Can anyone point me or link me to the actual guidelines from the NHS or Unicef or whatever about breastfeeding and what information midwives provide to new mothers?
I had a real struggle breastfeeding in the early days, and am proud to be still doing it 8 months down the line, but this morning was reading my diary from the first 4 weeks and felt when I read:
"dd seems to want to feed every 2 hours or even more often .. the midwife has been again and said she is snacking rather than feeding, and I just try to get her to go at least 2 hours ..."
"dd seems to have wind or colic, the midwife says the frequent feeding is causing the tummyache and she would be better feeding for longer but less often, but she falls asleep during the feeds and I cant seem to keep her awake"
"dd only ever wants to feed whenever she is in my arms and cries if I try to put her down or try to hold off feeding her a bit longer, what am I doing wrong, I feel so inadequate?"
Now having read what I have read on here, and in books, I know that newborns should be fed on demand, and that can be virtually constantly in the first few weeks and they are supposed to be held in their mothers arms and that feeding frequently is actually fine.
I had 4 different community midwives, and they visited every other day for 2 weeks and all gave me variations on the theme above. I now feel I was given wrong information, and only managed to actually continue to bf through sheer perseverence and determination and no wonder so many give up. I had quite severe nipple pain for about 4 weeks but the midwives didnt check if dd was latching on properly, talk about thrush, or explain about let-down.
Should I write to the health trust and what information do I need to back me up?