"Hi my name is Jackie and my son, George, is approaching 18 months. I knew I wanted to breastfeed even before I became pregnant but when it happened I was full of apprehension. Would I be able to do it? The more I heard about it the more it seemed to me that only a lucky few managed it with no problems. My sister-in-law had recently given birth to my niece and was heart-broken to have had to give up breastfeeding after a couple of weeks because she was in a lot of pain, and I had heard a lot of stories about mums not producing enough milk. I think I just assumed that we would have problems and I just hoped that we would be able to get through whatever came along.

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Hi, my name is Jen, I’m 27 and I have two daughters, Amelie who is 2 and Maya who was born on the 14th July. Amelie was born prematurely and was initially tube-fed my milk which I expressed full time (very hard work), but eventually weaned onto the breast. I had a lot of trouble with feeding due to her being so small and sleepy with a very poor suck reflex. I had also been very ill during pregnancy and after birth (I wasn’t able to feed her straight away as she was ventilated and taken to intensive care and I was critically ill for the first 8 hrs after birth so wasn’t able to express), which led to my milk taking 8 days to come and subsequently caused a low milk supply. In hospital I was given very little support despite her being in intensive care, and what advice I got was poor and non research-based. Also from a practical perspective the unit was very much set up for bottle feeding and not breastfeeding.

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Hi, my name is Tara and my son is Solomon. My experience with breastfeeding was quite an unusual one. I always knew that I wanted to breastfeed as soon as I got pregnant, however, during my pregnancy my breasts did not grow nor feel tender. As it was my first birth, unfortunately, I did not stop to think that there might be something not quite right.

I exclusively breastfed Solomon for the first 7 weeks of his life, I did not have a time when my milk ‘came in’ and with hindsight this was a warning sign and should have been investigated either by myself or a health professional sooner. During this time the midwife monitored him as he had lost over 10% of his birth weight. He was a big baby at 8lb 13oz but dropped down to 7lb 7oz and fed ALL the time. He would feed from one breast and then go onto the other and then go back to the first and had the strongest suck! I tried everything from trying different positions, to making sure he was latched on correctly and that he was swallowing and not just using me ‘as a dummy’. I expressed after and (if I got chance) in between feeds and offered him this as a top up. There were difficult times but I was not overtly concerned about his health, however the health professionals did show concern as he was only gaining ½ - 1oz per week (the expected weight gain would be close to this per day). My health visitor had mentioned a breastfeeding support group to me and I went along to that and found that there were many mums that had similar stories and their support and advice was absolutely invaluable to me.

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My name is Kati and my son, who is now 2yrs and 4mths is Lenny. I always knew I wanted to breastfeed, I imagine it was a hangover from a mother who breastfed my brother and me, it always seemed like the most natural thing in the world. That was until I tried to do it. My labour was long, hard and full of drugs that I didn’t want. Lenny’s head got stuck fairly early on in the labour and was undetected for many hours, to be honest I am amazed we both came out as unscathed as we did.  But out he came, happy and healthy at 8lb 6oz.

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"Well as I type this is it a mere 10 days from my daughter's second birthday. Two years ago today was her due date and Iwas impatiently waiting. Finally when she did arrive it was nothing like the oh so magical experience I had hoped for. I had to have a c-section as she was breech. This however didn't stop me from being able to breastfeed her. The midwife helped position her in the recovery room and we took it from there. She fed all night long, for hours on end with a very tired mummy, kept awake by a kind midwife who sat and kept me talking to keep me awake. Another midwife had asked if i wanted her to take my daughter to give her some formula to give me a break. My reply was simply no. I suppose I had never really thought of not breastfeeding, I mean it was free so why not! And it was good for us both.

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I’m a happy mummy – I got a lie in this morning until 7am!!!  Shockingly early for most but a real luxury in this house.

Our first baby was a typical breast feeder – she fed every 2 hours day and night but stopped waking at night as soon as the all night boob café closed at 14 months.   Baby number 2 slept really well for the first 6 months (waking 2 or 3 times a night) but at 6 months decided waking every hour would be fun.  Strange as it sounds I loved those night feeds.  They offered a chance for the two of us to hang out.   It was during those darkened, silent night feeds that I got to know my beautiful second child.  I was able to examine her every feature, and get to know her growing personality, without big sister dominating my time.  When she started to sleep through the night around 15 months I actually missed our night time meetings!

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