Practical Parenting Awards finalist and the Baby Show

I am delighted to be able to tell you that we are finalists in the Practical Parenting Awards 2010/11 in the category for breastfeeding top/bras. Although the winners have already been announced, we are so happy to have made it this far. We are in great company as the winners are George at ASDA, Mama's & Papa's and HOTmilk. Now we can use the badge on our packaging, which is fab!

Just a quickie,unfortunately we will not be exhibiting at the Earls Court Baby Show this year but the good news is you can still try and buy a Mamascarf at the show on the Bras4Mums stand.

The Breastfeeding Diaries...

Thanks to Sarah from Baby's Day for today's breastfeeding post.

I love your list of love / don’t love about breastfeeding – I can really relate to the one about a secret passion for watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. I have lots of happy memories of being curled up on the sofa feeding my baby with the log fire crackling in the corner – and Judge Judy on the TV!! “What? I’m feeding, I can’t reach the remote control!” (usually for an hour and a half triple bill :-D ) I really enjoyed those quiet afternoons, spending time snuggling up with my new baby whilst the rain poured down outside.

I was really disappointed that I didn’t seem to be able to produce enough milk for my little one once he was about 3 months old, and remember the really mixed feelings of giving him a bottle for the first time. On the one hand I was a tad relieved that I wasn’t the only one that would be getting up in the night anymore, but on the other hand I knew that it was the beginning of the end of that wonderful close time we would have together. So my advice to anyone breastfeeding is that even though it does feel like a physically exhausting chore at times, enjoy the chance to spend quiet time with your little one.

Breastfeeding diaries...

Todays post comes from Helen, mum of 2, from New Stork Times.

I have had an interesting experience as I bottle fed my first and breastfed my second for 9 months! It makes me sad to see the guilt felt by mums who decide to bottle feed and also angry when I hear bad advice being given in the early stages of feeding. I encourage my breastfeeding mums to feed during and after my baby massage classes and they all enjoy getting together and talking about the highs and lows of feeding.

Don't forget if you have a story or tip, please send them in to me at info@mamascarf.co.uk Thanks! x

The Breastfeeding Diaries...

Thanks to Frances from bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox for her breastfeeding tips!

My top breastfeeding tip is learn how to breastfeed lying down, as early as possible. Nothing else improves your quality of life as the ability to properly rest while you breastfeed. The bed is a much more stable surface than your arms or cushions so your baby is less likely to fall off from a good latch, plus he/she tends to lie stiller with less wriggling, thus generates less wind. Other tips - don't rush a feed in the early days (e.g. because you have visitors anxious to meet the baby) - the baby will end up just getting the foremilk without any hindmilk which will make them fractious as they struggle to digest it. If you're finding breastfeeding difficult (a euphemism for agonisingly painful!), set yourself targets - 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 weeks. Six weeks is the magic number - if you make it to 6 weeks, things thereafter become alot easier and it's unlikely you'll want to stop, as you'll start reaping the benefits: not having to sterilise bottles, much easier to spontaneously go out and about, no faffing about in the night stumbling up and down stairs, and, finally, the ability to eat a whole box of milk tray without putting on any weight!

Please send your stories or tips into me, Keira, info@mamascarf.co.uk

Breastfeeding Diaries...

I must apologise but a crazy week (including A&E visit with 3 yo!) has meant I have been a bit slack with my posts. This one comes from Paula, mum of 2 from Curtain Lab.

I breastfed my 2 boys for a year each child. I can honestly say that I was only able to travel back home with a new baby (2-months) because he was breastfed.... I had to travel door to door for 24hrs (London/Sao Paulo/Manaus and back of course). It would have been almost impossible to carry formula milk, water and equipment for such a journey now!

Further to that, I also donated breastmilk to Kingston Hospital for 6 months! Whilst I feel it is important to give our babies the best possible start in life, I also understand the need for mum & baby to bond and breastfeeding gave me the chance to come to terms with the birth of my children (both very traumatic, 4 weeks early).

