A friend just had a new baby, and sent through the gorgeous
photos *cluck *cluck *cluck
We particularly like the photo that she sent of baby in
the plastic cot, with the breastfeeding posters stuck to the
side of the cot. We bet there were also breastfeeding posters
on the noticeboard in the hospital room, in the toilets, in the
hallway.
This is really great, LOVE the posters of course,and its crucial
they get the information across, promote breastfeeding, and to get
as many mums to breastfeed as possible. The key points on the
poster in this photo are:
How do I know if my baby wants a feed:
- sucking movements
- sucking sounds
- hand to mouth movements
- rapid eye movements
- soft cooing
- sighing sounds
- fussiness
- nuzzling at the breast
- crying. You may have missed all of babies earlier clues
and it is often more difficult to get a crying baby to fix at the
breast.
So well done to the organisations for getting the posters out
and visible.
But after our time running this Breastmates business, we know
that there are a high proportion of mums that aren't breastfeeding
when they are in the hospital. So right at that early
stage, whatever THEIR reason, they are not
breastfeeding. (not judging, just stating). So it must
make these mothers feel terrible seeing all these posters
around.
We're just trying to consider their perspective.
Is this the start of the breast / bottle guilt?
We opened this up as a thread on our facebook
page and there were heaps of comments from mothers.
Two of the comments that stood out were:
- Less posters, more money for lactation consultants and more
help for women who formula feed whether through informed choices or
circumstances out of their control.
- Women do not fail to breastfeed. Health
professionals, health agencies and governments fail to educate and
support women who want to breastfeed.