Quick Survey on BreastFeeding - Please Take A Look :-)

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I have written and re-written this post and keep deleting as sometimes dicussing breastfeeding on here seems to offend or some say makes them feel guilty about the choices they made about feeding their babies and that's not what I'm trying to do at all.

Basically I want to pick MN's collective brain on what services would support women who want to breastfeed (I'm part of a group of local mums who are working with HV and Surestart to provide support to other mums and possibly information at antenatal stage too)

So

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and any replies would be most welcome

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

No I didnt, I have worked as a mca so knew alot about breastfeeding, latching etc and so didnt feel it was revelant to me

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Yes I needed support, I contacted Mws, they were very helpful and supportive but had limited time. I also contacted LLL, but found them none the wiser than me and promised to ring back and check progress and never did

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

With ds1, noone, whole place was a production line and despite ringing bell and requesting help, I was fobbed off, couldnt wait to get out of there and probably why I didnt manage to bf ds1. ds2 mw was great at delivery and cm great when I got home. If breastfeedng counsellor had been available with ds1, I know it would of turned out well.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

Not really, only NCT, found it a bit clicky and felt a bit left out as only 20yr old at the time and other mums mostly late twenties, early thirties and felt really looked down on.

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

Yes, as part of my parentcraft classes we had a talk from the local bf councillor. Was quite useful but when you start, you have no idea what to expect so how can you know what questions to ask? I do wish someone had prepared me for just how hard it would be and that it was definatly not a natural process but a learning curve!

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Yes, for my ds1 I contacted the bf councillor in our area and she was brilliant. She came round the same day and sorted all my problems out in one trip! Mostly to do with positioning. She then text me later that night to see if everything was ok. A great support when I needed it. It is thanks to her that I carried on bf.

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

I was helped by the midwives on duty. TBH I found then pretty rubbish and didnt teach me much about latching on, just kept jamming my nipple into my crying baby's mouth. As soon as I was taught how to latch him on properly, it was so much easier and my sore nipples dissapeared. I would have loved to see the bf councillor at that early stage rather than when I was desperate at home!

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and any replies would be most welcome

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

no althou I was working FT at the time so didn't manage to get to any anti natal classes either - felt a bit alone as a result at the hospital cos they all seemed to know each other in a way. found out about the BF group when J was about 4 months old.

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

yes and no - support was contiuious but only when it was asked for not imposed upon, without MN and mum I deffo would never have BF for as long as I did. (esp MN in the v ealry days)

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

my M/W were v v pro feeding which helped immensly - even to sitting with me whilst I was feeding to ensure a good latch/every time there after they'd come in make sure all was well etc. didn't mind either when I rang the bell to announced he'd suckled for a good 15 mins without stopping! lol.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

not specifically, althou I did go to a baby massage group where 95% BF so I was comfortable there to be BF in the corner. a friend BF in public at our group and tbh no one bats an eye at it.

1. Hospital antenatal class and kind of covered in general NCT class. Sort of OK as background. But not much use with actually working out if you've got the right latch or whatever it's called these days or with where to go to get help.

1. OhmyGod yes I did need support! Cracked nipples, mastitis, agony, etc. etc. etc. Had a great NCT group (my antenatal group) all of whom b/f, which helped.

Contacted HV/NCT helpline/think I tried La Leche League but they didn't get back to me. HV was a star really supportive and put me in touch with b/f counsellor (and dh was on my side too, very important).

1. Only the one midwife who was already caring for seven women in labour so no real support available. Yes, b/f counsellors should be available on all postnatal wards (and they should be paid properly by the NHS).

1. No

1. Just the NHS antenatal class. No it wasn't all that useful. The way it was run was pretty chaotic and the woman was really scary - a typical breastfeeding "militant" type (or how I imagined one to be - no offence intended). If I hadn't been so determined to breastfeed it might have put me off trying.

1. Yes, yes, yes. Family, MW, HV, NCT counsellor, doctor, the works. What would have helped me the most would have been correct and consistent information while I was still in hospital and in the days that followed.

1. Midwives with varying degrees of knowledge and interest who all told me different things. Yes I would want a proper counsellor available.

1. No - not aware there are any in this area and probably wouldn't have attended if there were.

[BTW, sorry to be a pedant, but the people who get upset on breastfeeding threads and feel guilty tend to be those who didn't have a "choice" to make ]

1. BF groups while pregnant - I believe that there was info about the Baby Cafe and that it was open to pregnant women on the antenatal info leaflet, but at the time I was much more into exercise classes. I think I assumed bf info would be included in antenatal classes. It wasn't - they were good classes in many ways but completely without any practical information about caring for a baby.

