess millilitres of intake. It’s all about the milk, milk, milk.

IT’S NOT FEEDING!

OK, it’s a bit about feeding but there is a world beyond that and beyond it simply being about milk. Does your baby want to return to the breast again? Fabulous! Is he coming because he just wants some more milk? Maybe not. That’s fabulous too.

It’s great to empower parents to recognise milk transfer and effective swallowing but it must come alongside the message that sometimes it’s not just about milk transfer. It’s about a love transfer. This teeny tiny new person wants to be connected to you. They were born and as far as they are concerned, you are still one. They want to smell you and taste you and be warm with you. They don’t know why and YOU don’t have to know why either. We don’t always have to know why a baby wants to come to the breast. It’s OK to not know if your baby is hungry or whether they just need comfort.

You don't need to think of them all as 'feeds'. You don't need to always think about swallows and millilitres and when is the milk supposed to start get fattier now? When that book says? Or when that book says?

Is 20 minutes too short a 'feed' or too long for a feed?

Is my <cue drum roll> baby using me like a dummy?

As a new mum said to me the other day, can we send all mums home from hospital with a badge that says, 'you are SUPPOSED to be the pacifier'?

Yes, let's talk about counting nappies and checking weight gain. Let's check milk is happening but let's also celebrate the times when the baby is still wanting to come to the breast and they may be swallowing or they may not be.

Call it ‘breastfeeding’ and immediately so much is devalued. Comfort is secondary and unimportant and even ‘off-topic’. There are parents who genuinely think that when a baby stays on beyond active swallowing and especially if they fall asleep, they are failing some test.

When we make the breast all about milk, we are the ones failing new mums and teeny new people who desperately rely on us to get the communication right.

In German, breastfeeding is ‘stillen’. From the same root as the English word ‘still’. You are creating a sense of tranquillity in the baby; giving them an inner stillness and peace. Now, that’s better. Doesn’t always seem etymologically accurate when you have a toddler practising breastfeeding gymnastics while simultaneously humming the Peppa Pig theme tune, but we can get behind it.

But what can we English-speaking people do? ‘Stilling’ is just a bit too close to the world of gin-making. I think we’re stuck with ‘breastfeeding’ or rather ‘breastfeeding-but-of-course-it’s-so-much-more-than-just-breastfeeding-sometimes-I-wish-it-wasn’t-called-breastfeeding-as-that-devalues-so-much-of-the-experience’. Less snappy within the name of a support organisation it must be said. But perhaps talking about the flaws within the vocabulary is a good segue to making sure parents get the right messages about what matters to their baby and what will end up mattering to them.

A version of this article originally appeared in the AIMS journal. Vol 29. No 2

I'm talking more about this at the UNICEF Baby Friendly conference in Telford later this month: https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/training/conferences/annual-conference/

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Regulating the infant formula industry: What’s your ‘purity criteria’?

1/30/2017

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There’s been a bit in the news in the last few months about the regulations around formula milk and the promotion of formula milk.

On the one hand, the United Nations have made a statement calling on all member countries to make sure families are protected from ‘aggressive and inappropriate’ promotion of breastmilk substitutes. [1]

On the other hand, the UK laws that oversee formula promotion were referred to negatively in story about a mother buying formula at a supermarket and unable to validate a parking voucher.

Regulations that originated in the EU were apparently to blame. A tabloid newspaper reported that a Department of Health spokesperson had said, “the rules might be a contender for being axed under the Great Repeal Bill.” [2] (The Bill that aims to undo a series of laws post-Brexit.)

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I bet the spokesperson doesn’t secretly hope that the level of pesticide in formula milk can be increased in the future.

Or that levels of protein in formula are up for grabs and won’t be determined by appropriate studies and expert guidance.

I’m also willing to bet the Secretary of State for Health doesn’t wish for those things.

You’d have to be having evil on toast for breakfast if you don’t see why regulations around the formula industry are a good idea and that they protect all babies. This is not about breastfeeding. This is about protecting the thousands of babies who rely on this product and trust us to make sure it is safe.

What laws are we talking about?

There were European Directives that decided it might be sensible to put some regulations in one place about the safety of formula and the way formula companies behave. Then the UK nations came along and put those ideas into laws. They are called snappy things like, “The Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula (England) Regulations 2007” and, “The Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula (Scotland) Regulations 2007." There’s no reference to parking vouchers but a lot of reference to protecting babies who drink formula.

I don’t think you are going to find anyone who doesn’t think that there are some useful concepts in these laws (unless we are talking about the evil on toast folks).

How about “Formula shall not contain any substance in such quantity as to endanger the health of infants and young children?” Can’t spin that one as political evil.

“Formula shall not contain residues of individual pesticides at levels exceeding 0.01mg/kg.” Surely we can all get around that one?

The suitability of any ingredients in formula needs to be established by, “systematic review of available data relating to expected benefits and safety considerations and studies following expert guidance.” How dare they? Get the pitchforks! Let’s get ‘em. We’ll meet in the town square.

No, I think we’re all happy with that one too.

And the regulations go on: We want a product where only water needs to be added. A food business operator that wants to place a new infant formula on the market needs to give prior notice and their label needs to be checked to make sure it reaches the required standard. Labelling needs to explain the quantity of each mineral substance, the energy value, how to safely prepare and store the product. Parents shouldn’t be confused by similarities between first formula and follow-on formulas and they should use different colour schemes and be displayed separately.

Formula must meet the relevant “purity criteria”, the legislation states.

Families that use formula milk, whether by choice or because they’ve struggled to make breastfeeding work, understandably care about the quality of the ingredients and the ‘purity’ of the product they use.

I think for most families, that ‘purity criteria’ would also extend to the ethics of the company that make their baby’s milk.

We wouldn’t leap to buy a baby blanket that was known to be made by the hands of enslaved hungry children, wrap our loved ones in it and snap a photo for Facebook.

We wouldn’t jump at the chance of moisturising our newborns with body lotion made by a company that was widely publicised as being involved in rainforest destruction and the extinction of the orangutan.

It would feel wrong.
It would feel unethical.
We’d feel weird selecting these products from the shelves and putting them in our baskets.
It wouldn’t be what we’d want for our babies as they enter the world.

And when it comes to formula milk, it also feels better if the company making the milk behave in a classy way. They make formula to the best of their ability and they go about selling it in a way that the United Nations doesn’t describe as ‘aggressive and inappropriate’.

Would you want your baby’s milk company to be the one that was prosecuted for behaving unethically?

Imagine your chosen formula milk company paid healthcare professionals a bonus every time they convinced a new mother to stop breastfeeding and start using their product. That would feel a bit icky for most people.

Imagine your formula milk company sent targeted texts to new mothers they KNEW to be wanting to breastfeed but were struggling to do so, encouraging them to move to their brand of formula.

What about if they gave a free sample of formula to anyone buying nappies? Or to anyone having a new baby? Or anyone buying lanolin for sore nipples?

What about if they gave points every time a new family bought formula and those points added up to a flat screen TV or money off the weekly food shop?

To a family who chose to use formula, some of those might sound actually quite cool and some clearly sound plain dodgy.

To the family that starts out wanting to make breastfeeding work, to the healthcare professionals that try and support them, to the managers trying to save money on hospital admissions for babies in the first year of life, they would be unhelpful at best.

At worst, it would be scary to imagine a world where those things could happen unchecked.

What about if you made it clear you wanted to breastfeed but you were given a free sample of formula once you’d had your baby, more was sent to your home and then you received daily texts, letters and emails focusing cleverly on the insecurities around new parenthood, offering rewards, offering your extra resources if you just started to use one particular brand of formula milk?

Nothing would stop that happening in the UK if these regulations disappeared overnight.

Not only would the choice to breastfeed be undermined but the families who choose to use formula would be paying for all this promotion out of their own pockets. Families with new babies would be paying for the bonuses of healthcare professionals, the pretty bags with free samples in that contain the leaflets cleverly worded, the reward schemes.

Formula is not cheap. The United Nations also said, “access to good quality breast milk substitutes should be regulated, and affordable.” How do we make sure it’s ‘good quality’? By regulation. How do we make it affordable? Partly by ensuring families don’t have to pay for anything more than the milk itself.

Some of these scary promotional schemes exist in countries that lack regulations and a lot more besides. Some of these are happening in countries that DO have regulations and companies need to be nudged back into place.

I think sometimes in the UK we like to imagine people are basically nice.

I think some of the people who feel like the regulations around formula milk promotion are unfair have faith that companies are basically ‘nice’.

