Best Advice For Breastfeeding in Public

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The advice on breastfeeding seems to flow thick and fast. Please forgive the pun. Some advice is often quite prescriptive; particularly to new mothers in the beginning, from well intentioned and busy midwives. Often the best advice comes from other Mums who have been there recently and learnt from their experience. Forums such as �mumsnet� are often invaluable sources of frank and honest advice. If you read just some of the posts, the main thread of advice that comes through is; relax, take the prescriptive advice with a pinch of salt, let baby take the lead a bit and don�t get stress about it! After all, the alternative is far from the end of the world!











It is important to know that babies are individuals. They may have slightly different feeding patterns, or yours may have a bigger appetite than others! Newborns can cluster feed in the evenings. Feeding all night for the first few weeks doesn't mean they've got night and day mixed up and is actually not to bad a situation, because night is when levels of hormones are higher and it helps get breastfeeding established. Also, wear a sleeping bra, but make sure it isn't too tight or you could end up with mastitis.

One of the main initial problems women encounter when breastfeeding is �latching on�. There are many sources of advice on this, not least your midwife, and it is wise to establish that the baby is latched on properly and is getting milk before you leave the hospital. If you are unsure what you are doing is working, don�t be afraid to get a second opinion. Another great source of advice about latching on is on the Dr Jack Newman website.

Then comes the issue of feeding in public. After all, baby does not know when you are meeting a friend for coffee or sat in the doctor�s waiting room waiting for a check up. This can be another substantial source of anxiety and another reason why mums choose to stop early on.

This need not be the case though. It is virtually impossible to organize your life around feeding times and therefore it is best to be more relaxed about it and just be prepared. There are many products available that can assist mums (and their babies) to gain confidence in the early days of breastfeeding in public. The breastfeeding cover (or apron) is one such product. These covers can work well throughout your days of breastfeeding in public, particularly as baby gets older and is more prone to distraction. The breastfeeding cover / apron creates a nice cocooned environment for you both. This way, if you do feel a little self conscious when breastfeeding in public, you can cover up using an apron. Many mothers use cloths but this tends to not be as comfortable for the baby, and as a mother, you lose eye contact with the baby and can�t check as easily whether they are feeding well.

Advice comes from all directions when you are a new mum, and much of it seems contradictory. It can be a great strain when you are worried about doing the right thing. Probably the best advice is to listen but in the end, judge what seems to be right for your baby.

About The Author Dawn Callery is a mother who understands the pressure on mothers to breastfeed. As owner of Freedom Babe, she strives to offer innovative, tried and tested products designed to make life easier for new mothers. The is the first in a planned range of products available from Freedom Babe. TEL 0845 5438463 WEB www.freedombabe.co.uk The author invites you to visit: http://www.freedombabe.co.uk

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Why Some Pregnancy Books Cause More Harm Than Good

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With the rise in holistic medicine and alternative healing, it�s surprising Dr. Jennifer Barham-Floreani�s Well Adjusted Babies is one of the few pregnancy books available on the subject for mothers and babies. �Dr. Jen� as she is known, must be an overachiever type, because the book is over 700 pages!

The length also tells us that there was a huge untapped need for pregnancy books about holistic healing for babies and kids.

Well Adjusted Babies has been out a few years now. And yet nothing seems to have changed in the world of traditional pregnancy books. There is barely a whisper in most of them about anything holistic.

That�s like a 90-story skyscraper being built next to your house and you pretend you don�t see or hear anything!











A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Center for Disease Control and Prevention study said the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine has grown by leap and bounds from 2002 to 2009.

In Australia, the Alternative and Complementary Medicine industry is estimated to be worth over $1 billion and growing at over 30% per year.

And yet, traditional pregnancy books reflect the values of the larger world of mainstream medicine in general: treat the symptoms while avoiding or ignoring the root cause.

The only thing involving preventive care for most traditional medical practitioners is changing the oil every month in their luxury cars.

It�s funny they call it �traditional medicine� when over reliance on drugs and symptomology is fairly recent in history. Some so called �alternative� medical practices have been effective for 5,000 years!

So has Dr. Jen mellowed her message?

Let�s see�in recent years she�s published the 2nd edition of Well Adjusted Babies with new chapters, case studies, and the latest research; expanded her website and blog WellAdjustedBabies.com; and recently she completed a series of TV and radio appearances around Australia.

