Adelaide Hills Postnatal Support in Littlehampton, South Australia | Local business

Adelaide Hills Postnatal Support

Locality: Littlehampton, South Australia

Phone: +61 411 897 222

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25.01.2022 Hi to anyone who is still following my page while I’m on my ‘year off to create online course and write book’ which has turned into...homeschooling and no writing! I won’t be posting regularly during this but just wanted to say that the last couple of times that I have been out to the local foodland I have seen parents out with babies under the age of one. I understand that if you are a single parent or essential worker or spouse of essential worker that you may have no cho...ice but to pop to shops with your baby, but if you have any choice at all, even if it means shopping at inconvenient times, please avoid!! If you must take your baby, then the safest place for them will be in a inward facing baby carrier/sling, not in a pram and not in the trolley where other people’s respiratory droplets can land on them more easily. Remember to do all of the handling of shopping, keys, phone etc then hand sanitise before you unstrap your baby from their carrier. I saw a gorgeous young Mum with her baby about 10m old on Monday dawdling around the shops with not a care in the world, browsing, baby in trolley, baby chewing on the exterior packaging of a pack of crackers handled by God knows how many people previously, which the baby dropped on the floor and was given something else to chew on from the interior of the bacteria covered trolley. Please don’t let babies crawl about or toddlers run about touching everything. If dummies are dropped, they are done. If they cry, they cry. This is not the time for ‘challenging their immune system’ and not ‘helicopter parenting’- this is precisely the time to be anally retentive about hygiene when outside your home. When at home, continue to allow your baby to enjoy liberal amounts of dog/cat hair and your own normal household dirt as this IS good for their immune system. Keep a pair of shoes for shopping and take them off outside. Regularly clean entry points to your home, taps, light switches, car keys, phones, high traffic floor areas for crawling babies etc, otherwise continue with only cleaning the rest of the house when you have time and let your baby get muddy. A crawling baby with filthy knees is generally a good thing! N.B the disinfectant in most antibacterial wipes is not proven to kill Coronavirus, warm soapy water is best and in high risk areas a bleach solution (Milton tablets are good way to get the strength right without burning yourself). Stay well everyone xx See more

25.01.2022 Just added this review to the testimonials page on my website. More like this in the link. Thank you so much to Alex for this lovely review. It makes my heart sing to have the privilege to be involved in the first stages of a familys life together. This is why I will keep doula-ing for one family at a time...even though its not the most effective business model, it brings me so much joy! "Susannah was recommended to me by a friend, I knew from my friends experience that I ...was going to be in good hands from the beginning. This already was great reassurance. Firstly Susannah listened, she heard what was causing us stress and making me particularly anxious, she heard my true concerns for the development/ growth of my newborn. We had some significant feeding issues. F was a very sleepy newborn and barely putting on any weight. His growth was dropping. We firstly started with routines, this helped with breastfeeding and increasing my rest times between feeds (as the anxiety and illness was taking its toll on my body). Having Susannah write a step by step routine regarding feeding and settling that was tailored to my baby and myself was amazing. We received a lot of advice from others, which simply added to my anxiety. Hearing it from Susannah, in the comfort of our home, knowing our child and seeing first hand the concerns/issues we were facing, was what we needed. Susannah gave advice that actually worked. It gave me confidence as F started gaining weight, which is really what all new mums need. Before seeing Susannah my baby was only gaining a few grams per day, after following her advice he was gaining 40-45 grams per dayall on breastmilk, no tops ups...he was taking off, he was starting to thrive! As a first time mum, with health issues of my own, Susannahs presence and guidance was priceless. When F was 4 months old I had to have my gallbladder removed. Unfortunately our family werent able to provide as much physical help as we had hoped. Susannah flew in to help post surgery. She would settle the baby, prepare dinner, fold clothes, she even made my lunchshe was a godsend. As F grew Susannah continued to update our flexible routines to match his growth. I loved these written routines; I felt like I had a secret weapon, I felt confident in a time where everything was new. Susannah came into our lives when we needed help the most. She was our Mary Poppins. We will be forever grateful for her expertise and warm personality. She taught us so much. xoxo Alex, Maylands"

