More mums are discovering the Let’s Breastfeed Practice in Twickenham each day. With the number of births soaring, many mums are looking for one to one care in a calm, relaxed and femimine environment. It is therefore no wonder that this little practice is buzzing with activity.

Geraldine Miskin, who is an independent breastfeeding specialist started practicing from her home at the beginning of February this year. ‘ I wanted to create a ’safe place’ where mums could find unbiased practical answers, relevant to their breastfeeding questions and peace of mind that they weren’t doing anything ‘wrong’ because they deviated from what was ‘expected of them’.’

Her methods are so successful, mums travel into Twickenham from all over the country. ‘Yes mums do travel to see me, some as far as Milton Keynes and Brighton. I enjoy serving my local community and am excited for the opportunity. Practicing from home allows me to see mums on the same day or within 24hours, which is essential when babies are very young.’

You will also find a wide range of breastfeeding products at the practice. ‘Having products to hand that a mum may need, makes everything easier. Mums appreciate the expert advice about which products would work well, or not, saving them time, energy and ££’s. I have found a number of secret prodcuts that work magic on sore nipples which friends of clients pop round to purchase. The Medela Swing pumps are also a favourite with mums.’

If you need breastfeeding help, you can call 0208 744 8144 to book an appointment at the Let’s Breastfeed Practice in Twickenham or you can speak to Geraldine directly on her advice line. The eBooks are also popular and mums are enjoying great success with her practical tips.

I love this photo. Often when mums call to make an appointment with me, they tentatively ask whether or not their husband can be present during the consultation at my breastfeeding practice, to which I reply it ‘It goes without saying that he is more than welcome and possibly even expected to be there.’ Why? Because dads and the rest of the family play a very important role in breastfeeding!

We have all heard mums say that they chose to bottle feed baby, so that their other half could help and be involved with baby’s care from the start, so that they could bond and feel included. How a mum decides to feed her baby is her choice, but I just wanted to reassure expectant mums that there are very real ways dads can be involved and helpful without side stepping breastfeeding.

Just think about it for a minute. Women, the softer sex have babies and depending on the outcome of their delivery, will need a degree of looking after, supporting, nurturing and protecting. That leaves men, the stronger sex and perfect candidate, free to do just that. It is a man’s role to protect and care for his wife/partner and his young; it is not his role to feed his young.

So without sending him off to do the dishes, mopping and ironing, how can you get your husband or partner involved and bonding with his baby? You ask him to help you breastfeed.

Breastfeeding is a skill, a technique which is or can be quite intricate. There is also a logical method of allowing mum to latch baby onto the breast, feed and settle all of which the fathers in my practice understand and grasp far quicker than the mums. When I am able teach a dad how his baby needs to be positioned, latched and encouraged to stay focused during the feed, the success rate is incredibly high! Why? Because dad is taking control and is gently guiding his wife through the practicalities of nursing their baby.

Their conversation will usually go something like this:

Dad: Does it hurt?
Mum: No not at all, this is amazing. Can you see him swallowing? I am not sure if I can tell the difference between his sucks and swallows.
Dad: There, did you see that? Compress, okay, did you see that swallow? Look, you can see this bit dropping further when he swallows, can you see? Man he is really getting so much milk now. This little guy is going to sleep for weeks! I am so proud of you!
Mum: This is so amazing.

It is one of the most heart melting scenes to see a mum nursing her little one comfortably whilst a beaming dad looks on at what they have achieved together.

Yes there is the winding and the nappy changes that dads are better able to manage as they have not just birthed a baby, but I believe the extreme bonding happens at breastfeeds.

I clearly love my job far too much – but then, who wouldn’t spring out of bed in the mornings to be faced with tiny little creatures as cute as the one pictured? I do understand that not everyone is as comfortable with babies, but be assured that this is something which develops over time.

If you are a first time mum and feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility of motherhood, the next few posts are for you. I am going to teach you how your baby communicates with you and how much fun they really are, even from day one!

