Claire Byam Cook was wonderful

[clara333]

I just wanted to register my positive experiences with Claire BC. After very painful attempts to breastfeed my eldest daughter (she had a strong latch), Claire came to help advise me on how to adjust things to make the experience less painful. Without a doubt, her advice and encouragement helped me continue breastfeeding and without it I am sure I would have given up. I managed to breastfeed her for 8 months.
With my second daughter, I had different problems breastfeeding - she was very reluctant to latch. Again, Claire helped calm me down (I felt quite emotional about a second failure to magically naturally breastfeed...) and gave me good advice. By this time my youngest daughter was rapidly loosing weight and needed topping up with formula to remain healthy. I persisted attempting to breastfeed but after 12 weeks of expressing every feed whilst attempting to latch my daughter & breastfeed, I had to face the reality that breastfeeding wasn't going to work for us with 2 under 2. I felt I'd given it a good shot and didn't beat myself up with guilt.
It seems to be so different with each baby and it is very easy to get very wound up about managing to breastfeed. I have no axe to grind and I know many people hold strong views about breastfeeding. I just wanted to note down my positive experience with Claire BC.

ya'll are so mean. now you done gone scare the OP away.

Aw, shucks

I haven't posted before. It's actually a genuine post from a mother of 2 girls under 2. I wanted to share the challenges I had with breastfeeding, and the positive experience I had with Claire BC. Funnily enough I'm also called Claire, but mumsnet is running short on nicknames & I sometimes get called Clara. Not sure I'm the old guard - I'm 34yrs old. I've just finished expressing and it's a real relief to put the machine away finally.

Cost worked out as less than 2p per breastfeed, and I would have been willing to pay a lot more to avoid the pain and be able to continue breastfeeding. (No mentions of coke of any sort, but I'm probably missing your reference)

If my washing machine was on the blink and I paid good money for a plumber to come and fix it and in the end they took my money and advised me to wash my clothes in the sink, I'd be rather peed off. I don't think I'd be on Mumsnet singing their praises.

(CBC was on GMTV recently comparing breastmilk to coca cola. I wasn't suggesting she gives bfeeding mothers Colombian marching powder .)

(Now that she could be expected to charge good money for.)

I am starting to wonder how personable Clare Byam Cook is in real life ?

Despite Clare having very rocky ideas about breastfeeding (IMO) and interesting approaches to breastfeeding support (IMO), she still has a lot of supporters and many people speak well of her.

I do wonder how CBC clients would of fared with properly trained breastfeeding counsellors instead of CBC ? Not that we could ethically contact her clients to find out. It would make an interesting study, mind.

Whilst it is lovely that CBC leaves some of her paying clients feeling better (even if not breastfeeding). I do still wonder how the rest of the clients, including the 'duff milker' (Clare's phrase) clients are left feeling ?

This post contents my opinion of CBC gleaned from information and quotes from Clare written in various online newspaper articles, CBC own blog and her responses on AK website...nowt to do with Mumsnet.

well clara, if you'd seen an actual breastfeeding counsellor or lactation consultant you could probably have carried on breastfeeding, and it wouldn't have cost you a penny.

i agree that c-b-c is very good at making parents feel they've made the right decision. sadly it isn't always the best decision.

I tried 2 other breastfeeding counsellors, 1 of them free and both fully trained, before calling CBC. Neither were able to help me latch without pain, or persuade me that continuing breastfeeding was a good option for me and my eldest daughter. CBC enabled me to breastfeed my eldest daughter for 8 months, and without her I would have given up after 2 weeks. I am very thankful to her for that.

Online support is wonderful and I can't praise it enough. However, when I needed to be physically shown where to position my daughter's head to help her latch, my computer & online buddies couldn't do that for me. Of the 3 consultants I tried, CBC worked best for me. In real life I found her straightforward and very down to earth. She inspired my confidence, which goes a long way when attempting to breastfeed. She won't be for everyone, but she worked for me.

I posted because my sister-in-law uses mumsnet a lot and mentioned CBC comes in for a lot of criticism. I just wanted to put my direct, personal experience of her out there for anyone who might be thinking about using her. Apologies to Clare for misspelling her name on this discussion! I wish anyone who reads this the best of luck with breastfeeding, whatever support you use, and many congratulations to those lucky mums who avoid the nipple-shredding and for whom it all happens more easily!

Different approaches work for different people. Just because Claire Byam Cook's methods aren't popular on MN it doesn't mean that they don't help other people.

I intend to buy her book, I intend to buy lots of books and talk to lots of people and I will make my own mind up about which parts to follow.

La Leche seems to be highly regarded on Mumsnet but it all comes down to the individual counsellor. My local La Leche person is far too hippy dippy for me, I met her at a yoga group, I know that she isn't the sort of person I will get on with therefore I'm sure she won't be the best person to help me with breastfeeding.

The mumsnet reaction to CBC puzzles me (setting aside the rather odd Coca Cola remark which she made on GMTV). I thought any manner of achieving any amount of bf was to be applauded?

Breastfeeding is incredibly difficult for a lot of women and despite the NCT giving its best shot as a volunteer service, it simply isn't enough given woeful provision of bf support by most pcts.

If you need someone to come to your home and spend one to one time with you and you're fortunate enough to be able to afford it (I spent more on congestion charges and parking at my hospital -St Thomas's- than CBC charges for her time) then even one more woman persevering with bf for longer than she would otherwise is surely not to be derided?

If its the fact she takes money for this service then there are reams of pages on this site written about cranial osteopathy, acupuncture and bl**dy Boden to name a few! All recommendations by people who've parted with cash for something they're satisfied with. I fail to see why CBC's services should be any different.