24.01.2022 Summer opening hours & availability Bearing in mind that there are only three weeks of school left, if you need an appointment before Christmas for non-urgent stuff such as looking at routines, dropping naps, starting solids etc - it would be a good idea to book up now as if everyone has a crisis at the same time, my diary can get booked out for 2-3 weeks. ONE NEWBORN POSTNATAL SPOT available for someone due imminently or in Jan. I dont recommend booking up if your baby is ...likely to be 10-28 days old when I am away / closed as that can be crunch time for feeding issues. ONE TROUBLESHOOTING SPOT available now for visits in the next 2-3 weeks. 13th -19th Dec - limited availability for phone consults and visits; please book visits in advance as I need to arrange childcare. 20th Dec- 8th Jan - CLOSED / AWAY - urgent phone calls/visits for newborn issues only 9th -29th Jan - BACK AT WORK - please book visits in advance so I can arrange childcare. Plenty of availability for phone consults. 30th Jan SCHOOL STARTS - back to NORMAL HOURS ONE POSTNATAL SPOT for regular help still available for a woman with due date after 15 JANUARY 2019. ONE POSTNATAL SPOT for regular help available for a due date after 20 FEBRUARY 2019. Troubleshooting visits usually available within 1-3 weeks where feeding is already established e.g. experienced Mums wanting a refresher on normal feeding / sleeping / solids patterns or first time Mums of older babies where things are going well but need a bit of tweaking.

24.01.2022 Thanks for this! Interoception,emotions, and communication go hand in hand.

24.01.2022 I have been given the gift of time as I no longer have to do the school run (new school bus- awesome!), therefore next year I will be taking on up to three postnatal clients at any one time, plus one or two remote support Selective Mutism clients. Most women book in during their third trimester, occasionally second and if I have the availability, I will continue to take on older babies of up to 18-20 weeks of age for ongoing support and 6-18 month olds for a two-visit package.... Im available for free meet & greets during pregnancy at any stage. Im still not charging deposits to hold you a spot, but this may change if it gets harder to guestimate the needs of everyone in advance when I take on more clients. Its been strangely quiet the last few weeks but the calendar is suddenly looking fairly full for the rest of the year. I can only take on one more Mum after 15th October. At the moment Im supporting a repeat client with her second baby; its an absolute joy to work with someone you know so well and can short cut around things. This has made me think about offering a phone only troubleshooting service for experienced Mums WITHOUT feeding problems with current baby (these can only be dealt with in person) and who have already BF previous baby. This would be suitable for babies age 4-12 ish weeks old whose Mums have just forgotten things and would like a reminder of suitable awake windows and realistic expectations of sleep & feeding in a newborn, or tips on managing a baby & toddler/older child together.

23.01.2022 Dont know why the top of this got chopped off but it is a request for participants in a Deakin University study of Mums with PND- phone interview. Click on the image for full graphic with details

23.01.2022 Im in the unique position where I hear about some of the substandard shitty care from the womens point of view and see how it is still affecting their self esteem and enjoyment of motherhood months or even years later....but Ive also been on the other side of the equation and had shifts like this midwife. You know the women deserve better, you know you can do better but you dont physically have time. Some couples expect too much from us and some midwives simply dont give... enough- but more often than not women are apologetic in complaining when they have every right to do so and midwives give more than they should have to and ultimately burn out. I think at the end of the day the answer is kindness and compassion from both sides. Have compassion for the people caring for you and when you are the carer and physically cant do your best, a heartfelt acknowledgement of the inadequacy of the situation and an expression of wanting to do more goes a long way. There are many times where keeping everyone alive and safe becomes all you can manage and the niceties slide. There was one particular outer London hospital (which shall remain nameless) I worked at as an agency midwife on quite a regular basis doing 12.5 hr shifts which was the worst place I have ever worked. I blame that place for the ongoing bladder problems I still have to this day! The Postnatal ward was like a sinking ship with no captain. There were days when I would turn up there as a midwife with two years experience and there would be no permanent member of staff there, the vast majority of the other agency staff spoke broken English and no one knew where anything was. I regularly took charge because no one else did and on one particular shift after calling Rentokil for a rat sighting and waiting hours for cleaners who failed to turn up I had to resort to cleaning a bathroom with washing up liquid, boiling water and paper towels (sub contracting cleaning to external providers was a big mistake IMO). At the end of a four day stretch I hit some traffic cones and a sign on my way home and then realised I had taken a set of the controlled drugs keys back to Cambridge. I was about to fly home to Northern Ireland. My Mum had to drop them to the police station and another midwife who was commuting too came to collect them! I dont miss those days and am so sad for and also proud of those still trying to provide the best possible care in trying circumstances.