You may not have thought about this, but your baby knows a lot about you, even from birth. He has accumulated knowledge over the past nine months and now knows your routine – when you are active and when you go to bed, your preference to food tastes – as he samples everything you do and he will recognize the tone and sound of your voice in different situations. I often wonder if this is why children look at their mothers first when they get a fright – to gauge her reaction or whether children instinctively become stressed when their mum does?

He may not know what you look like, but he will study your face closely once he is born and will spend more time looking and studying you than any other woman who might hold him – and will look at you even whilst being held by another lady. Eye contact with your little one is really important and shows your baby that you are aware and protective of him, as he is of you!

In a study where a baby was placed in a special crib with his mother’s breast pad on one side and another mother’s breast pad on the other side, the baby immediately turned toward his mother’s breast pad and began making mouth movements for food. The baby was not tricked when the breast pads were swapped over and quickly turned to the other side to face his mother’s breast pad.

Many of my clients feel stressed when their baby begins to cry. They feel anxious when they struggle to calm their baby down and painc that they aren’t reading their baby’s cues correctly! The one tool that is often overlooked is the power of communication. Remember that your baby knows and trusts your voice, he loves your voice and he will respond to your soothing. So talk to your baby, soothe him and help him calm down, this will also help you focus and remain calm in those early days, when you are both still finding your feet.

Babies also give you clear signs that they are being over stimulated, either by activity, light, noise and being handled or passed from one person to the next. These signs are usually a precursor to a melt-down, so look out for them and help your baby to unwind and settle down in a calm, quiet and darkened room. As he gets older, he will be better able to manage in bright noisy situations.

I will continue with our introduction to baby language over the summer. So don’t stay away too long.

With the summer now in full swing (most of the schools are closed or closing), many new mums are looking for tips and ideas of how to breastfeed in public places like parks, cafes and so on. So if you are not as audacious as our manequin, here are a few tips to get you started!

Breastfeeding workshop
Wednesday 3pm-5pm 25th August
Let’s Breastfeed Practice, Twickenham
Cost £49 per mum

This is the last breastfeeding workshop in the water theme.

The mums on the June breastfeeding workshop loved the new theme and felt that it increased their understanding and grasp of breastfeeding, how to keep their baby awake during feeds, the frequency of feeds and how this changed, how to hold, position and attach their baby – according to their anatomy and much more.

All mums attending had already completed other breastfeeding workshops and couldn’t believe how much more there was to learn.

There are still a couple of spaces left on this workshop. If you would like to reserve your place, please call Let’s Breastfeed on 0208 7448144

I don’t know about you, but I just love learning new things through ‘play’. There is something about getting stuck in that really brings a subject alive and so with that in mind, this week’s breastfeeding workshop’s theme is water – hence the water fall!

The mums attending my June, July and August workshops will learn how the breast works, how different size breasts determine how often and how long to feed, how to tell when the breast is empty or whether their baby is simply waiting for another let-down, all through playing with water!

Naturally the feedback is of utmost importance, but by the end of the workshop, my participants will know how to make enough milk to grow healthy and satisfied, tubby little babies without pain and would have had a lot of fun whilst doing so. I am really looking forward to it!

If you are expecting a baby and would like to learn the practicalities of milk production and breastfeeding without pain, book your place on one of my workshops. Groups are small and numbers restricted, so if you are interested, book early.

This may seem like quite a full on week if you are still expecting your baby, but the gist of it really is or should be inspiring, if you are still undecided about whether or not you want to breastfeed your baby.

There are many benefits of breastmilk, many which will be discussed at length, so there really is little point me going over them. The one thing many mums tell me they would pass on, is that there is something so empowering about being the sole provider of all your baby’s nutrients from conception and throughout the breastfeeding relationship.

I mean, just think about it. As a woman, you grow and nurture this tiny little being, before it even looks human. You then bring this baby into the world, sometimes with a little help, but then you continue to feed it and it grows into a proper little human.