1. Support - I needed loads of support. Contacted everyone at various stages of the first 17 weeks. The trouble is that as a new mum the people who sounded really helpful often, in retrospect, weren't. Best were the midwives at the hospital bf clinic, who unbelievably aren't even paid for that work, plus the bf chapter in How Not To Be A Perfect Mother which is the most honest I've read. Worst - a nightmare combo of my mum, MIL, my birth midwife (unfair, she wasn't nasty but she didn't do ANYTHING to help me feed) and the next midwife I encountered in the Observation Area who was actively unpleasant. And the paed nurse who was so lovely, so helpful, so sweet and so completely wrong.

I'm having another go at ttc and I want a midwife I know and trust to help me feed immediately after the birth. So I'm planning to pay for exactly that.

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

BF clinic available 2 days a week (not the right days for me). Lots of mws who did at least all see bf as their responsibility. Varied enormously. I think tbh that more work on standardising the approach of mws would have more impact than trying for separate bfcs - you're simply not going to get funding for bfcs to be on wards 24 hours a day when there's no money for mws to be there.

And could somebody please write a book on bf babies with jaundice?

1. No. Would have found the idea intimidating after constant mental battering from new mws every shift shoving their head inside the curtains and coming out with new words of wisdom.

1. - attended one really crap antenatal class where we had to hold a doll in the 'correct' position! Male DP included!!!

1. - No support, not needed

1. - Had home birth so no support - although was given numbers to call if i needed it.

1. - No

The one time i asked a hv for support on how to wean my 2 year old off the breast, he replied "you wanna do it quick so you don't have a child feeding at the school gates"

So i can tell you that advice wasn't useful

1. No. AFAIK nothing available. BF was mentioned at NCT childbirth classes, but I only did 'refresher' classes (was hospitalised with dd1 so unable to attend classes) and it was sort of assumed that you'd have sorted any problems first time around (which I hadn't!).

1. YES! Deffo needed support. DD1 was small (4lb 12oz) and fed by NGT for two weeks. Refused to allow her to have a bottle in hospital but she was very sleepy as well as small and just totally uninterested in latching on. Eventually got her home feeding with nipple shields. But she wasn't getting enough milk (or so I was told) and I gave up at 6 weeks (she was still under 6lbs at this stage). In hospital people were supportive, but also keen for me to allow them to give her a bottle (EBM or formula) and couldn't understand why I was so anti. According to them nipple/teat confusion was a myth. HV did try to help (sat with me for a couple of hours one afternoon to try to get dd to latch on) but in the end it was on her suggestion that I gave up.

With dd2 fed more successfully but had horrendous problems with pain/blisters which went on till she was about 3 months old. I got advice from a bf counsellor attached to the hospital who came out to my house about 3 or 4 times in the first couple of weeks. After that, I muddled through until the blisters got so bad that I was about to give up. It was a Bank Holiday weekend, and the first place I could find to go for some advice (I was desperate) was on the Tuesday after the weekend, not really local to me at all but bloody brilliant. They got all my positioning problems sorted in one session. (It was a shame that, in desperation, I had already started mixed feeding by that point and because I knew I was going back to work when she was 6 months old I gradually moved to formula!)

1. With dd1 midwives (one sister was meant to be specifically concerned with promoting bf, but she was useless) and nurses (as dd was kept in, see above). There was a bf clinic at the hospital, but it was run by the same midwife, so not a lot of help. With dd2 they had introduced a specific bf counsellor who came and visited at home (possibly also in hospital for mums who stayed in longer - with dd2 I came home the same day that she was born). She was definitely A Good Thing, yes!

1. Yes. The one I mentioned above that saved my life with dd2. It was fantastic. (I was 'home alone' at the time as dh was away for five weeks on a course. I had blistered and bleeding nipples and was in agony. Oh, and dd1 was under 2 as well. I was desperate!) It was in Finchampstead (near Reading) and had loads of toys that dd1 could play with while they concentrated on helping me with dd2. I think that the official Mother and Toddler group had finished when I arrived, and the bf support group was an add-on from that, but they left out all the play equipment to keep dd1 amused and they had all the time in the world to help me with dd2. It was 5 years ago now, but I am so happy I found them.

Oops, sorry for the essay. I normally avoid bf threads because I do feel guilty for not having fed more successfully. But the point of that great ramble is that I might have done so more successfully had the right support been available.

