breastfeeding baby

As you carried your baby in your belly, you dreamed of an instant connection between you – just like the soft focused television ads. He would instantly know you are his mother, the one who will protect him and love him forever and he will love you back. You will be his special person, the one he loves more than anyone else in the whole world.

For a new mum, the holiday season can be overwhelming and exhausting. It can also impact your milk supply and may mean that your baby, sensing your own stress, becomes increasingly unsettled. Then, as relatives ask, ‘are you sure you have enough milk?’ your self-doubt increases and you reach for the bottle. This is often described as ‘holiday weaning’.

But please take heart, we have top tips for you to beat holiday ‘boobie traps’ so you keep your boobs full and your baby at the breast.

It’s your baby’s first Christmas. It’s exciting but also a bit overwhelming too as you try to plan the big day with family and friends.

Hopefully, if you have a newborn, you haven’t put your hand up to host the day, but this means you will be a guest at somebody else’s house and this can present other sorts of stress. Check out our survival plan. 

Learning to breastfeed so it becomes natural and easy can take a few weeks or longer, just like learning a dance with an inexperienced partner who also needs to learn the steps (coordinating sucking, swallowing and breathing). Soon, breastfeeding is mostly a sweet interlude in your days and nights, as you snuggle together and drink in that sweet baby breath and stroke his fine skin as he fills up on your mama milk. But, at the risk of sounding like a Debbie Downer, even when breastfeeding is going pretty smoothly, there are a few things that suck, big time ....

Breastfeeding will be more relaxed and comfortable for you and your baby if you get a good latch right from the start. A good latch can head off breastfeeding problems before they happen: it will enable your baby to get more milk and to drain your breasts effectively and this will signal your breasts to make more milk, increasing your supply. And, although you can expect a wee bit of discomfort as you begin breastfeeding, rather like trying out a new pair of shoes, having a good latch at the breast will avoid damaged nipples and painful feeds.

Signs of an effective latch include feeling comfortable, without pain, ‘pinching’ or a ‘biting’ sensation; your baby’s mouth will cover some or all of your areola, depending on the size of your areola (the dark part surrounding your nipple), with most or all of the underside and some of the top of the areola in your baby’s mouth; your baby’s lips will be flanged outwards, like ‘fish lips’ and baby’s tongue will be cupped under you

There’s nothing quite like four hours of broken sleep and cracked nipples to get you “in the mood”, right?

Mama, it’s completely normal for your sex drive to take a nosedive after you’ve had a baby.

Spending your days (and nights) snuggling, comforting and breastfeeding your new baby can leave you feeling completely touched out – not to mention the significant biological and hormonal changes going on inside your body right now.

Here are 5 interesting facts about breastfeeding and sex that you might now know:

1:Breastfeeding hormones can affect your sex drive

Apart from feeling dead tired and touched out, there are also some biological reasons why your libido has go

Hello, Welcome to Tits up.

When things go ‘tits up’, they are broken.

‘Tits up’ can also mean, ‘brave up and get on with it.’

This is what mothers do – when things are broken, we pull up our big girl pants and we wade through the muck.

As an IBCLC lactation consultant, I have seen more 'tits' than the late Hugh Hefner, however my ‘Tits Up’ podcast isn’t all about boobs and babies.

As mums, we all have our ‘tits up’ times, and we need to laugh, cry, rage and be real about these, so we can bust the BS, superficial images of perfection that cause so much stress and anxiety to us all.

Women can feel a huge sense of relief when they see they are not ‘the only one’ just putting one foot in front of the other and hoping they don’t fall flat on their backs – tits up!

It’s important though, not to get bogged down in disappointment and complaining, we need positive models to inspire, encourage and lead the way through the hard

The kids have explored every inch of the backyard and even the local park is off-limits. This is lockdown life with kids – it’s hard and it’s exhausting. If you’re struggling for new ideas to keep your little ones entertained during lockdown, especially if you are also feeding and caring for a baby, we’ve got you!

We’ve pulled together a list of fun resources for kids of all ages.

