It’s World Breastfeeding Week and as I’m responsible for social media activity for our All4Maternity platforms, I had an idea to share this image - it’s me breastfeeding my first born Anna, on the postnatal ward, in 1979.
In 1983 in a forces hospital overseas i had my first child a daughter. The guidelines you share are exactly my experience too, except that as a ‘civi’ not a midwife then, I’d given up breastfeeding by the end of that first week which was spent entirely in hospital. It just made me more determined to breastfeed in the future. So second pregnancy I was already attending La Leche League meetings (oh how the mighty have fallen… sigh) and by third child I was one of their ‘leaders’ (counsellors) - which I was so grateful for when later on I trained as a midwife and had very little and very poor training on breastfeeding. I do hope it’s better now - but looking at breastfeeding rates, I wonder…
In 1983 in a forces hospital overseas i had my first child a daughter. The guidelines you share are exactly my experience too, except that as a ‘civi’ not a midwife then, I’d given up breastfeeding by the end of that first week which was spent entirely in hospital. It just made me more determined to breastfeed in the future. So second pregnancy I was already attending La Leche League meetings (oh how the mighty have fallen… sigh) and by third child I was one of their ‘leaders’ (counsellors) - which I was so grateful for when later on I trained as a midwife and had very little and very poor training on breastfeeding. I do hope it’s better now - but looking at breastfeeding rates, I wonder…