Now I know why I am the only mum who comes to my local breastfeeding group...

[BouncingTurtle]

because apparently 72% of the mums who left hospital breastfeeding gave up after 10 days

I was chatting to the Home Visitor who was running the group last Monday - and that was the finding from a recent survey of local mums by the midwifery service. I'm sure some of the mums are happy with decision, and wanted to stop anyway, but what about those mums who didn't?

I have been told there is a peer supporter course starting in September, it can't come soon enough! It would make my day if I could offer some practical help to the mums that wanted it, to help them to breastfeed for as long as they want to!

[tiktok]

Bouncing - that still leaves 28 per cent who are still bf, however.

And the trick is to find them, encourage them to come, and keep on encouraging, so they realise they are not alone. Experience in other areas shows that this can depend on midwives and HVs talking about the group to every bf mother, maybe several times. Midwives and HVs forget to do this, or they decide the group isn't worth promoting, or they think 'their' mothers would not be interested...many reasons.

Once you get a nucleus of peer supporters who spread the word about the group, it should get better.

Hope others will come on this thread and encourage you

[MrsMotMot]

Keep going to the group and like tiktok says, spread the word about it (like in your MN Local). I was often the only one at my bf group but people do come, esp of they know about it or it's made easy for them (decent time of day, toys/space for siblings if space allows, etc).

[moondog]

Yes, spread the word! Maybe offer to distribute flyers if you attend other groups for example? I was often one of only 3 or 4 at my group.

[pasturesnew]

I bf DS until he was 2 but there was no suitable bf help except the internet when I was most struggling, which was when DS was 4 - 6 weeks old and cluster feeding 5 - 10 p.m. every night and I had (thankfully mild) mastitis.

I think I did try some phone lines but they were closed or engaged, I can't remember, sorry.

Anyway, by the time I was up and about and in the mood for baby groups bf was established so didn't bother.

What I would have loved in those early weeks would have been home visits from a bf helper to help with latch and positioning.

What really helped me to get bf established was advice on the internet, the antenatal bf workshop at the hospital, and having a manual breast pump ready (how I got rid of the mastitis as soon as it appeared).