Somebody once said that it amazed them how you can just put milk into a baby and it grows – when as adults, we need to ensure that we are having our ‘5 a day’ fruit and veg, fibre, protein, carbs – and yet all our babies need, is milk.

Of course breastmilk is so much more than food and as a breastfeeding friend says – ‘it is packaging is so soft and feminine, it just seems so right’.

So as you are bombarded with breastfeeding headlines, debates, arguments, name calling and everything else we normally see, think of how fantastic breastfeeding your baby will make you feel and how right it is for you and your family.

Speaking to mums, I have come to realize that the single most distressing thing in their lives, is hearing their newborn baby cry and not know how to comfort or soothe them. It is this anxiety that leads mums to read and digest as many parenting books as possible, before baby arrives. What mums are left with, is a wealth of knowledge but a lot of confusion as most of it is conflicting! So, I want to address a really crucial bit of info all new mums need to be aware of and that is initial infant weight loss. Knowing how to calculate and monitor this will prevent your baby from being readmitted for dehydration.

Let’s look at you and your baby’s birth from my point of view, or at least, what experience has taught me about how mums view their baby’s birth.

When your baby is first born, you are caught up in a cloud of love, elation, pain, confusion, relief and the list just goes on. If your baby latches onto the breast amongst all these emotions, to some degree, you are going to feel a sense of relief that your baby can now lead the way on the breastfeeding front. If you are in pain, you will probably overlook it, as you would do anything for your baby’s wellbeing and besides, you would have been told a hundred times that breastfeeding is painful….so no surprise when it is painful. As you have nothing to go by, to you, almost any degree of pain is acceptable and so you continue feeding your baby, assuming that he or she is getting everything he or she needs.

Then your baby is weighed and your baby has lost some weight. You don’t feel happy about this but as you have been told to expect it, you try to not worry too much…but should you be worried? How do you know that your baby is getting enough food? And is your baby losing too much weight or just enough, how do you know?

This is how!

1. Take my word for it, if your nipples are sore, something is not right! Your baby may be getting milk but you should not be experiencing pain. If you are, a short sharp OUCH! similar to when you wax your legs is still acceptable but nothing more than that.
2. You need to look at your baby’s nappies. If your baby is producing poos and wees, then you know that he or she is getting milk.
3. Look at the colour of your baby’s poos. You have 5 colours and 10 days to reach your goal, so 2 days for each colour. Your colour scope begins at black-2 days, green-2 days, brown-2 days, orange-2 days, yellow-2 days. If your baby is still doing black poos on day 3-4, he or she is not getting enough milk. If your baby is producing orange poos on day 3-4, he or she is getting more than enough milk.
4. Look at your baby’s weight – grams or kg are always easier. If your baby is born at 3000g or 3kg, she can safely lose 300g. We want her to lose weight slowly and usually see that she has lost 10% of birth weight by day 5. That means, your baby can safely lose 60g a day. If your baby has lost 200g by day 2, can you see that she is losing weight too quickly? You need to get some specialist help to assess which part of breastfeeding is not working for you, so that you can get back on the right track as quickly as possible.

These are just some of the basic tips I share with mums everyday. Breastfeeding should be relaxed and easy without too much thinking involved, but I believe that only when we teach mums to think clearly about the important things, this can become a reality.

If you are expecting a baby, I would encourage you to get a copy of the Let’s Breastfeed Beginners Guide eBook

This is packed with practical information I believe every breastfeeding mum should know. It is also fluid, so you can apply elements that are relevant to you and your family, as every family is different and have different needs.

If your baby has already arrived and your nipples are sore, get yourself a copy of the Sore Nipple eBook This will quickly highlight where changes need to be made to encourage healing and afford your baby the opportunity to access more milk without damaging your nipples.

There are clear and concise answers for breastfeeding mums, you just need to know where to find them and who to speak to.

Many of my clients are grateful for the cooler weather, as their babies just seem to melt when the temperatures climb into the higher 20’s and 30’s. So before we really move into summer, I thought I should address the big issue of ‘how hot is too hot?’ when dressing your baby and putting your baby to bed.

