Clare Byam Cook Interview – Breastfeeding Challenges
We are VERY excited about The Baby Show at Birmingham’s NEC this May!!! During the lead up to previous events, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to chat with some of The Baby Show experts who will be appearing on the central Baby Show stage – in particular Clare Byam Cook
About Clare Byam Cook
Clare Byam Cook is a qualified nurse and former midwife, and is the UK’s leading breastfeeding expert.
A specialist on breastfeeding since 1989, Clare runs her own private consultations and has been called upon by a host of big names to help solve feeding issues; Kate Winslet, Gabby Logan, Ayda Field, Lily Allen and Helena Bonham Carter are all previous clients.
Clare Byam Cook has written articles and been a guest expert for various baby magazines such as Prima Baby and Junior Pregnancy & Birth and written a number of books to help new and nursing mothers including “What to Expect when your Breastfeeding…… and what if you cant?” , Top Tips for Breastfeeding and Top Tips for Bottle Feeding
We chatted with Clare about the challenges of breast feeding and how to overcome them…
We all hear the phrase Breast is Best on a regular basis, but what do you think are the most common challenges women face when breastfeeding their child?
First has to be conflicting advice – if even the experts cant agree it is no wonder mothers get confused!
Many women also experience problems latching on – new mums, particularly first time mums are the amateurs when it comes to breastfeeding, and are looking for professionals to help. Midwives should be able to help mothers get their child to latch on and women shouldn’t be sent home with a “just keep practicing” approach.
Next is Sore nipples – often caused by incorrect feeding or poor latching. I know my approaches work because often mothers will come to me with sore nipples – when I show them how to latch on by my approach, the feeding instantly feels better. That’s not just fluke. If I then ask them to switch back to how they were doing it previously, they are like “ow!!”
Finally and one that some people tend to forget is that some mothers just don’t have enough milk – they may have followed all the advice about diet, rest and regular feeding but supply is still really low.
The reasons most mothers give up breast feeding within 6 weeks is usually because of one or a combinations of these issues.
Tongue Tie has been a massive issue for a lot of mums in our community, and at some hospitals in the Midlands, doesn’t appear to be checked for as standard. What should mums look for if they feel that their child might have trouble with tongue tie?
I have been giving breastfeeding advice for almost 30 years, and am increasingly seeing midwives and breastfeeding counsellors diagnosing tongue tie whenever the baby isnt feeding properly. It therefore does appear to be somewhat over diagnosed – I believe that if you did a survey of mothers who’d had the tongue tie cut, many would say that their child did not suddenly feed brilliantly afterwards.
You can however test very easily if there is a genuine issue with tongue tie preventing your child from feeding by putting your finger into your baby’s mouth to suck. With a baby who has a problematic tongue tie you will feel their tongue slip back behind the gums and cause a biting sensation. If the tongue remains over the bottom gum when they suck on your finger, it is unlikely that they have a tongue-tie that needs cutting to improve feeding.
There is a lot of pressure on women today to breastfeed, meaning that many who struggle are left feeling like a bit of a “failure”. What advice would you give to those who have tried but been unable to successfully feed?
The mother is the amateur when it comes to breastfeeding, and if health professionals can’t show her how to breastfeed easily and painlessly, then the mother certainly shouldn’t feel like a failure if she can’t do it either!
Some mothers don’t have enough milk – leaving a baby unsettled and not gaining weight. If neither the baby or a breast pump can get enough milk out of your breast, then you are certainly not a failure to turn to the bottle. You are simply doing what will feed your child successfully.
If you compare this to feeding in the animal world, all dairy farmers will tell you that some of their cows produce far more milk than others, hence the phrase “Prize Dairy Cow”. They are all fed the same and milked in the same way, but some produce plenty of milk and others very little. Nature does not always get it right!
There are also some lambs that are bottle fed at the farm as they can’t get the hang of feeding from their mothers. The farmer bottle feeds them because it is the right thing to do for the lamb. Quite often breast feeding goes wrong because the baby cant feed properly – and I have seen this first hand with twins! One baby feeds perfectly well and is gaining weight, whilst the other struggles. With one baby its easy to assume that the source of the problem is you – but often this isnt the case!
If the mother is doing everything she has been advised and it is still not working, she is certainly not a failure. This was partly the reason why I wrote my book on bottle feeding. Very few mothers get taught at antenatal classes anything about bottle feeding. 75% of babies are given a bottle of some sort by 6 weeks, so it seems absurd not to teach skills about sterilising and formula feeds.
Our personal experience was that nearly every midwife, health visitor and GP we spoke to has different opinions on how we should breast feed, and what is “normal” for a child – this can be quite disconcerting. How do we know which advice to take or should we just trust our gut?
You need to get the person who is telling you what approach to take, to explain WHY what they are telling you is correct. In my experience and from what mothers have told me – one midwife will say that 5 minutes at the breast is not nearly enough, whereas as another will say that 40 minutes is far too much. Neither of them will explain WHY.
What they don’t explain to you is that what dictates how long your baby feeds for is dependent on how fast your flow is, how much milk you have, and how your baby sucks. If you lined 20 new mums up in a room and asked them all to use a breast pump, some would fill a bottle in 10 minutes, and others will find their milk drips out, and it may take them an hour to fill a bottle. EVERYONE is different and that’s the fundamental issue when it comes to understanding breastfeeding – just because your approach differs to someone else’s it doesn’t mean your not doing it right.
Do you have any advice for mums for mums who are struggling to get their baby to take a bottle or who want to stop breast feeding altogether?
I cover this in detail in my book. For mothers who are trying to stop feeding generally, its a case of slowly winding down gradually, offering a shorter amount of time at the breast, and reducing your supply through lack of stimulation.
As for babies who wont take a bottle – in the early days it is easier as a baby will suckle on anything at first. For older babies, sometimes cold turkey is the best approach – offering only the bottle for a 24 hour period. If you keep offering the bottle and they refuse but you then reward them with the breast, these are mixed signals that are unlikely to be successful. Sometimes doing a 24 hour period is a case of being cruel to be kind!
I firmly believe that all breast fed babies should be given a bottle of expressed milk by 6 weeks at the latest, as this eases the transition and is a useful backup if ever you have to go into hospital or be away from your baby for any reason.
You are at the Baby Show in Birmingham – can you tell us a little about what you will be doing?
I am holding a talk on the main stage on Friday 13th May.
I have had some great successes with members of the public at previous Baby Shows. During one Baby Show appearance, a lady came with her 8 week old daughter with whom she had never been able to successfully breastfeed. She came as a last hope, having been expressing and bottle feeding her child since her birth. I was able to show her how to latch on and together we helped her breast feed her baby for the very first time. She left in tears (happy tears!) but it just goes to show my method works!
Thanks to Clare Byam Cook for taking time out of her busy schedule to chat with us. Do pop along and see Clare’s talk at The Baby Show for any advice or support on anything from sore nipples, difficulties latching, tongue tie, positioning or weaning from the breast!
Clare’s Byam Cook’s DVD – Breastfeeding without Tears is out now to buy at Amazon here Breast Feeding Without Tears With Clare Byam-Cook [DVD] and includes lots of information about how breastfeeding works as well as great visual aids and examples about securing that perfect latch.
