"My feeding journey"

The first two weeks of breastfeeding my baby were incredibly overwhelming and I was almost close to giving up. I gave birth in Aberdeen where there wasn’t really any continuity on information on breastfeeding, although staff were extremely helpful,  I wasn’t given information on services in Grampian either. 

However when I spoke to my community midwife (Kirsty) in Moray after being discharged, I was immediately referred to Amanda, lactation consultant in Moray.

After thinking there was something wrong with me for not being able to feed my baby properly (which has a massive negative impact on my mental health) Amanda informed me my baby had a tongue tie and I was immediately referred for him to have this separated. Amanda and Kirsty were in touch numerous times checking everything went well and Amanda got me back into Dr Gray's to have another feeding consultation after the tongue tie division.

The face to face appointments definitely made a lot of difference as I was shown how to latch my baby and was shown how to express etc. We also worked on an expressing schedule to increase my milk supply. All of which I had no idea about until I went for this appointment. I don’t feel this would have been achieved via video link appointments or phone calls that the Aberdeen team had offered. 

I now exclusively express and although my feeding journey isn’t the journey I had planned, I definitely feel I would have given up hadn’t it been for the support or Amanda and the team in Moray. All the services in Moray I have worked with have all given me the same information regarding feeding.

Breastfeeding did not come naturally to me, it was incredibly easy for me to feel overwhelmed (and often turn to searching online, where there is a lot of misinformation) and it did have a massive impact on my mental health but the continuity of information and staff was key for me to continue this journey and feel confident to do so. 

My partner has also noticed a massive difference in my mental health and confidence in working with the infant feeding team in Moray. At nights when I would feel low or question whether or not I could continue he would advise me to contact Amanda or Kirsty. He could see the difference in my mood, confidence and knowledge once I had been for a feeding consultation with Amanda. 

This service for me has been invaluable. I’m incredibly proud of myself every day for what I can achieve in terms of feeding my child and I genuinely don’t feel like I would have achieved this without the support of the Moray feeding team or community midwives. Amanda is always at the end of the phone should I have any questions or queries with regards to feeding. 

I’ll be forever grateful for the infant feeding team and the midwifery team in Moray for helping me get to where I am in my feeding journey and the positive impact it’s had on my mental health.