Why need this
Breastfeeding Is Not Easy
Breastfeeding is the most natural thing you can do to feed your baby, but it might not come as natural… Many women experience (start-up) issues with breastfeeding. Where some might resort to using formula to feed baby, there are benefits to feeding your baby breastmilk instead. Most important is to feed your baby, so there is nothing wrong with feeding your baby formula, but if you would like the additional benefits of breast milk, you might need a bit of help at times. Breastfeeding is a demand driven activity, so the more you stimulate it the better the supply should be. When there are issues with breastfeeding there are often solutions to make things better. You might experience that your milk might not come in as expected, your baby might not latch well or the milk supply might not be sufficient. Whatever the reason you are having difficulty with breastfeeding, most important is to get it fixed. There are many support options for you: your midwife might be able to help, your local child health nurse or a lactation consultant can give you some pointers and the breast-feeding help line is a good option too. Visit the Australian Breastfeeding Association website for more help.
Use it for
Improve Your Supply
Many of our mums that struggled with breastfeeding, used a breast pump to help establish their breastfeeding. If you are interested in how a breast pump can help you with your breastfeeding issues or if you are interested in breast pumps in general, please read our article about The 10 Best Breast Pumps and find the breast pumps our mums recommend here.
When you supply might be the issue for your breastfeeding, there are foods, supplements and medication to help you as we described in our article about improving your milk supply. Lactation Cookies (The Best, Chocolate Chip or Regular) are probably the most well-known supply stimulating food, but there are also lactation shakes and even protein balls that have the same effect. Check out our lactation support recipes! Carbohydrates like white rice, corn, pasta and potato are helpful, as are oats, fennel seeds and sugar cane juice. Fenugreek Tablets are a supplement known for its milk stimulating qualities. If you need extra support on top of these, go see your doctor who can prescribe you Motilium – Domperidone Tablets (prescription only) to help with supply.
Our Mum’s Tips
Positioning Issues
Nipple shields (like the Medela Contact™ Nipple Shields) are silicone covers which you place over your nipple prior to breastfeeding. It is not advised to use a nipple shields before your milk has come in, usually around 2 – 6 days after birth. Nipple shields have been used by our mums when their babies had trouble attaching to their mother’s breasts, when they had sore nipples or when their babies had been fed with a bottle and they tried to teach them to feed at the breast. Skin-to-skin contact and letting baby find their way using their instincts can help with this too. Also check out these other nipple shields from Philips Avent Nipple Shield, Hakaa Breastfeeding Nipple Shield, Lansinoh Contact Nipple Shields and NUK Nipple Shields and see if those could be your solution.
There are various ways to position your baby for breastfeeding. There is no one right way for every mum and bub. The right way is what works for you and your baby. Our mums that experienced breast-feeding issues, found that the so-called football hold made it sometimes easier for them to feed. In this position you tuck baby under your arm just like you would hold a football (on the same side that you’re nursing from). The football hold lets you hold your baby’s head allowing you to help baby latch. Check this picture from pampers.com to see what this position looks like.
If it makes it more comfortable, you can also use a feeding pillow. Our mums loved the following pillows:
• Little Haven Nursing Pillow
• Kmart Feeding Pillow
• Target Breastfeeding Pillow
• Bambi Boomerang Nursing Pillow
Our Mum’s Tips
Supplementer
Our mums sometimes used a breastfeeding supplementer (Medela Supplemental Nursing System). This is a device that allows a baby to receive extra milk at the breast instead of giving them a bottle. It is a container worn around the mother’s neck with a tube that let expressed breastmilk or formula flow to the nipple. When the baby sucks at the breast, milk is drawn into their mouth, along with any milk from the breast. Our mums used these supplementers in starting and being able to maintain breastfeeding. In some cases our babies did not immediately suck well. Some mums did not have enough supply and used this to try to increase it. It is also a solution for mums that want to re-establish breastfeeding after weening or for mums who adopted a baby and want to breastfeed. You can use expressed breastmilk, donor milk or formula with the supplementer. Normally you only temporarily use the supplementer until the breastfeeding is well established. There are also Silicone Feeding Tube Set.
For more information about breast feeding and breast-feeding issues, please refer to the Australian Breastfeeding Association and/or see a lactation consultant.
Remember that in most cases mums are able to breastfeed their babies after a bit of help. You can do this!
