01/08/2026
🌍 World Breastfeeding Week 👶🏼💕
Over the past five years, one of the greatest privileges has been welcoming families back to our postnatal reunions, usually when their babies are typically between 3 and 15 weeks old 👶🏼
Amongst the parents who come to our classes hoping to breastfeed, the overwhelming majority are still breastfeeding or exclusively feeding expressed breastmilk when we meet again. In most reunion groups, it’s all - or almost all - of those who set out hoping to breastfeed.
Does that mean their journeys have been easy?
Absolutely not.
Some have faced tongue tie issues, sore ni***es, sleepy babies, low milk supply concerns, mastitis, expressing, combination feeding, birth trauma, or a birth that didn’t go to plan. Some have had straightforward births, while others have experienced interventions or more medicalised births that can often make the early feeding journey more complex.
The difference isn’t that challenges don’t happen.
The difference is that parents have already begun to build their toolkit before their baby arrives.
Sadly, breastfeeding rates in the UK fall significantly in the first two weeks after birth. Yet this isn’t simply because parents don’t want to continue.
At precisely the time when women need practical help, reassurance and someone to remind them that they’re doing an incredible job, many find themselves spending long days alone as partners return to work 😞
It wasn’t always meant to be this way.
Humans have always raised babies in communities. Mothers learned from mothers. Feeding women supported other feeding women. Families gathered around new parents, allowing them to rest, recover and simply get to know their baby.
Lean into your family and friends. Find your local infant feeding team. Go to breastfeeding drop-in clinics. Meet other new parents. Share your stories, ask for help and support one another.
Prepare for feeding not just labour.
Because preparation isn’t about guaranteeing an easy journey.
It’s about giving yourself the very best chance of achieving the feeding goals that matter to you.
