Emily

I’ve got four children. I’ve breastfed them all for varying lengths of time. Breastfeeding my children was so important to me because it’s something I wanted to do for them and for myself. I couldn’t even imagine doing it any other way.

The benefits I see from breastfeeding, are that the children are never on any sort of medication, or antibiotics. They don’t have any long-term things like asthma or eczema, so for me that’s been a big plus point. When you’ve got four kids as well you don’t want to be backwards and forwards with them being ill. Long-term benefits I can see, for us anyway, is the big bond that we have, and it’s something that I’ve done with all of them so it’s something that we all share.

I’ve had a few problems with breastfeeding along the way, with my first Oliver, because I’d assumed that was what I was going to do, I didn’t do any research into it, I didn’t read anything, I just went in expecting it to be easy and it wasn’t. I didn’t realize there was a process to latch the baby on, a good positioning and attachment. I didn’t realize that, so when we started he was more nipple-feeding than breastfeeding and he wasn’t draining the breast properly so I ended up with engorgement, where the milk was just sitting in there and my breast was solid and in a lot of pain. But once I learnt proper attachment, and proper positioning for him within a couple of days it was how it should be.

For me I’ve received a lot of support. My husband’s great. With my first, we only had my one to concentrate on, so he’d be running around after me at that point, cups of juice or getting dinner ready, but since I’ve had my other children, he takes the lead with them when I’m feeding. So we’ve both got our roles – if I’m sitting down to feed Isaac he’ll be maybe making dinner (if he’s not at work), or getting the baths ready – so he’s been key because he’s been there supporting me. My Mum’s also been great support because she’s been through it all already. So these are two key people in my life who are behind me and supporting me so that’s definitely helped.

Breastfeeding fits very easily into my regular routine because I’m not an organised person, I’m really not. So I can be out the door with nappies, wipes, and that’s it, because I know the food’s there, the food’s ready, I don’t need to worry about that. If I’m out and about and I need to feed I will feed. I go to Tesco’s most days and if Isaac needs a feed we’ll pop into the café and he’ll have a wee feed.

I’m really confident about breastfeeding in public now. Isaac’s my fourth child so I’ve had to do it, you can’t not feed if they’re hungry. With my first I was probably a wee bit more anxious, but once you’ve done it the first time and you realize no-body’s interested, and you can do it very discreetly, you just get on with it. You don’t want your baby sitting there screaming for food if you can stop them crying.

For me, I like to have a top that’s maybe not so tight, so I can pull it up easily, and I use a blanket to cover Isaac. That’s more for my benefit just to make sure I am covered up, for a confidence thing, and it makes you both that little bit more comfy if you’re snuggled under a blanket, if you’re sitting in a café. Also I have quite a lot of long cardigans that wrap over him, because he likes to feel snuggled up and because sometimes the noise of a busy café will, especially at this age with him coming up for six months, he’s looking all about the place so if he’s snuggled up it makes him feel a wee bit more cosy, a wee bit more sleepy and he’ll concentrate more on the feeding.

For other mum’s thinking about breastfeeding I would say “make sure you’ve got support around you” because it might go really well from day one or it might not. Take each day as it comes – each day that you manage is amazing. Just make sure you’ve got support, and make sure people know how important it is to you so that if you are having a bad day they are there to remind you why you’ve chosen this in the first place.