Learning how to breastfeed takes time, patience and support
L-R: Sarah Verso Ryan and Amelia; Fiona Dunkin and baby Culann
LAST January, Sarah Verso-Ryan’s toddler, Asa, said “I don’t want that anymore, Mammy”.
It was a bitter-sweet moment for the Dublin mother-of-two, who didn’t have an end date in mind for breastfeeding her firstborn.
Pregnant at the time with now seven-month-old Emilia, Sarah says she was really open to tandem feeding. “I didn’t want, after Emilia was born, to say to Asa, ‘Oh, that’s gone for you now’. But he stopped himself – it was into bed and off to sleep.”
But for Sarah, it was “really emotional” because Asa is a busy boy, always on the go. “He’d rarely sit in your lap for a snuggle. Breastfeeding was my chance to have him in my lap. It’s such a lovely way to connect with your child.”
For the 40-year-old paediatric sleep coach, opting to breastfeed didn’t even feel like a choice, more like a given. “It was just what I was going to do. It was in me to do it. I was breastfed until I was 16 months, which wouldn’t have been the done thing back then – and certainly not into toddlerhood. We do what we see.”
Asa is almost three now and Sarah breastfed him until he was two years and four months. She recalls how it helped her heal after he was born via an emergency Caesarean section. “I was really upset over the C-section. [When] Asa was brought into me and he just latched on, it healed me mentally. I thought, It’s OK, this is working’.”
Asa arrived during the pandemic, giving Sarah lots of space for breastfeeding. “With nothing to do, I could just sit there, feed him, hold him.” But looking back, the first eight weeks were "really intense", she says.
"You’re getting your milk supply to settle, recovering from the birth and your whole life changes with a new baby. You go from being a free person to somebody who’s needed 24/7 by this tiny baby.”
Breastfeeding Asa went very smoothly, but Sarah’s early experience with Emilia was different. “She was really sleepy for the first five days, falling asleep on my breast. I had to hand-express colostrum and feed her with a syringe. I was quite shocked – it had been so easy with Asa.”
Emilia soon settled, but Sarah has had two bouts of mastitis. “About three months ago, I felt my breast a bit tender. Then I saw the telltale red, wedge-shaped stripe.”
Antibiotics from the GP cleared it up quickly. “I’d caught it early.” Just recently she felt the same breast tenderness and is delighted home management — ice, Ibuprofen, rest and light touch lymphatic drainage massage — resolved it in a few days.
Over halfway through training to be a breastfeeding counsellor with Cuidiú, Sarah describes herself as “such a nerd” about breastfeeding. “I think it’s wonderful. I know what’s coming out of me is the best thing for my baby. Emilia has a cold at the moment, and my body’s producing antibodies that will help her get better sooner — I find that mind-blowing.
“But I know I’m very lucky. I’ve never had much pain. I know a lot of women struggle with tongue-tie and latch issues. I think those women are warriors.”
Tullamore-based Fiona Dunkin is one such woman. The mum-of-two never put herself “under pressure” to breastfeed, but attending an online breastfeeding class while pregnant with Odhran, now two and a half, had her feeling “more prepared and reassured” about it.
Odhran arrived three weeks early and had issues with blood sugars so he spent five days in neonatal ICU. “It meant I wasn’t able to feed him on demand. I’d go to the NICU every three hours to feed him. I was only allowed feed him for 10 minutes at a time — afterwards, I’d have to give him a set amount of formula in a bottle.
“The hospital had to be very regimental about how much he was taking — they were 100% right to do that, but it was an artificial, unnatural way of feeding. I think it caused issues with my supply — your body thinks, ‘Oh she doesn’t need that extra milk’ and only makes that 10-minute supply.”
Recalling the one night when she was able to have Odhran on the ward with her, she says it was a “hard enough” night. “I was quite engorged because the milk was coming in and it was very hard for him to latch – he was crying. I asked for a bottle of formula. I was very confused about when to breastfeed, when to give him formula and how to wean him off the formula.”
Pain during breastfeeding continued for four weeks after Fiona went home and, six weeks in, she got a private lactation consultant. “He was hungry all the time and I still felt there were issues with my supply. She recommended I use a pump to build up supply.”
But the lactation consultant’s best advice was to trust her body. “She said, ‘Your body will make enough’. She provided reassurance for me to persevere.”
While there were “definitely times when I said this will be the week I’ll stop”, especially as she still had occasional pain, Fiona kept going. “And then the pain stopped. From about eight weeks, I was able to drop the formula altogether, which improved things massively. I wasn’t as tired — I wasn’t getting up at night to make bottles. [Exclusive] breastfeeding was much more convenient. I could bring the baby out and about — I was more confident to feed him whenever he wanted to be fed.”
The HSE’s 2023 National Breastfeeding Week runs this week. It highlights recent initiatives to support breastfeeding in the community and in workplaces. These include doubling the number of lactation consultants since 2021 — and the extension in law, up to a child’s second birthday, of breastfeeding breaks during work hours.
Fiona, who works for Clúid Housing, returned to her job when Odhran was 10 months old and continued breastfeeding. “Women can think ‘I’m going back to work soon, I’d better wean him off the breast’. But your body’s very clever. I had enough milk to feed Odhran three times a day.”
Feeding her second son, Culann, seven months “has gone brilliantly from the start”, says Fiona, who finds it “really handy”, with a toddler always wanting to get out and about. “I can just head off. I don’t have to bring a bottle. I can just breastfeed Culann anywhere, like in the playground. And I can be feeding him while reading Odhran a book.”
New HSE figures for 2022 show 62% of babies were breastfed when the public health nurse (PHN) made their first post-birth visit. The equivalent figure was 59% in 2021, 55% in 2017. HSE national breastfeeding coordinator Laura McHugh says these rates are for mixed feeding – mum combining breastfeeding with formula. She says these rates are also up at the three-month PHN visit.
“Yet, we’re not seeing an increase in exclusive breastfeeding — and that’s an international trend.” Exclusive breastfeeding at first PHN visit stood at 39.5% in 2022 — by the three-month visit, it was 31.5%.
McHugh says every mother wants to do best by her baby, but breastfeeding can be an emotive topic. “A woman mightn’t have had any experience of breastfeeding in her family. There’s not a lot of it in some families and some communities. She might have tried and it didn’t go well for her. And there’s a lot of visibility around formula – it’s seen as a ‘normal’ way to feed.
“In the early days when a mum is learning to breastfeed and care for her young baby, the baby can be unsettled and crying and the mum might have pain when feeding. These are typical experiences in those early days. Women may worry: have I enough milk?”
McHugh is reassuring. “Breastfeeding is something women get better at as baby gets stronger and more effective at taking mum’s milk. It’s important to stay connected with the PHN and with breastfeeding support groups where you can air concerns.”
- Visit www.cuidiu.ie.