WOW!

Thank you all so much for your replies. It's great that some of you have had fantastic support - this is what our group is aiming to provide!

It's so wrong that there are such discrepancies between the levels of service that are available to women who want to breastfeed And that no-one wants to pay anyone to do it either

I've gained a real insight to how varied an experience breastfeeding can be and I'm really grateful to everyone who has taken the time to reply.

Thank you again and I'll post an update when we know what is going to be feasible for our group to provide ( expect a frustrated post as I want to be be able to do everything!)

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

wasn't aware during pregnancy

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

attended surestart run breastfeeding cafe

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

i was in hosp birth centre midwives available counsellor came from ward on request or specific times i went home before my milk came in

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

Breastfeeding cafe, useful in early days, even if just for a chat and getting used to feeding with an audience but not useful beyond 6/7 months as attitude of hv running it is you should now be breastfeeding 3 times a day, baby sleeping through the night. Cafe runs a rewards system:

Breastfeeding rewards- starting, magnet of breastfeeding woman sounds crass but actually very nice
3 months- body butter/ hand cream
6 months- massage from hv*

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

Wasn't advised of any whilst pg with DS1.

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

I was very lucky, and didn't really need any support. I did contact the NCT BFC though, for advice on what to ask for at GP's to treat thrush.

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

Very lucky with DS1 - post c/s DS1 just put to the breast and fed with no problems. Did ask the MW in hospital to check the latch once or twice as nipples were quite painful, but it was fine. DS2 was taken to special care when he was born, and put in an incubator. I didn't get a chance to feed him for 24 hours. I could have done with a bit more advice on hand expressing & how to get feeding going. I was lucky that my delivery MW came to see me to say hi, and showed me how to hand express. Then when holding DS2 he spontaneously latched on and fed, but I was lucky, and don't know what I would have done if this hadn't happened.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

I went to one Surestart group, which I thought would be a M&T group, but was more of a BF support group. DS1 was 5m by then, and I didn't want support, just company, so felt a bit out of place.

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

Had one NCT ante natal class that covered breastfeeding. Was not very helpful and made me more nervous...

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Had a very hard time breastfeeding at first and sobbed a lot. Midwives visited and tried to help a bit, but my sister was more helpful I think.

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

Some very scary midwives at hospital who seemed to think I was a bit stupid for crying because I couldn't get the breastfeeding to work and had had no sleep cos DS was crying cos he was hungry. They did try quite forcefully (very hands on) to help, but I felt a bit belittled, couldn't wait to get home so I could relax more without people watching.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

Was invited to one at my local clinic and did mean to attend but never made it. Think it would have been quite beneficial though.

Hope this helps a bit. Have rushed as DS is shouting!

1. Advised of baby cafe by NHS antenatal class at 34ish weeks. Cos it was Dec all cafes about to close for xmas though. Importance of seeing someone BF not stressed enough. All we did at antenatal class was discuss benefits of BF hold a doll in cross cradle position once - this did not help me practically when at all once lo was born. Having been to baby cafe since lo born I know they would have taken time to show me a lot more plus would have been able to see and talk to BF mums. I plan to write to my hospital to suggest they try to get a BF mum into the antenatal class to demo BF if poss and give more structured feedback than I gave at end of the course.....but cos of lo not got round to it yet! The lady who ran the antenatal class seemed v anti-expressing which was a bit of a surprise.

1. MNG I needed support!!! Took me 4 weeks to accept that someone could help me over the phone, had stubbornly refused to ring anyone beforehand thinking ' whats the point'. MW had not made it clear that she would pop in for extra support visits if I needed them, suppose trying to only do it if necessary?. MW was supportive when she visited but really wish on the first visit when lo was asleep and I was on post birth high she had just asked me to show her how I held lo to feed etc to checkmy position to prevent any probs. I got a bad crack early on and had no idea it was poor positioning that caused cracks so just carried on and made it worse. At 3 weeks I went to baby cafe and got such good help there, aldo had help that week from NCT helpline, following week baby cafe put me in touch with NHS BF speicialist and that solved problem until another crack when NCT helped again. MN have helped me with questions about expressing and sterilising.

1. MW at hospital helped as soon as lo was born and had same MV both days I was in hospital. During the night MW less helpful, found one a bit scary. Think 2 MW during day may have started the crack I developed cos they spent ages trying to get lo to feed off me whilst lying down.

