Mandy’s Journey to Becoming a Mindful Breastfeeding Practitioner

Mandy from Assertive Birth shares her journey to becoming a Mindful Breastfeeding Practitioner and how this has benefited her clients as well as enhancing her own breastfeeding experience.

My name is Mandy and I’m a mindful breastfeeding practitioner and hypnobirthing teacher based in West Lothian, Scotland. I wanted to write a blog post about my journey to becoming a mindful breastfeeding practitioner in the hope that it will encourage others who are considering taking this leap. I have really benefited from doing this training both professionally and personally and I feel that having done the training whilst feeding my own baby has not only enhanced my own breastfeeding experience but really allowed me to see the benefit of the tools first hand.

So how did I end up following this path?

Well, I have four children, so I’ve given birth to and breastfed a fair few babies. Now that’s not to say I...

Without exception every Parent that I see for lactation support is struggling with their emotions. Pretty understandable, I’m sure you’d agree.

When breastfeeding isn’t going well then it’s stressful and disheartening, for some it feels devastating. They feel like they’re unable to do one of the most natural things in the world. Babies needs to feed, grow and develop and parents feel a huge amount of responsibility for this teeny tiny person that they’ve created.

But what many parents don’t know is that those emotions, the stress, anxiety and fear, directly affect how breastfeeding works and how you connect with your baby.  Here’s why:

Oxytocin
It’s the love hormone that makes us ( and our baby) feel all good inside. As well as flowing freely when there’s super-good vibes around it also has several ejection functions. When it comes to breastfeeding it allows our body to let-down milk from the storage sacks to your milk...