There’s something for everyone: from exploring the world’s museums, to story time from space – all without leaving your home.

For the animal lovers

Animals At Home Explore Melbourne’s three zoos, listen to keeper talks and see what the giraffes are up to on Werribee Zoo’s savannah.

Atlanta Zoo Panda Cam Watch Atlanta Zoo’s pandas chew bamboo and tumble about. So cute!

Here you are, dripping milk, all ready for your baby to feed – but he won’t!

If you have a newborn, there is every chance you will be ‘woman handled’ as somebody tries to get your baby to latch by grabbing baby and boob and shoving them together (if this happens, put your hand up in a stop sign and ask, ‘please can you guide me, I would like to try myself’).

Or, if your baby is older and has been happily breastfeeding until now, you are probably wondering, ‘is he weaning?’

Whatever the reasons for your baby’s breast refusal, your baby isn’t ‘refusing’ to breastfeed because he is being stubborn, and forcing him won’t help.

For newborns, generally if your baby won’t breastfeed it is because he can’t right now, but it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to breastfeed at all – although you will need to be patient, with the right help, most

“I know I need to exercise but I don’t even have the energy to go for a walk, I feel so tired all the time and I am anxious without any reason,” says Sarah, mum of a happy thriving eight month old. When I visited her, Sarah asked her husband to take notes because her brain was so foggy she could barely stay on track in conversation, let alone remember what we discussed.

According to Dr Oscar Serrallach, Sarah’s symptoms are typical of a condition he has labeled ‘Postnatal Depletion’. Formerly an emergency medicine doctor, Dr, Serrallach is now a GP in Northern NSW specializing in nutritional and integrative medicine and author of ‘The Postnatal Depletion Cure’. He says, “ a lot of my clients were new mums, they seemed to be really tired and not coping well and initially I thought this was quite normal. But, just because something is common doesn’t ne

As he pulled on his little ‘working boots’ my three year old gazed up and told me very matter of factly, “Mummy, when I get scared, booby makes me feel brave.”

When I breastfed our first two babies, I wasn’t aware of the nutritional or immunological benefits of breastfeeding older babies or toddlers (no, there is no ‘best before’ stamp on mama milk!); I simply kept on breastfeeding them because it felt right. In fact with each of our five children, breastfeeding has been an integral part of my relationship with them and not just about ‘food’.

As newborns, breastfeeding gave my babies a gentle beginning, and as toddlers, it soothed life’s little knocks, easing the discomfort of swollen teething gums and picking them up when they fell (or fell apart emotionally). Breastfeeding provi

You have finally made it beyond the letter-box with your newborn. You are feeling pretty proud of yourself for getting out and about between feeds, poos and spews and you even have your own shirt on the right way round. But then some dear old lady spies your little ‘freshie’ and as she peers into your pram, she can’t resist asking, ‘is he a good baby?’

Then that dreaded next question, ‘does he sleep all night?’

Suddenly you are hit by a wave of self-doubt. You wonder, ‘should my baby be sleeping longer? This isn’t helped by all the baby sleep programs advertising how to teach your baby to sleep ‘all night’. Especially when you read that babies can sleep 8 hours or 12 hours or whatever is being promised. Or that you can expect your baby to give you a full night’s sleep when he is just a few weeks old – if you just follow the right ‘method’.

Firstly, ‘all night’

by Suzanne Robinson Thursday, February 20, 2020

Having a baby is a life-changing event and one that requires preparation. I read books, looked online and asked other mums about their experiences. For me I was not just having one child first, I ended up having twins as my first children. I don’t know how many do this but I am sure that it is not that common. BigW invited me to be a part of their Bub & Me Education Program in collaboration with select midwives across Australia. This post is the first in my three-part series about being a new mum, breastfeeding, childbirth and great things you can get from BigW for your new little person/people.

MY INTERVIEW WITH PINKY MCKAY

Below are my questions to Pinky and her answers, I hope that this interview is helpful for all new mums.

Pinky McKay is Australia’s most recognised breastfeeding expert

Q1. The expectation of what it is like to be a parent to the reality can be qui