There is no one position to use to breastfeed your baby. What works well for one breastfeeding mother and baby may not work for another. What worked with one of your baby’s may not work for another. In addition, you may find some positions work better for you at different stages of your breastfeeding journey and for different times of the day or night.

In the UK as many as 81% of mothers initiate breastfeeding, however by 6 weeks of life only 55% are still doing any breastfeeding at all. Something is amiss. As a lactation consultant is important for me to empower families in the antenatal period to understand how breastfeeding works, know the practicalities of breastfeeding new-borns and to know how to tell it is going well.

Bottle refusal in breastfed babies is a common phenomenon and for those families who choose for a bottle to feature as part of their breastfeeding journey it can be highly frustrating to be met with a baby who won’t take the bottle.

Colostrum Harvesting or Antenatal Hand Expressing is collecting your colostrum before your baby arrives.

Colostrum is the first milk your body makes for your baby, it’s packed full of calories, antibodies & growth factors.

Colostrum Harvesting or Antenatal Hand Expressing is collecting your colostrum before your baby arrives.

Colostrum is the first milk your body makes for your baby, it’s packed full of calories, antibodies & growth factors.

The effect of teeth on the breastfeeding relationship will very likely vary from day to day. I speak from experience when I say this. I had no awareness of my first erupting teeth and it had no impact on our breastfeeding, however with my second I was very aware, it affected his latch at times and he was prone to biting when teething.

What is a tongue tie?

A tongue tie, also known as ankylogossia is where the small strip of tissue known as the lingual frenulum, which connects the tongue to the floor of mouth, is too short, too tight or too close to the gum ridge.

When this occurs, it can impact on tongue movement, which in turn can impact on the feeding process.

There are two types of tongue tie, anterior and posterior

I met Sam during my time studying for my IBCLC lactation consultant qualification. Sam was pregnant at the time. She gave birth to her gorgeous daughter Roisin in 2019. Roisin has Down syndrome. In order to raise awareness of Down's syndrome on World Down syndrome day 2020, Sam is sharing her feeding journey.

I wish I’d known…

to feed my baby as soon as possible after birth.

If you can, feed your baby within the first hour of its birth. After this the baby can become sleepy for up to 24 hours and less interested in breast feeding. Benefits of this first early feed include keeping baby warm by being skin to skin, calming the baby, giving baby colostrum as its very first milk and releasing oxytocin which makes your uterus contract and reduces your bleeding as well as making you feel very in love with your new tiny one.