This is probably the one thing that breastfeeding moms complain about and it is easy to understand why this leads to so much frusration.
When you are feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed by new responsibilities, you need somebody who is going to calmly lead you to a better place where you feel secure and confident about what you are doing.
Conflicting advice leaves you feeling insecure, lost and shatters any confidence you may have.
Now I don’t want to stir the pot here, but even though you are being given conflicting advice, it is not always poor advice, it is just not relevant to your situation.
Let me put it this way. When I see a mom struggling to produce enough milk, one of the first things I will ask is whether she feeds from one breast or two. Often the mom will say “one breast..so that the baby gets to the hind milk.”
Okay – so we know that baby has to drain the first breast before moving onto the second, but have you been told how to know that the breast is empty? Have you been told how to tell that the baby is getting to the hind milk regardles of whether you are feeding from one breast or two? Probably not!
Back to the lady in question, she is feeding from one breast to get to the hind milk..but she is small breasted. If she were large breasted, feeding from one breast would probably be fine as it has a larger storage capacity, but smaller breasts empty quicker than large breasts and more often than not, moms with small breasts feed from both sides right from the first days.
So whilst the information given to the mom is correct – it is not relevant to her anatomy and therefore doesn’t work and leads to low milk production and failure to thrive.
Some of you would have met me somewhere, but many of you haven’t. I hope I am showing you clearly that breastfeeding advice needs to meet individuals criteria.
If the person who is helping you has not done this properly – the advice you receive will probably not be helpful, relevant, suitable and more importantly may be damaging to your breastfeeding.
All of the on line programs are designed in such a way to help you tailor make your care plan which is why you will be successful when using one of my online – if you are not able to see me in person.
Seeing me on a one to one basis will always be more beneficial and this has just become a whole lot easier with the 24 hour practice I run.
You have got my number if you need it!
Much love as always,
Geraldine
