breastfeeding counsellors

I just watched the Afternoon Show repeat about mothers becoming breastfeeding Counsellors with Cuidiu. Interesting interesting.

Again, the problem with the main segment was that there was lots of focus on how awful it is, how terrible and isolating and agonising, and some are lucky to have no pain - without explicitly explaining what it is that causes those problems. I don't like the suggestion that breasfeeding has to hurt, as it causes women to think they have to 'persevere' through the pain, and not get the problem sorted. We need more focus on fixing, not persevering. A dangerous word, though it has its place, in terms of time and effort and uncertainty.

When I started feeding my daughter it was really difficult. She had a frantic, strong suck and was too anxious to get on to take the time to get it right (so different with Bodhi, who used to stop and correct himself!). So it was painful, as I didn't have her on right - my midwife didn't really have time, had never fed herself, it was the one thing she didn't really do well on.

I was lucky in that the problem corrected itself once my milk came in. It might not have, I suppose, and LLL in Bray weren't interested. I don't think I knew about Cuidiu yet.

When I did the breastfeeding class with Nicola O Byrne she said Cuidiu would be her choice as well. I mentioned that my midwife had told me that with my fair skin (read glowing white, rather than milky princess) it was just going to hurt, it didn't mean I was doing it wrong. I said this in the class and Nicola was reluctant to agree - she said she'd helped plenty of fair skinned mothers who experienced no pain, and had plenty of dark skinned women being in agony. Pain (especially lasting more than 10 seconds into a feed) denotes a bad latch. Persevering through it will lead to the problems people are afraid of. And once you get blisters or cracks, they take a while to heal, and it's hard to tell if the latch is corrected or not as it's still sore.

Some tips for if that happens are to avoid nipple shields without the guidance of a counsellor, but use bio-fem strips, McCabe's have them, and HyperCal cream (Hypericum Calendula) if you do get sore or cracked. If you or the baby had antibiotics, be vigilant for thrush - take pro biotics, and Citricidal Grapefruit seed extract, give the baby infant probiotics, and wash their mouth and your nipples with the dilute citriciadal before and after a feed. I put up a post about it in the recurring concerns thread at the top of the breasfeeding board.

Ina May Gaskin is bringing out a breastfeeding book soon. She said in a talk I saw her at, that on the Farm Midwifery Centre, they've never had problems with breastfeeding, because they know what to do. This is what we mean when we talk about support. And proves that cracked nipples etc are not a necessity.

We've only lost the art of breastfeeding in Ireland for two generations. And I think it's coming back. Our children are going to have a far easier time than this generation are having.

There's a lot Dads can do here too - check out the latching videos on You Tube, drjacknewman, kellymom etc. Be supportive, rub sore shoulders and necks, don't suggest giving up or giving formula if your partner wants to breastfeed. Do the burping after each feed, do some of the comforting - baies love being on their Dad's big chest, listening to the bass of their voices, often dads can settle them far better. Go for a walk with them in the sling, and let the mother have a shower/bath/sleep. Giving a bottle of expressed milk may be nice, but from experience, I can report that you seem to find the glow fades - it's not the biggest thing yo ucan do to bond with your child, there's plenty of other things. Get in the bath with your baby and feel the oxytocin flow!

Cuidiu's info and list of counsellors

Breastfeedingsupport