Pinky McKay's Beautiful Breastfeeding - Gentle breastfeeding and weaning advice

If you feel anxious about how much milk your breastfed baby is getting, you aren't alone. One of the most commonly reported reasons for women stopping breastfeeding is low milk supply. While it’s an absolutely primal response to worry that your baby is getting enough milk – after all there are no markers on your breasts telling you ‘full’ or…

When I arrived at ‘Melanie's' house (not her real name), she and two week old baby Liam were crying. Melanie was exhausted and stressed about her low milk supply. She had been up three hourly during the night to feed then settle Liam so she could express around the clock. Since 6am she and her partner had been taking turns walking the floor with…

As you carried your baby in your belly, you dreamed of an instant connection between you – just like the soft focused television ads. He would instantly know you are his mother, the one who will protect him and love him forever and he will love you back. You will be his special person, the one he loves more than anyone else in the whole world.…

“When I’m breastfeeding, I get a weird tightness and sore tingly feeling like really strong pins and needles in my boobs – tell me they aren’t going to drop off.” Oh dear, I realized that although my daughter had been around while I breastfed her younger siblings and had been immersed in breastfeeding ‘talk’ since she was a small child (I am a…

Crying is your baby’s language. At first, it is pretty much the only way an infant can communicate his needs and express feelings like discomfort, hunger, exhaustion and loneliness. It is also the only way he can release pent up stress.  As your baby grows he will learn other ways to communicate—through facial expressions, body language and,…

It seems as though there is almost a campaign of scare-mongering against breastfeeding. Recently, there has been a barrage of reports on social media of breastfed babies being ‘starved’. While my heart goes out to any parents who have lost a baby, I find it even sadder that the parents will bear the burden of guilt that they could have starved…

From new mothers, I often hear comments like: “I can’t even have a shower because I don’t know how long she will sleep for.” Or: “It takes so long to get him to sleep that we start cooking dinner at 9 p.m.” Managing your day around a newborn can be a challenge - a new baby creates almost as much washing as a football team; you still have to eat…

In my work as a lactation consultant, I often see women swallowing handfuls of pills to boost their milk supply. As I delve deeper, I discover that rather than explore  and address the possible range of reasons for perceived or real low milk supply – from inappropriate breastfeeding advice and baby issues such as poor latch, ineffective sucking,…

As a breastfeeding mother you are everything to your baby – food, comfort and nurturing. Around the clock. It’s a lot of pressure to know you are the sole source of nourishment for your baby and if you are experiencing breastfeeding difficulties, this can send you into spiral of despair. So how do you beat this pressure and protect your own…