Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding has many health benefits for your baby as detailed in the image above, namely for their immune system, bladder, tummy, lungs, teeth, ears and healthy weight.

Breastfeeding your baby has many benefits for you both. For your baby it protects them from a wide range of illnesses including infections, diabetes, asthma, heart disease and obesity, as well as cot death (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome SIDS). For you it protects you from breast and ovarian cancer and heart disease. It supports the close and loving relationship between you and your baby and both of your mental health. It is free, readily available and not harmful to the environment.

Breastfeeding responsively ensures that your baby is getting enough milk and helps your body make the right amount of milk for you baby.

Positioning & Attachment

Learning how to position yourself and your baby for breastfeeding is an important skill to learn. You and your baby will learn together and will receive lots of support during this time. Attachment is when your baby latches onto your breast. It is important to get positioning and attachment right so there is good transfer of milk from your breast to your baby, and also so you do not get sore nipples.

How to know if your baby is getting enough milk?

A big worry a lot of new mums have who are breastfeeding is how will they know that their baby is getting enough milk. It is important to know that frequent feeding is normal, especially through the night. There is a Breastfeeding Assessment form that staff will complete with you as a guide to how breastfeeding is going.

We look at lots of different things to assess how feeding is going - an important one you can do at home is looking at how many wet and dirty nappies your baby is having.

Expressing breastmilk

Knowing how to express breastmilk is a really important skill for new mums. You can express breastmilk either by hand or by using a breastpump.

Expressing breastmilk can:

help provide relief if your breasts are very full and heavy
help your baby attach to the breast
help resolve problems such as blocked ducts and mastitis

Expressing breastmilk can also help breastfeeding fit in with your life and protects your milk supply so you can still feed your baby when they are with you.

Support available

There is lots of support available across NHS Tayside to help you and your baby get off to the best start. For the first 10 days or so your midwife will have regular contact with you and will be happy to answer your questions. Following this your health visitor will be there to support you.

If you live in Dundee the NHS Breastfeeding Support Workers will call and visit you for the first 10 days to ensure you have the most up to date and supportive information for your breastfeeding journey. The NHS Breastfeeding Support Workers can be contacted on 01382 835522.

Throughout Tayside we have Breast Buddies. This is an amazing team of women who have breastfed in your area, have had additional training and will provide support to you via text messaging, Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups and Zoom sessions. Please find more information within your area on the following Facebook pages:

Breast Buddies Perth and Kinross
Breast Buddies Angus
Breast Buddies Dundee

For additional support please contact the Infant Feeding Advisors at the Tayside Breastfeeding clinic on 01382 740511. Please leave a message and they will get back to you as soon as possible.

The National Breastfeeding Helpline is open from 9.30am-9:30pm every day of the year. They offer evidence based, independent, non-judgemental breastfeeding information, reassurance and support. All calls are answered by volunteers who are trained and supported by the Breastfeeding Network and the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers. Support is also available in Polish. There is also an option for a live webchat service.

Breastfeeding Friendly Scotland

Breastfeeding Friendly Scotland (BFS) is a national scheme businesses can sign up to for free. It's backed by Scottish Government and run by local health boards. It aims to help businesses and people who breastfeed know their rights and responsibilities.

In Scotland you are protected by law to feed your baby (by breast or by bottle) in a public place. You can read more about the law around breastfeeding in the Breastfeeding etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 and Equality Act 2010.