Feeding Your Baby

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PLEASE NOTE THE CLASS SCHEDULED FOR 12 SEPTEMBER 2024 HAS BEEN CANCELLED

If these dates and times aren’t suitable for you please use this link to avail of a Breastfeeding Workshop kindly shared by Dorset Healthcare that you can watch at your own convenience: dorsethealthcare.nhs.uk/breastfeedingcourse

For information on breastfeeding support, click HERE

‘Human Milk, Tailor-Made for Tiny Humans’ is an independent advertising initiative created by a small team of parents, focussing on the composition of human milk and the science of breastfeeding.

Human Milk, Made for Tiny Humans

This book presents the reasons why mothers and babies benefit from breastfeeding and explains how to breastfeed successfully. It covers issues including how breastfeeding works, positioning and attachment, how to know if breastfeeding is going well, expressing milk, breastfeeding and babies in special care, advice on breastfeeding and bed-sharing, dealing with common problems, fitting breastfeeding into your life, and going back to work.

• Off To A Good Start 

Skin To Skin Contact

Research shows that it is optimal to place new babies Skin-to-Skin with their mothers. A new-born is familiar with its mother before birth and feels safest on her skin after being born.

Skin-to-skin contact is usually referred to as the practice where a baby is dried and laid directly on the mother’s bare chest after birth, both of them covered in a warm blanket and left for at least an hour or until after the first feed. Skin-to-skin contact can also take place any time a baby needs comforting or calming and can help boost a mother’s milk supply.

Why is skin-to-skin contact important?

There is a growing body of evidence that skin-to-skin contact after the birth helps babies and their mothers.

The Practice:

• calms and relaxes both mother and baby
• regulates the baby’s heart rate and breathing, helping them to better adapt to life outside the womb
• stimulates digestion and an interest in feeding
• regulates temperature
• enables colonisation of the baby’s skin with the mother’s friendly bacteria, thus providing protection against infection
• stimulates the release of hormones to support breastfeeding and mothering.

Skin-to-skin contact also provides benefits for babies in the neonatal unit, in that it:

• improves oxygen saturation
• reduces cortisol (stress) levels, particularly following painful procedures
• encourages pre-feeding behaviour
• assists with growth
• may reduce hospital stay
• improves milk volume if the mother expresses following a period of skin-to-skin contact, with the expressed milk containing the most up-to-date antibodies.

Video courtesy of UNICEF BFI: https://youtu.be/0vzW9qPz3So

For more information on Skin to skin visit: https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/news-and-research/baby-friendly-research/research-supporting-breastfeeding/skin-to-skin-contact/

See also a video by Nils Bergman. Nils is a Sweedish specialist in perinatal neuroscience and was a founder of Kangaroo care and is a promoter of skin to skin contact.

In this video he talks about the importance of the first 1000 minutes

Good attachment will help a baby get more milk and make breastfeeding more comfortable. This video shows why good attachment is so important to breastfeeding success and what a mother can do to deeply attach her baby to her breast.

Visit to globalhealthmedia.org for more videos in the series.

How to tell if your baby is getting enough milk:

How to increase your milk supply if necessary:

For more information on Breastfeeding  Twins and more click here.

Click here to learn about feeding your baby in the Neonatal Unit.

This short clip, produced by the Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative, provides an overview of hand expression and how to hand express successfully.

Visit www.unicef.org.uk for additional resources.

Click here to find out more about Storage of Expressed Breastmilk.

Click here to learn about Colostrum Harvesting Expressing Breast Milk.

Click here for advice on exclusively expressing Breast Milk.

Check out the Off to a good start book Off to a Good Start PDF, pages 38-51

See also the following link to learn about Challenges with Breastfeeding.

Click here to view our Tongue Tie Family Information leaflet.

Click here for further information.

For more information click here.

Weaning is the introduction of solid foods to your baby and is advised from around 6 months of age.

Your baby should be introduced to a healthy and varied diet alongside their usual breast milk or first infant milk (formula).

Your Health Visitor will discuss the topic of weaning with you at your baby’s 14–16 week review where they will provide you with a leaflet of advice and guidance on weaning.

To view the ‘Weaning Made Easy’ leaflet, CLICK HERE

To view the Weaning Made Easy’ leaflet in Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese and Russian, click here.

For more information and helpful tips on weaning click here.

For more information on drugs in breastmilk click here.

Click here for information on Smoking, Smoking Cessation and Breastfeeding.

Click here for local support to help you quit smoking.

Click here to learn more about the effects of alcohol on breastfeeding.

A useful PDF guide for parents:

• Building a Happy Baby PDF

Smile, talk, laugh and sing during nappy changing time and make a difference for your baby that will last a lifetime.

• Changing Time is Chatting Time video : https://bit.ly/2keUUnT

We are a Baby Friendly Accredited Trust and therefore support the wellbeing and life chances of all babies, whether breast or bottle fed. Whilst breastfeeding is the best option for babies, and we support mothers who breastfeed, we also aim to support those mothers who have made the informed choice to formula feed.  This ensures all babies receive high standards of care and the best possible chance to thrive regardless of feeding type.

• Infant formula and responsive bottle feeding
• Guide to bottlefeeding 
• https://www.firststepsnutrition.org/

For more information on caring for your baby at night click here.

Learn more about how babies sleep: (This website presents research evidence about biologically normal sleep for human babies)

• www.basisonline.org.uk

This leaflet aims to encourage breastfeeding mothers to continue breastfeeding after they have returned to work:

Breastfeeding And Returning to Work Leaflet

This booklet is aimed at promoting health in the workplace and sets out some easy steps that employers can take to support breastfeeding mothers:

Promoting Breastfeeding for Mothers Returning to Work Leaflet
At the moment we offer all staff and service users who are breastfeeding a return to work pack which includes a cool bag, ice block, water bottle and breastmilk storage bottle. These are subject to funding and availability.

Ask your Health Visitor for more information.

If you’re a member of staff and live outside the Trust area please email Kelly.Leonard@setrust.hscni.net to reserve your pack.

The Breastfeeding Welcome here scheme is an initiative which aims to accommodate and support families who wish to breastfeed whilst out and about. A business will display the logo in their window so it’s very clear and welcoming to breastfeeding mother’s. The website also has a list of businesses who have signed up to the scheme so a mum can check this according to postcode beforehand. This scheme is supported by the Public Health Agency (PHA).

Breastfeeding is really important for the health of both mother and baby, yet Northern Ireland has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe. While half of all new mums here start breastfeeding, many quickly stop. This is often because they feel there is a lack of support, particularly when they want to feed their baby outside the home.

If local businesses can make it clear that they are supportive of breastfeeding mothers, by displaying their membership of the Breastfeeding Welcome Here Scheme, many new mums will be more confident about breastfeeding and will be likely to continue breastfeeding for longer. This will benefit both their health and their baby’s.

Click here for more information.

Foreign language resources – Baby Friendly Initiative (unicef.org.uk)

Lullaby Trust publications – The Lullaby Trust

Breastfeeding videos – Global Health Media (Choose a language from the dropdown menu and then click on Breastfeeding)

https://www.llli.org/breastfeeding-info/ (Select Find your Language – beside the globe at top of page. There is also a google search button to select a language).