Looks like she�s in to win it.

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About Dr Jennifer Barham-Floreani

Recently awarded �Woman of the Year� (WCWC) and �Australian Chiropractor of the Year�, Dr Jennifer is an accomplished pediatric chiropractor with four children of her own. Aside from pregnancy books, Dr Jennifer also regularly writes information for parents and chiropractors about holistic parenting in her blog.

If you would like to find out more information about Dr Jennifer, her books, or visit her free Pregnancy & Parenting resource blog, please take a look at http://www.welladjusted.me

About The Author Matt is an independent journalist and pregnancy books reviewer based in Melbourne. The author invites you to visit: http://www.welladjustedbabies.com

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"I was supposed to still be pregnant!"

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Thinking she still had 2 months to plan for the arrival of her baby boy, Yolandi Boshoff got the shock of her life when she was told it was time...

By: Yolandi Boshoff

 

 

 

 

 

2 months to go...right?

It was the end of 2008 and I had just stopped working. I was 32 weeks pregnant and just starting to worry about how I could possibly occupy myself for the next 2 months. Little was I to know that Ben would decide his arrival should be at 32 weeks.

Diagnosed with pre-eclampsia

Earlier in December I was diagnosed and hospitalised with pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced high blood pressure), which was very strange considering that I was usually the one with low blood pressure.

Monitoring blood pressure and protein levels

After my release I had to monitor my blood pressure 3 times a day at home, as well as the protein levels in my urine – apparently if these 2 are out of sync, it could be extremely dangerous for both mom and baby.
So we had just spent a lovely Christmas with my family and they left to go back to Jo'burg on New Year's Day. At this point I was walking around with ankles the size of tree trunks and I could wear exactly one pair of flip flops as nothing else fitted my boat-sized feet. My mother had kept me on my back for most of Christmas but no amount of feet in the air would make these babies go down!

Blood pressure and protein readings out of sync

I woke up on Friday 2 January to find that the 2 readings where slightly out of sync, and I was feeling pretty horrible... but that was how I'd been feeling for a month so why worry now?
But Rob insisted that we go off to the emergency rooms; he felt things were not right. After arguing for about 30 minutes, he basically forced me into some clothes, combed my hair and stuck me in the car!

Admitted to hospital and pumped full of steroids

When I was admitted, the doctor thanked him for bringing me in; they pumped me full of steroids and started monitoring my blood pressure and Ben’s heart rate. I spent Friday and Saturday in hospital thinking things where getting better, and then on Sunday morning at 9am, after another set of tests and readings, the nurse walked into my room and said that they have to take Ben out at 10:30...

Emergency C-section

What a shocker! I just burst into tears as I was supposed to still be pregnant and not sitting here prepping for an emergency C-section.Poor Rob rushed to phone all the family in Jo'burg and the UK to warn them. Lucky for me I live with the calmest man under the sun and he just took over and made me feel a lot more relaxed.
He had also spent the last 2 nights alone at home making my birthing CD as he was expecting this to happen more than I was. Once I was admitted to the theatre they played my CD and it was so amazing, I still remember listening to our Googoo Dolls song and waiting for the anaesthetist to try and do the epidural while Rob was hugging me.

Having to go under

Needless to say, with the amount of water retention I had (20kg at that stage), the doc could not get the needle into the right spot. I still remember sitting back up and the doctor saying that they needed to put me under for the C-section.

"He was born to one of my favourite songs"

On the mask went and I was out – this all happened in the space of a couple of songs. Rob experienced the birth on my behalf, took tons of photos and my son was born to one of my favourite songs, and I still get tears in my eyes every time I hear it on the radio!

Waking up

I woke up a few hours later in a total morphine daze, and I remember them putting this little bundle on my chest... He was so small but he was healthy and alive! The rest of the day was a complete blur, but at least I woke up on Monday morning feeling a lot better and in touch with reality.

A healthy baby boy

So Ben weighed in at 1.6kg, and he was the cutest little miniature baby ever. Lucky for us there were no complications and he didn’t even have to go on the ventilators. The doctors made the right choice by starting the steroids on the day I checked in.
3 weeks later he weighed a whole 2kg, I weighed 20kg less and he came home! Ben is now 18 months old and weighs almost 12kg and is the healthiest little boy!

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