I didn't use CBC, my start to bf nightmare is here but one of my NCT buddies did. She went from bleeding nipples/emotional wreck with bf failing to still successfully feeding 5 months on. I don't doubt that much of what CBC says is not rocket science but it's combined with a home visit, an unrushed consultation and plenty of support at a time when you're at an emotional rock bottom. I think that's perhaps why the OP spoke highly of her despite not continuing with bf - she had the support needed to make that decision without feeling like a bad person.

If I get pg again (still debatable after the last 5 months I've had!) I'll have CBC on speed dial.

herethereandeverywhere - her book is really, really negative and would make almost everyone think they hadn't enough milk to bother. She advises 'emptying' your breasts with a pump to see what baby is getting .

Her counselling may work for some people, but I'mm glad I didn't believe that 'normal, healthy' babies should only want fed every 3 hours...

(I was lent the book by someone without me asking and actually did read it just to see how duff it was )

I read CBC's book before i heard about the 'GMTV coke' saga. It seemed to make quite a bit of sense to me actually. We had a breastfeeding counsellor at our NCT classes but like dollshouse, she was a bit too out-there/hippy for me (and for most of the other girls in our group). If her book is anything to go by, i can see why people might employ her. When i'd read the book, was going to post on here about how good it was but then when i read about the 'coke' saga i decided against it for fear of getting flamed. seems i made the right decision based on the response to OP

Jaggy - Does she seriously suggest that? Dear god, if I relied on that nonsense I would have quit for fear of starving my two. I make loads of milk and have a fast let down but on the rare occasions I tried to pump it took ages to produce very little. Pumping does not tell you how much you are producing. Certainly not in my experience. And I can say the same for most other women I know.

Feeling comfortable with the person supporting your bf is helpful, but to reject a trained, qualified and supervised person because on brief aquaintaince they seem to be a bit of a hippy is prejudiced and a bit snobbish.

I am an NCT bfc - we range from sandal wearers to elegant trendsetters and everything in between. What we do share is a knowledge about bf, a first-class training...oh, and we would not judge you.

I am interested to understand why being a hippy would preclude someone from supporting bf effectively.

'Tiktok' I am not saying that being a 'hippy' would preclude her from supporting bf'ing, i am just saying that nice as she was, she was not my sort of person and don't think i would have gelled with her, had i needed additional support with bfing. and as I said, i was not the only one in my group that had this view of her, or, to be honest the other breast feeding counsellor that we met. I am just giving my opinion on the BFC's that I met, I am not commenting on all BFC's!

I've read the CBC book. I borrowed it recently (post Coca Cola comment) from my wonderful HV in my Breastfeeding Support Group - she lent it to me because she knew I'd laugh at it. I am successfully feeding my 9 month old son. I did not manage to successfully feed my two eldest daughters - mainly due to the sort of 'advice' I got from health professionals that was the same sort of utter rubbish 'advice' in the CBC book.

I could rubbish the book at length but the two things that stood out the most:
breastfeeding is suitable for babies under four months (or thereabouts);

the start of the book, and indeed the useful numbers at the back, consists of a help with the equipment you will need. This strikes me as being similar to telling people trying to stop smoking that they need to stock up with plenty of cigarettes in the cupboards, y'know, JUST IN CASE it doesn't work out.....

"Cost worked out as less than 2p per breastfeed"

Why can we never get a straight answer when we ask an Op singing the praises of CBC how much she charges? Do you have to sign a confidentiality agreement?

Bex, you are missing my point. I know you were not suggesting all bfcs are hippies. My point is we are all different, but none of us would judge you in the same way. You judged her, and a colleague of hers, and decided that this 'hippiness' would make her less effective as a bfc because her hippiness would mean you would not gel.

Shame.

"Do you have to sign a confidentiality agreement?"
It might explain the absence of unhappy clients...LOL.

From this thread

smallwhitecat posted
"i stareted a thread on clare byam-cook some time ago. i paid her £100 for advice on bf. suffice to say bf-ing improved for me when i decided to ignore all of it."

So we know she charged £100 for advice two years ago.

Have you actually seen the CBC comment about coke?...from how I interpreted it, she was saying that breastmilk is as sweet as coke and therefore not good for children's teeth when still being bf after 2 years of age. She was not suggesting that it had the same nutritional content as bm or that bm was not suitable for those under 2.

As for snacking, am I missing something? Again, she was referring to the other women's 4/5 year old and suggesting that you wouldn't encourage them to snack between meals? Perfectly sensible, surely? I am not sure she deserves a slating for that as a suggestion?

Tiktok I referred to the LL counsellor as being too hippy because of a couple of comments she made to me at a yoga class I attended after ds's birth.

Ds was 6 months old and when I found out that she was the LL counsellor I told her that I had given up bfing far earlier than I had wanted to and may seek her advice next time round. She then proceeded to tell me that 6 months wasn't too late to relactivate and she wanted to demonstrate to the class how it was possible, she had almost removed my breast from my bra before I had chance to tell her that I really really didn't want to be her "experiment". We also had to share birth stories and when I said that I had a csection because ds was breech she patted me soothingly and said that I should have demanded a natural birth she said that in my case I should have gone for an independent midwife and had a homebirth. I hadn't given any indication to her that I was disappointed in having a csection and I found her comments patronising and unhelpful.

Other friends have also encountered problems wwith her bfing support as she is of the view that people don't try hard enough and give up too easily. I know that we would clash so I would rather seek the advice of someone more who is more practical rather than being away with the fairies.