22.01.2022 Happy Boxing Day everyone. Hope all the Mums enjoyed their babys first Christmas. Make the most of the simplicity while you can- Christmas as a Mum involves a lot of work, but like everything else as a parent - the days are long but the years are short. My big baby is now tall enough to reach the top of the tree and sleep in til gone 8am. My little one however was up 45 minutes after I went to bed Christmas Eve and then again 4 hours after that. So today we are having a PJ, leftovers & board games day. Beach tomorrow! Back at work around the 11th Jan

22.01.2022 Check out Gentle Parenting Adelaide Hills Facebook Group (its a closed group so I cant put up a link) if you would Iike to connect with other like minded parents in the Hills. There is a thriving Gentle Parenting online community in Adelaide and a contact of mine decided to set up a group just for the Hills. Closed groups are usually not visible on Facebook searches, but if you want to join PM me and I will ask the coordinator to get in touch with you.

21.01.2022 For one time only, prior to setting off on our trip, I will take on ONE family for overnight maternity nurse shifts in May. This will be for 4 nights per week for 2 weeks only. You might like help when you first come home from hospital to get feeding off to the best start or you might prefer to book this for the six week crying peak when feeding is beginning to establish and tiredness is wearing thin! I will put prices up on website in due course but based on Syd/Melb/Perth rates and reducing this for little old Adelaide, it would likely be around $2500 for the whole package.

21.01.2022 Sometimes when Im not posting much postnatal support content, its because Im busy working on content for my other role, supporting families of children with Selective Mutism. SM is notoriously difficult to treat but let me tell you though that it is easier than BABY SLEEP STUFF!!! BABIES ARE REALLY HARD WORK!! I have been working on my baby breastfeeding & sleep book for 11 YEARS!! Yes, some of that is procrastination and lack of time, but a lot of it is down to the fact t...hat every mother-baby pair (or dyad as they are known in the trade) is unique. Every child with SM is unique, but you can whittle them down into broad categories and get a rough idea of what will work for most children. The challenge in writing for mothers and babies is that you have two variables - the mothers personality and situation and the babys personality, sleep personality and any challenges they face both individually and as a pair, plus as part of a wider family. Mothers of young babies are also chronically sleep deprived so you have to make things as clear as possible and also work really hard to give straightforward advice without offending a very emotional and fragile person. Its an absolute minefield. A couple of people have said to me that its more important to just get the baby book out there than make it perfect, but with every family I work with, I learn even more about how to explain things, so I go back and make yet more changes. I recently finally started writing my Selective Mutism book and I realised that it is much simpler than the baby book and will probably be finished first. I have about 70 topic headings and I can bang out the first draft content for each topic in around 3 hours for the easier ones and 10 hours for the more complex areas. This is compared to around 9/10 chapters for the baby book which are still unfinished after hundreds of hours of work. So, when you ask yourself Why is this baby lark so hard?, you are not alone, it is not you. It is a really hard job and they are complex little things. Raising a human is the hardest job in the world. If youre interested in the other cap I wear to work then here is a link to my latest SM blog post.

20.01.2022 At this time 12 years ago I was in labour with my first baby in the pool at 7cms dilated in Mt Barker Hospital and going backwards. Every time I took the gas I would puke and things were starting to look ominous. I was about to get to the worst part of labour where things stalled for a while, the midwives changed shift and then I entered transition! My babies were born in the days pre social media and the huge rise in the popularity of birth photography. We had only just pur...Continue reading

20.01.2022 1 x postnatal spot available now 1 x p/n spot for due date after 15 Jan 1 x p/n spot after 20th Feb1 x postnatal spot available now 1 x p/n spot for due date after 15 Jan 1 x p/n spot after 20th Feb