My husband and I were going through some tough times when I fell pregnant with my second child, and I wasn't looking forward to being a mummy again. I often wonder if I would have bonded as much or as well if he had been put on a bottle? No doubt my husband would have helped more, and I would have been quite happy to step back a little.

As for the fear of 'saggy breast' it is a complete myth! I had so much milk I had mastitis and once all settle down, I still have nice, mature breasts... it has not stopped me from topless sunbathing! My own mother refused to breastfeed us (4 kids) for fear of ending up with saggy breasts.

Breastfeeding was so rewarding to me that I was desperately trying to train as a breastfeeding councillor... Sadly it was not to be but I'm happy to be the only person I know to have fed the neonatal unit of Kingston Hospital for 6 months!

Mamascarf- The Breastfeeding Diaries

It's day 5 of the breastfeeding diaries and we have a guest post from Clare from Baby Abroad.

There are certain memories that will always stick with me from breastfeeding. One is eating cherry bakewells swiftly one after another as I was starving the whole time - a pleasant memory that can be relived via the wonderful Mr Kipling. The other is with my second daughter, breastfeeding her while we were having our extension completed. She arrived among chaos, the weekend that they knocked through a stone wall (I was assured the whole thing would have been finished months before she arrived!). Thank goodness she was my second, as I pretty calm through the whole thing. I wish I had known about the mamascarf then though - it would have saved the builders' embarrassment for sure!

I have a tip for new mums feeding - it's the babysday book (www.babysday.co.uk ) - it's a notebook for recording feeding/sleeping/play/cry times etc. It's great for when your baby brain has forgotten when the last feed was or which boob they had last - I bought one for my sister-in-law who had twins recently - she found it to be excellent especially when the midwife wanted to check their feeding/number of wet nappies etc.

Don't forget to keep sending your stories in to me, Keira at info@mamascarf.co.uk .

The Breastfeeding diaries...

Day 4 on the Breastfeeding Diaries is a tip from Beth Peat, mum of 2, on tandem feeding.

My little ones are 22 months and 3 months. I breastfed my daughter all through my pregnancy, and we're still feeding at bedtime. Obviously, your newborn is your priority and we did some work with Lucy to reduce the number of feeds in the day before Sam was born. We were down to just bedtimes before I went into hospital - I had a planned section - but I fed her at naptimes for a few weeks after as well as she needed the comfort. Then, we cut out naptimes as it wasn't feasible to feed her to sleep without someone to take Sam, and as I'm home most of the day by myself... I think my biggest tip would be to not be afraid to give it a go, and to be flexible and sensitive to needs of both children. And, if you need to wean the older one because it's not working out, that's ok too - they've had a lot of benefit from extended feeding, and you can substitute other activities for the feeding - reading or singing together for example. There's also a book called 'Adventures in Tandem Feeding' that was a good resource - I borrowed it from the counsellor at my local Breastfeeding Network.

If you have anything you would like to submit please email it to me at info@mamascarf.co.uk

The Breastfeeding Diaries...

It's day 3 of the Breastfeeding Diaries and thanks to Debbie from the Nappy Wrap Store for sending me her story.

I remember nursing in the back of my brothers car with my oldest who is now 16 (I was 17 at the time). We lived in Northern Ireland at the time, and every so often there are army check points. My brother was new in the army at the time, and we got stopped at a check point, he showed his ID and they then shined a torch into the back of the car to check all the passengers, and there I was sat on the back seat breastfeeding. The soldier was only young and got all flustered lol, before telling us we could go! Have to add 16 years ago the seatbelt and car seat laws where not so strict, just so anyone knows I wasn't irresponsible... things where just different then!

The Breastfeeding Diaries...

In the first guest post on the Breastfeeding Diaries, I received this funny story from Teresa from JM Baby Equipment Hire.

