First published on www.facebook.com/breastfeedingtogether on 24/03/19 as part of the sharing Sunday Series.

I am a new mum to Jack, who was born in January. To say that his birth was traumatic would be an understatement! I won’t go into detail, but I was induced, hyper-stimulated and had a very long labour which ended in forceps and an epidural.
I was in Recovery for over an hour and by this time Jack was struggling to latch on and getting hungry and quite stressed. The hospital breastfeeding lady to come and see us on the ward at Bolton hospital, but nothing that we tried worked. In the end we had to give him a bottle of ready-made formula. I have since found out that as soon as possible after birth your baby should be put skin-to-skin.

A day or two after we came home, Breastfeeding Together visited me, and Vicky then visited me every few days over the next 6 weeks.

With her support we tried everything you can possibly think of!

First of all she helped me to hand express and collect the colostrum in a syringe. We tried different positions, nipple shields, how to hold the breast/nipple, skin-to-skin, even something called “The Flipple” and trying a supplementary nursing system, but unfortunately it wasn’t effective for us! But still Jack wasn’t able to feed. I then bought an electric pump because I wanted to stimulate my supply, and thought if he could at least take the breast milk from a bottle he would be benefiting.

Expressing was not an enjoyable experience for me, I used the pump every 3-4 hours through the day and once through the night. I was only expressing a maximum of 15ml every time which wasn’t nearly enough to feed my son and therefore had to be supplemented with formula.

Vicky talked to me about the fact that because I hated it so much this will have had a negative affect on my oxytocin levels, and therefore my supply. So with her help I tried to change my mindset to a more positive one, and relax more whilst doing it, but it still didn’t increase my output. I also gave power pumping a go, breast massage, skin-to-skin, as well as taking Fenugreek tablets and brewers yeast but nothing seemed to make any difference!

I was still putting Jack to the breast every feed, before giving him a bottle. The problem was he was getting extremely frustrated that it wasn’t working! He would attempt for a couple of minutes and then absolutely scream. He had all the right instincts, but he just couldn’t create the correct seal. He would try, taking a couple of sucks, but then get annoyed and wrench his head back. This meant starting all over again. We also found that Jack would try harder if I was wearing nipple shields, but having had the bottle for a couple of weeks he found it really hard work, as breastfeeding was more effort for him.

Vicky mentioned going to a breastfeeding drop in group where we saw a lactation consultant who found that he had a very thick posterior tie, which was probably affecting his ability to latch! We were referred for this to be cut straight away but had to wait over 3 weeks for the appointment. After this there wasn’t really any improvements in Jacks feeding.

I made the decision to stop feeding, at the breast and expressing as it was making me stressed and I wasn’t enjoying it.

Now Jack is having donor breast milk plus formula. Lovely ladies from Human Milk 4 Human Babies have selflessly donated their milk so that my son can have the best start in life. If this is something you may want to do, definitely speak to Breastfeeding Together about it! I’m so pleased I did!

My journey has not been the traditional breastfeeding journey, and it has not been easy, but I think it’s important for new mummies to know that breastfeeding is not always the rosy perfect image that we imagine or see on social media. There is more than one path on this journey, and breastfeeding together will be there to support your whatever path your journey takes and what ever decisions you choose to make!

You’ve been to antenatal classes, you’ve watched the YouTube videos, you’ve Googled (BfT’s top tip…. ..step away from Google! Contact us and we’ll give you great information and send you brilliant links) and you’ve made our feeding choice. You’re going to breastfeed your baby. It’s the optimal feeding choice, it’s natural, our bodies our designed to do it!
But still that little niggle remains. What if I can’t do it? What if the baby won’t latch? What if something goes wrong? We know it’s not unusual for breastfeeding to take a few days to get going, or for babies to be sleepy or reluctant to latch in those early days. So we may be worried there may be a clinical indication that baby needs a top up, and we worry our baby will starve if we don’t take formula with us to the hospital
So we pack ‘it’ in our hospital bag. That ‘Just in case’ formula milk. The thing with ‘just in case formula’ is that it winks at you at 3 o’clock in the morning. It whispers ‘use me, you’re so tired, I’ll help your baby sleep’, or ‘use me so you know your baby is getting enough’. Knowing it’s there means we can give it without having a discussion about how this can impact on our breastfeeding. Many women will make a choice to use some formula, but often it’s not as an informed choice as we think, if they don’t know there’s another option available.
We know to get breastfeeding off to the best possible start, we need to keep artificial supplementation out of the picture as much as we can. We know sometimes mums want to, or babies require supplementing, but with what we know about formula milk having the potential to stretch babies’ tummies and create allergic sensitivities within the gut, wouldn’t it be ideal if this supplementing wasn’t done with formula.
So, how can we do this?
Well, we can harvest our colostrum.
Colostrum is the first milk we produce, its packed full of antibodies and is the perfect first food for babies. If a baby is reluctant to latch at first, we can hand express colostrum and feed this to baby. It generally perks them up and encourages them to feed (think of it like an energy drink for babies!). But did you know we can do this before we even have our baby? We can start that hand expressing at home and collect our colostrum in syringes, freeze it and bring it to the hospital. If baby does require supplementing, your milk is there ready. You have your ‘just in case’ milk. You have ‘just in case’ colostrum
We wait until baby is 37 weeks before we start colostrum harvesting, as expressing has the potential to induce labour- so another great reason to try it if you are passed your due date and serving an eviction notice! We discuss and show you how to hand express at our antenatal workshops, and we can also provide you with a colostrum harvesting pack. More and more ladies are giving it a try, so get in touch if you think it’s something you’d like to do.
Like the old saying says, we reap what we sow, so let’s sow the seeds of a great breastfeeding journey by starting with a colostrum harvest!

