The right to breastfeed and hospital overnight stays

A planned trip to hospital this week was postponed after it became apparent that it would result in at least one overnight stay without being allowed to have Edward with me overnight. 

Although this should not have been a problem, my husband is more than capable of a night alone with my son. Edward has recently decided that breast milk should only come from one source and it is not a bottle! 

This lead me to question what, if any, right do you have to have your child in hospital overnight with you if your solely breastfeeding? 

Although the right to breastfeed in public is protected under the provision of goods, services and facilities section of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.  There seems to be nothing that gives a mother the right to have her child in hospital overnight if her child is still being breastfeed.  Although I suspect that individual hospitals may have their own policies on the matter there is very little on the subject available on the internet. 

I have asked various Doctors, other mums, nurses and midwives whether they think there is a right to have your child with you if you are required to stay in hospital.  Without exception they have all agreed that there should be a right but are unsure what that should be. 

Perhaps it would fall under the remit of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights but that is only a qualified right and not an absolute right. 

I am lucky; my operation can wait for another day.  However, other mothers may not be so lucky. 

I would welcome your thoughts, comments or suggestions…

The best baby product on the market – Reusable baby wipes

A recently pregnant friend asked me the other day what my number one baby product was?  I did not have to think to hard.  Without a shadow of a doubt the Cheeky Baby Wipes reusable system wins hands down.  

Recently nominated for an award in the French magazine Famili, this is a product that no new mother should be without. 

Some reasons why you should get this product:

• It’s so much cheaper than disposable wipes;
• Its better for your baby’s bottom, no more nappy rash;
• One wipe does the work of about three or four disposable wipes;
• It’s better for the environment; and
• If you are anything like me, you will get addicted to the smell of the essential oils!

For £24 you get two boxes (with sprung pop lids, easy for one handed opening) one for clean wipes and one for your mucky ones, 25 terry towelling cloth baby wipes, one fresh and one mucky waterproof out and about travel bag, a small bottle of lavender and chamomile essential oil blend and one small bottle of Tea Tree and Tea Tree Lemon essential oil blend.  

Both the out and about mucky bag and the mucky box come with mesh liners so there is no need to touch the dirty wipes, just empty the mesh bags and their contents directly into your washing machine and wash them with your normal load at a temperature between 30° and 60°. 

The wipes come in either terry towelling or bamboo.  I have tried and tested both and would recommend the bamboo ones, as they are beautifully soft.  Cheeky wipes have recently released a new bamboo wipe version and what an improvement they are.  Check them out at here

However, what makes this product the best is the customer support that comes with it.   Helen at Cheeky Wipes could not be more helpful.  I wish her all the very best at the Famili awards, if it were up to me she would definitely win.    

How to tie a real nappy - origami style

Once I had the nappies delivered and had them washed (to allow for shrinkage of the bamboo material), I was left with the next mission – how to tie a real nappy. 

Luckily my mother was on hand and armed with a teddy bear my husband and I tackled the origami fold.   Although we had mastered putting the teddy bear in a nappy we knew that a wriggling son would be a challenge. 

I know that the origami fold will soon be too small to use for my son, so I carried out some internet research. 

Once again the website Twinkle Twinkle came up trumps with a useful guide on how to nappy.  The guide covers everything from how to tie a nappy to what contents to expect in your nappy and how best to deal with them!

Other useful websites I have found are:

• The Nappy lady website this provides you with you “how to tie it” you tube videos;
• Plush pants tying instructions; and
• A step by step slideshow is available on baby centre’s website.

I have found the easiest thing to do is pre fold the nappies as soon as they have been washed and dried and then roll the wings around the bulk of the nappy and store them in a draw below the changing mat ready to go. 

Wish me luck on learning the next nappy tying technique! I will let you know how I get on…

Make your own nappy boosters

Boosters help give flat nappies that little extra absorbency that is definitely need with a boy. The fleece wicks away the urine and keeps the baby dry and nappy rash free.  

However at £5 for a pack of 6 they are expensive. 

I made a cardboard template and used it to cut up old bits of fleece my mother had stored away in her attic.  Edward now has a variety of colourful and trendy animal print nappy boosters! 

