• Discuss the importance of breastfeeding with your physician or midwife. Ask your healthcare professional to write your feeding goals on your prenatal record, which is used by the hospital staff to learn about your pregnancy history.
• Ask your health professional to examine your breasts during the first and last trimester. Breasts can change significantly during a pregnancy. If there are any questions or concerns about your breasts or nipples, you can be referred, before delivery, to a certified lactation consultant who can offer additional suggestions.
• Discuss your breastfeeding plan with your significant other and/or key family members and friends who will be around you during the early weeks after birth. Communicating your intentions will help them understand your goals. If they do not have current knowledge about breastfeeding, see ‘Talking with key family members and friends’ on page 000.
• Find a woman who has successfully breastfed her baby and ask her to be part of your support system after delivery. Sometimes women who had a fairly easy time breastfeeding fulfill this role well. Community support groups such as La Leche League are a good resource for mother to mother support.

Talking with key family members and friends

• Our bodies expect to breastfeed our babies.
• Breast milk is free.
• Breast milk is always available, even in times of natural disasters.
• It is important to have a historical understanding that women who delivered in the past years were given incorrect information. So if they did not breastfeed or had difficulties with breastfeeding, it does not mean that you as a new mother will have the same experience. There is significantly more information, support, and skilled help for new mothers today.
• Breast milk is the healthiest food for babies.
• The early days are key to helping the mom’s body understand how much milk to make and when. When breastfeeds are skipped or timed, the milk production is decreased. So seemingly helpful things such as sleeping through the night or taking a long nap while someone bottle-feeds the baby, sends the body a message to make less milk.

Helpful things for your partner/support person before delivery

• Ask them to attend a breastfeeding class. Studies show that the mother’s partner is the key person who determines if she will continue to breastfeed after the baby is born.
• Ask them to read current information about breastfeeding. The more they know about the normal expectations of breastfeeding, the more helpful they will be as your support person. There are excellent books on breastfeeding listed at the end of this chapter.
• Ask them to refrain from suggesting bottle-feeding right away. Taking the baby away from your breast begins to change your milk production and the baby’s feeding method. Breasts and bottles flow differently and some babies are not easy to coax back to the breast.
• Make a list of some ideas that your support person could do for you during the early days of being a new mother (such as changing the baby’s diaper and bringing the baby to you for feedings).
• Encourage your support team to protect your time during the first week after delivery. This time will be a phase of readjustment to a new rhythm of life for you, your baby, partner and any of your other children. Having someone to help protect nap times, and provide food and support makes this adjustment much easier.  

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