Women's Concerns on Breastfeeding

VIDEO DESCRIPTION

Emma Howard talks about breastfeeding, and women's concerns about breastfeeding.

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Womens Concerns on Breastfeeding   womens concerns on breasfeedingt   Womens Concerns on Breastfeeding   breastfeeding tips   parenting tips   simplymediatvWomens Concerns on Breastfeeding   

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Emma Howard: Hello! I'm Emma Howard and we are talking about breastfeeding here on the Baby Channel and with me is Heather Welford from the NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor and next to you, we have Kate with the lovely Penny. Penny is nearly ten-months-old, doesn't she? Kate Gould: That's right, yeah. Emma Howard: You've had a good time breastfeeding. Kate Gould: Yeah, brilliant! Emma Howard: But one of the things that women worried about in the beginning is how well they'll be able to feed their baby, especially if they see themselves as flat chested. Now you one of those women, wouldn't you? Kate Gould: Yes, yeah. AA size always having to go to the children section to find bras. Emma Howard: And did you think, no, this means I am not be able to feed the baby or did you know that it make no difference at all? Kate Gould: I very much hope there would be no problem, and I was quite looking forward to having a slightly bigger breast for a while anyway, that's -- Emma Howard: So did you love being pregnant from that point of view? Kate Gould: Yeah, it was nice actually, yeah. Emma Howard: And here you are. Penny is nearly 10-months-old, thriving completely on breast milk and here she is going to have - oh, that's squeal of delight, Penny. Kate Gould: I think it's a demand. Get to me know. Emma Howard: And Heather this is absolutely typical, isn't it? It doesn't much about the size of your chest at all. You can feed your baby. Heather Welford: You can. Emma Howard: If you made a decision to do that. Heather Welford: That's right, size really doesn't matter. The confidence that women sometimes lack because of how they feel, how they look, can sometimes affect you negatively. You think, well how can I breastfeed with these little things? But most of the shape of our breast when we are not pregnant our breastfeeding is fat, and you don't actually need that fat, you need breast milk making and storing and every women develops that in pregnancy. She will have enough to feed her baby. If the baby feeds effectively and feed frequently and he is removing milk that's what drives the supply. Emma Howard: So it's got absolutely nothing with the size of your breast. Heather Welford: You can be big or you can be small or you can be medium and you will make enough milk for the baby. Emma Howard: And you carried it for a long time, you are going to continue feeding your child, aren't you, for a while? Kate Gould: Yes, that's right. At least until she is one-years-old, and can start on cow's milk. I can't see her wanting to give up easily either. Emma Howard: No, I can't see it either she is very happy, in fact, you are at the stage now where she is snapping because she is teething, isn't she? Kate Gould: Yes. Emma Howard: She is on solid. So you have more feeds, but smaller feeds around the day. Kate Gould: Yes, my milk supplies cut down dramatically. My breast cell almost back to what they were used to be. I was hoping to be able to carry on expressing but unfortunately, I just can't express anymore because it's so little in there, he is the only one who can get the milk out. Emma Howard: Given that from the -- that the baby is made on -- Heather Welford: Well established breastfeeding is, it gets to be a tailor made supply for that particular baby. Now, if Kate wanted to increase the supply for any reason, that mean sometimes if babies feel a bit off color, they go off their solids and they start to need more breast milk. Probably over a couple of days, Kate would find that her supply would increase to meet to the extra demands that Penny is making on her. Emma Howard: It's amazing that nature can do that. Heather Welford: I know, it's wonderfully flexible, robust system. Emma Howard: What about using a breast pump to help with that. What's the NCT's view of that? Heather Welford: Well she could use a breast pump. Emma Howard: Because that would make an actually demand on breast, wouldn't it? Heather Welford: It would make -- lot of people do have Kate's experience that they don't perform very well with the breast pump. But the baby manage this beautifully and as is if nature isn't going to corporate with the artificial means -- Emma Howard: I want the real thing and nothing at all. Heather Welford: We do get calls from women who really do need to express for one reason, and we'll help them with advice about technique, perhaps a different sort of pump to use or even hand expressing because that can sometimes be pretty effective. Emma Howard: And is hand expressing something that's best done in the bath or the shower or it can be done anywhere? Heather Welford: Well, if you are going to collect it to give to your baby, you wouldn't want it in the bathroom because it go down to --. Hand expressing is a useful technique to learn and it's certainly avoids you having to sterilize all the bits and pieces of a pump. Emma Howard: And what is the hand technique, I mean basically if you can show us some -- Heather Welford: On my cloth body. Emma Howard: On your cloth body. Heather Welford: Well if you normally start of by massaging towards the end of the breast towards the nipple, and different things work for different people. But the sort of technique taught in hospitals are very simple. You position your finger and your finger needs to be like that, a little bit behind the nipple, because you are not squeezing the nipple, you are actually compressing