So if you are super careful, you will have a themometer in your baby’s room and you may notice, to your horror, that baby’s room is not a cool 18-19 degrees and suddenly, you are not sure how many layers your baby should wear, whether you should swaddle or whether your baby should still be wearing a hat as he is only 2 days old.

Modern houses seem to warm up really quickly and so the room temperatures will be higher than in rooms of older houses, where walls are thicker and windows are smaller. I guess what I am saying, is that there is no rule of thumb that will suit everyone’s situation, but there are a few guidelines, I will address these below.

Firstly feel your baby’s chest or upper back. You want your baby to feel warm like a toasty hot cross bun, not piping hot like a roast chicken. If your baby is too hot, you can remove a layer and then come back and do the chest test again in 30 minutes. If your baby is wearing a hat, remove this, as your baby will lose heat from his head and feet quickly to reduce body temperature.

Generally I would dress a tiny baby in a nappy and a baby grow with long sleeve for the first 3-4 days, especially if they don’t have a lot of body fat. If you do this and see that your little one is getting all hot and sweaty, dress him in a short sleeve body suit. As your little one gets bigger and the weather gets hotter, you even let your baby sleep in just a nappy.

Night times are trickier as the temperature fluctuates, so ensure baby is covered with either a body suit or a light blanket.

If your baby likes to be swaddled, use a cellular blanket (the one with holes) or a large muslin cloth. This will still keep baby snug, but will allow air to circulate and keep baby cool.

If your baby’s room is in the sunnier part of the house, keep curtains closed and windows open. This way the sun won’t be able to turn everything it beats down on, into an instant heater which will just heat the room even quicker. Black out blinds are really great for this.

On a hydration front, if your baby’s wet nappies are nice and clear, your baby is getting enough food and milk to drink. If your baby’s wet nappies begin to look more yellow, you need to feed more frequently.

We will cover coping strategies over the next few weeks, so that you can you enjoy the warm weather.

How great is this photo? I was going to use a picture of a beautiful vintage tea cup, but this caption in this context, just says it all! Whether you have egg cups, tea cups or coffee mugs, you are giving your baby ‘A slice of life!’

Now that the hot, and welcome weather has arrived, many mums are calling me in an absolute panic about their breastfeeding routine or rather, lack thereof. Please be assured that your milk supply has not dried up over night and that your baby is simply feeding more frequently to keep hydrated.

Let’s quickly cover a few problems that are common with hot weather and sudden breastfeeding changes, relevant to breast size.

Small breasted mums are likely to feel more anxious when baby starts to feed more often, as generally, mums with small breasts question their body’s ability to produce enough milk for their baby. If you are such a mum, keep an eye on your baby’s output.

If your baby is producing poos, we want them to be yellow. You may find they lean more towards a pesto green and this will lead to ‘colicky’ behavior but will settle down in a couple of days time. If your baby is not producing many poos (older babies don’t), keep an eye on the wet nappies. Provided the urine is clear, your baby is hydrated. If your baby’s urine is dark, you need to feed more frequently.

Medium size breasted mums are beautifully positioned in the middle. You may find your baby needing to be fed more frequently, but this will resemble nothing more than the growth spurt your baby naturally goes through at 3 and 5 weeks. Keep an eye on your baby’s output and feed more frequently if urine becomes dark.

Large breasted mums may not notice a significant change in the way baby feeds. Whilst you don’t notice your breasts feeling fuller, your baby may well be draining more milk from the breast. Keep an eye on poo colour. If you notice that your baby’s poos are suddenly spinach green, your baby has increased your supply right under your nose.

If you are feeding from both breasts at each feed, revert to only feeding from one breast at each feed. If your baby asks for food again before your next feed is due, offer milk from the breast you last fed from and then feed from the second breast as you would have at your next feed.

With increased milk production, there is a vulnerability to developing engorgement and possible mastitis, so be alert and pounce on any swelling or redness in the breasts.

Other than that, enjoy the sunshine and don’t forget your sun cream!