First published on www.facebook.com/breastfeedingtogether on 17/3/2019 as part of the Sharing Sunday series.

Well, my breastfeeding journey has finally come to an end after 18 months with my eldest and 3 years with my youngest. I was very lucky never to have really suffered with mastitis or anything else that can make breastfeeding so tough. The Breastfeeding Together team are fabulous and Wigan is very lucky to have such dedicated volunteers. I wish all breastfeeding mums well on your own personal journey and urge you to enjoy every moment as, in the blink of an eye it will have ended.

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Babies need quite a bit of sleep and we know the safest place for them to sleep is in their own safer sleep space. However, many babies respectfully disagree and think the absolute perfect place to sleep is in your arms or on your chest. And I suppose it is. It’s biologically very typical, and there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with a baby who wants to do this. It can often work well during the day and with a bit of ‘tag-teaming’ and taking turns, it can work well during the night too. It can often feel that breastfed babies wake much more frequently (which itself is a protective factor against SUDI) and you are up all night either feeding or because your baby doesn’t want to be put down.
Eventually the initial adrenalin that got you through the first few days wears off. As much as lying awake staring at the amazing creature you’ve created is wonderful, it’s not sustainable. The exhaustion hits, and you need to sleep. You have bags for life under your eyes and you truly understand why sleep deprivation is used as torture.
This can be particularly challenging when your baby won’t be put down to sleep. Families are often told simply to stay awake, but we know long term, continuing trying to stay awake doesn’t work. Lone parents don’t always have the luxury of ‘tag-teaming’ and it’s not as doable one one or both parents return to work. So it’s important that families have options.
Many families will choose to bring baby into bed with them either for feeding or as a way of everyone getting some sleep.
It’s not about having an across the board ‘no, don’t do it’ but it’s about ensuring families have all the information to make informed decisions about their family’s sleeping situation.
At BfT we do more than just breastfeeding support. Ask us about information regarding safer co-sleeping/bedsharing. Ask us about the associated risk factors of SUDI. Talk to us about how to put your baby down to sleep safely. Attend our antenatal workshops, send new grandparents to our Grandparent’s workshop. Take our UNICEF leaflets. Look at the links we share. Talk to us. Let’s make this week the week to have those conversations. Let’s talk about safer sleep.

First published on www.facebook.com/breastfeedingtogether on 10/3/2019 as part of the Sharing Sunday series.

Having recently moved into the borough I’ve got to say how impressed I am with the support that is available here in Wigan. Being a new mum in a new area is overwhelming, but it’s been made easier by the support from BfT.
Having supporters who are mums, and are somewhere between friends and healthcare professionals is very useful. The support I’ve been given has been great.
My baby struggled with weight gain to start with but I was reassured and got many of my questions answered from the visits and calls.
The supporters were really there for me gave me practical support and guidance.
They kept reminding me about the key principles of breastfeeding and built my confidence.
I was given a plan alongside with links to useful information, I never felt on my own during this journey and felt the support was completely tailored to mine and my baby’s needs.
As a first time mum this support has been invaluable and I feel empowered now with my breastfeeding. My confidence now with my baby has improved and I’m still exclusively breastfeeding Tiber-Leo.

First published on www.facebook.com/breastfeedingtogether on 5/3/2019 as part of the Topic Tuesday series.

Breast milk. It’s white right? Or perhaps a bit more creamy or yellowy in those early days, but we do generally think about milk being within that vanilla colour scheme. It can be quite a surprise then, on expressing that that’s not always the case, and if it isn’t does that mean something’s wrong?

Nope. Let’s file that beautiful colour variation under perfectly natural and pretty amazing.

