View Breastfeeding

View Breastfeeding

If you are pregnant with your first child, and planning on breastfeeding (highly recommended!), it may help you to see breastfeeding beforehand to see it in action.

Although I was familiar with breastfeeding, I realised that I had never really "watched" a woman doing it. I had always looked away from a breastfeeding woman in an effort to be discrete. I realised I needed to see breastfeeding up close and personal.

There are several ways you can view breastfeeding. The easiest way is to rent a video from the library on breastfeeding. Then, from the comfort of your home, you can see close up how the baby latches on, how the mother holds the baby, and how she gets the position "just right".

If your local library does not have a breastfeeding video, ask the librarian to order one for you. Think of the good you will be doing for the whole community! You can often do inter-library loans as well.

Your doctor may also be able to help you with breastfeeding. Perhaps she has a patient who is a breastfeeding advocate? Perhaps you could get together for a coffee and she could show you how she breastfeeds her baby. I know it seems weird but once you are accustomed to breastfeeding, you think nothing of it. The breastfeeding mother would not think you're a freak; she'd be happy to help you, I'm sure.

Speaking of doctors, if your doctor is not supportive of breastfeeding, change doctors! In this day and age, with all we know about the benefits of breastfeeding, there is no way a doctor should be telling you that formula is just as good as breast milk or any other such nonsense. Please see How To Tell if a Professional is Supportive of Breastfeeding for more information. Also see The Benefits of Breastfeeding if you are unsure.

Another way to view breastfeeding is to phone the local chapter of La Leche League. You can visit their website at www.laleche.org. There you can read all sorts of fabulous articles, see answers to questions you may have, and find a local chapter of La Leche League in your area. Find out when their next meeting is, and go and introduce yourself. Keep in mind that while you may be feeling awkward or shy, the breastfeeding women also felt that way once before, so they will understand what you are going through. They will not think your are "weird" for wanting to come to a meeting and view breastfeeding; rather they will think you are going to be a fabulous mother!

Breastfeeding is not difficult, as long as you have support and help for any challenges that may arise. If you surround yourself with supportive people, you will be successful at breastfeeding. The key is to find those supportive people NOW, while you are pregnant, because it will be more difficult later when you have your newborn to take care of. Furthermore, when a breastfeeding problem arises, you need to get help RIGHT AWAY, and if you already have the support there, usually one phone call will send help on the way.

OK, back to my topic of how to view breastfeeding. I wonder if you have a friend, or a friend of a friend, who is a breastfeeding mother? You could politely mention to her that you have some questions about breastfeeding. You will be able to judge by her response if she would be willing to demonstrate breastfeeding for you. If it was me, I'd say, "Hey, that's great that you are interested in breastfeeding while you are pregnant! Come on over and I'll give you the tour!" If the woman is more reserved, then she will not even go there. It will be fairly obvious to you.

You can also view breastfeeding positions by looking at photos, such as on the La Leche League's website. But I did not find that all that helpful. The one thing that I (unfortunately) did not learn about breastfeeding until my second baby (which may explain all the problems I had with baby #1) was that you do not insert your nipple straight into your baby's mouth; rather you point it up toward the top of baby's mouth. This is something that you really need to see in action and cannot be thoroughly explained in a photo.

You may also view breastfeeding at your prenatal class. Perhaps you could ask the teacher beforehand if she will be covering breastfeeding in the class. I would hope so! Ask her if she could show a video.

In Canada, we have Public Health Nurses, who are very helpful with breastfeeding. I found that some are more helpful than others, so if you are unsure about one person, move onto the next! The Public Health Nurses have breastfeeding classes you can attend before giving birth and I found this to be instrumental in helping me succeed with breastfeeding my second baby.

Almost all breastfeeding problems can be attributed to a poor latch. I had blocked ducts 15 times with my first baby, and not once with second baby. Since my breasts had not changed (ok, ok, a bit more droopy! ha ha) it is fair to say that my first daughter (and I) had a poor latch, and my second daughter had an awesome latch. If I had had a chance to view breastfeeding, I could have seen firsthand what a proper latch looked like and I could have avoided problems.

I wish you all the best with breastfeeding your baby! If you have any problems at all, please get help right away so that you can enjoy this precious time with your baby.

Yours,

Suzanne Doyle-Ingram