I am a mum to Jack and Max aged 6 and 4 and a few years ago when the boys were younger we were sat in a cafe having some lunch. On the table next to us there was a Sun newspaper open on the page 3 girl. Jack then aged 4 took a quick look at the newspaper and then promptly shouted "look mum that lady is like you always getting your boobies out in front of people!" Everyone around me looked at me as I turned a bright shade of red. I didn't even want to start trying to explain that what he meant was I was always getting my boobs out to breastfed his little brother Max (of course it was in public places in front of people trying discreetly to cover up - oh I wish your product was known to me back then!). www.jmbabyequipmenthire.co.uk

If you have any stories, please send them in to info@mamascarf.co.uk Thanks!

The Breastfeeding Diaries

This is going to be a series of blog posts about breastfeeding. I would love you all to submit your breastfeeding stories/experiences/tips, good or bad, funny or sad so I can post them on here. To start things off;

Things I love about breastfeeding
1. I love the look that I get from my milk drunk baby when she has finished her feed and gazes up at me with adoring eyes. It is the BEST feeling in the world.
2. I love the fact that I can feed her anytime, anywhere and don’t have to faff about with carrying or heating bottles, day or night. My milk is the right temperature and is there on tap whenever she wants it.
3. I love the fact that I am giving her the best start in life. I can provide all of the food my baby needs. How clever am I!
4. Breast milk nappies don’t smell too bad. In fact sometimes they smell quite sweet and biscuity. Or is this just because of my level of cake consumption? Does this make me weird?
5. If I want some quiet time together we can retreat upstairs for a feed and get comfy on the bed with lots of pillows. I am feeding my baby, not being lazy!
6. I can use breastfeeding time as an excuse to feed my secret habit, watching episodes of Keeping up with the Kardashians (shhh, don’t tell anyone!)
7. My 3 year old, Sam, thinks that every cry from Lily means she needs feeding or what he calls “boob milk”. The other day when I was out of the room I heard him say to her “I can’t give you any milk Lily, as there is no milk in my boobs. There is only boob milk in mummy’s boobs”. Funny.

Things I don’t love so much about breastfeeding
1. Expressing is the bain of my life. I hate it. I can pump away for about ½ hour and all I have to show for it is a measly few ounces. I am rubbish at it. I recently had to go to London without baby L and had to make 3 trips to the toilet to express, else my boobs would have exploded. The worst thing was that I had to throw the sacred milk away as I didn’t have any way to store it or sterilise the pump. I have heard stories about women who can fill a cup on one side while feeding on the other. This makes me very jealous! Although this wouldn’t be very helpful when you are out and about.
2. Distractions. 5 months in and I have a baby who is very interested in the world around her. This means that feeding is not so high on her list of priorities. Watching tv, her big brother, looking out the window, anything else are more important. This means that she feeds for no more than a few minutes at a time. I have even taken to using my Mamascarf at home (even when I’m on my own!) to minimise outside noise and distractions.
3. Sometimes, just sometimes I would like more than one glass of wine. My inability to express means that I will just wait until I stop feeding to have a proper drink. Two glasses will probably make me blind drunk anyway.
4. Feeding on demand can sometimes make you feel that you are feeding all of the time. I appreciate that I could have chosen to get baby L into a routine of 4 hourly feeds but I just went with it and admittedly she is quite good now but in the early days we had regular feedathons (a good excuse for trash TV and magazines though- see above!)

5. Sometimes I feel guilty about the amount of time I spend with baby L versus Sam. My time is not split equally and this is mostly because of breastfeeding. He is really good about it but has definitely become more of a daddy’s boy.

6. I have to wear 2 bras to the gym. Ok, maybe I am not normal but since I have been breastfeeding, I need strapping down in a big way to go to the gym and jump around at Body Combat without blackening my eyes. A fellow mummy friend gave me this tip as she runs and swears by wearing 2 sports bras. It gets a bit hot but it does seem to work.
Please send your stories, tips and anything breastfeeding related to me Keira info@mamascarf.co.uk Thanks!