"Breastfeeding Support"

When I had my son in December 2019, I struggled with getting to grips with breastfeeding.

I went into hospital knowing I wanted to breastfeed, and give my baby the best start to life, but beyond this decision was completely unprepared.

Although the staff at Victoria Hospital tried their best to help me with latching, my nipples were sore, cracked and bleeding. I was also accidentally going too long between feeds. By the time I got home a couple of days later, I was extremely distraught with pain and to make matters worse my son had lost over 11% of his birth weight. 

Nothing compares to the feeling of utter hopelessness felt by a new mother who struggles to breastfeed her child - the guilt and utter fear was nothing like anything I had experienced. I was a nervous wreck and believed I was not fit to be a mother.

Luckily my health visitor was amazing and encouraged me to not give up breastfeeding and get through this tough but temporary time. She provided me with beakers and taught me to hand express to help get my nipple into a better shape for my son's latch and was able to organise a breastfeeding support worker to come out and spend more time with me.

My breastfeeding support worker was called Colette and she supported me throughout my breastfeeding journey: through the 5 weeks of bleeding and cracked nipples; oversupply issues; multiple blocked ducts and 3 episodes of mastitis. She provided me with so many techniques for feeding my baby until we found the right fit and together we worked on a plan to reduce my milk supply and prevention strategies for blocked ducts.

Collette was always a phone call away and if I phoned her she would either give me the advice I needed over the phone or come out to see me the same day.

Despite the unusually difficult start I had, I was determined to breastfeed and bottle feeding was something I was extremely reluctant to try, especially with the fears surrounding coronavirus. I wanted to give my baby the best chance to fight off the virus if we were unlucky enough to catch it. Without the continued support from Colette and other members of Fife's breastfeeding support team, I think I would have been in a really bad place emotionally. They have been an invaluable resource to me throughout.

Today, 14 months on from his birth, I have decided to stop breastfeeding. Colette has even been there to help formulate a plan for this period of my journey (to prevent an episode of mastitis) and promises to catch up with me during my next pregnancy in preparation for breastfeeding a second time.

I want to thank Colette and the rest of the team for everything they have done to support me and hope they continue to receive the funding to support mothers like me who choose to breastfeed their children. I couldn't have done it without them.