Michelle Tant

(February 2017) Something a little different today. There is a scenario which many midwives may be familiar with. It is constructed from my imagination/experience and so no fears about confidentiality though I suspect you may feel you recognise it. Have a read and then consider my questions at the end. A woman has a normal vaginal birth of her first baby around mid afternoon. She is absolutely over the moon and desperate to breastfeed; it was in her plan and she really feels it is the best thing for her baby having been to antenatal classes and done a bit of reading. She is thrilled when her little boy latches on first time and assures you that it doesn’t hurt. You can see that baby has a good latch, he stays on for a good 20 minutes before dozing off and she is transferred to the postnatal ward. You hand over to the midwife that the baby has fed well and they are both for routine postnatal care including feeding support. The following day you are assigned to the postnatal wa...

 (May 2015) Parents in my antenatal sessions express a number of anxieties about breastfeeding and the early parenting experience however one stands out above the rest; pain. My own dissertation findings highlighted that partners were also worried that it would be painful, with an additional anxiety about how to protect her from this difficulty. Much of breastfeeding antenatal education is focussed on achieving pain free breastfeeding and in supporting women in their feeding problems, sore nipples is a recurrent issue. It has been said that “If you’re doing it properly then it shouldn’t hurt” and this statement has sat uncomfortably with me for a very long time. Ultimately it blames the woman for her own pain, and regardless of her proficiency at positioning and attachment, this sort of language does not empower or encourage women. Furthermore it may well be that her technique is ‘textbook perfect’ but there may be another reason for the pain such as a tongue tie, Raynaud...