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IT’S NATIONAL BREASTFEEDING Week and if you’ve had a new arrival recently or are expecting one soon, congratulations.
There is a lot of talk about breastfeeding floating around and whether a mother should or shouldn’t breastfeed her baby, how to do it properly and even where to do it – so we spoke to HSE National Breastfeeding Coordinator Siobhan Hourigan and asked her the questions you may have been too embarrassed to ask.
So snuggle up with your new addition and let us ask the questions for you.
You don’t have to breastfeed, no, but research has shown a wealth of benefits not only for the baby but also for the mother themselves. Breastmilk has all the nutrition a baby needs for the first six months of life and is easily digested by the baby.
For mothers, Siobhan says:
It’s really good for mum’s own health – it protects against ovarian and breast cancer and can help to get back to mum back to her pre-pregnancy weight when she’s breastfeeding as well.
Breast size does not affect your ability to breastfeed, luckily. Women tend to find that their breasts get bigger over the course of the pregnancy as the tissue necessary to facilitate breastfeeding is laid down but that is not always the case – and you should still be able to breastfeed.
Some mums may feel discomfort at the start of a feed, when getting used to breastfeeding. If it continues to hurt during a feed, it can help to gently take baby off the breast, and try to attach baby again getting a good deep latch. If it continues to hurt ask your midwife, public health nurse, La Leche League Leader or Cuidiu breastfeeding counsellor for help.
Siobhan tells us:
A little discomfort is normal when you’re getting used to breastfeeding and can be helped by adjusting the baby’s position when feeding.
If there is actual pain, rather than discomfort in your breast, a milk duct could be blocked. Make sure to talk to your midwife or public health nurse as a blocked duct can lead to an infection or mastitis, so the sooner it’s addressed the better.
Siobhan says that your baby will tell you when it’s time to feed by making ‘feeding cues’.
These can be nuzzling toward the breast, opening and closing the mouth and sucking on their fingers.
She says it’s best to feed the baby when it gives those cues rather than waiting till it cries as it will be harder to feed the baby then if it’s in distress.
You can express after 4-6 weeks usually. Waiting this length of time allows your baby to feed often from your breast, which helps your body to regulate what amount of breastmilk your baby needs. If you express too early it could interefere with the milk-making process.
Of course you can. The problem is women are often embarrassed to do so, or don’t feel supported doing it. There are loads of support groups online and around the country (250 organisations at the last count) who can help women with breastfeeding and give a woman confidence in doing it in public. After all, feeding her baby is the most natural thing in the world and she shouldn’t be made to feel embarrassed about it.
Siobhan says that she is working to make women feel comfortable breastfeeding in public and that:
Mum is feeding in response to baby’s feeding cues and this happens when it happens, even when she’s out and about, and people need to understand that it’s natural. Sometimes you don’t even know a mum is breastfeeding, it just looks like she’s cuddling her baby.
While no one can breastfeed the baby bar the mother, a women’s husband, partner, friends or family can do lots to help and support her.
Mother’s need to get a lot of rest, so doing things like cooking, cleaning or taking any other children out for a few hours will give her the time and space to rest easy with her newborn and take the pressure off as much as possible.
If you have more questions you can visit the HSE’s breastfeeding.ie for a full range of resources including expert advice, demonstration videos, and tips on positions and encouraging baby to feed. You can get expert answers to your questions on the site, or on our new HSE Breastfeeding Facebook page.
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There choice to get sent there….
@Paul: Is it a choice to have the neurological disorder ADHD, a condition that affects impulsivity, causes those affected to act first and think later (32%). Is it a choice to have a mental health problem (55%)? Is it a choice to have a learning disability (36%) or learning difficulty (22% i.e. an IQ below 70)? Is it a choice to be at risk of neglect or abuse (47%)? Is it a choice to be born into a background of poverty or criminality?
@David Jordan: all very well but the vast majority of people in the world diagnosed with these issues and have steered clear of the wrong side of the law. So by your reasoning does it mean that the other ones in there are just simply bad people or shall we draw up an excuse for each and everyone. If it were the case that their mental health problems/learning disabilities/learning difficulty reduced their mental age capacity or hampered it in a way they could not differentiate between right and wrong they tm would not be in a facility like Oberstown. Oberstown is for criminals under the age of 18. Would you be signing off the same hymn sheet if they had robbed your car or held a knife to your mother’s throat and took her pension?
@Paul: absolutely, just like it was your choice not to be educated. The word is spelled ‘Their’.
