It’s National Breastfeeding Week – we hope all the feeding mamas out there are happily feeding away. For anyone who is about to embark on the journey of motherhood, we’ve got some brilliant tips from Rebecca O’Donovan, the HSE Assistant National Breastfeeding Coordinator.
1. Knowledge is power
Breastfeeding will be new to you, and some mothers find it may take time and practice. So before your baby arrives, take this time to gather as much information as possible to enable you to breastfeed your baby.
Read about breastfeeding in books or, go online. Breastfeeding.ie is a great Irish website, but also try to meet up with and talk to other mothers and watch them breastfeeding their babies. A great meeting place is your local breastfeeding support group and you will find details of this on Breastfeeding.ie. You can also talk to other mothers on the HSE breastfeeding Facebook page.
2. Talk to your midwife
You will have a number of meetings with your midwife while you are pregnant, and she will talk to you and answer any questions you have about breastfeeding. Your midwife will also talk about labour, the importance for you to have a supportive companion with you, how moving about and using positions that are comfortable for you can help, and how to chose pain relief that allows both you and your baby to be alert. She will also give you details of antenatal classes and breastfeeding classes within the hospital or community for you to attend and prepare for your baby’s arrival.
3. Enjoy skin-to-skin contact with your baby
Skin to skin contact with your baby immediately after birth – for at least an hour – promotes bonding and helps you to relax after the birth. It also helps baby to stabilize his breathing and heartbeat and to keep warm.
As well as this, skin-to-skin contact also helps breastfeeding hormones to be released, so get your breastfeeding journey off to a really good start. Your midwife will show you how to safely hold your baby to maximize skin to skin contact.
4. Get assistance with positioning and attachment of your baby to the breast
It is really important to position and attach your baby correctly onto your breast. By doing this, you are ensuring that feeding will be comfortable for you, and that your baby will get as much milk as possible when he feeds. Your midwife is there to help and empower you.
5. Learn to recognize when your baby is giving feeding cues.
Your baby will give you signs or cues that he wants to breastfeed. If you are both well after the birth, keep your baby near to you. When your baby is near you, you will be able to see these cues which include your baby starting to wake, his eyelids fluttering before opening, moving his head from side to side, rooting, licking and opening and closing his mouth, and putting the thumb or fingers in his mouth. Crying is a late feeding cue, so get to him early.
6. Look after YOU
It is really important to take good care of yourself now that your baby has arrived. Eat, drink and rest, and take any offers of help you get as your baby will breastfeed many times both day and night.
7. Hand express
Learn the skill of hand expression to care for your nipples and relieve breast fullness. Being able to express your breastmilk by hand is a useful skill for you to learn, and your nurse or midwife will show you how to do this.
Many mothers put a few drops of their breastmilk on their nipple after they have fed their baby and they find it very soothing and skin-healing. When your breasts get fuller at the end of the third day many mothers find going into the shower and hand expressing relieves the breast fullness that they are experiencing.
8. Feed on demand
The best way for you to know that your baby is getting enough milk is to feed your baby often or whenever he demands to be fed. Your baby’s stomach will be hungry again after approximately 60-90 minutes, so he will feed frequently 10 -12 times is perfectly normal in 24 hours.
9. Check those nappies
Seeing your baby grow is a real boost, and it is also a way of knowing that your baby is getting all the food he needs from you. Your midwife or public health nurse will help you in the beginning. What goes in has to come out, so don’t forget to look at your baby’s nappy. The first few weeks you will notice that your baby’s poop changes a lot, and here is a great guideline for keeping track of this.
10. Try a breastfeeding support group
Attend your local breastfeeding support group. You will get details of this on Breastfeeding.ie. Go along, meet other mothers, talk to the group facilitator who may be a IBCLC (Lactation Consultant), the Public Health Nurse or a group leader of the voluntary groups Cuidiu or La Leche League. They’re there to help.
Details of supports can be found here.
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