Lets Breastfeed (private practice)

[sungirltan]

here

i'd love the mn verdict on this. especially the having no agenda but being pro circumcision.

would you pay £90 an hour to talk to her?

SPB - "Well, the bottom one wasn't. I just sat there and squashed it"

why would someone pay for stuff that I learnt on MN for free?

stealthpolarbeader - god you're just amaaaazing! please link me to your website so i may leave a fawning 'testimonail'

spelled correctly obv

Could someone link me to the circumscision bit? Couldn't find it at all. What does that have to do with breastfeeding, anyway?

There was a link on KellyMom's FB page but I can't find it.
Basically circumcision like any elective surgery performed on infant or mother can disrupt bfing if carried out very early.
They are editing the "Womanly art of breastfeeding" to include a more neutral stance on circumcision as it has been felt that it is not their place to judge if circumcision is appropriate or not.
At least I think that it is what is all about?

is this what you mean KaraStarbuckThrace

reshape - look in 'special offers'

Yes Ruby that's it.

cool.

it had never crossed my mind the bfing could be affected by circumcision...

it makes me really to think that a newborn's first experience of this world is to have pain like that if they are cc

I left a comment on her website. She emailed me back and asked me if I wanted to share my story!!

Err I think I will decline...

It seems as though she is jumping on the bf bandwagon to make money. I would pesonally prefer to go to NCT or leLeche, reputable organisations, than someone who like this.

I wonder if she is catering for the expat american market? lots of language on her website american. also i can find no circ reference but that is routine within a couple of days amongst most american families.

am bemused as to why she would choose to go into this field if neither a hcp nor a mum.

i'm rather and that she says she's 'independent' as if that makes her better. 'Are you a lactation consultant' answer 'no i prefer to be independent'. that is just misleading and nonsensical. 'Are you a doctor registered by the GMC' answer 'no i prefer to be independent' would also be bonkers...Shades of 'midwife' (not registered in decades) such as clare buy-my-book for example.

Seems a shame that some mums in need of help will pay for untrained advice when they could get better for free.

she's south african. i'm not passing any judgement on that, but she says so on the site.

Just skimmed this entire thread as it's fascinating reading...

Firstly, I have to agree with Tiktok that not having children is no bar to being a BFing expert (or midwife or obstetrician). Think of Jack Newman for instance.

Secondly, I have to say I think there's a significant market for women who think paying for advice is "better" than accessing free support either via the NHS or charities like LLL or NCT. Some of my NCT friends insisted on having expensive home visits from private BFing "experts" and were then annoyed to be told that everything was going brilliantly and there didn't seem to be any problems. One of these admitted that she was almost jealous of the problems I had (weeks of undiagnosed thrush and persistently cracked nipples due to a staph infection that wasn't treated until 10 weeks -when I finally convinced my GP, who wouldn't prescribe flucozanole for the earlier thrush, to prescribe anti-bs when she kept insisting I needed cabbage leaves). Turns out she was all prepared for "BFing hell" and was annoyed when it didn't happen...

Not sure what I'm saying other than that I think many women expect BFing to be terrible and "professionals" like this perpetuate that.

I keep my experiences to myself (expect on MN) mostly, as I don't want to perpetuate this "BFing is hell" culture (I also think my problems were quite specific to the crash section delivery of DS). But I do tell all expectant mothers I know (I include any non-pregnant women who are interested in this category btw) that if you have problems there's loads of free advice and support available. I do mention I had quite a bad start to BFing but that once it became painfree it was the easiest, cheapest, most environmentally friendly, most convenient etc option and that I'm still happy to BF DS now at 1 year.

You're right, flipfantastia and Geraldine is obviously doing quite well at this or else the business would have folded by now.

Well - I'm a midwife and health visitor (don't all flame me at once with your "crap HV" stories I have plenty of my own lol).

I've done a course - reckon I could set meself up

dillydaydream - i'm a trained peer supporter and considering doing the nct counsellor course. i reckon if we set up together we could charge circa £150 an hour - based on quals and experience he he

in all seriousness flip i think you're right. late in pregnancy with dd i was trying to convince dh to pay for a private delivery because i was so scared. dh calmly explained he wasn't paying for something twice and that if there was an emergency i'd end up in the nhs anyway. i know he was right but had he coughed up i'd have been happier, based on my birth related terror.

also i hear stories at the latch on group all the time about how hopeless gps are at giving bf advice so i can understand mums coughing up for this geraldine woman willingly unless they have a mw/hv/mner/friend steering them toward the free bf support services.

meanwhile the part on the site about seeing whether the nipple fits in the baby's mouth really amused me. i mean what have you been doing until Lets Breastfeed rocks up if it doesn't indeed 'fit'???

