We watched a 25 minute video that talked about what actually goes on inside of your body while breastfeeding, why it is beneficial, then got to see lots of examples of good latches and different ways to hold the baby, and learned how to tell if your baby is getting enough food. Most of the class though was spent by Linda teaching us. Some of the things that I learned from the class that I hadn't learned from books was very practical information. For instance, I didn't know that you are allowed to breastfeed anywhere in Maine (that includes all stores and restaurants). We talked about different kinds of pumps and who might benefit from investing in a really good electric pump (mom's working full time) as opposed to who will be fine with a manual pump. I will just be using a manual pump since I plan on staying at home and will not be working full time. I found out that the exact same pump that I asked for as a shower gift (and happily received) is given to every woman who births at Mercy who would like to have one: the Medela Harmony Breastpump (http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/breast-pumps/157/harmony-breastpump). I'm really happy about this because it's supposed to be a really great pump and is recommended by Ina May in her book Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding. This means I will be able to return my unopened pump and use it to get some nursing bras or something, which is helpful. She talked to us about nursing bras and different types of items like nipple shields and shells and who might benefit from these as opposed to who might never need to use these items. We also talked about how important it is to use bottles with breast friendly nipples. Apparently a lot of bottles have really long, fast flowing nipples which babies love because they don't have to work for their food. Unfortunately, for a breastfeeding mother, this will probably lead to the baby preferring the bottle to mom's breast. Breast friendly nipples are shorter like real nipples. She told us some of the different bottle brands that mothers in her breastfeeding group recommended: Tommee Tippee (these are the kind of bottles we got), Adiare, Avent Breastfeeding Nipple, Playtex Original, and Breast Flow. We talked about what you should do if the baby is really colicky: apparently some babies get colicky if the mom is drinking a lot of cow's milk (though some drink a ton and the baby is just fine), so if our baby is getting sick a lot we should try switching to rice milk and see if that helps. We learned about our nutritional needs while breastfeeding. Finally we learned that breast milk can be stored for up to 4 hours at room temperature, 4 weeks in the fridge and up to 4 months in the freezer. If you aren't a breastfeeding woman, all this information probably isn't interesting to you, but I know a lot of other pregnant women and women who hope to have babies one day read this blog and might find this interesting.
Here are a couple of resources she highly recommended to us:
- www.kellymom.com (a link that you can look up any breastfeeding questions on)
- The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (a book put out by La Leche League International- I actually already have this book and was planning on reading it soon).
Overall, I am starting to get really excited for breastfeeding and I hope that all the people around me will be supportive. Perhaps the thing I am worried about the most is that I will be embarrassed to breastfeed in front of friends and family, but I am hoping that they will understand how natural it is and how beneficial it is for the baby and help me to feel really comfortable with it. So please be supportive! Thanks :)
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