Feeding babies - a feeding specialist talks us through her job

Michelle

Hi, I'm Michelle Peter and today I'm talking to Marjorie, an infant feeding practitioner about all aspects of infant feeding.

So what's your role as an infant feeding practitioner - what do you do?

Marjorie

An infant feeding practitioner is someone who s families with infant feeding, regardless of how they decide to feed their baby. That can be breast feeding, mixed feeding, bottle feeding.

Mothers can come to us at any point. When the baby's two days old, they can come to us. When the baby's one year, two years old. The information needed might be different, but the is equally important and it's getting that confidence.

Michelle

So do you get parents coming to you that need help with how to attach their babies?

Marjorie

Yes. Mainly, you will see that most parents will come and the first thing that we will do is a little bit about positioning and attachment, and try to make the feed as comfortable as possible. Breast feeding should be pain free

Michelle

So do mums who bottle feed come to you for as well?

Marjorie

We're not just a breast feeding service. We are a service where we see mums however they decide to feed. It's very important to talk about actual responsively bottle feeding.

Michelle

So when you say 'responsive feeding', can you explain a little more about that - what do you mean?

Marjorie

Responsive bottle feeding is about understanding and responding to your baby when it's needed. If your baby shows cues of being hungry then it's ok to feed your baby when that time comes. And we do encourage dads to come to sessions to get the also.

Michelle

So what's the most important part of your job?

Marjorie

Listening. Listening to be able to the mum as they need.