Why can’t mums who buy formula get reward points or get free samples? That seems fair, doesn’t it? Only if we believe that at their core, companies will behave nicely and honourably and not step over the line to undermine the confidence of women trying to breastfeed.

Individual people might be nice – but we decided long ago as a nation that sometimes we need protections because not everyone in industry can be. We protect people against companies in lots of ways. They are not allowed to target and manipulate people we consider vulnerable. They are not allowed to tell lies in advertising. Their products need to reach required standards and be tested. We don’t trust them to always be lovely all by themselves.

If you leave formula milk companies to it, they may look for the cheapest source for ingredients and not necessarily the highest quality. Corners might be cut. We can’t assume companies will voluntarily reduce their own profits because ‘it’s the nice thing to do.’

Global sales of breastmilk substitutes total 44.8 billion US dollars and they are expected to rise to 70.6 billion by 2019 [3]. These are massive corporations who are looking to increase their slice of the pie and niceness is unlikely to hold them back when they need to increase profits for shareholders and increase their market share.

Companies want to get to new mums with babies and they will do it any way they can. They will do it cleverly and subtly. They will do it with a heck of a lot of money at their disposal. They do not care where the lines are when it comes it behaving fairly.

The world of ‘advertising’ is changing. This isn’t about the posters at the bus stop any more or the colourful pages in your magazine. At the more benign end of the spectrum, this is about the celebrity you follow posting photos with products made by a company who have given her money. This is also about the social media account that sounds a lot like a new mum struggling but perhaps she isn’t what she appears to be. This is about the sponsored posts that appear when you ask a question about breastfeeding and the emails that target you days later.

You’ve just googled something about sore nipples (and you are desperate to breastfeed). Excellent. Future marketing will find a way to get to you.

And in the 21st century, who knows where it might end. The supermarket sells the data of who is buying nipple cream or nipple shields and a mum is on the list for a targeted focus over the next few days. She gets a phone call/ text/Facebook tag from someone who appears to be trying to help but has been meticulously trained to press all the right buttons in getting you to move away from breastfeeding. They might even have the online profile of an ‘ordinary mum’ or a breastfeeding counsellor. It sounds sci-fi but this is on the cards and it only won’t happen if we stay on our toes.

In England, 83% of mums start breastfeeding and by 6 weeks only 57% still are [5] That's a lot of mums who can be targetted. 85% of mothers who stopped between one and two weeks wanted to breastfeed [6]. This isn't a world where everyone makes feeding choices freely and many new mums are vulnerable.

Regulations might mean that the mums who buy formula miss out on the reward points and the buy-one-get-one-frees. That can feel annoying and at times, unfair. But this is about protecting your friend and your sister and your neighbour from scary people who aren’t as nice as you are.

Yes, it’s a bit about supporting breastfeeding mums to reach their goals but it’s about their friends and sisters and neighbours who have chosen to use formula and want it to be a product that is monitored carefully and priced reasonably and behaves classily and ethically. As a lactation consultant working with mums who may be struggling with breastfeeding, I support dozens of babies who have formula milk every week. I want them to be protected for decades to come. I’m not sure we can always trust the people who focus on profit.

http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/UNhumanrights-statement-breastfeeding-rights/en/
Daily Mail, 11th November 2016.
United Nations press release. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20904&LangID=E
As above
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/03/Breastfeeding-1516Q11.pdf
http://content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB08694/ifs-uk-2010-chap4-bir-post-nat-earl-wks.pdf

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The Birth You In Love video project

11/10/2016

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Doula, hypnobirthing teacher and poet, Kati Edwards from Birth You In Love (http://www.birthyouinlove.com/) has made a fantastic new resource. She has travelled the length of the country to talk to people about all aspects of birthing and breastfeeding too. Her series of mini-videos are something I'm honoured to be part of.

You can see her introduction to the project here:

In the first breastfeeding video in the series, we talk about the 'benefits' of breastfeeding.

Video number 2: How do you prepare for breastfeeding? What do you need?

Breastfeeding video number 3: should it hurt?

Video number 4: What's normal?

Video number 5: What can partners do?

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Giving a breastfed baby their first bottle

10/7/2016

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Meet Hazel. She’s six weeks old and her mum Pam has been exclusively breastfeeding up until now. It’s not been without some struggles but Pam has found drop-in groups, found people to help her and been supported by her husband Rob.
Today Hazel is going to have her first bottle of expressed breastmilk because Pam and Rob feel the time is right. Pam’s latching issues have resolved and breastfeeding is definitely established.

Pam is really keen to make sure Hazel’s breastfeeding skills are protected as much as possible.

She knows that introducing a bottle teaches Hazel to feed in a different way and that leaving her breasts unused for a block of time could impact on her supply or leave her at risk of blocked ducts.

Pam has pumped for the first time and has brought a bottle along to a drop-in session to talk about responsive bottle-feeding.

The video here is a clip of our conversation. It’s rough around the edges. You can hear my colleague at the beginning pressing record and the video runs out at the end because my iPad memory is full of my children jumping off sofas using ‘time lapse’! But hopefully it gives you an idea.

Ten things that are important:

1.Put yourself in baby’s shoes (or Babygro feet).
This is WEIRD. It isn’t at all like breastfeeding. Breastfeeding smells of mummy and tastes of mummy and it’s warm and comfy. Baby can control the flow and when she gets sleepy the milk gets thicker and slower. Bottles look different. They taste different. Mummy is holding me differently (sometimes with a tense look on her face). Someone else might be giving me milk. The temperature is different and lots of stuff that is really special about breastfeeding just isn’t there.

Is the baby showing stress cues? What are they doing with their hands? What is their facial expression like? What do you think your baby is asking?

2.If it doesn’t work out the first time, that’s OK.
It can take time. It might take a different mood or a different place or a different time of day or a different person. A first bottle refusal is not the end of the world. It is very very likely that things will work out in the end. It’s just time for carers to be scientists and experiment with different variables and try different things out.

It’s easy to panic but the vast majority of breastfeeding babies move between breast and bottle without too much trouble. There isn’t evidence to suggest that you HAVE to give the bottle before a certain age. There isn’t evidence to suggest a baby who refuses a bottle today might refuse tomorrow. And let’s imagine your nightmare scenario – they continue to refuse. There are a bunch of other ways to get milk into a baby without a breast or a bottle being involved: cup feeding, sippy cup feeding, finger feeding with a tube, syringe feeding.

3.Every bottle manufacturer claims their bottle is ‘the best’.
Let’s use some logic. No bottle is going to be quite the same as the breast. Babies remove milk from the breast by moving their tongue in a wave-like motion that causes a fluctuation between positive and negative pressure. The milk comes out of the breast to fill a vacuum created by the drop of the rear tongue and the tongue compresses the breast while the mother has occasional milk ejection reflexes. Meanwhile the milk in the breast gets gradually thicker. No bottle comes close to that.

Milk from the breast isn’t removed by a hard suck.

An initial suck gets the nipple into the correct position in baby’s mouth and holds it there but after that it’s really about the rise and fall of the tongue and there isn’t a continued hard sucking action removing milk.

We can’t use a bottle that works like breastfeeding but let’s try and use one that LOOKS like breastfeeding in the way the baby’s lips and tongue are positioned and let’s encourage the baby to do something to remove milk rather than let it pour out through gravity.

It seems logical that wide bottles (that don’t have the longest thinnest nipples) and that allow baby to get an entire mouthful will help us to maintain the association that feeding means a wide gape and the tongue touching against something.

4.Let’s allow baby to have as much control as possible.
We’ll start with touching the bottle teat to the nose or under the nose and see if we can stimulate a gape. When they ask for the bottle, we gently place the bottle on the tongue (which ideally should be down over the gum ridge and extended). It might be helpful at the beginning to touch the teat to the roof of baby’s mouth to help stimulate the sucking reflex. Then if we keep the bottle as horizontal as much as possible, the baby can control flow. If the teat really starts to empty (and you can see that by looking through the inside of the bottle), you may need to start tipping it a little so they don’t just swallow air.

Let’s respect them if they really start to protest. Are they saying the milk is too fast? Do their hands look tense? Do they want the bottle to come out completely so they can take a breather?

5.If we focus too much on avoiding air getting in, we may not be using the optimum flow.
If our focus is on tipping up the bottle and filling the entire teat with milk, the flow could be too fast. The baby may struggle to catch their breath and may take more milk than they want to (which could cause discomfort and impact on future breastfeeds). If the hole in the centre of the teat is covered with milk, that’s fine and if sometimes it isn’t, that’s OK. You’ll hear that swallowing sounds different and you’ll respond. And baby will appreciate a burp afterwards.

