At Baby-Thrive breastfeeding cafe in the summer our discussion lead to chat about how to make cluster feeding or pumping into less of a chore.

There was a lot of agreement amongst the families present that the right mentality and attitude is key. Mothers shared tips of how best to surrender to the task, trying to get into a more tolerant headspace, realising you’ll never have this time again with your baby and that in the grand scheme it’s not so long.

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Mothers shared suggestions to create certain routines around these tasks that make them more enjoyable.

Suggestions included pumping for as long as it takes to watch an episode of Friends, rather than watching the clock. I love this idea as personally, Friends is such a familiar, warm, amusing, security blanket of a program to me-must be my age!

Another lovely suggestion was to create an “oxytocic environment”-a little nest in your favourite chair with your cuppa and the things you need beside you while pumping, or to put your feet up and watch a Netflix box set while cluster feeding.

There is a popular concept in breastfeeding called the “babymoon” (this word originating from honeymoon). The idea being that you might literally empty your diary for a week or so and surrender yourself to spending a lot of time resting skin to skin with your baby, nourishing your body in the hope to boost milk supply and get to know your baby. This is supported by tradition in many cultures:

This from LaLeche.org*-

“Mayan culture restricts mother and baby to the house for at least seven days, and the mother’s activities remain limited until she receives a special massage on day twenty. The Chinese name for the postpartum period translates as “doing the month”; Malaysian women are forbidden from cooking and cleaning for 40 days. This forty-day period crops up again and again, from India to Mexico to Palestine, although a Korean mother describes how “at least 21 days is good; 30 days is even better; even up to 100 days if possible”. My own grandmother, growing up in rural England, remembers women of her community being “churched” at a private service in the parish Church, six weeks after giving birth, as a marker of their re-entry into the community after a period of seclusion.”

I’d love to hear what worked for your family.

Would you would like me to visit you at home to support breastfeeding your baby? I can help you boost breastmilk supply or work on making feeds more efficient. Please see the home visits info (here).

Sally

*https://www.laleche.org.uk/life-with-a-new-baby-across-the-world/