GRANNY’S
5IVE STEPS TO
Breastfeeding BREASTFEEDING IS NATURAL AND WE ALL AGREE IT THE PREFERRED WAY TO FEED BABIES. BUT ESTABLISHING BREASTFEED ISN’T ALWAYS EASY – MOST MOTHERS FIND MEETING THEIR BREASTFEEDING GOALS TAKES PATIENCE, DETERMINATION AND LOTS OF SUPPORT. By Yvette O’dowd
Don’t wait for the baby – learn as much as you can about breastfeeding when you are pregnant. The first thing your baby will be looking for after the birth is the nearest place to eat and he or she won’t wait for you to read the manual!
•Go to an Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) Breastfeeding Education Class as early as you can – second trimester is ideal. You will learn how breastfeeding works and how to make it work for you. Classes are available to ABA members and your membership comes with Australia’s most popular breastfeeding book, Breastfeeding … naturally.
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Peninsula Kids – Winter 2019
•Get to know your support network – once you start maternity leave, link up with your local ABA breastfeeding support group and introduce yourself to the breastfeeding counsellors in your community. Go along to some group meetings before the birth, where you will meet breastfeeding mothers and see them feeding their babies.
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Here are my tips for getting breastfeeding off to the right start.
STEP ONE
•Talk about your breastfeeding plan and make sure you pack it in your hospital bag. Just like labour and birth, it helps the midwives caring for you to know how you would like to manage breastfeeding.
STEP TWO
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Take the first feeds slowly – there is no need to rush baby into his first feed. If everything is okay with the birth, ask to have your baby laid skin to skin against you and request hands-off help from your midwives.
•Your baby knows how to find the breast and attach all by himself, but he needs to take his own time to get there. Ideally you will stay skin to skin for at least the first hour or more. •Routine can wait. Ask to have weighing, nappies and other non-urgent stuff to be delayed until after the baby takes that important first feed.