18.01.2022 Sorry I havent posted for a while because admittedly I am too busy preparing for this! However just to update you on my availability, I can take on: **One doula client in Term 2, ideally with a due date no later than late April / early May** **One newborn night nannying client in May**(one off- not to be continued after my trip) **Unlimited sleep/feeding consults in Term 2**... We have 4 weeks left of Term 1 and I have availability for about one client, possibly two at a push for a couple of sleep/feeding consults. School hols are Sat 13th April- Tues 30th April inclusive and I am only available for a few days in that time, so I need advance warning to book a babysitter. If youre new to following my page then a quick bit about my approach - all my advice is individually tailored to you and your baby, changes with them as they grow, is super flexible and is designed to maintain, not compromise long term lactation. I also help you to have realistic expectations of what normal sleep is for a breastfeeding baby at different stages of development but still doing everything we can to maximise your night sleep. My timings focus on how long the baby has been awake for (not doing things at a specific time), and roughly how to time / space meals and breastfeeds, but they do not make babies wait for a BF or limit the number of BFs, if anything I usually encourage more frequent BFs in the daytime than babies are currently on. I can also support Mums who want / need to transition to mixed feeding to do this in a way that supports BF if they want to keep going with both or to wean gently when the time has come.

17.01.2022 Just popped up a new blog post. There is a also a recent review up on testimonials page, with hopefully a couple more to come by the end of the year. Also coming soon: summer opening hours / availability info and news of a new support group Im planning for next year.

15.01.2022 This page cracks me up...

14.01.2022 Adelaide peeps - if anyone knows someone who is building / renovating or coming for an extended visit from interstate and needs somewhere to live mid July-Mid Oct we are off travelling doing 1/3 lap of Australia. We thought about AirBnBing our house but it is a bit of a faff and we still have the cat and chooks here (dog is coming with us). So going to look at house sitters to start with and reconsider AirBnB later. Have registered on www.aussiehousesitters.com.au and the lis...ting should be up within about 24 hours - just search Littlehampton or Adelaide Hills and you should find us. We have done this before 8 yrs ago and the sitters paid for their own utility bills, worked well. The expectation is that house sitting is free on that site but extended house sit etiquette is for sitters to pay utilities. Wed be looking for $3-4K back for the 3 months to cover gas, electricity, internet, water, netflix, cleaner before & after they arrive, gardener x 2 visits and rounded up a little for essentially super cheap all inclusive rent of a nice clean cosy house. Literally no garden work to do, no exit clean, very low maintenance animals (5 mins work per day). See more

13.01.2022 I can vouch for Cassie being a great hairdresser and lovely warm person to have in your home. Definitely one for Mums and everyone else!

12.01.2022 If this is you every nap time - give me a call! I only have about one appointment available per week between 2nd & 14th May. Next appointment availability after that is most Mondays, Wednesdays and some Thursdays 3rd-27th June. I am really bad at promoting myself on social media and must make this more of a priority, but as an idea of the kind of results people are seeing, this term Ive helped two 11 month olds return to normal sleep after they spiralled when they outgrew t...heir previous routines and a 3-4 month old go from waking every 2-4 hrs overnight to sleeping 2 x 6-7 hr stretches overnight (on only breastmilk). I also have a little preschooler who went from not talking at childcare to flourishing at kindy in his first term. Im also helping out former clients with decluttering, cooking meals for the freezer etc on my quiet days. As someone with an ABN, DCSI check and up to date first aid certificate, if you have NDIS funding (self or plan managed) you can also use core supports funding for this type of help as it helps to free up your time to take your child to therapy appointments etc. 27th June will be my last working day before we set out on our trip. 27th June-26th August I will respond to urgent e mails/messages/calls from existing clients when I have mobile coverage (may be patchy) but I wont be taking on anyone new. 26th Aug-13th Oct available for phone consults on the road, including new clients. 14th Oct- Term 4, back to business as usual and taking on new clients face to face plus one doula client with a due date before 14th Nov.

11.01.2022 Im a massive fan of conversations...this episode is one of the most moving of late. Please dont listen if you are pregnant or have recently experienced a traumatic birth, but if you are far enough away from the experience, this is well worth a listen.

