talking to ante natal class

[conkertree]

midwife from my local health centre has just phoned to ask me to speak to their ante natal breast feeding workshop this afternoon.

any ideas on what its important to know about breastfeeding before you have the baby?

conker, I had a similar class when I was pg, don't know what you had planned but I found it useful to know the different positions and ways of holding the baby for bf (lying down, rugby ball etc), ways of soothing engorged breasts, and who to contact/see if you don't feel its working.

hth

give them a laminated card with kellymom.com and mumsnet.com on one side, and all the bf helplines on the other side. show them the jack newman video clips, or better still bf your own if you still are. best thing is for them to actually see someone bfing, many of them will have never ever seen it.

other than that talk about feeding on cue, not to timetable. talk about keeping baby close, ski to skin, babymoon etc.

oh yes, bathing together as well for the skin to skin is a nice one

thanks. was thinking about whether to feed in front of them - ds is 10 weeks old and is almost always good at feeding but now and again fights a bit first so dont want to put them off.

some people may feel differently, but would have helped me to know that the first 6 weeks can be really hard, and then it can all get better and be fantastic. Our antenatal classes went on and on about how bf is much easier than formula - left me thinking I must be doing it all wrong when my 3 week old baby wanted to feed constantly and all around me there were bottlefed babies going hours between feeds. Now I realise she was just increasing my supply and am so glad I stuck with it - much easier than bottles now and we both love it.