Kara - I left her a comment too, and got this reply: "I would love for you to contribute a single article on this exact topic for my Let?s Breastfeed Magazine. Please get in touch with your finished article.

Kind regards,
Geraldine"

I think it's her passive-aggressive way of turning aside criticism - 'that's really interesting, would you like to share it?'. Needless to say, she won't be getting any free 'article' from me.

reshape/kara - i am actually properly shocked!!! how cheeky is this woman?

I found her other website here as well and watched one of her videos.

First myth - Breast size is linked to breast milk storage capacity
Nope, a big breasted woman might have less milk storage than a smaller breasted woman. Plus if the baby is nursed on request this doesn't matter. i.e. We can all drink a bottle of wine in an evening (those were the days) but if our wine glass is a small one, we'll be filling the glass more frequently.

Second myth - Mother limits number of 'sides' offered to a baby.i.e. 1 or 2 sides per feed depending on breast size
Nope, All woman should be offering as many sides as the baby wants (irrespective of breast size), it is just as normal to give 1 side as it is to give 2 or 3 or more.

Third myth - Babies need to feed 2/3 hours or 3/4 hours depending on breast size
Nope, frequency of feeds is not linked to breast size, but milk capacity. Even so I think the tradition 6 to 8 times in a 24 hour period with at least 2 night feeds makes more sense, than fixed hours.

Three common myths and we are only at the 30 second point. So as a big breasted mum I am meant to offer only one side every 3/4 hours. Mmm tell that to my children DC1 would take 2 or more sides often at hourly intervals for the first 18 months of her life. Plus as I lean to 'over supply' (i.e. I have a lot of milk) this advice would put me at risk of developing a blocked duct or worse.

Then waffling about watching the baby's outputs. Standard stuff, through I think she meant 6 to 8 wet and dirty nappies a day not 6 to 8 poos?accurate enough.

Four Myth (1.13) - Baby has to reach the hindmilk
Nope, 'Hind' milk is the same as 'Fore' milk. It is all the same milk, sometimes higher in fat, than at other times. See Kellymom's page on the 'hot tap theory' for why this myth can be damaging to breastfeeding mothers. From what I remember the original research which 'discovered' fore/hind milk was based on a scant five failing to thrive babies not health full term babies (sorry, I can't remember the correct term for FTF)

Latching stuff, looking at shape of nipple, fine. Don't know anything about lip placement, surely that is linked to size and shape of mother's breast. I'll have to watch when I nurse the baby next time and see what I do.

Five Myth (2.26) - Force baby to wake to take full feed
Nope, counterproductive to make a health full term baby feed when they are tired, could potentially create problems and turn the baby off breastfeeding and start a nursing strike. However the actual information about breast compressing is fine in itself.

Sixth Myth (2.57) - Breastfed babies have loads of wind and need winding
Nope, varies baby to baby. Certainly my DC2 and DC3 were never winded. I just nurse and leave. Normally because we are co-sleeping and we have both drifted off to sleep.

Can't comment on the winding advice as I don't bother with it, hopefully it will help some people.

Overall, they are not very impressive 'tips' from an expert who costs £150 per hour home visit.

Thinking about this woman, she sounds like a couple of different 'experts' we have talked about on here before.

I guess like the other ladies, she believes in herself. She properly is friendly and likeable to the mothers who seek her help and despite her information is very hit and miss, she will help some women.

Shame she can't see the areas she so desperately needs to improve her knowledge by seeking out some proper training like Tiktok suggested.

yikes. starting in 2002 also does not add up to '15 years experience'

I suspect she's followed one of these 'make money on the internet' schemes - it's certainly got all the signs.

You will have seen them seen them - ebooks on losing weight/putting on muscle/curing your piles etc.

You pick a subject, put up a load of waffle, and use that to pimp your ebooks which are a few pages gleaned from wikipedia if you're lucky, or content bought from content providers (re-written like you'd copied someone's homework and didn't want it to be obvious) if you're not.

The website full of stock photos, the length (and relative meaninglessness of the articles)

I think that putting up links to workshops/consultation services are just to make it look legitimate (or am I just overly suspicious that the workshops are all either full or to be confirmed - even ones that should have happened already)