Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding sometimes doesn’t “just happen”. It certainly didn’t for me, which is probably why I have such a fascination (obsession?) for the topic.
My absolute favourite breastfeeding teacher is Dr Robyn Thompson, who shares her knowledge under the name “The Thompson Method“, which is, essentially, the simple cradle hold. You can get some more information about the “three golden hours” here. Trust me (or not–find out for yourself), it’s worth it! This is my number one recommendation for breastfeeding information, so if you really want to invest in something useful, you can get more from the website.
I was going to post a video of a baby doing the breast crawl, but there are so many I didn’t know how to choose! The basic principle of the breast crawl is that babies are born with lots of innate reflexes, which we can stimulate by touching particular parts of the body in a particular way to get a predictable response. For example, if you hold baby upright with feet touching something, baby starts to “walk”. Funnily enough, this same reflex is perfectly designed, in conjunction with several others, to get baby from belly to boob! The recipe is simple: give baby the chance to be tummy-to-tummy, skin-to-skin, with gravity to assist (baby on top), and watch the action. Okay, so I just picked a video for you. Whoops, it appears a little bare skin and boobies gets your videos deleted these days! If you are interested in finding out more about the breast crawl, check out the work of Suzanne Colson, who has popularised the concept of Biological Nurturing, also known as Laid Back Breastfeeding. Weird how something natural appears to need a modern name, as if it was brand new… but that’s a whole other discussion.
For breastfeeding support on the West Coast… when I work it out, I’ll let you know!
Alcohol and breastfeeding: Do you fancy a drink but think you will have to wean baby, or pump and dump? Nooooo! Check out Dr Jack Newman’s facebook post on the subject. And there’s a handy ap (for everything) called Feedsafe which you can utilise on those occasions when you wish to imbibe. Don’t let a tipple ruin your breastfeeding relationship with your baby!