Tuesday 8 July 2014

breastfeeding and normal in the same sentence

 This is a sponsored post in conjunction with Medela and Kids Business

Like my {super-quick} labours, I've never spoken of my breastfeeding journey before. So it was slightly emotional to be asked to share at a talk hosted by Medela and Kids Business at the PBC expo last month.

a very young me, feeding Natalie
I've always labelled myself one of the lucky ones - except for a 3 day bout of mastitis when Riley was 8 months old, I've never had a problem with breastfeeding.

And that is why I've never shared my story - because there's something in women that means they only share the bad stories of labour and pregnancy and breastfeeding. I felt excluded from the sharing club.

So it was interesting to hear the new research from Dr Jacqueline Kent that found there is no normal when it comes to breastfeeding, no specific pattern babies follow, and no rules to benchmark the right way to breastfeed.1

For example

30% of babies always take only one breast a feed, 13% have both, and a whopping 57% change from feed to feed!
Boys have more milk than girls. The daily range of milk consumption is 478ml - 1356ml. Boys take an average of 831ml, while girls take 755ml.
The number of breastfeeds per day ranged from 4-13, and the range of time taken for each feed was 12-67 minutes. {all of my kids fall at the top end of time per feed!}
This means that my breastfeeding experience is just as normal as the experience of many of my friends! Even when we are all having very different experiences.

Learn more about this research by clicking through to the Medela website.

1. Kent,J.C. et al. Longitudinal changes in breastfeeding patterns from 1 to 6 months of lactation. Breastfeeding Medicine 8, 401-407 (2013

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT



Medela provides real solutions for breastfeeding mothers to get over any hurdles in the early days and to support their long term breastfeeding goals. Through its extensive range of breast pump products and other breastfeeding products, Medela is committed to promoting the benefits of breast milk and encouraging long term breastfeeding. For more information visit: www.medela.com.au I www.facebook.com/medela.au
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10 comments

  1. A great club to belong to that one, not having problems! My first was tricky but the other two easy so I'm not really in either 'club'! It's great when it works but hard when it doesn't I reckon. Emily - visiting as part of #teamIBOT

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  2. I think it's important to share the good as well as the bad - maybe you've inspired someone not to give up easily

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  3. I've had a foot in each camp - one baby that took a little while to get it sussed, two that completely refused to go anywhere near the breast full stop and two that were virtually born suckling. My birth stories are all essentially positive too and like Sam, I think it's so important to share the good as well as the challenging!

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  4. I'm having my third baby on Friday and I didn't have problems breast feeding my last two babies so here is hoping I will be third time lucky with this bub.

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  5. I had a great experience with Punky, no issues what so ever except for those first early days when we were both learning what the hell we were doing! Zee however has been a different story, thrush (mouth her, nipple me) 4 times in 3 months, and she is a terrible biter. I am sadly looking forward to starting the weaning process once she turns one.

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  6. I had mainly good experiences with my first although she did take in a lot of air and was colicky. My second was a little trickier with a bout of mastitis too. This research was great and will hopefully be reassuring for new mums.

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  7. I wish I had persevered with my first, a boy. My two girls I had no problems at all with and it was a great experience for all of us. I had a lot more positive help with the girls though compared to my son, 17 years earlier.

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  8. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we women could talk more about the fact that there are all kinds of 'normal'?! We're all so quick to decide what's right/wrong/better/worse when all of our bodies are clearly unique. Sounds like an interesting opportunity at the PBC expo.

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  9. I was really lucky with my lot too. All fed well and quickly. My boy would drain both breasts in 14 minutes, which I loved in the middle of the night. :)

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  10. Just stumbled across your post and I have to say, it just astounds me that people find breastfeeding offensive. Your photo gave my heart such a squeeze. I can't get enough of pics like these.

    But maybe that's because I had a similar experience to you - three babies fed with relative ease and so much joy. I think I have hesitated to share my story BECAUSE it was so successful...as though mine wasn't a normal experience. But there are so many variations on normal and looking back, I realise I pushed through challenges to breastfeed my bubs for as long as I did. If sharing my story encourages other mums to stick with it, then I think it's worth doing. x

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