Breastfeeding

There are many good reasons for breastfeeding. I'm cooking dinner right now though, so I'm not going to go into them. Suffice to say,

What do you need? A helpful, supportive family is a good start. Advice from La Leche League or Plunket is helpful too. I was lucky enough to have the services of the hospital Lactation Consultant (LC), which really helped me with issues involved with mulitples and preemies. Plently of people find it really easy straight away, but most find the first six or so weeks at least a bit tough.

Good comfortable nursing bras are a must. I had one of pretty much every kind available while I was breastfeeding. And I was pretty gutted when the lovely Hot Milk bras came out just before I was about to wean. I wore bras day and night for at least the first four months, and probably should have for longer.

Nursing pads are useful too. I went through boxes of them (at least one a week) until I discovered the cloth ones at Kmart (made by Tommee Tippee). Of course, withing a month of finding them, I no longer needed them. Now, many sites that sell cloth nappies also sell cloth breastpads, some have cool designs on them and are really quite fun, if that's what you're into.

Adaquate food and water are a must. Your midwife will advise you on all that. There are plenty of recipes for cookies and shakes to increase supply, I tried one involving brewers yeast, which is available from chemists. I got the recipe in antenatal class.

If you're planning on expressing, you'll need a good breastpump and bottles, sterilisers etc. I got great use out of my Avent Isis Uno, but also used the Medela pumps in hospital and found them good too. Whether you need an electric, double or single pump depends on how often you plan to express, mostly. I expressed every three hours round the clock for the first two or three months, then one or twice a day for the next three or four. I also found the Avent Via cups convenient to express into, and later on used them for baby food too.

Cloth flat nappies or muslins are great to have under the baby's head for spills. I loved my Babyfirst breastfeeding pillow, but I'm not sure how useful it is if you aren't breastfeeding twins. I've heard they're good for protecting your tummy if you've had a c-section (as I did, although I didn't get to breastfeed until several weeks later).

Other optional extras include nursing necklaces and bracelets. They have a dial of some sort you can turn, or wear it different ways to remind you which breast to start on. I never had a problem remembering this myself, but it can't hurt if you want one. Later, they are used to keep the baby interested in facing the right way, when they're older and get distracted easily.