• Fleece is also readily available to buy cheaply at your local haberdashery. 
• Choose darker colours that won’t show the stains over time
• Make plenty so that you can throw them away if you don’t want to carry them around when you are out and about
• They can be washed with the nappies, they are still going strong 4 months down the line.  

The Happy Nappy – Bamboo or Terry Nappies or Pre fold

Having made the choice to go down the route of reusable nappies, the next choice was flat nappies or pre folded. 

I initially bought a two packets of flat nappies: terry and bamboo.  It quickly became obvious that the bamboo nappies were smaller and much softer for Edward although the terry nappies were certainly more absorbent.  I have chosen the bamboo nappies as they are that much smaller under clothes and I have not yet found that they are not absorbent enough (I leave him in a nappy overnight and there are no leaks in the morning). 

For those times when I am lucky enough to have a friend babysit I have also invested in a couple of bitti d’lish nappies.  There are pros and cons to these pre fold nappies:

Pros:

• ·      They are wonderfully simple to use for those with no nappy tying experience;
• ·      They are much smaller than flat nappies underneath clothes;
• ·      They are bamboo based so also soft;

Cons:

• ·      They are not as waterproof as flat nappies with an outer wrap (but you can buy extra liners to pad the nappy);
• ·      You have to wash both the outer and inner layers every time you change the nappy, whereas you can wipe and reuse the outer wrap for

There is an excellent guide on nappy choices here but if you are in any further doubt phone Miranda at Twinkle Twinkle and she can give you excellent advice and recommendations to suit your individual needs.  

Having had an amazing home birth with the assistance of two fantastic independent midwives, I was sad to learn that in 2013, independent midwifery will be made illegal under EU law as EU legislation by then will require all health professionals, including independent midwives, to have indemnity/insurance in order to practice.  


If like me, you don't want your choice of having an independant midwife taken away from you, then please take the time to read the information on the Independent Midwives website and write to your:

• MP; and 
• Mike Lewis 
the Senior Policy Manager 
Professional Standards Division.   

Nappies: Disposable or reusable

Whilst I was pregnant I put some serious research into whether or not to go down the re usable nappy route. 

It quickly became apparent that the advantages of using reusable nappies were that:

·      It saved me money

·      It was kinder to the environment

·      It was kinder to the baby

However, the perceived disadvantages were:

·      It was a pain to wash the nappies

·      That the frequent washing nappies could also impact on the environment 

·      That the initial cost output was high

I found an excellent discussion about the advantages of using reusable nappies on Twinkle Twinkle’s website

I would like to say it was saving the environment that did it for me but I am afraid to say the decision came down to how much money we would save.

My research showed that using reusable nappies was likely to save me as much as £500 (and that’s per baby, if we are lucky enough to have a second baby the savings are even greater). 

A packet of 54 organic cotton Huggies costs £7.49.  Based on a baby needing roughly 6 to 8 nappies a day; a packet of 54 nappies would last a week. 

If I bought the suggested 24 nappies needed plus 20 wraps (5 of each available size) that was a cost of £285 which should last me until Edward starts potty training.  That would only buy me 38 packets of Huggies (lasting only 38 weeks of nappies). 

With that decision made the next was what type of reusable nappy to go for… 

A pain free home birth

My son was born into this world nine weeks ago.  He arrived in the peaceful setting of my childhood bedroom with my family and other animals looking on.  

I had a beautiful home birth assisted by two amazing private midwives,

• ·      Chrissy Hustler of Wessex Independent Midwives 
• ·      Erika Thompson of Beautiful births. 

I spent my short labour exchanging nappy tying techniques with Erika and listening to the James Bond theme soundtrack, which my husband in his infinite wisdom, thought might encourage me to push. 

We only just made the birthing pool in time and fortunately managed to dissuade a curious cat from falling into the birth pool.  

Our home birth was everything I could have hoped for and baby son arrived within 4 hours without the need for any pain relief other than the achieved from the birth pool. 

Looking back at my NCT classes I was sad that the advantages of having a home birth were not discussed.

In fact I felt alone in my desire to experience a home birth.

If it had not been for the original encouragement of my mother, who had a home birth with my younger brother, I don't think I would have even considered it.

It has certainly sparked my desire in my quest to become a natural born mother.