6.Babies like to be close.
When they are held close, they feel anchored and supported. We can use our bodies to help them stay semi-upright too. They might even be calmed by using skin-to-skin. If you are using bottles regularly, it‘s recommended to swap the side of your body you hold baby on and the hand you use to bottle-feed. This means baby’s vision is stimulated equally and one side isn’t always blinkered against the body. Perhaps less of an issue for Pam and Rob when Hazel is probably going to get no more than one bottle of expressed milk a day.

7. It might not always be perfect.
You’ll notice Hazel is dribbling milk a bit. It’s her first time having a go with the bottle so we’ll cut her some slack. As time goes on, mum will get more experienced at getting the balance of flow right for Hazel. Perhaps you don’t know why, but today baby just isn’t in the mood and the grumpiness continues. She might be overtired or need a nappy change or something else could be going on. That’s normal and that’s OK.

8.Who gives baby the bottle can matter.
Sometimes babies take the bottle more easily if it isn’t the breastfeeding mum who gives it. However, it’s also true that whoever gives a bottle should be someone baby can trust. It’s not the role for extended family and visitors who don’t know baby well and may have their own ideas about how to do things. Bottle-feeding is also an act of communication – responding to baby and respecting baby.

9. A baby may take more than they need to so we may have to be careful.
Even with responsive bottle-feeding, it’s possible a baby may overfeed. They can’t easily switch off their sucking reflex and it is easier than breastfeeding, partly because the milk isn’t gradually getting thicker and slower as the fat content rises. It’s tempting to keep going but pause and see what cues your baby is showing. Maybe they need a chance to receive their feeling of fullness.

After about six weeks, a baby on average takes 30ml for each hour in 24hrs. But some take a little less and some a little more. The time of day may also make a difference. So while a baby feeding every two hours will on average take around 60ml, we’re not going to force that in. We’re going to give baby a chance to take the lead.

10.Think about WHEN you give a bottle.
I don’t mean in terms of how old the baby is – that’s about when breastfeeding is established and you’ve thought about whether you need to give a bottle at all.

I mean what time of day and what impact that might have on your breastfeeding. We know that removing milk from your breasts between about midnight and 5am is particularly valuable because that’s when your prolactin hormone levels are higher and removing milk sends precious signals to maintain supply. So a bottle being given by someone else at 2am may not be doing a breastfeeding mum the ultimate favour.

In the evening, when baby seems very restless and fussy might seem like a logical time. It's really normal for babies to be fussy for several hours often in the late afternoon and evening. We might even feel ‘empty’ and worry we don’t have enough milk and a bottle might seem like a sensible choice but… it could be the worst time of all. Your baby may well be cluster feeding and sending crucial messages to develop your supply to meet their future needs. They are tanking up on really high fat content milk (that comes from an emptier breast, breasts can NEVER be entirely empty). They are coming to the breast for lots of other reasons that aren’t just about milk. Giving a bottle at the end of a session of cluster feeding is probably less damaging than giving one to try and stop cluster feeding happening.

Talk to your breastfeeding counsellor or whoever is supporting you with breastfeeding if you feel you need to give a bottle. They can talk to you about your baby’s history and behaviour and help you decide when is the right time for you.

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Is THIS normal? The first week with a breastfeeding newborn

7/14/2016

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Reposted from: https://growingfamilies.co.uk/blog/

Emma Pickett IBCLC is leading our breakout session on Breastfeeding at “Growing Families: Facts, Fiction and Other Stuff” this October. It is a one-day event for all expectant and new families – mum, dad, grandma, grandad, aunts, uncles, supporters – and the professionals who work with them. This is a not-for-profit event, created by four mothers, two of whom are also healthcare professionals. Our mission is to tackle the postnatal information that desperately needs covering for new families. To explore expectations and evidence around the early days with baby. To keep ticket prices low, with no expectation of making a profit, in order to open up the event to as many people as we can. To ensure that support for the event comes from ethical organisations and those who share our interest in evidence based information and family well-being. To give new families the confidence to face the challenges ahead.
Please click here to book your place: https://growingfamilies.co.uk/prices-booking/

Here Emma tells us about what is actually “normal” when breastfeeding a newborn baby.

I’ve been taking calls from new parents on the National Breastfeeding Helpline since it opened in 2008. Calls often begin with a mum in tears and she’s sounding desperate. Breastfeeding really matters to her and she wants it to work. She’s overwhelmed and confused. The first voice we hear might sometimes be the partner’s and a mum is too upset to even come to the phone.
Hundreds of these calls end with a contented calm voice saying, “Thank you. It’s such a relief to know that’s normal. I feel so much better now”. As it happened, breastfeeding was actually going OK but it was her understanding of everything else that was confused. What she interpreted as a breastfeeding ‘problem’ was actually a new baby’s normal and natural response to their new environment. She just didn’t know how babies were ‘supposed to behave’.
If I had a magic wand, I would download into all parents the knowledge of what is normal in a newborn. Think The Matrix film – but instead of the ability to pilot helicopters or practise high level martial arts, you’d know about cluster feeding and a newborn’s desire for closeness, nappies and normal fussiness.
The National Breastfeeding Helpline would be quieter overnight but we’d all feel a lot more relaxed and able to enjoy these teeny new people in our lives.
But actually… you’ve already had that download. You just may not have realised it. It’s deep in there after millions of years of evolution, facilitated by hormones and natural instincts. It may not mean you know the exact details of the colour of baby poo on day 3 or how to correct a baby’s latch without help but there’s so much you do know. You probably didn’t grow up surrounded by breastfeeding (as Elena Abell’s recent blog highlighted) and for some aspects of breastfeeding you will need support and information, but there’s a ton you do know about your baby: things that just feel right and things that don’t.
And your baby had the download too. Sometimes it gets fuzzied with a birth that didn’t go to plan but their instincts are in there too.
Two things that are normal:

Babies want to be close to you.

Imagine a news story about a baby gorilla just born in London zoo:
“ZSL London are delighted to announce the birth of new baby Fumbi. Mother and baby are in good health” but days later it’s reported that staff are concerned. Fumbi’s mother (despite being surrounded by other older female gorillas and having observed newborn care) keeps trying to put Fumbi down. She places her in the hay and walks off repeatedly and appears to be trying to avoid holding her for long periods. Fumbi is agitated. Her heart rate and respiratory rate shows signs of distress. She’s losing heat (because teeny newborn gorillas have a large surface area and need to be held to regulate their temperature). Fumbi isn’t feeding as often a newborn usually does because of the periods of separation. The mother appears to be missing out on some of the oxytocin induced bonding that helps the formation of their early relationship. Fumbi is at risk.
Oh dear. Something seems to have happened to Fumbi’s mother. We’d be worried.
However this is exactly what is happening in human homes across the UK today (though not in many other countries and cultures). We are primates just as gorillas are. We’re not designed to dump our babies and go off hunting and foraging for nuts. We can see that by looking at the constituents of our breastmilk. Other mammals have much higher fat milk so babies can be left while mum fishes or grabs a rabbit for lunch. Our babies are born immature because of our pelvis shape from being upright and our large brains and they are designed to have milk regularly for a relatively long time. We are supposed to hold our babies. Some people call us ‘carry mammals’.
But instead we got the message somewhere that babies can be ‘spoilt’. We are supposed to encourage them to be independent and sleep apart from us. We’re meant to be able to put them down. If we can’t put them down, if they want to sleep touching us, if we hold them when they sleep – we’ve apparently failed some test. Though it’s not quite clear who the examiner is.
There are popular books that even use terms like ‘accidental parenting’ just to load on the value judgments. Parenting experts such as Truby King in the 1910s told parents to avoid cuddling and unnecessary attention and the spectrum of ‘advice’ has been flip-flopping backwards and forwards ever since. Today one book will tell you to wear your baby in a sling as much as possible and another will tell you to arrange a baby’s sleep by the clock and leave a baby only a few weeks old to cry if necessary.
What does your baby want?
They don’t want to be put down and eaten by a sabre toothed tiger (less of a problem these days). They don’t want to waste energy keeping warm and crying when they don’t need to. They want to keep those calories to lay down fat and develop their brain. They want to use your breathing rate to regulate their own respiratory rate. They want you to notice when they start to show early feeding cues. They want your familiar smell and taste. You are home to them.
“My baby won’t go down in its Moses basket”. Yes, it’s frustrating when you thought that was what they were ‘supposed to do’. But would it feel easier if you knew that wasn’t likely to be their first choice and there are good biological and evolutionary reasons for that?
“But I’m not going to get any sleep”.
From the Infant Sleep Information Source [1]:
“70-80% of breastfed babies sleep with their mother or parents some of the time in the early months, and many studies have found that mothers and babies who bed-share breastfeed for much longer than those who sleep apart.”
Research shows that these mums breastfeeding through the night (and mostly bed sharing) will ALSO be getting better quality sleep and be more rested than other parents [2] Good sleep is possible if we stop battling nature.
The book “Sweet Sleep: night time and naptime strategies for the breastfeeding family” is a great place to start. It talks to you about creating a safe space where everyone gets a better night’s sleep.
A lot of your baby’s urges are eminently sensible. If they don’t want to sleep in a separate pile of hay, trust them. They are here today because those urges have kept them safe over the generations.
Don’t expect to be up and making a moussaka on day 5. The feeling that you ‘shouldn’t’ be holding your baby is exacerbated when we live in a society which tries not to let new parenthood change our lives. Our bodies aren’t supposed to change. Our commitment to work isn’t supposed to change. Our ability to engage with political life and housework and social media isn’t supposed to change. Actually, throughout much of human history, mum isn’t going to do much of anything for a good 40 days. Someone else is making the moussaka, just as you would have once made the moussaka for them. We are supposed to be doing nothing else other than eating the food made by others (really doesn’t have to be moussaka), sleeping and being with our new baby.