I’ll elaborate…. look at those vulnerable children over (there)’. (They’re) alone in (their) rooms without any parental guidance through no fault of their own.
3 versions of the same sounding word.
Seems your lack of education is not solely limited to poor spelling. Perhaps research what the potential effects of broken homes, abusive parents, alcohol related issues, lack of parental support etc have in young children.
Hope you receive the help you need (Night classes perhaps?), just as I hope these children receive the help they themselves need.
@David Jordan:
And just so we are clear ADHD can sometimes (not always) affect impulsivity. It’s more to do with an inability to maintain persistent attention to tasks etc along with hyperactivity, hence the name. It’s far too easy nowadays to throw out a few letters and dismiss people’s actions as a result.
@Paul: *their
@Paul: “Their”
@David Jordan: The most serious well known disorder that these kids suffer from is BOLD.
@David Jordan: oh and to your last line maybe we should start looking at that and that decisions should be taken brfore the birth of a child to determine whether prospective parents(s) have the required “where with all” to safely bring up a child.
Never ceases to amaze me that people can be so sympathetic to children in abusive and non-loving homes but as soon as those children reach an age of about 14 all that sympathy goes straight out the window.
Small children that don’t get the same start in life that others take for granted WILL grow up to be potentially criminals. They don’t just suddenly “learn” the right way to function in society if they’ve never been taught.
And yet there seems to be a distinct reticence by many to fund early intervention and parental assistance. There seems to be a feeling that the parents don’t deserve help with the added bonus of the child grows into an adult that “doesn’t deserve help”.
And so the wheel turns.
@Tricia Golden: Many of these teenagers come from criminal homes. Grandfather’s, Fathers, Brothers, Uncles and Cousins, many been have and are involved in criminal activities. For them crime is as natural as going to work is for you.
@Tricia Golden: The percentages are frightening. Travellers represent 23% of the inmates but are only 0.6% of the general population. This is a huge figure and it’s screaming at us to get this “Culture” removed with education and good role models. This way of life costs us taxpayers tens on millions a year but we are still not addressing the problem !
@Ser Barristan Selmy: Well done missing my point.
I am specifically pointing to early intervention, supplying good role models and providing advice and assistance to parents long before these children reach the stage where the penal system needs to “teach them”.
I will concede that “will” versus “potentially” but I suspect it doesn’t detract from my overall point beyond giving you something to focus on apart from my main argument.
@Richard Wright: Did I say that or is it that what you yourself are thinking?
@Richard Wright: Firstly you are assuming that I am Christian yet know nothing about me, secondly you are assuming I am writing anyone off instead of making a factual point. Anymore assumptions you would like to jump to?
@Ser, did you even read the article? No, at 14 if the “scrotes” as you call them, have NOT learned social norms. If they’re living with parents who couldn’t give a cr*p about them, where drinking or doing drugs, neglecting them, then of course they’re never going to learn what’s ok because they’ve never seen it. As for the penal system teaching them, you are out of your mind. None of this addresses the issues or fixes the problem. Does this mean we should have group hugs and candlelight vigils? No. But perhaps putting in better structures, early intervention and a social care system that works beyond 5pm on a Friday, May be places to start.
No, Ser, they don’t. If they’ve never been taught it, and shown it, they can’t pick it up by osmosis
@Richard Wright: A discussion between a mental health expert (West Cork Lad) and Mick Jordan,on this very topic..Maybe this will give you a better insight into Micks thoughts on these children…
http://www.thejournal.ie/special-care-unit-hiqa-2302413-Aug2015/#comments
@Ser Barristan Selmy: Read that article in the link that I just put up,as It might help to answer the question that you just asked of Jeannette…
Ser, early intervention and a well staffed, proper social services Dept that opens beyond 5pm on a Friday. As to knowing right from wrong and it’s full implications, we wouldn’t expect a child who was never spoken to, to be able to speak.
@Ser Barristan Selmy: My bad.I asked you to read the article.I should have said the comments section of it…
Think a free hug session is over due.
The poor darlings
Plenty of kids and adults with adhd successful in life and not robbing backsterds and burglars and car thief’s….. And I’ve no doubt the state did all it could for them by giving them free access to doctors medication councillors. Unlike the ones who pay for it
Where is Paul Murphy’s contribution on all of this ?
We’re in the process of creating our own home grown terrorist problem.
This chaos has to stop. Reopen St. Pats for god sake…..
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