» Feeding Your Baby – Antenatal Information

Feeding Your Baby – Antenatal Information

During your pregnancy, you will have conversations with healthcare professionals, family members and friends around responding to your baby’s needs for food, comfort and love. Starting to think about this in the antenatal period will help you prepare to meet your baby’s ever-changing needs when they are born.

Your Health Visiting Service is here to support you and offer a range of opportunities during the antenatal period. These include one to one contacts and virtual, live and recorded information sessions.

Antenatal Education

These virtual groups provide an opportunity for you to interact with other families in your area and ask questions to trained staff about your pregnancy and baby’s first weeks of life. We currently have a number of sessions centred around feeding your baby and we invite you to come along.

See here for a flyer for our Antenatal Infant Feeding Virtual Group 1pm Thursdays – held monthly over 2 consecutive weeks.

We also have our Bump, Birth & Beyond antenatal groups.

These are available virtually and we are back at multiple face to face locations across Lancashire.

Check out our BBB page for more info!

Also available is a flyer here on various other options for Antenatal education in Lancashire. Click the image to view, share or save to your web browser or phone.

We offer other virtual groups for when your baby is born – see here.

Useful Information

Infant Feeding Peer Support

The NCT Peer Support service is commissioned by Lancashire County Council and works alongside HCRG Care Group and the NHS to provide a infant feeding peer support service (run by mums for mums). Alongside your Midwife and Health Visitor, they can offer evidence-based information and guidance on a number of areas related to infant feeding.
Click here to see what support is available from NCT or click the image above for info on a new virtual group.

Call the NCT Lancashire helpline on: 0208 752 9025
National helpline: 0300 330 0700

Breastfeeding

Anya. The 24/7 pregnancy, parenting and baby feeding support app
How to recognise that your baby is breastfeeding well – a helpful guide
Deep latch slo-mo video (Lucy Webber IBCLC)
Is baby swallowing milk or just sucking? video (Lucy Webber IBCLC)
Association of Breastfeeding Mothers – How lactation works video
What’s in breast milk (above) and how does the composition change as a feed progresses? See a handy demonstration by FAB peer supporter Nicola, who has since gone on to become one of our Health Visitors and now a Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) within our Specialist Community Infant Feeding Team!
Antenatal hand expressing / harvesting colostrum guide video by Kathryn Stagg IBCLC
Hand expression – UNICEF UK video
Best Beginnings video – Attachment at the breast
Breastfeeding in the first few hours & other helpful videos from Global Health Media – App also available! Search ‘Birth and Beyond’ in the App Store.
Breastfeeding twins – video by Kathryn Stagg ABM Breastfeeding Counsellor & IBCLC (Lactation Consultant)
Breastfeeding twins and triplets UK charity website
The Breastfeeding Network – breastfeeding support & helpline
As well as the Antenatal group sessions that your Health Visiting Service have available, there are others offered by the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers TEAM BABY – Getting Ready to Breastfeed and antenatal courses available in different languages here.
Breastfeeding a baby with Down syndrome – Charity Positive about Downs syndrome (PADS) have two digital booklets available; The Maternity Experience and The Lived Experience to try and bust the myth that ‘babies with Down syndrome can’t breastfeed’.

Useful links and videos

Which healthcare professionals will I meet as a parent
NHS Start4life – help and advice during pregnancy, birth and parenthood
Off to the best start guide – Important information about feeding your baby
First Steps Nutrition – Eating well in pregnancy webpage
Better Births information for families – During Pregnancy and Preparing for Birth and Parenthood
Vitamins & supplements in pregnancy – Start4life by NHS
NHS pregnancy information
Skin to Skin – UNICEF UK Meeting baby for the first time video (above)
The Baby Buddy app has a wealth of information and videos about your journey into parenthood. Everything from pregnancy, mental health and preparing for birth to rights at work, your baby’s health and your feeding options.
Babywearing / sling use – Wearing baby in a sling can meet many of baby’s needs, whilst allowing you to get other things done around the house or see to older children. There may be a sling library near you where trained supporters can guide you in selecting the right one for you to hire. Ask your Health Visitor or NCT peer support group for details of your local service or click our link above.
Birth to Five– this booklet gives you information on becoming a parent, taking care of yourself and your child and finding practical help and support
A guide for parents-to-be and families with young children in the Lancaster and Morecambe area – The Babymaze is a useful guide for parents-to-be and families with young children in Lancaster, Morecambe and the South Lakes. Featuring everything you need from local antenatal classes to baby and toddler groups, plus lots of other essential information.
Rough handling of babies can cause serious injuries. NSPCC’s Handle with care: a guide to keeping your baby safe explains the dangers and gives advice on safe ways of holding and caring for a baby. This simple guide explains why parents should never shake their baby and suggests ways they can soothe them when they cry. There are tips on how to cope when the crying doesn’t stop or seems too much to handle.