They come to the breast for lots of different reasons and they usually have a good reason for doing so.

Just as parents feel they’ve failed if their baby doesn’t sleep in the separate pile of hay (aka fancy Moses basket that cost £75 and granny knitted a blanket for), they feel a failure if baby is at the breast ‘too much’. I have written elsewhere on the dangerous obsession of the infant feeding interval [4]. It’s dangerous for both babies and mothers. But we need to remember breastfeeding isn’t just about feeding and it never has been.
A phrase most breastfeeding supporters would like to evaporate from the planet is, ‘he is using me like a dummy’. No, dummies were invented partly because we forgot what breastfeeding was about. There’s not enough evidence to say for certain how dummies impact on breastfeeding [5] but those of us who work with breastfeeding families can see how the sucking action and latching can sometimes shift when babies use dummies a lot and there can be issues when mums feed less and milk supply doesn’t get the messages it needs.
Babies have jobs to do. They are helping you to form new breast tissue in the first few weeks. They are elevating your prolactin levels (the hormone that governs milk supply). They are stimulating oxytocin hormone (which is the hormone key in relationship-building and creating a sense of calm and well-being). They are increasing milk volume and altering fat content. They are reducing cortisol stress levels. They are facilitating digestion and the passing of stools. They are hydrating, regulating their temperature, feeling emotional secure, growing brain connections, trying to get to sleep (which YES is one of the purposes of breastfeeding.)
If you just think breastfeeding is about food and calories (and “quick, measure the gap between breastfeeds!”) you are doing a nature a huge disservice.
And you want to use an app on your phone to measure all those different reasons why a baby comes to the breast? You’re measuring fairy dust. Do you count all the times your partner cuddles you, strokes your arm, kisses you, smiles at you affectionately, communicates with you, has a drink of water, eats a snack, has a meal? You wouldn’t find an app for that and if you did, it would probably flag you up as someone needing some urgent assistance.
Stop thinking about minutes. No one can tell you a baby should feed for X number of minutes because we all have different physiology and our babies do too. Create your world around you so you can meet your baby’s needs in the way they are asking you to. Don’t try and mould your baby to fit into a world that has become obsessed with counting and measuring. If you know you are routine person and you are struggling with a feeling of ‘losing control’, give yourself a few weeks and see how it feels to trust your baby. Once your milk supply has maximised, you’ll have some options. Try and ‘control’ too early and you’ll find things go out of your influence in ways you can’t come back from easily.
Get help if things feel wrong- if breastfeeding hurts, if you’re not sure about weight gain or nappies, if you can’t work out how to meet your own needs for food and sleep. There are lots of people who will help out and we’re at the end of a phone or a Twitter account or Facebook page. But don’t confuse your baby behaving unexpectedly for something going ‘wrong’. Maybe no one told you what normal would be.
If we let normal happen it WILL make all of your lives easier in the long term.
You’re creating a little person who enters this world with their needs being met – we call it love.

Emma Pickett IBCLC
ABM Breastfeeding Counsellor
The ABM is kindly sponsoring Emma’s session at Growing Families – http://abm.me.uk/
References:

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Thank you for breastfeeding in public, I know it can be scary.

7/11/2016

2 Comments

illustration by Estelle Morris

People ask for a lactation consultant’s help for lots of different reasons. We often see people at one of the most difficult times in their lives. They might be damaged and in pain and feeling really desperate. Positioning and attachment problems are a common issue.

Sometimes we can see immediately how things could be improved and after just a few minutes, a mum might feel more comfortable. A look of relief passes across her face. I’ve had mums say things like, “This is the first time it’s ever felt like this.” Or they don’t even need to say anything as their stress just falls away.

Many many times, towards the end of one of these sessions (where I’m feeling really good about what I do and slightly smug), a mum then says, “But what would I do if I was feeding outside the house. How would this work if I wasn’t sitting here?”

She’s overcome an enormous obstacle and the next problem for her immediately pops into her head.

I see these comments as a positive. It suggests she feels like she’s making progress and feels her major difficulties are behind her but it does reveal just how the subject of breastfeeding outside the home nibbles at the mind of many new mums.

I think most of us know that mothers and babies are not allowed to be discriminated against on the grounds of breastfeeding. Their access to businesses and services is not allowed to be restricted. You are not allowed to ask them to move on or to stop. It's not complicated. It really isn't. The Equality Act 2010 protects mums in England and Wales. In Scotland, it is a criminal act to stop anyone breastfeeding up until the act of two: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2005/1/contents

But the law doesn’t automatically change how people feel.

The idea of breastfeeding in a public place feels scary when the whole breastfeeding things feels new and you are getting used to your body behaving unpredictably.

Are feelings based on reality? A Start4Life poll showed that 72% of the UK population ‘support’ breastfeeding in public. But yet a third of mums still feel uncomfortable.

Media love a story of a breastfeeding mum being harassed. And there’s no doubt that there ARE some poorly educated employees and members of the public sailing beyond the law and embarrassing themselves regularly. But these stories make headlines precisely because they are rare and juicy. If 72% support breastfeeding in public, a heck of a lot more really aren’t that bothered. And I’ll bet in the tiny group that are bothered, most will mumble an internal dialogue that the mother doesn’t pick up on.

Yet it doesn’t stop it feeling scary even when we know the statistics.

In my years of breastfeeding, I have fed all around the world - on planes, trains, mountain-sides, cafes, doorsteps, bus stops - and not ONCE have I ever received a negative comment or glance or been asked to stop. The response has either been warm and supportive or indifferent. I have spoken to many experienced breastfeeding mums and breastfeeding counsellors and none of them have ever received a negative comment (and actually quite a few wish they had as they would have loved to have snapped something back).

Yet it doesn’t stop it feeling scary even when experienced breastfeeding mums tell you not to worry and in their experience everything is fine.

What might help?
Acknowledge what is the scary bit for YOU.

What is the thing that you are really really worried about? Deep deep down. The thing that worries you won’t necessarily be the thing that worries your friend.

Are you worried about people seeing your breasts?
People seeing your new baby tummy?
People seeing milk dripping or spraying?
People seeing you in pain?
Not having your stuff with you?
Are you worried about people saying something negative?
Or about people looking?

Depending on what you worry is, you might address the problem differently.

What is the absolute worst thing that would happen in your worst nightmare? Imagine it. How is it likely to go?

For someone, it might be the middle aged bloke yelling across the room that it is disgusting that you are breastfeeding outside the home and he doesn’t want to see that. I think we all know that’s bloody unlikely to happen but what happens then in your nightmare? Does everyone rise out of their chairs with pitchforks and move towards you with threatening expressions on their faces?

Is that what happened in that internet story someone posted on your birth group? I bet actually someone came to the mum’s defence: the bloke on the train who protected her or the employees in the bowling alley who formed a line and threw the bloke out (and several of these videos are set up by actors to test public reaction and get a nice bit of internet clickbait by the way).

The new mum would have felt scared but she probably also felt protected by those around her and angry on behalf of her baby rather than upset.

