Babies

Whether you’re an expectant mother or a full term breastfeeder, nursing bras may represent an important part of your wardrobe. It is important to take care of your breasts during pregnancy with soft and comfortable maternity bras and it is equally important to continue that care with supportive, correctly fitting nursing bras. An ill-fitting bra can cause painful blockages which can lead to mastitis. The difficulty is in deciding which is the correct nursing bra for you. Often they are expensive, so trial and error isn’t always an option. We’ve trialled a wide selection to bring you the top 5 nursing bras on the market today, to make your decision making a little easier.

When my second child was born, just under 14 months ago, I went through many months of misery as a result of an abandoned homebirth. I was left, alone, without the help of my midwives who had declared me not in true labour a few hours earlier and who were unable to return in time due to “staff handover”. In the end, a shaky paramedic looked on as I birthed my daughter myself on the dining room floor. Even now, it can be painful looking back. As a supporter of homebirth and freebirth, I feel strongly that being abandoned in transition contributed to my birth trauma, months of anger and anxiety and a lingering feeling of failure.

This is a really difficult subject to write about. I’m no Kathryn Blundell, so you won’t find general vitriol and made up stories about crazed breastfeeders here. In fact, I have breastfed both of my children and am still feeding my youngest at 13 months with no intention of stopping before she’s ready. So, it would probably surprise a lot of people to know that I really don’t like it and am sort of looking forward to the day my little one weans… I can’t pretend that we’ve had a rough ride.

Within Derby maternity services, when a woman has her 'booking in' appointment she will receive NHS information about birth options. These A4 brochures come under the umbrella title, 'Information for Women' and include a variety of topics. The four page booklet, 'Listening to your Baby's Heartbeat in Labour' is intended to offer guidance regarding different types of fetal monitoring throughout labour and birth. Immediately, what is striking about this information is it makes the assumption that all women need regular monitoring throughout labour and this is not presented as an optional procedure.

Last week was world breastfeeding week and I was lucky enough to be nursing my beautiful just turned one year old, soon to be toddling, daughter. She is my second nursling, with my first starting an unbreakable nursing strike at just 14 months old. I had planned to go the whole hog, to get to two years and beyond and to allow her to self-wean. Sadly, she had other ideas and despite my best efforts it just didn’t seem to happen for us. Though this took a long time for me to get over, I feel sure that my current nursling is in it for the long haul. So, I’m choosing to focus on the positives!

Several years ago, I went out with a group of female friends for a meal. Most of them were mums; two of us were not. One of the women brought her newborn son, and she breastfed him during our meal. The little guy was quite content and we were quite content to share an evening of food and friendship with this newest arrival. At least I thought we were, until the friend of mine who also wasn’t a mum whispered to me quietly whilst the others were talking; ‘I wish she didn’t do that at the table, don’t you? Not while we’re eating.’

Whether it’s a sudden fear of strangers, crying when you leave the room or being suddenly fearful of pretty much everything, most children experience some form of separation anxiety - particularly toward the end of their first year. Newfound independence can bring uncertainty as your little one explores and tests new limits.

Something is happening that nobody wants to talk about. Pregnant women and their babies are being badly let down, and often endangered, by a service that encourages these women to entrust it with their lives. Far from the overly medicalised, high-intervention hospital births that have come to represent the vast majority of births in the UK; countless women are birthing alone in their homes, abandoned by their midwives.

Human babies (and human adults, dependent upon what you believe) require a high fat diet for optimal neurological development and function. With a saturated fat content of roughly 55%, human breast milk is the perfect food for the growing brain. But, does a mother’s diet determine how fat dense her milk is?

National interest in childbirth has recently become a major phenomenon, with more than 9 million weekly viewings of “Call the Midwife” and 5 million watching “One born every minute”. The national birth rate has reached its highest level since 1971, at 688,120 births in England in 2011 and a further rise in 2012.