1. Baby cafe has been great. Being able to see a health prof there every week is such a reassurance, more time to chat and talk over things than the HV at baby clinic. I have to get a bus and train to my baby cafe but happy to make the effort cos its so valuable. Talking to other mums at differnt BF stages is also helpful. I borrow books from baby cafe too.

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant?

brief session on it at private NCT classes - nothing on hospital classes

If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding?

Invaluable, but didn't realise at the time as was caught up with idea of the birth

If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

I had to seek out the NCT classes

1. If you breastfed, did you need support?

A bit

Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Friend who had bf and NCT bf counsellor by phone

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

No-one, yes!

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No - wish I had. Feel lucky that I bf sucessfully mainly down to luck - any problems I would not know where to turn.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and any replies would be most welcome

I bf both DDs until about 4 / 5 months old.

1. NCT classes gave basic bf discussion/technique etc... NCT recommended not leaving the hospital until you were happy bf as that would be the most support you would get! (Kingston hosp)
2. stayed one night in hosp after birth of DD1 - was a pest, asked every different MW for advice/suggestions. No other advice available (mum didn't bf, was first of my friends to have babies). MW/HV did home visits but very quick, MW had a quick look, said i was doing fine etc...
3. MW, though not a huge amount of time. BF counsellors would have been great
4. no. i didn't even know they existed until after finished bf DD1.

I did get a cracked nipple at one point but just read this book here which gave me the advice i needed.

1. We had a talk on breastfeeding at the antenatal group I attended before I had dd1. Nothing when I was pg with dd2 so if I had wanted to b/f after bottlefeeding I would have found it difficult to get support as antenatal classes were oversubscribed.

1. Yes I needed support when dd2 was 2 months old - HV told me to put her on a bottle (which I did, not knowing any better ). HV was the most obvious person to contact but certainly not the most helpful. My current HV is a 50 year old bloke so no way would I approach him for b/f support now! I find MN the most useful source of help/info but if I had latching problems etc I would go up to the midwife unit at the local hospital to see the breastfeeding counsellor there.

1. When dd1 was born a student midwife showed me how to latch her on. That was it. However I had no problems feeding her so maybe I just didn't need any other support. When ds was born (different country) the b/f counsellor came to see me to see if I wanted any help/advice - particularly pleased with this as it was my third so it would be easy to assume I didn't need any help. She showed me how to feed lying down which was a lifesaver.

1. No there were none when I had dd1 and dd2. When ds was little I had a lot of support and encouragement from local midwife-led unit to set up such a group but the distance I needed to travel was too great after I moved (over 50 miles - due to my remote location).

1. I went to a breastfeeding workshop. It was an instructional course and it did help because using dolls it shows various positions etc.

1. My mom is a big BF advocate so she was a huge support for me.

1. The midwives and maternity nurses at the hospital were very helpful with latch etc. I had difficulty with the 'normal' position so they showed me other ways taht were successful.

1. I have attended a BF support group since my DS was 3 weeks old. We still go and he's 17mo. IT has been such a blessing. We are ne to the area and it enabled me to meet other moms. and because it was a BF group we all had something in common! There is also a HV there so when we have problems that we can't answer for each tohter she's on hand to help.

I can't recommend them enough!!

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you? Only one class out of antenatal classes

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most? I really did need support with it! Used HV,Midwives, who had very mixed levels of knowledge...SILS were very encouraging towards me.

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

Midwives, some were great, some were not. I would have LOVED it if bf counsellors were available, after struggling starting bf with ds and dd.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No, wasn't aware of any.

1. Took NCT classes one of which was devoted to bf-ing.

1. Yes. Midwife and HV. I didn't contact NCT as I assumed they were for 'serious' problems, not just sore nipples etc.

1. Just the MW's most of whom told me something different. Yes.

1. No.

1. No, there were only normal ante natal classes here and I couldn't get to them as they were at stupid times.

1. I had help from the midwife in hospital as I had had a CS and couldn't sit up properly. I also had lots of advice from various internet forums (not including MN as I hadn't found you then!) re: constant bloody feeding at night

1. I had a breastfeeding counsellor come round and introduce herself to me, I asked her to help latch DD on as we were still having problems and she was rubbish as she couldn't advise me on the rugby hold as she wasn't used to it! she left me contact details and then left. I couldn't get hold of her the numerous times I tried.

1. I go to the NCT group which is BF friendly but never to a BF support group more than once as some of my friends didn't BF so I couldn't have gone with them. They were very dismissive of people who FF.

My experience is from 6 years ago in Glasgow, but here you are anyway.