If it’s more likely that you are worried about looks, don’t look around the room. Why should you? I remember when my own son was less than 6 months old and I was feeding him in a café in an unfamiliar town, I scanned the room before I started. I clocked a man across the room chatting to a friend and when I was feeding, I looked over again. Why did I do that? What on earth was I doing? Almost certainly giving off a nervous vibe which is the sort of vibe an unkind person might sometimes thrive on. As it happened, the café customer I had first clocked called across, “you’re alright love. Good on ya.” OK, that was pretty embarrassing too as it happens but I expect he had felt obliged because he sensed I was nervous.

I once spoke to a mum who took off her glasses when she fed to stop her being tempted to look around. It’s probably not going to help the breastfeeding if you’re nervous so just give your focus to your baby for that moment. They will latch on more easily and oxytocin is more likely to happen.

Is the scary thing actually about being outside of the house with a new baby? I think for many people the nightmare is not the pitchforks or a weird shouting person but it’s that you will have a crying screaming loud baby and you won’t be able to sort it out. They might get themselves in such a frazzle that they can’t even latch on. And then what would you do?

At home, you try some skin-to-skin or walk around for a bit and try another room. You are not disturbing anyone else unless you have thin walls and neighbours who are home.

But in a café there are people EVERYWHERE and VERY CLOSE. People wanting to relax and talk to others. People with their own stresses. And YOU are making so much noise.

I promise that everyone in that room is feeling sorry for you and wishing they could help. We are British and get embarrassed so our embarrassment and discomfort FOR you might look like edginess for other reasons but we really just wish we could help.

That’s not about breastfeeding really, it’s just about fear of loss of control.
The solution? Have a baby for longer. After a few more weeks and months, it feels easier. Babies still cry but you feel better about not being able to retain control.

Choose places to go where you know you could escape if you really needed to. Go with people who offer you emotional support.

Who you have with you when you breastfeed outside the home in the early days is really important.

Go to a café with your partner or your mum to practise. Meet your NCT group in a friendly library space and tell them if you are worried. The test of a great post-natal group is the one where you don’t have to pretend you are sailing through this parenting experience and you are allowed to say when you need help. See if you can find some friends that don’t always meet outside the home.

Being a new parent can feel like a constant cocktail party. Just when you feel least up to it, you are trying to develop new friendships and work out what place these new people will have in your lives. And your house is a complete heap too. Here’s another test of a post-natal group: people are OK to come to each other’s houses and sit on piles of washing and not care. It doesn’t always have to be Starbucks.

If you are in Starbucks, it’s not just who you are with, the way you breastfeed helps too.

I’ve met mums who say that they don’t want to use a cushion at home because they won’t have one when they are out and about. Sod that. If you want to use a cushion, use a cushion! Be as comfortable as you can for each breastfeed that you do. There’s no point in making strict rules about these things.

Babies change shape really quickly – all over their bodies. They get heavier and their heads move differently for starters. But WE change shape too. I’ve supported mums who find breastfeeding is getting trickier after a couple of weeks and it turns out that they were previously resting baby on their arms and THEN their arms were resting on their baby belly. When their belly started to go, their arms were doing more work and they started to get more tired.

If you find yourself loving your cushion at home, the idea of breastfeeding without it seems terrifying. Well, if you want to put in a plastic bag under the pram and take it out with you, who cares? Do it!

But you may find that other chair is a different height anyway? Perhaps it doesn’t work quite the same with your cushion? You may want to rethink. You could improvise with a rolled up jacket or even your change bag but I would try and develop a position where the baby’s weight is supported by your torso and not a cushion nor just your arms.

Have a look at Nancy Mohrbacher’s resources on Natural Breastfeeding. If you lean back a bit, a baby can be supported securely against your body and cushions and all the rest of it doesn’t matter. You don’t even need to do it in a sofa (though coffee shops are good at those). You can slouch in quite an upright chair but scooting your bottom forward and putting your leg out in front of you to support you.

Truthfully, the position you use in the corner café might not be super perfect. It might just be good enough.

It might seem tempting to take a bottle when you go out. Now that we have super dooper breast pumps and the bottles that ALL claim to be just like breastfeeding, that might seem appealing but it’s not quite so straightforward.

First off, if you are getting to grips with breastfeeding, let’s not give a baby a masterclass in bad latching. That bottle may claim to be like breastfeeding but which bit of breastfeeding did they pick? The tongue position? The need to elicit a letdown before milk starts to really flow? The way the milk gets gradually thicker and the letdowns come and go? The wide gape? Two of those if you are lucky. Some babies transfer between breast and bottle just fine but if you haven’t yet sorted your latch, it might be wise to hold off.

The other crucial thing is that even if your baby’s latch is fine and a bottle is less of a risk, even if you can easily transport breastmilk outside the home (and it is easy), what’s going to happen to your breasts if you don’t use them? In the early days, we’re going to be more sensitive to signals that reduce our milk supply if we go for several hours without removing milk. When our breasts become full and engorged, that sends messages to reduce production. We’re also vulnerable to getting blocked ducts and even developing mastitis. So realistically, you might have to pump around the same time you give your baby a bottle. I have yet to find someone who considers pumping milk in public to be easier (though plenty of exclusively pumping mums find a way to make it work).

We also need to bear in mind that for a breastfeeding baby, breastfeeding isn’t just about the milk. When you are out in the big wide world and you are very small and everything else seems very loud and big (and smells of coffee) being attached to mummy also brings calm and contentment.

And all of this is about your baby. They can‘t stand up for themselves. They can’t write a rude comment on that article when someone makes a stupid comment about public breastfeeding. They can’t shout at the television when a daft celebrity makes a lazy statement. What would they say to you? What would they say when you were feeling nervous?

I doubt they would want you to feel stuck at home. They want to see the world too. They would want you to leave the house whenever you wanted to. But also not to feel that you HAD to.

And they might thank you for helping to create a world where other women feel able to breastfeed in public. Every time you breastfeed outside the home, you make someone else feel that little bit better and normalise it for the next generation – for the little girl who may not have her own baby until 2040 and might not even remember that she saw you but it’s in her subconscious somewhere. For her partner who will support her. For the woman who is now going to breastfeed outside her home next week.

References:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-mothers-are-anxious-about-breastfeeding-in-public
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/babies/hero-passenger-defends-breastfeeding-mother-from-abusive-man-on-london-train-video/news-story/33e4710b51374f3f60607ad1cf472e2a
http://www.mothering.com/articles/natural-breastfeeding/

[U1]

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We need a proper strategy in the UK to help support breastfeeding mothers

2/10/2016

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http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/10/we-need-an-proper-strategy-in-the-uk-to-help-support-breastfeeding-mothers

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A message for GPs: when a breastfeeding mother walks through your door...

2/3/2016

21 Comments

by Emma Pickett, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant

Crocheted breasts used by lactation consultants and breastfeeding supporters in conversations with mums. These were made by https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AnatomicalknitsbyLGD

You may have seen the Lancet series on breastfeeding that was published last week [1] and you may have seen the headlines that announced the UK was the “world’s worst at breastfeeding” [2].

It’s a time when those of us in breastfeeding support feel both energised by the Lancet’s affirmation that breastfeeding matters in all countries: “Our systematic reviews emphasise how important breastfeeding is for all women and children irrespective of where they live and of whether they are rich or poor”. [3] And also disappointed that the media’s emphasis was on UK ‘failure’ and it quickly turned to the ‘failure’ of individual women. [4]

As Dr Rollins stated at the launch of the Lancet papers, we need a different focus: “This is not about individual mothers either succeeding or failing. This is not about one lobby group winning over another; it´s not about our individual comfort zone or fashion; it´s about the survival and health of women and children today and in future generations” [5].

These are big issues and they require big thinking and money. At a time when money is hard to find. Health visiting and community breastfeeding support have moved to local authority funding from NHS England and these are the same people looking to save significant chunks from their budgets. There is a local authority in London threatening to decommission health visiting services in 2017. Peer support services are being slashed – even the ones run by volunteers [6]. Children centres are closing and the few groups run by volunteers are struggling to find places to meet [7] Infant feeding coordinator positions are being lost. There is no breastfeeding lead or national committee on breastfeeding in England and the post of Welsh lead has just been cut.

Things are about to get very real for GPs in the world of breasts. Imagine a mum giving birth and being discharged by the community midwife (already stretched and unable to give sufficient time to breastfeeding support) and then when breastfeeding goes pear-shaped after 10 days, the GP is her only port of call. If I had a pot of money to spend on breastfeeding support in the UK right now, I would spend it on talking to GPs about breastfeeding. In a country where the infant feeding survey is cancelled, helplines running on a shoestring, health care professionals being trained by formula companies [8], I’d still spend it on talking to GPs. If I had unlimited time too, I would buy every GP a coffee and say, ‘Can I just have five minutes of your time to tell you a handful of things that will change lives?’