the breast really, and finding the best place to squeeze around that. Emma Howard: And then pressing them with your hand. Heather Welford: That can sometimes help a lot of use of encouraging the flow of milk to the exit points. Emma Howard: That's everything with breastfeeding and anything to do with the stage of your life. Some people will be able to do it more easily than others. I know that I couldn't master that at all, my baby was the most effective thing at getting guessing milk and feeding. But I know that some women can do it very easily but I just think there are so many ways that you think, you fails in it because she can don't that, but some things are more difficult for us, and look at you, you are thriving on it, aren't you? Yes. And she just did have a snack. Why is it being a great thing for you to do Kate? Why breastfeed? Kate Gould: The communication while you are breastfeeding is amazing and as they get older it changes as well, because when they are really young, obviously they just lie there and stare up to you, which is lovely. Then her hand start wondering and she strokes here and there, and at the moment she got in the stage of pinching, I have to make sure I cut the nails otherwise it can get a bit painful. Emma Howard: How did you get crossed the stage of biting as well, because we have been talking to mothers and babies who have had a problem with that. Did you manage that transition okay? Kate Gould: I was lucky and that she started biting before the teeth came through. So she was just biting with her gum, so it wasn't too bad. And I just said, no, and close and made it clear that I didn't approve. She did it once where I thought she was doing deliberately because I haven't give her much attention the day, and I come back from the shopping trip and I haven't immediately rushed and said, hello Penny! She bite me deliberately and I think the shock on my face is sort of once and for all. So I have been very lucky on that part, yeah. Emma Howard: What's your advice Heather than to women in that situation? You would say pull them closer or take them off? Heather Welford: That's a useful technique, pull them closer or -- and so you break the suction and this thing that Kate is reminding is to say, no, quite firmly. It really does seem to work, it's a temporary thing. Most babies don't bite to be honest. Few they do, will do it over short period of time, because they don't use their teeth to extract the milk. So the teeth are not important. Emma Howard: Some babies don't have teeth until quite later on. Heather Welford: Oh, that's right. It wouldn't be something that people ought to think that it's automatically going to harm to them and she prevent them from breastfeeding anyway. Emma Howard: Here we are looking at a baby who is reaching 10 months, I mean breastfeeding for a long time and it's very happy, in fact you are great team together, quite clearly but what about those early days, nearly every women go through very frustrating period, don't they? It doesn't come automatically and everybody think it should, because it suppose to be natural. Heather Welford: This was one of the reasons Kate gave us for choosing to breastfeed because it is a natural thing, but just because something is natural, is what nature intended, it doesn't mean that everybody can do it straight away. It's a learning experience for the baby and for the mother and mothers need a lot of support in those early days, because the circumstances surrounding the birth or lack of confidence or tiredness or in Kate's case having a cesarean, which meant that she have to take care over, where the baby was actually positioned and actually need a lot of help. Emma Howard: And you breastfeed lying down, didn't you? Because you had a scar and it would be uncomfortable to breastfeed in that position. Kate Gould: You can't move for the first two days from the bed, you just have to stay, exactly where you are. So yeah, you have to breastfeed lying down, and it's a good -- it's very, very useful to be able to do that because even now when she needs an afternoon nap, I know that she is probably not going to go down by herself, she is a bit too excited about what's going on. If I go and lie down with her and breastfeed her lying down she go to sleep, and I can creep away after a while or you have to sleep with her. Emma Howard: So that's quite an association for her. Kate Gould: Yes, it's a great fun. She giggles and laughs as soon as I put her on the bed, because she knows what's coming. Emma Howard: She knows what's coming, which gives her a confidence. Kate Gould: Yes. Emma Howard: And also gives you the confidence that you know how to handle her or if you need to take her away from something that's over stimulating her. Kate Gould: Yeah. As for starting off with the breastfeeding, it's actually the first three months where you need the extra support, because even once you got it going there are times when they have the growth spurts comes and it can be very worrying. If it's -- I was expecting a day maybe because right at the beginning, it take a whole night to get going. So I sort of prepared for that, but it was two days at one point. So it took for my -- catch up and I did find that very worrying. Heather Welford: And in that period Penny was all enough the breast a lot more frequently then you would be -- Kate Gould: Yes and complaining. Heather Welford: All that is perfectly normal and mothers do worry oh, heck, my milk is disappearing I haven't got enough. But if you keep on putting the baby to the breast -- Emma Howard: It encourages to supply. Heather Welfrod: -- that's what drives the supply. Emma Howard: Heather thank you very much to you for a very useful advice and thank you Kate for bringing Penny, it's nice to see you, both of you.

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