11.01.2022 If you are worried about your breastfed baby in this hot weather, keep yourself hydrated and you can offer just the let down from one boob between proper feeds as a drink between meals. Just feed, feed, feed - it may bump up your supply a bit too much temporarily but thats easily dealt with later when the weather cools. If your baby is occasionally having a drink of cooled boiled water from a bottle just to keep them used to a bottle for later emergencies, be careful not to give too much water as it can mess with their electrolyte balance to have too much in one go before they are old enough for solids and water. It should just be a taste. Oh and monitor the amount, colour and smell of their urine to judge how well hydrated they are. A cotton wool ball in the nappy can help to judge this if you are using disposables.

11.01.2022 Please be careful about who you allow to visit your baby over this autumn / winter. The flu season is really bad, really early this year. You may have to be strict with Grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins which may be upsetting for them, but please dont let people who have a cold visit your baby if they are newborn or not until they are sure it is just a a cold for older babies. My youngest had a possible broken toe over Easter and when I rang Mt Barker hospital to see if the radiographer was on duty, the nurse said to strap and it see GP the following week as the risk of catching flu in the waiting room was too high. She said it is the worst she has seen it in 39 years of nursing. Babies over six months are eligible for flu vaccine.

11.01.2022 #AdelaideHills #naptime Scroll down for recent review from a client who only needed one visit, a few phone calls and structured e mail support to see significant improvements with night waking and more predictable day naps. This is an older baby recently started on solids hence there is an actual routine but all my routines are super flexible and designed to maintain long term lactation. We actually increased the breastfeeds as well as optimising timings of solids and naps.... I say significant improvement with night sleeps as if you want to keep BF up to or beyond a year, STTN 7-7 isnt always realistic or helpful. Providing baby resettles quickly and Mum can get one 5-6 hr stretch undisturbed, waking once and occasionally twice to feed overnight can be great to maintain lactation for babies who have recently started solids. Sometimes they love their food so much that they can drop BFs too quickly and shock your body into thinking you are weaning. My timings focus on how long the baby has been awake for (not doing things at a specific time), and roughly how to time / space meals and breastfeeds, but they do not make babies wait for a BF or limit the number of BFs. I am also a big believer in top up feeds (by that I mean extra BFs before naps, not top up formula feeds, though I can also support Mums who want / need to transition to mixed feeding to do this in a way that supports BF if they want to keep going with both). This beautiful baby had a different routine for whoever was looking after him and well update again when he drops to two naps. "Susannah helped us by developing a sleeping and feeding routine that works for us. They were well planned according to our schedules and were a great resource for my husband and mother on days where baby K was in their care. The ongoing phone calls helped identify changes and addressed concerns. I would recommend her services to any new Mum navigating their way through all of the information available on sleeping and feeding, as having a customised approach really takes into consideration your babys needs. Thank you Susannah. EKay and Baby K, Rose Park"

10.01.2022 I am back from my trip and have been back at work for a month with new and old clients. I would like to keep looking as relaxed as this, but already I dont! Ive had some time to reflect whilst away on my current business model and family stress levels. Whilst its been a success in terms of results, it is unsustainable financially. Therefore, I will be taking all of 2020 off to create an online course which will be included with all first consults and available separately.... Dont worry if you are a current client as I will still continue to work with you, Im just not taking on anyone new. I also bumped into an old client recently and she was worried by this news...if you are having baby #2 or 3 and you would like to re-book me, providing there isnt a rush of births all at once, I will make time for you, so please get in touch at any time!

08.01.2022 Waiting to get pregnant is an anxious time as you just dont know whether its a taking a while or if there is an underlying problem. There is so much advice and info out there that Im going to assume you already know the basics about not drinking too much, stopping smoking (for both you and your partner), eating healthily and taking folic acid whilst TTC. Also obviously making sure that you are doing it in the most fertile time in your cycle (if you dont know when this is...Continue reading

07.01.2022 My sage plant looking lovely. I planted it when several clients were needing sage and I realised it would be nice to be able to bring a bunch to visits and save them a hunt at the garden centre. Sage can be used to reduce milk supply. Its really useful to make a sage tea when in the final stages of weaning. Please do NOT self diagnose oversupply and muck about with this without professional help- its powerful stuff! We always try block feeding first and when used for oversupply rather than weaning, we start with the lowest amount & strength of tea. Ditto block feeding- better to speak to a lactation consultant or someone like me to make sure you have understood how to do it whilst monitoring supply & mastitis risk.