Health care professional bashing is a national pastime. Right after the breath where we say how proud of the NHS we are. But please don’t imagine that those in breastfeeding support don’t get how hard this is. You have ten minutes to talk a mother who is presenting with complex issues wrapped up in emotions and sleeplessness with a chaser of internet research. You have to be a generalist and the lactation bit really wasn’t a focus in your training. We understand that and we’d like to correct that but now you are in your surgery and working a day that doesn’t give you time to go to the toilet, we get that ship might have sailed.

Before you move onto your next webpage, please skim this one. I am an IBCLC, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. That means I took two 3 hour exams after a thousand hours of supporting breastfeeding mothers. And I recertify every 5 years after a further 75 hours of education in lactation. I am chair of a national charity (www.abm.me.uk) that helps to run the National Breastfeeding Helpline and have spoken to more than 3000 mothers myself on that helpline. I run three drop-in groups in North London and have done for seven years. I visit mums in their home and spend all day texting, emailing and phoning to discuss breastfeeding issues. I don’t know everything but I do know what is likely to walk through your surgery door and what will be helpful for you to say to them.

Mothers need help with medication. They want to continue breastfeeding and treat their other conditions. They don’t want to stop breastfeeding for even a day. That’s like asking them not to be a mother when breastfeeding really matters to them. It is hard to get reliable information on the compatibility of breastfeeding and medication as manufacturers will have rarely paid for the necessary licensing for breastfeeding mums and the responsibility is pushed back on to you. Luckily in the UK, we have other people who will take that responsibility. The Breastfeeding Network runs the Drugs in Breastmilk helpline: https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/detailed-information/drugs-in-breastmilk/. The factsheets on this site give a summary of the main medications for a range of conditions. The compatibility of anti-depressants and breastfeeding may be especially relevant to some of the new mums you see: https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/dibm/anti-depressants-oct14.pdf. Research has shown that ending breastfeeding can increase risk of postnatal depression so supporting mums to use medication that is compatible is an important role of the GP [9]. As well as using the factsheets, you or the mother can contact the helpline directly to speak to a specialist pharmacist. The ‘Breastfeeding and Medication’ page can also be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breastfeedingandmedication/info?tab=page_info. Messages are answered by trained volunteers

Mums walk in the door with mastitis. Let’s just check first it’s not a blocked duct that can be resolved with good self-help measures. A blocked duct means firmness and even tenderness in the breast but the mother feels generally well and there is no pyrexia. This can be resolved with increased drainage of the breast, warm compresses on the firm area and massage. An electric toothbrush is handy for massaging the affected area. The mother may benefit from using different positions to help with draining the breast effectively or pumping after a feed if there is concern the baby is not feeding well. If infective mastitis is suspected, antibiotics should be accompanied by increased drainage and the massage and warm compresses. If a mother does not continue to breastfeed frequently, it is more likely she will go onto to develop an abscess. Antibiotics are required if a mother's symptoms are severe and a bacterial infection is evident but not simply because a breast is firm and uncomfortable, not least because the dyad may go onto develop nipple and breast thrush as a consequence. https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/pdfs/BFN_Mastitis.pdf

Mums will walk in with sore and damaged nipples. This may sometimes be the entry point for the staph aureus which is the common cause of mastitis. The most common cause of nipple damage will be positioning and attachment issues. Of course, in the ideal world, you’ll be referring a mother to a breastfeeding support group, a lactation consultant or a trained health visitor. However there are things that take less than three minutes to point out that could make all the difference. Is the mum leaning forward to ‘put’ the breast in the baby’s mouth or moving the breast unnaturally (so then inside the baby’s mouth it springs back into its natural position and gets trapped against the baby’s hard palate)? Damage is likely to be caused by nipple abrasion against the hard palate usually because the baby does not have enough breast tissue in its mouth. The baby’s gape is important. And when the baby gapes, we want to maximise the space of their tongue on the breast. Their chin should be making close contact, the baby’s body close, the baby not likely to drift if mum’s arms get tired. We want the baby to take a large mouthful of areola below the nipple. This lactation consultant explains how simply leaning back can make all the difference and the fact we falsely believe a mother should sit bolt upright is often the problem:

“In the commonly used cradle, cross-cradle, and football/rugby holds, mothers and babies must fight the effects of gravity to get babies to breast level and keep their fronts touching. If gaps form between them (which can happen easily with gravity pulling baby’s body down and away), this disorients baby, which can lead to latching struggles. The pull of gravity makes it impossible for a newborn to use his inborn responses to get to his food source and feed…In these positions, gravity can transform the same inborn feeding responses that should be helping babies into barriers to breastfeeding. Head bobbing becomes head butting. Arm and leg movements meant to move babies to the breast become pushing and kicking. Mothers struggling to manage their babies’ arms and legs in these upright breastfeeding holds have often told me: “I don’t think I have enough hands to breastfeed.”
http://www.mothering.com/articles/natural-breastfeeding/

These videos shows a powerful alternative:
http://www.nancymohrbacher.com/videos/

And this image from Nancy Mohrbacher may help

Latching issues can also cause vasospasm and blanching of the nipple. It can also be responsible for neuralgia deeper in the breast. A mother with Raynaud’s syndrome may experience nipple pain when breastfeeding is otherwise going well. She may find applying warm dry compresses after a feed helpful and in severe cases nifedipine can be prescribed: http://www.raynauds.org/2011/02/08/help-for-pregnant-breastfeeding-moms/

If it’s not an issue of latching, you may be prescribing topical antibiotic cream or considering treatment for thrush: https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/dibm/thrush-oct14.pdf

Thrush will usually develop after a period of pain-free breastfeeding. If a mother is getting misshapen nipples after a feed and the nipples appear to show mechanical damage, latching will remain the primary focus. Even in the absence of symptoms, both members of the dyad will need thrush treatment if one is suffering. Miconazole oral gel is not licensed under four months due to a risk of choking but mums can be taught to apply the gel safely and it is shown to be more effective than nystatin suspension. Deeper breast pain is often connected to neuralgia but ductal thrush is a possibility. The pain will develop as the breast empties and peak shortly after a feed (or pumping session) has finished. Fluconazole is not licensed for breastfeeding mothers. However it’s worth noting that the amount that gets through in milk is 0.6mg/kg/day. The amount that can be given to a baby within the license is 6mg/kg/day (Dr Thomas Hale).

A mum experiencing constant nipple pain and damage despite support with positioning and attachment and may also have a baby who struggles to stay attached, feeds for excessively long and may feed frequently, isn’t putting on weight adequately, could have a baby with ankyloglossia (tongue tie). An overview here: http://www.cwgenna.com/ttidentify.html. Posterior sub-mucosal tongue ties can be particularly difficult to identify on first look. You should have a referral pathway that gives you access to a tongue tie clinic locally: https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/baby-friendly-resources/support-for-parents/tongue-tie/

A Mother may come for help when they suspect they have low milk supply. Is there anything you can do? It is worth noting that many mother lack confidence and perceive themselves to have low milk supply when they are experiencing normal breastfeeding: http://www.emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com/twitter-and-blog/low-milk-supply-101

If a mother’s breasts are feeling softer, if they no longer leak, if their baby is not sleeping for extended periods, if their baby is cluster feeding – all that can be normal. As can a mum whose body does not respond to a breast pump and they find it hard to trick their bodies in achieving the surge of oxytocin needed for the milk ejection reflex when a plastic pump is all that’s there to stimulate it.

However if a mother is showing further signs and her baby is experiencing faltering growth, she may be asking you to help. Has she already received good quality breastfeeding support? Has her baby’s positioning and attachment been checked? Is she feeding regularly and not switching sides too quickly (but also not staying on one side beyond the point the baby is transferring milk because someone has mistakenly told her a baby MUST feed for 30 minutes). Could she benefit from hiring a double hospital grade pump to help boost supply? Is she in the process of reducing her use of formula and giving her milk production a chance to develop?

What else could be happening?

The impact of thyroid dysfunction on low supply can be devastating and a significant minority of mothers experience thyroid issues post-partum: http://www.lalecheleague.org/ba/feb06.html.

