This week we held the first of six amazing events ‘How To Survive Parenthood’ for our readers, in conjunction with Dundrum Town Centre.
The Level 3 Food Hall was jam-packed with over sixty of our readers – all new mums with their brand new babas. Today’s event was specifically for new mums who gathered eagerly to hear some stellar advice from Sophie White, HerFamily team member, Nicola O’Byrne, Lactation Consultant and Doula, Krysia Lynch on how to navigate your new mum role.
Top tips from Krysia on looking after MUM after your baby comes along:
1. Find your support group, find your own tribe. And don’t forget that other mums are in the same boat as you. You don’t have to have the same tribe forever, but find one that will help you through, you will have many as you go through mothering. A coffee group, a breastfeeding group, a mother and toddler group.
2. She imparted a very important tip she once heard from a man from the defence forces: never ever stand when you can sit down, never, ever sit down when you can lie down. And never EVER volunteer. On Mothering – rest as much as you can.
3. Don’t be frightened about going to the GP. 40 per cent of women will have incontinence; women will have low mood, issues with their stitches from a tear, an episiotomy or from a C-Section. Don’t be frightened about seeking support.
4. 1 in 5 women in Ireland will suffer low moods after they have a baby. If you feel your low mood is persisting, do seek help. If you find you’re replaying a birth experience; again and again, that can be a bit of a warning sign too. You can feel it was really bad, contact the HSE.ie, or you can contact someone like AIMS Ireland who will help you look at your birth experience and help you piece it together. This is so important for your maternal health.
5. Eat healthy foods and superfoods, fruit that you can carry, a packet of nuts, some high-energy snacks to have with you at all times. Throw some fruit into a blender and take it with you.
6. Do your supermarket shopping online – so you don’t have to take a baby to do the shopping.
7. Exercise – motherhood and having a baby is a transformative experience; your body is different, you have birthed a baby. It’s important to understand that your body doesn’t just bounce back. Don’t forget you have your own daily exercise – babywearing is a kind of weight bearing exercise; it’s like your own personal dumbbell!
8. Tiredness is a natural part of new mothering – not having the sleep that you’re used to can be a bit of a shock. Often, the way your mind works is that you need to do things when the baby is asleep. Forget about housework, coo at your baby, if you can’t sleep when they are asleep, just try and rest. Excessive tiredness is not normal, about 17% of women after birth have hypothyroidism, you can go to a GP and get a blood test to rule this out.
9. Practise safe-sleep – download safe sleep 7 to make sure you safe sleep in your bed.
10. Slings –consider one if you don’t have one, you can multi-task, check out babywearingireland.ie
Nicola O’Byrne – Lactation Consultant’s top tips
1. Ignore breastfeeding books that tell you what to do – instead, devise follow your instincts
2. Breastfeeding – sometimes settling into it and getting confident about it – it takes some women two weeks and some women two months and some women don’t even get there, but it is one of the joys of breastfeeding once you get established and get the hang of it.
3. Breastfeeding is everybody’s business – it’s key to educate the grannies and partners even before baby comes so they can help you when the time comes.
4. By 4 weeks, your supply is established, your milk changes and the proteins inside it change. It’s very common at around four weeks to feel like you don’t have enough. It’s really important to rest for a few days – people will tell you to drink some tea or drink some herbs, the first thing you do is feed your baby more. The more you feed, the more your breasts will produce.
5. Trust that you grew a baby, you can feed a baby, we don’t doubt our lungs or heart won’t work, but we all doubt that we can feed a baby.
6. You shouldn’t be sore after 4-weeks, if you do, get some help.
7. Pumping – at four weeks, it’s okay to start at that stage, it’s better not to pump too much, or your body will think you’re feeding twins. Not all pumps are made equal. The Hakka pump is brilliant; it’s a tiny device you can put on when you’re feeding, it creates a suction, it’s really popular.
8. If you are combination feeding, it’s important not to give too many bottles; it will affect the way your baby will latch on to the breast.
9. Support groups – the power of these groups is not to be underestimated. Find the people that you bond with, you may not find them at the first one – so go to another one. It’s important that you are surrounded by other people that are breastfeeding and sometimes, it can feel like you are the only one.
10. Feed anywhere – get out, don’t be shy, breastfeed wherever you want.
11. Stopping feeding – stop when YOU want to stop, not when you feel the pressure to stop.
As part of our 6-week ‘How to Survive Parenthood’ series, we want you and a pal to pop along to Dundrum on Tuesday 31st January for an informal morning (with coffee!).
Niamh O’Reilly will be on-hand to break down sleep (or lack of!) into handy tips, jargon-free ideas, and suggestions with a Q&A session for all your burning baby sleep questions.
The event, on Level 3 in the newly revamped Food Hall, will be packed with practical and emotional advice – we want to empower first-time mums.
Pop up at 9.45 am before baby cinema for an hour or join us in between shopping. Feel free to feed your baby and have a well-deserved cup of tea or coffee on us.
Fill in the form below to get your seats (the last event booked out in two days!), and we look forward to seeing you then.