06.01.2022 Hi to anyone who is still following my page while Im on my year off to create online course and write book which has turned into...homeschooling and no writing! I wont be posting regularly during this but just wanted to say that the last couple of times that I have been out to the local foodland I have seen parents out with babies under the age of one. I understand that if you are a single parent or essential worker or spouse of essential worker that you may have no cho...ice but to pop to shops with your baby, but if you have any choice at all, even if it means shopping at inconvenient times, please avoid!! If you must take your baby, then the safest place for them will be in a inward facing baby carrier/sling, not in a pram and not in the trolley where other peoples respiratory droplets can land on them more easily. Remember to do all of the handling of shopping, keys, phone etc then hand sanitise before you unstrap your baby from their carrier. I saw a gorgeous young Mum with her baby about 10m old on Monday dawdling around the shops with not a care in the world, browsing, baby in trolley, baby chewing on the exterior packaging of a pack of crackers handled by God knows how many people previously, which the baby dropped on the floor and was given something else to chew on from the interior of the bacteria covered trolley. Please dont let babies crawl about or toddlers run about touching everything. If dummies are dropped, they are done. If they cry, they cry. This is not the time for challenging their immune system and not helicopter parenting- this is precisely the time to be anally retentive about hygiene when outside your home. When at home, continue to allow your baby to enjoy liberal amounts of dog/cat hair and your own normal household dirt as this IS good for their immune system. Keep a pair of shoes for shopping and take them off outside. Regularly clean entry points to your home, taps, light switches, car keys, phones, high traffic floor areas for crawling babies etc, otherwise continue with only cleaning the rest of the house when you have time and let your baby get muddy. A crawling baby with filthy knees is generally a good thing! N.B the disinfectant in most antibacterial wipes is not proven to kill Coronavirus, warm soapy water is best and in high risk areas a bleach solution (Milton tablets are good way to get the strength right without burning yourself). Stay well everyone xx See more

05.01.2022 The still face experiment is quite old and was originally done with mothers. Dads, when you doubt how important you are to your baby - dont! They need your responsiveness to feel the world is safe and happy.

05.01.2022 Tummy Time. It is SO important but something thats not easy to get excited about! I do give gentle reminders about tummy time and strategies to implement it, but myself and the Mums I work with are often bogged down with dealing with recovering from birth both physically and mentally, establishing breastfeeding and sorting out sleep stuff that it can feel like just one more thing on the to-do list which keeps dropping to the bottom and being put off, especially when the ba...Continue reading

04.01.2022 Happy New Year everyone! 2019 is going to be a very exciting year for my family as we have finally decided to take the plunge and head off travelling in the second half of the year! Its our last chance before our eldest starts high school in 2020. Prior to reaching this decision, I had already been planning to make some changes to my business model.I had been looking at running groups in person and creating some online content, as well as expanding my Skype consults to cov...Continue reading

04.01.2022 #birthplan Ive been trying to write a comprehensive blog post on WRITING A BIRTH PLAN / map / preferences (whatever you want to call it) for quite some time, but it is really hard to get everything I want to say across and it feels too big and in depth for a blog post actually. I recently helped one of my best friends in the UK condense and alter her birth plan as we excitedly await the home-birth of her third baby. Her birth plan was already well written and realistic but ...it needed to be edited to increase impact and absorption in case she needs to be attended by anyone other than her named midwife, or transferred into hospital, so that they can read it quickly. A lot of Mums write birth plans that are far too long and contain a lot of unnecessary information. For example, they ask for things that are already standard good practice, decline procedures which do not happen in Australia (they get ideas from US websites - birth is totally different there), waste wordage on low priority things that can be discussed in person, write down things which are already recorded in their medical records or some things which could be expressed in bullet points get written out in full sentences. You ideally want your birth plan to be one page, written in large font and very clear. For anyone who is unsure about writing their birth plan, I do cover this at antenatal consults. My antenatal consults are intended as getting to know you and parenthood preparation for pre-booked postnatal clients. However, even if you do not plan to have postnatal visits, I can provide antenatal prep visits for you. These are a one off appointment so I can generally squeeze them in fairly easily around regular postnatal clients. Ive added this as an option on my fees page. https://www.hillspostnatal.com.au

