Mums Takeover: Sarah and her Breastfeeding Story

‘How will you be feeding?’

‘Breastfeeding’.

One of the questions I was asked at every midwife appointment. I didn’t know how long I wanted to feed for, I just knew that I wanted to feed.

I had read the information I had received in booklets from my Midwife & a Bounty magazine so I thought I had a good basic understanding of how to latch my son on. How wrong I was. I had to ask the closest midwife to me for help during the next 18 hours. And the ‘baby will feed every 4 hours’ is also a massive lie.

I had fed my son (for the first time without having to ask for help) & a midwife was checking me over, looked at my son & said ‘he’s wanting a feed’. And I said out loud, ‘but he fed 10 minutes ago.’ Haha. How naive I was.

My husband & I had chosen not to attend any classes during my pregnancy so I assume that one of the sessions would have included de-bunked myths. At the time, I had few breastfeeding Mummy friends. When I went to see one of them for the first time after she had given birth, we laughed about the fact that her son was feeding every 4 hours but she was also feeding 2 or 3 times extra within that four hour period.

Another piece of information I would liked to have known is that Breastfeeding is not easy. I don’t mind being told that something is going to be difficult but it seems like it has to be kept a secret so that Mum’s (no matter what number child it is) don’t get put off.

On day 8, I left the house for the first time to go to my local Baby Café as recommended by my Health Visitor to make sure that everything was ok with our attachment & position. Here I met a Breastfeeding Peer Supporter who gave me a tiny piece of information that made the start of our breastfeeding experience better. This was the reason I decided to become a Breastfeeding Supporter myself.

To become a peer supporter in Calderdale (where I have lived for 11 years now) I filled out an ‘application form’, met the two ladies in charge of the support network & completed an 11 week course. I qualified as a Breastfeeding Supporter in November 2016 & I have been supporting Mum’s at my (then) local Breastfeeding Information & Support Group which I had been attending since December 2015.

Through my role & attending the group for almost a year, I learnt a lot about breastfeeding (& I continue to do so).

I have met Mums (& a couple of Dads too) to offer information about various aspects of breastfeeding. One of the main positives of the group is that you can build up a good repour with some Mums as they have chosen to continue to attend the group even though they are not in ‘need’ of any information. This is when you end up talking about anything & everything.

As well as supporting Mums at group, I also do home visits during school holidays. Here, I see Mums for up to an hour to offer them information & support. I really enjoy this aspect of peer supporting but the downside of both home visits & only meeting Mums once at group is that I don’t necessarily find out how the Mums are getting on.

With breastfeeding my son, we have had our own challenges. This has resulted in trips to the Doctors, asking for advice at another breastfeeding group that we attend, going back to Baby Café & a couple of referrals to the local hospitals which all helped me to continue to breastfeed for over two & half years.

If you had told be before my son was born that I would have fed him for two & half years, I would have been surprised. When I heard & saw friends feeding their toddlers, I was taken aback a little but it has felt nothing but natural feeding my son for as long as I did. But through my training & attending groups I learnt that The World Health Organisation recommend breastfeeding for the first two years (as a minimum). It was also my son’s choice to stop feeding rather than mine & having to force him to stop when he wasn’t ready which I was really pleased with.

I have been really lucky in terms of negative response from others & it has been minimal. I never noticed anyone given me any dirty looks or heard anyone whispering about me feeding my son (no matter his age). Either it never happened or I just didn’t pay attention to anyone but my son.

I find it intriguing how much negativity breastfeeding Mums face. I think it mainly has to do with a lack of education as well as not knowing where to go for support. One of the places I have used is Breast Buddies - Teesside Breastfeeding Support. This is a Facebook support group, where Mums can get support from other Mums & Breastfeeding Support Peers. This group is so supportive & it is lovely to see (& read) because something I have learnt in the last (almost) 3 years is that Mums who are supported will feed for longer, which in turn will help normalise breastfeeding (a child at any age) in general.

I am pregnant with my second child & I am looking forward to another breastfeeding experience even though I know what could make the experience harder than I want. But. I am so lucky in the fact that I have a supportive husband & I know where I can go for support if & when I need it. All I hope is that this will be the same for all Mums.

Links:

World Health Organisation: http://www.who.int/topics/breastfeeding/en/

Teeside Breastfeeding Support Group: Breast Buddies - Teesside Breastfeeding Support. Type this into Facebook & you will have to wait for approval once you have requested to join.