Some mothers, perhaps those with insufficient glandular tissue, may be asking you for a prescription of domperidone. This is an off-label use of the drug and there have been some concerns with using it for lactation in the last few years. Some research indicated a link between domperidone and cardiac issues. However the issues were among patients over 60 who had cardiac problems, who were taking other medication which caused arrhythmia or were taking a dose of domperidone greater than 10mg three times a day. https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/dibm/BfN%20statement%20on%20domperidone%20as%20a%20galactogogue.pdf
Research has shown that domperidone causes a steady increase in milk supply over a placebo. As the Breastfeeding Network specialist pharmacist notes, “We do not have research suggesting that domperidone causes risks to otherwise healthy, young women who are breastfeeding.”

Metoclopramide is sometimes prescribed as an alternative prolactin-booster but we need to be aware this is known to increase risk of depression and should only be given for short periods.

Breastfeeding doesn’t feel like a ‘choice’ for many of the women seeking your help. For lots of mums, it is a choice and it might be a choice that they decide not to go for. That is of course up to them and their families. But for many of the desperate women in pain and struggling, this is one of the most important things they will ever do in their lives. To discuss moving to formula instead of looking at the root of their problems or to discuss your personal views about formula feeding is a waste of precious minutes. You may have struggled with breastfeeding yourself, or watched your partner struggle. It can be difficult to empathise with the woman sitting in front of you who appears to prioritise breastfeeding beyond what you consider logical. It may make you feel uncomfortable about your own choices. Other healthcare professionals may get a chance to debrief their own breastfeeding experience but you rarely do.

Do not doubt that there are women who seek your help who would literally have a toe amputated if it meant that they could solve their breastfeeding problems. And they’d be happy for you to do it right there and then. And that’s about the level of pain they are experiencing right now, but still they persevere. ‘Why don’t you give up?’ is what they are already being told by mothers-in-law and friends and sometimes partners when they cry at 3am. They are asking for your help because that isn’t the way they want to go. When their nine month old is on a nursing strike and is suddenly refusing the breast, they want you to check for an ear infection before you talk about formula. They get it’s an option. Ending breastfeeding and using formula really isn’t a secret. If you don’t know the answers, then it’s valuable to have a sense of what is available to you locally in terms of signposting. Your local health visiting team should have information available on local support groups and drop-ins. What leaflets does the local post-natal ward give out? There are four charities in the UK that offer breastfeeding support: the NCT, the Breastfeeding Network, the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers and La Leche League. Is there a local La Leche League meeting near you?

If you aren’t familiar with local drop-ins, mums can also speak to breastfeeding counsellors through the National Breastfeeding Helpline: 9.30-9.30 365 days a year on 0300 100 0212. All the charities have their own separate helpline too.

If a mum needs more specialist care, a lactation consultant may be useful. An IBCLC may be attached to the local hospital or they can find one at www.lcgb.org .

They may also be women breastfeeding past 12 months and even 2 years and 3 years. They are doing that because they are meeting their child’s needs and their knowledge of the constituents of breastmilk and its continuing immunological benefits may possibly supersede yours. If you are personally uncomfortable with it, it’s not a conversation you need to have. Do you believe that breastmilk ‘loses its benefits’ as time goes on? What is your evidence-base for that belief? Can you find its source?

It looks as though the role of GPs in lactation support is likely to become even more significant in the coming years. There are places where you can access more training. UNICEF have an e-learning package that you may find useful: http://www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/Resources/Training-resources/E-learning-for-GPs/ Or here from BMJ learning: http://learning.bmj.com/learning/module-intro/breast-feeding.html?moduleId=5003232
You can also find free videos here: http://www.health-e-learning.com/resources/free-lectures?lang=en
Shadowing a lactation consultant or a breastfeeding counsellor at a support group will also be a valuable way to spend some time.

As the Lancet series says, ‘breastfeeding is generally thought to be an individual’s decision and the sole responsibility of a woman to succeed, ignoring the role of society in its support and protection.’ [10]. Those of us who talk to breastfeeding women every day know we cannot underestimate the impact of just 10 minutes of contact with a well-informed GP. The effect is felt in her immediate relief as she walk away from the surgery and in the lifelong impact on her and her baby’s health.

Notes:
[1] http://www.thelancet.com/series/breastfeeding
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35438049
[3] Victora, C.G. et al (2016) Breastfeeding in the 21st century: epidemiology, mechanisms, and lifelong effect. Lancet 2016; 387: 475–90.
[4] https://heartmummy1980.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/are-you-strong-enough-to-change-the-world/
[5] https://www.facebook.com/DrJackNewman/
[6] http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Essex-County-Council-cut-support-breastfeeding/story-28078350-detail/story.html
[7] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-34983055
[8] http://www.babymilkaction.org/archives/7167
[9] http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/breastfeeding-linked-to-lower-risk-of-postnatal-depression, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25138629
[10] Rollins, N.C. et al (2016). Why invest, and what it will take to improve breastfeeding practices? Lancet 2016; 387: 491-504.

My book is available now from Amazon.co.uk and from other retailers.

"You may be worried about breastfeeding and worried that it might ‘not work’. This is a common feeling when you live in a society where breastfeeding is often sabotaged by incorrect information, patchy support from a stretched health service and powerful messages from formula companies. But it’s not a feeling that is entirely logical. We are mammals. We get our name from the dangly milk-producing bits. It defines us.

This book aims to make you as well-prepared as possible. I would like you to breastfeed for as long as you want to and as happily as possible. I want you to feel supported.

Some of this new life with baby will be about flexibility, responsiveness and acceptance. If you are used to a world of schedules and decisions and goals, it may be a bit of a shock. Learn about human biology before you think it sounds a bit too scary! Babies are the products of millions of years of evolution, and we are too; if we can just tap into our instincts and trust them a little bit.

Success comes when we tap into those instincts and when we know when to get help when our instincts aren’t answering all of our questions.

Can everyone who wants to breastfeed make it work? No. Not everyone may be able to exclusively breastfeed due to medical issues. Most of these people can give their baby breastmilk, though, which the book also covers. (And let’s not start this journey by imagining you’ll be someone who won’t make it...!)"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019JE5E44

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Expect at least 50% to end up on the floor: starting your baby on solid food,

9/16/2015

1 Comment

The Department of Health and the Department of Health of every other industrialised country in the world recommends the introduction of solid food at around six months.

You may hear ‘rumours’ that this will change.

You may hear people tell you that there’s something wrong with this recommendation and earlier is best.

Not true. The recommendation to wait until six months was the result of some careful deliberation and an examination of a wide range of evidence that looked at issues like disease and allergy prevention.

There are a few bits of infant physiology that are hard to argue with. Babies need the amylase enzyme to digest starch and it isn’t properly released until around six months. In the days when people would spoon rice cereal into their small babies like filling cracks in the wall with polyfilla, some of those nutrients weren’t going anywhere useful. Babies are born with what we call an ‘open gut’. This means the gut wall which separates the baby’s intestines from the blood stream is extremely permeable. Larger molecules that might cause disease and allergic reaction can pass through easily. Breastmilk does a clever thing as it forms a protective mesh over the gut wall that prevents various nasties passing into the baby’s bloodstream. However to get that mesh functional we need the baby’s gut flora to be the good stuff. Just as if we were going to end exclusive breastfeeding, adding in solids will change the gut Ph. and gut flora and some of that protection could be lost. However by around six months, gut closure has occurred in babies and introducing other food then appears to have less of an effect.

A baby who is six months can also participate much more in the feeding process. They can sit up and hold and bite and select and get that food is colourful and textured and wonderful. They can control the process, rather than simply be vehicles for beige mush. You’ll often hear people say, ‘But my four month old looks so longingly at us when we eat our bacon sandwiches. He looks so fascinated and he wants to reach out and grab my food. I don’t want to make him wait until six months’. Sure, but the same baby is probably going to look equally fascinated when you apply mascara and lipstick. Probably not the best argument for starting solids ahead of the recommendations.

“My baby is big. He’ll need solids sooner”. Nope. It’s really not the way it works. Our bodies are designed to make enough milk for twins. It can cope with your bigger-than-average baby.

“My baby is smaller. She’ll need solids sooner”. Nope. If you’re concerned about weight gain, there are more effective things we can do to increase calorie content.

“My baby doesn’t sleep well. He needs solids sooner”. This may well be the classic sleep phase we often see at around four months. Babies can wake more frequently for a variety of reasons including gross motor development ("I'm getting to a lighter phase of my sleep cycle and I CAN MOVE MY LEG. I HAVE LEGS. I'M MOVING THEM. And while I'm at it, where's that nice big mummy person gone? I'm fully awake now"). Or it could be teething. This waking phase is rarely connected to insufficient nutrition. We may even find that introducing solids causes more restless nights initially, not improved ones. Babies are experiencing new digestive sensations, pooing at different times and are more likely to be constipated.