Human milk comes in a variety of colours.
That early colostrum is often very yellow in colour due to it being so concentrated.
If your older baby is unwell you might see it return to this more yellowy colour as your body responds to your baby provides them with those wonderful antibodies.

Your milk is also very cleverly flavoured by the foods and drinks in your diet. Research shows this makes babies much more likely to be more responsive to solid foods when they are ready to be introduced, as they’ve already had a ‘taste’!

This favouring can also come with a bit of colouring too!

Some food dyes, fruit drinks, and gelatin desserts have been associated with milk that is pink or pinkish orange.

Greenish milk has been linked to consuming green veg, so if you’ve had a heavy night on the spinach you may have what we affectionaly refer to as ‘Kermit milk’!!

And while the jury is out on whether carrots can make you see in the dark if your diet has a lot of of them or other yellow-orange vegetables, particularly if you eat them mashed, there can be high levels of carotene in your milk, which can turn it a bit yellow or orange!

Pink milk may indicate blood in your milk. Sounds pretty grim, but this often just comes from a bit of damage to the nipple or within the breast. Seeing blood in your milk is of course worrying, but it is not harmful to your baby as your blood and milk are made from the same stuff, so you can keep on feeding. We’ll perhaps just check that latch for you to see if we can improve things at the source before you have a little vampire!

Brown milk may be caused by (the delightfully named) Rusty Pipe Syndrome or even just rusty pipes!
As our breasts grow and stretch ready for and during those first few days of breastfeeding, extra blood flows into to our boobs and it sometimes leaks into our milk ducts which can make your milk look brown or rust-colored (like water from a rusty pipe ?). It should clear after a few days as more milk flows through your breasts, and it’s again fine to keep on feeding.

So don’t be too worried if if your milk has more colours than Dulux- remember if we weren’t expressing we’d never even know, so go ahead and let that rainbow milk flow!

First published on www.facebook.com/breastfeedingtogether as part of the Sharing Sunday series.

So I’m writing this Sharing Sunday for all the new mummies. I myself am a brand new mum to my 6 week old baby boy. I wish I had joined Breastfeeding Together’s ‘Connect and Share’ Facebook group before actually giving birth. The support you get will really help you on your journey of being a new mum, struggling to take in and understand what’s right and what’s wrong, well that’s what I felt and thought for the first 2-3weeks!
I have quite high anxiety, and struggled at the start and wondered whether I’d actually be able to do it.

First published on www.facebook.com/breastfeedingtogether as part of the Topic Tuesday series.

Book on any of our antenatal workshops (at www.breastfeedingtogether.co.uk ) and you are going to hear us talk about skin to skin. A lot.

We just can’t get enough of skin to skin at BfT and we won’t be happy until the whole of Wigan (and beyond to be fair!) is aware of the massive benefits it brings. It’s now encouraged to have your baby delivered straight in to skin to skin, and you can absolutely have skin to skin if you deliver via caesarean. It’s your prize after birthing your baby, and the most natural and beautiful way to meet them.

Skin to skin biologically makes sense. When all we had were our loin cloths, our prehistoric ancestors would have held their offspring tightly against them after birth to keep them warm, safe and secure. Three of the big benefits right there. Mum’s body is so in tune with her new born, that her chest will heat up or cool down accordingly to help regulate baby’s temperature. Held against mum’s chest, oxytocin will be released in both mum and baby, helping that bonding that’s been happening during pregnancy to continue- it also is one of the hormones involved in breastfeeding so it’s a perfect time to offer that first breastfeed In fact, many babies who are left ‘unattended’ in the vicinity of a breast will bob down and have a bash with very little effort from you!

In skin to skin baby can also hear your heartbeat, a very safe and familiar sound from their time in the womb, your hearts will even start to beat in time whilst you’re in skin to skin, regulating your heartbeats and calming you both- how amazing is that? It’s not just beneficial for mum either. Dads, partners, siblings can all get involved, and help with one of the other benefits- the colonization of healthy bacteria! Sounds scientific- and it is, but it’s really just about us rubbing all the lovely healthy bugs and good bacteria from our skin on to the skin of our rather sterile new born and helping to kick start their immune system.

Skin to skin helps to regulate baby’s blood sugars, mums blood loss, it can wake a sleepy baby up and encourage them to feed, it can settle a fractious baby down in seconds, it’s a fantastic way to reconnect with baby if you’ve had time apart…….It’s just magical.

The latest research shows that the benefits of skin to skin are there until your baby is around six years old. And whilst you might not want a fully naked six year old jumping on you, cheeks on chest, arm rubbing or post bath time cuddles can all make it work.

So forgive us for our slight skin to skin obsession, but we’re all about skin to skin for the win!