Breastfeeding
In the beginning I had a lot of problems feeding my baby, because he wouldn’t latch on properly on the breast. Obviously it was not all his fault; I was actually quite useless at teaching him because I didn’t have a clue myself. After listening to so much (different) advice from health visitors and midwives (who had never breastfed before), I decided to go to the internet and actually watch breastfeeding video tutorials from various websites dedicated to helping women breastfeed. It was great, by actually seeing it I could compare with my baby’s position in relation to my nipple and from there it all got much easier. I got my husband to watch those as well and he helped me enormously by telling me what he could see from where he was, and how I should do instead.
I also used to worry about the amount of time that the baby used to spend nursing and got really worried, as it wasn’t enough… his feeds were really short (compared to what I had read from several sources) at some point. 15 minutes each breast, sometimes 10! And that got me really worried, as I kept hearing that it should be 30 minutes each, can you imagine my agony! But in the end his weight kept going up and all along there was never a reason for me to worry! He has always been a big and very healthy baby.
By Madeleine Loh, Voiceover artist and Mum to Pierre aged 15 months
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As a physiotherapist & a mother the best tip that I can give all those mommies out there is to make sure that you feed your baby in varied positions. By only feeding in one position one usually lands up overloading various parts of your body, like your neck, shoulders & back.
I have found that feeding lying down, on my side, is a useful position to breastfeed. In this position my head is well supported on pillows & I am not having to hold my baby which gives my arms a break. I am also not having to look downwards towards my baby so I am not loading my neck. Obviously when feeding in this position one must be careful to ensure that pillows & duvets are well away from the babies face.