This is one area where we may get a lot of pressure from friends and family. Many of them weaned at a time when the recommendations were different. If you’ve been breastfeeding, they are probably super keen to get the spoons out and literally get stuck in. You may hear this from your mother-in-law: “Well, Bob had baby cereal from six weeks and he’s just fine.” Bob now plays rugby, runs marathons, splits atoms – delete as appropriate. The anecdotal evidence argument is never a worthwhile one. Bob is probably a member of a generation with shocking levels of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Perhaps if Bob hadn’t have been weaned at six weeks, he’d play better rugby and split more atoms.

The recommendations didn’t change because someone in government had a long lunch and was feeling cross with Heinz baby foods that day. Evidence looking at the health of babies breastfed for 3-4 months vs six months was reviewed. This evidence was relevant to babies living in all countries and in all conditions.

The recommendations may change again. More evidence is always needed. But right now ‘around six months’ seems right.

There are different ways to feed a baby solid food. Broccoli can be held by its convenient little handle and baby gums can mash down and take mouthfuls of stuff directly from the source. Or it can be steamed and pureed and spoon fed. Baby-led weaning is a method where spoon feeding doesn’t happen. Baby is in charge. Food is offered in pieces and chunks that can be held in a little baby fist and they just go for it. They sit and feed themselves while you sit and eat your own dinner.

Imagine two families with babies in a restaurant. On one table there is a baby sitting up and in front of him is a selection of finger foods: a bit of pitta bread, some vegetables from mum’s plate, some chicken. While his parents eat and talk themselves, he picks up pieces of food and self-feeds. At the other table there is a baby being fed pureed foods. While his parents eat, he sits and watches and perhaps is shown books or toys. When his parents are finished, they ask the restaurant to heat up some puree and then a parent sits and feeds him with a spoon.

Both babies are being fed and getting the nutrition they need. One baby is part of the social experience of the meal and is moving towards feeding independence and one baby isn’t quite.

The advantages of baby-led weaning are that baby is experiencing food as a full sensory world. They touch it, smell it and see its natural colours. They are part of the family meal. Food starts out ‘real’ and never changes. Some babies may gag when self-feeding finger food but the chances of choking are no more than if a baby was being puree fed. Plus you don’t have to worry about eventually transitioning to more solid food. If you are really nervous about choking, this can be a good time to do a course in baby first aid. They are often available cheaply in places like local children’s centres or even take some time to look at some videos online: http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/Baby-and-Child-First-Aid/Choking-baby.

You can tell from my obviously biased description that I’m a fan of baby-led weaning. It’s been recently promoted by the work of Gill Rapley, a health visitor who has written some useful books on the process. I heard her speak at a food festival once and she got us to do an exercise. We got into pairs. Someone spoon fed me a puree. I couldn’t communicate when I was ready for the next mouthful or easily communicate when I was done. I couldn’t smell the food or easily see the colour. The spoons of beige mush kept on coming. It tasted fine but I couldn’t even put a hand up to slow the process down or ask for a smell or ask to take a breath. It felt overwhelming and the spoons kept coming. After a few minutes, I started to feel like a torture victim. Clearly I am being melodramatic here but imagine you are breastfed baby who up until now has been fairly in control of their own feeding. Wouldn’t it be nice if solid food was an extension of that experience?

Of course, you may feel purees are right for you and be particularly attached to your steamer. Like with most things in parenting, you must do what is right for you. Lots of people combine pureed foods and finger foods in a baby-led weaning style. However I would recommend you at least find out about ‘baby-led weaning’ as it can be enormous fun.

Food before twelve months is ‘just for fun’ people sometimes say. Not quite true because in many cases, we will need to give baby additional sources of iron and other micronutrients before twelve months. When babies are born they get stores of iron from you and then as they breastfeed, they receive easily absorbable iron from the breastmilk. There was a time when scientists looked at the iron in breastmilk and thought it looked a bit low but we now know that was misleading as it is absorbed incredibly efficiently and is very bioavailable. Studies have shown that when babies are exclusively breastfed for as long as eight or nine months, they still have sufficient levels of iron in their system. However the recommendation to start solids at around six months gives them plenty of time to get up and running before we need to worry about there being a problem. It simply isn’t true that because we are now starting a little later, we’re in a huge rush to get huge bowlfuls of food into our baby or the world will end. We have time. It’s really important to remember that milk remains the primary source of nutrition up until twelve months. It’s only at twelve months that solids starts to take equal status and then gradually becomes to primary source of nutrition. Some eighteen month olds are still happily breastfeeding several times a day (and at night) alongside solids and it’s a valuable part of their nutrition. These statistics are helpful: In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides: 29% of energy requirements, 43% of protein requirements, 36% of calcium requirements, 75% of vitamin A requirements, 76% of folate requirements, 94% of vitamin B12 requirements, 60% of vitamin C requirements (Dewey 2001). That’s not me saying everyone should breastfeed for 23 months. That’s me saying breastmilk continues to have good stuff in it, the best stuff. It’s not going to turn into some useless white fluid when your baby reaches six months and now it’s all about the mashed banana.

What should we feed them? Well, what do you like eating? There's very little a baby over six months can't have (something else that's easier after six months). We don't give a baby under 12 months honey because of the risk of botulism poisoning. We want to be careful about whole nuts which could be a choking risk but nut butters are fine. If you are worried about a history of family allergies, you should talk to your doctor but automatically avoiding certain foods may not be the most sensible approach - certainly not for everyone. You don't have to wait a few days before introducing another new food. You need to be sensible with sugar (and that includes dried fruit) and salt can be dangerous so if you are cooking meals for the family, season your own food separately after cooking. Babies can enjoy herbs and spices and strong flavours. They can eat eggs and seafood and meat and fish. Though you need to pay attention to the quantities of oily fish as they contain pollutants. Did you know that boys can eat more oily fish than girls? There's some more information here:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/understanding-food-groups.aspx#close

Babies can eat dairy products and they can also be vegan or vegetarians. They can drink water. They don't need juice. The suggestion is to minimise the amount of wholegrain foods a child eats under two years old.

Some people are concerned about how they are going to time their solid food meals. They are also worried about how to go about ‘dropping’ a breastfeed and reduce breastmilk appropriately. This is one of the great things about breastfeeding and introducing solids - you don’t have to stress about any of that. It happens naturally and organically and your baby is in charge with very little assistance from us. You just continue to breastfeed to your baby’s cues. That’s it. Bottle feeding mums do have to plan things out more carefully. Breastfeeding mums just continue to response to their baby’s cues and just ensure that the solids intake doesn’t increase too quickly.

When you introduce their first solids, think ‘milk first’. That means we don’t feed a solid meal when a breastfeed is due and then find they aren’t that hungry for breastmilk. Better to offer solid food in between breastfeeds or not long after a breastfeed. Food is like a new activity. You’ve introduced this wonderful new toy that tastes a lot better than the plastic giraffe they’ve been chewing on for a while. When two meals start to happen, milk is still ‘first’. It doesn’t have to be first in the sense that you breastfeed and then run from the sofa and plunge them into their high chair - just not long after or a few hours after. We don’t want the quantities of breastmilk they receive to really change much for a while. As they start to take more solids, gradually over a 24 hour period, they will take less breastmilk. You may not even notice it happening. Feeds may become a little shorter and intervals between breastfeeds a little longer. It will happen very naturally.

Eat with your baby. Enjoy meals together.

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Breastfeeding through pregnancy and beyond

Breast language: 'Breastfeeding' is incredibly unhelpful.

Regulating the infant formula industry: What’s your ‘purity criteria’?

The Birth You In Love video project

Giving a breastfed baby their first bottle

Is THIS normal? The first week with a breastfeeding newborn

Thank you for breastfeeding in public, I know it can be scary.

We need a proper strategy in the UK to help support breastfeeding mothers

A message for GPs: when a breastfeeding mother walks through your door...

Expect at least 50% to end up on the floor: starting your baby on solid food,

Author:
Emma Pickett IBCLC

Find me on twitter: @makesmilk

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Author:Emma Pickett IBCLCFind me on twitter: @makesmilkFind me on pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/makesmilk/youve-got-it-in-you-a-positive-guide-to-breastfeed/

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Author:
Emma Pickett IBCLC

Find me on twitter: @makesmilk

Find me on pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/makesmilk/youve-got-it-in-you-a-positive-guide-to-breastfeed/