1. The maternity hopsital offereda number of ante natal breastfeeding workshops: a chjoice a "simple" one for mums-to-be, "Mother and Father " ones and "Mums and Grans" ones. I chose to go to the Mums &Grans one, as a way of involving my mum. As well as breast feeding cousnellor/midwife who ran the workshop, they had two new mums at it - one who had had no problems (and had a monster baby! ) and the other who had really struggled. She was inspiration - and in later, I retruned the favour by myslef being one of "brestfeeding mums" (the one who had struggled) at a later workshop - and apparently also in turn inspired other struggling mums!

1. Ds was very slow to gain weight. I sued the breast feeding suport group at the hopsital, run by the breast feeding cousnellor midwives (the hopsital had two specialists). They were the ones I used all the time - I avoided HVs and even the commmunity midwives, who were more interested in his weight than what I was actually doing. To be fair, becaseu they knew I was still in contact with the hospital (even though it wasn't the one they were attached to, as I had gone slightly out of are), they didn't hassle me.

1. Tme midwives in he hospital were very good at providng support and would spend ages (up to half an hour a time) helping me to get ds to latch on, as he wasn't very oggd at it. In the middle of the night though, I might have to wait a while (as they could have been dealing with another recalcitrant baby like my own ) There were also two specialist breadt feeding counsellor midwives. The sister in charge of the maternity wards was very pro breast feeding. I was in hpostial for c.5 days though, as ds had jaundice, so I had plenty of time to get to know the midwives!breastfeedng counsellors available?

1. No - since I used the support group (which met weekly) at the hospital.

My ds was a claiss ic case of a NON failure to thrive baby who didn't follow the growth charts. The breast feeding cousellors at the hopstial even said that he would be a good case study illustrating why just looking at growth charts was not a good idea, as he was manifestly a happy, healthy and alert baby. They dod however still refer him to the conusltant paediaitrican wafter he had dropped from the 91st centiel (at birth) to under the growth charts, but was already creeping back up again by the time he was seen a week or so later (he took six or seven weeks to regain birth weight!), and the conultant realy couldn't see waht all the fuss was about.

1. I attended one NHS antenatal class about breastfeeding, consisted of a 20 minute video, not terribly helpful.

1. I had no problems to start with, baby latched on straight away, but four weeks down the line I had problems with a blocked duct and the HVs gave me good advice. They also gave me phone numbers for breastfeeding counsellors, but the problem resolved itself so I didn't need to call.

1. Midwives only. Didn't offer any support. Would have been nice to see a breastfeeding counsellor, just to give me extra confidence and advice about feeding positions etc.

1. No. Was never made aware that any existed.

1. Covered briefly in antenatal class with knitted model breast but knowing the theory is rather different from actually feeding a real baby!

HV mentioned NCT/HV drop-in session, but exhausted by late pregnancy, Christmas etc. never got round to going. Also thought breastfeeding would come naturally anyway...

1. One of the community midwives in the early days at home was extremely helpful. Then the weekly NCT drop-in session, without which I would definitely not still be breastfeeding. Also grateful to mumsnet for excellent advice offered on thrush, which I think and hope has just about cleared up. DD is 8 weeks old today and feeding is for the first time not enormously painful.

1. Hospital stay was a complete disaster. DD drew blood during her very first feed immediately after she was born. We were kept in for 2 nights (having had quick and easy birth with just gas and air) to establish breastfeeding. No breastfeeding counsellors. Never saw the same midwife twice. A couple of the midwives were very good, but all offered slightly different advice and methods. Eventually I lied and said everything was fine just so they'd let us go home.

1. Haven't come across any.

Continuity of care in the very early days would have made a great difference. Ideally one would have access to a breastfeeding counsellor in the hospital and then see the same community midwife for each home visit, rather than receiving sometimes contradictory advice from a succession of different people.

1. Not advised about specific breastfeeding classes. It was covered in our antenatal classes. I don't feel it was particularly useful it gave the impression that breastfeeding would be fairly easy.

1. I did need support, I contacted breastfeeding counsellors and health visitors. I found them to be helpful but tbh by then the damage was done it was support in the first few days when I was in hospital that would have been more helpful.

1. THere was a breastfeeding counsellor who came in on my last day in the hospital but she spent so long talking to the breastfeeding `star` of the ward that she didn't actually get to see me (I must have asked to see her about 100 times). I found the midwives (at the hospital) knowledge of breastfeeding to be non existent.

1. No they were not available at the time. There is now a breastfeeding cafe every other week which I will attend when I am expecting no 2.