On Monday, February 27, K and I attended a Lactation class. Yes, you read that correctly. My champ of a husband came along! Our school has an on-campus clinic and the RN there happens to be a wonderfully experienced certified lactation consultant and natural childbirth instructor. She does classes on each of those topics about once a semester for students and wives for a great price. It's one of the many resources that the school offers to assist families on campus and I am so grateful!
Mrs. E (the RN) encourages all of the ladies to bring their husbands along, which I know sounds very unconventional to a lot of people. However, a lot of studies have shown that women are more successful in breastfeeding when their husbands are not only supportive, but also educated in how to be helpful. There were 4 or 5 couples and only 2 ladies without their husbands.
We learned so much! I've already read The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (creepish title, I know) and thought it was really helpful. The class was a great way to get some more information that backed up all of the technical things I encountered in the book. I felt like the book and class by themselves were both wonderful but I'm glad to have experienced both. I'm of the opinion that with baby topics like this you can never be too prepared or informed (unless you have a tendency to be overwhelmed by too much information, that is!). I love being as educated as possible on all sides of the equation and have been researching constantly in order to know as much as I can. This is my way of preparing myself for LDB's arrival since I can't do any of the fun stuff like setup a nursery or shop for big items!
If you're a mom and you want to share any tips or advice I'm open to hearing it!
2 comments:
I'm glad you have access to an actual lactation consultant! Right after you have the baby you nurse (if it's possible to do so), and from the nurses to my mom, I had just really confusing and/or bad advice all the way around. I've even gotten bad advice about BF from a pediatrician! If you have questions, don't forget you can also contact La Leche League International, it is a really awesome resource for BF, and can be counted on as baby gets older and you're dealing with issues like biting or what have you.
Also, let me share with you a quote that someone shared with me not too long ago: "I never knew hunger in the womb. Please feed me when I ask." Goes for formula or BF babies :)
I'm SO excited to be going to a hospital with awesome resources! It seems like the hospitals in the DFW area are all in competition with each other to offer the most "stuff" so I'm enjoying reaping the benefits of that! I've seen so many of my friends have bad experiences with doctors not being as supportive and helpful with BFing as you'd expect so I'm trying so hard to be as prepared as possible!
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