When I had my first child nearly 15 years ago I was told that breast-feeding was “the most natural thing in the world” and that just 13 weeks of breast milk would give my baby a nutritional and immunological head-start in life. A journal that I kept records bleeding nipples and mastitis, so “natural” isn’t necessarily easy. But I persevered and, eventually, everything settled down and my baby and I had three months of easy feeding.
When I got pregnant with twins three years later, I wasn’t so lucky. Born 12 weeks prematurely and weighing just over 2lb, they spent their first three months in the neonatal unit. At birth they were still six weeks away from developing the suck-and-swallow reflex (which occurs in the womb at around 35 weeks). But I was encouraged to express my breast milk so that it could be given through a naso-gastric tube. By the time they were discharged, weighing 4½lb, they had had the requisite 13 weeks.
Twelve years and another baby later, I intended to breastfeed, but when my six-week-old developed colic just before Christmas last year, despite all my previous experience, I worried that it was because the flow of milk was too fast, or slow, or that there wasn’t enough. Health visitors assured me that my breasts would give my baby as much milk as she needed, but when a tiny baby is distressed and constantly crying and you are exhausted, believing this is hard. Seduced by the rumour that a bottle-fed baby sleeps contendedly through the night, I sent my partner out to buy a tub of formula and a sterilising unit.
Fortunately, before I got around to using it my friend Leom came to the rescue. She took me and my baby to a Baby Café. My health visitor had informed me about this scheme, but I didn’t follow it up. My mistake. If you are struggling with breast-feeding you will osmose a renewed sense of purpose at a Baby Café.
Set up six years ago as part of the Government’s Sure Start initiative, Baby Cafés are now a nationwide scheme. Don’t expect Starbucks — the cafés run for only a couple of hours once a week in local halls or community centres — but there are professionals who will listen to you blub, give you a hanky and encourage you to keep going.
I went to the Coram Family Baby Café, in Central London, where Suzanne Cohen, a breast-feeding support worker, and the deputy manager, Idina Dunmore, hand out tea and advice for two hours every Tuesday afternoon. But funding for the scheme is guaranteed for only another three years, yet anyone who has used it believes that it should be expanded.
Claire, 31, a lawyer, describes it as “a godsend”, as she found feeding her baby Sophie, 6 months, difficult. Meeting other women in the same boat inspired her to stick with it. Christelle, 34 agrees. When breast-feeding Maya (6 months) proved problematic, her health visitor packed her off to her local baby café, where she found reassurance from other mums that everything she was going through was normal.
In fact, the consensus among the mums I have spoken to at Baby Cafés is that more women would stick to breastfeeding if they knew how common the pitfalls were. Unfortunately, in an effort to make breast-feeding appealing, current initiatives concentrate only on the benefits to the baby. The failure to warn women that breast-feeding can be problematic leaves many unprepared for the obstacles they inevitably encounter.
And while, in theory, a breast-feeding mother should be more mobile than her bottle- feeding counterpart, in practice, getting out and about is fraught with difficulty. Whether the problem is lack of facilities or lack of acceptance, 39 per cent of breast-feeding mothers encounter difficulties if they try to feed their babies outside their home, according to a survey by the Office of National Statistics, and there is no doubt that this contributes to an erosion in their commitment.
If breast-feeding was more common, more visible, women probably wouldn’t feel so challenged. However, the number of women breast-feeding in Britain has declined so dramatically that most girls will grow up without ever seeing a baby at the breast.
Huda, 35, a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Central London, came to the Coram Baby Café when Yazan was 4 weeks old. Her husband was at work all day, and with her family in Libya, for two hours a week the Baby Café became the next best thing. Breast-feeding in Libya is the norm so Huda was curious as to why so few British mothers chose to do it.
The answer, I explained, is a bit chicken and egg. The reason why so few mothers breast-feed is because so few mothers breast-feed. But this domino effect, which pushes statistics down, could also push them up. Ninety per cent of women who have friends who breastfeed will breast-feed their own children, so the Baby Café concept — peer group support in a non- medical environment — could, with the right investment, become a simple gift that keeps on giving. More women breast-feeding means more women breast-feeding.
For more information, visit www.thebabycafe.co.uk
Breast-feeding boobs
Common problems Babies who bite, blocked milk ducts, breast engorgement, mastitis (infection of the milk ducts), sore nipples (usually caused by poor baby positioning).
Tongue-tied babies About 3 in 100 babies have trouble breast-feeding because their tongues are literally tied too close to the floor of their mouths by the frenulum, the string of tissue we all have under our tongues. This prevents them from attaching effectively to the breast. Ankyloglossia, as it is formally known, can be difficult to diagnose.
Inverted nipples About 2 per cent of women have nipples that sit flat or inwards. This means that getting breast-feeding started can be tricky. Fortunately, the small adhesions of connective tissue that pull the nipple inwards are usually broken by the suction from a baby’s mouth.
Help Next week is National Breast-feeding Awareness Week. If you need help, contact the Breastfeeding Network on 0870 9008787 (www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk) or the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) helpline 0870 4448708, or the support group La Leche League helpline on 0845 1202918.
Events The Big Feed, Saturday May 20: breast-feeding picnics nationwide organised by the support groups La Leche League and Little Angels. From 12.30pm, Waterlow Park, Dartmouth Park Hill, London N6, for details contact Natasha Hall, natasha313@mac.com, 020-7813 0452. For nationwide events visit www.littleangels.org.uk/bigfeed.htm