03.01.2022 Fully booked now til I go away, next new client phone consults available when we hit the QLD coast 2 Sept, in person from 21 OctFully booked now til I go away, next new client phone consults available when we hit the QLD coast 2 Sept, in person from 21 Oct

03.01.2022 This episode of Babytalk is well worth a listen for parents of children of all ages... This time management professional has properly researched how much undivided attention our children actually need at different ages and it is a probably a lot less than you imagine! The bit that really stuck with me was that she pointed out when we are providing for and arranging for our children that it is largely invisible to them, yet it takes up the majority of our time. The bits they r...Continue reading

01.01.2022 I currently have availability to take on one more Mum starting immediately or any time before early November. Might also have a second spot available after October. If your baby is due during the summer school holidays then I will be working this year, but on limited hours, so it depends how busy I am in November as to whether I can take on a December baby. I am generally not available from about 22nd Dec-8th Jan at all but can provide phone support and one visit every 7-10 d...ays during the rest of the summer. One change that I have decided to introduce for new clients is that I am asking women who have pre-booked to ensure that we have our first visit within the first 10 days after giving birth. Sometimes Mums are being given silly, conflicting or incorrect advice before I see them, so I want to see each baby feed with my own eyes (and ears!) a couple of times in the early days. After the first visit and first few weighs, all being well, then you can space visits however it suits you. If you are booking up when your baby has already been born, then it is fine if this is after the first 10 days. With regards to older babies, I am still taking on older babies up to 18-20 weeks old for unlimited ongoing support. For babies older than 20 weeks then I have decided to offer a package service which will be limited to 2 visits and several phone calls for one fixed price (Ive yet to add this to my fees page but will do soon). In older babies, the Mums generally only need a trouble shooting appointment and then a follow up. I feel like within 2 visits I can give you most of the information that you need to be able to make the positive changes yourself and it is up to you after that. Even if you are not in a place to be able to make and sustain ALL of the changes needed at this time, within the first two visits, you will get so much useful information that it is still worthwhile. It may be that you have approached me about night sleep and the night wakings dont get resolved but your babys settling at bed time, breast feeding, reflux or pattern of solid food and naps greatly improve; that the night sleep improves but the naps remain disastrous! This may not be the silver bullet you are looking for but ultimately may give your energy levels and confidence the boost you need to try again later on make further changes instead of spiralling further downwards.

01.01.2022 #clusterfeeding #breastfeeding #postnatalsupport I spend a lot of my working life clarifying things that Mums have slightly misunderstood or which are generally poorly explained in information sources readily available to them. One topic which comes up a lot is understanding the difference between normal cluster feeding and a feeding or sleeping problem. When authors, bloggers, experts whoever write about cluster feeding being normal, I hope what they actually mean is Its n...ormal for very newborn babies who are establishing breastfeeding to feed every hour or so. I do feel that there is something of a trend within natural parenting circles towards this idea that its almost abnormal or neglectful if your baby ISNT feeding a ludicrous number of times per night for the first few years not the just the first few weeks or months! When people seize on one small part of what is being said without completely understanding the nuances, it can be problematic. If people apply that principle to a two, three or four month old baby, they may not realise that there is a feeding problem until the baby is found to have static weight gain. Humans are carrying mammals therefore our young are meant to feed frequently as our milk is digested very fast. If you are breastfeeding and you choose to co-sleep, your baby may have many, many small feeds throughout the night without either of you waking up very much and this is normal. In the first few days of breastfeeding or if your newborn baby is going through a growth spurt he or she may feed every hour for about 24 hours. Breastfed babies will often feed every 2 hours by day right up until they are on 3 solid meals per day and even beyond, but not as well as doing that all through the night too. Babies who are attachment parented will often graze all day and night but they still usually have a few longer stretches where they sleep more deeply between feeds. This is normal and what humans always did before the advent of agriculture. However, I am here to tell you that if a baby is ACTIVELY feeding (not just nibbling in their sleep) every hour day and night, outside of growth spurts, every single day, then that is NOT NORMAL and you should speak to someone like me, a lactation consultant or other qualified person. They may be feeding excessively due to supply or attachment issues, to soothe their pain from reflux, they may be feeding because they are overtired or out of habit. If your baby is fully waking to feed every 1-2 hours and not re-settling fairly quickly after night feeds, then neither you or they are getting anywhere near enough sleep!