I wonder if I may jump in here.

Until just over a year ago I lived and worked in Stamford Hill in North
London.  There is a very large Jewish population there and, similarly to
Jessica's area and Gateshead, it is quite normal to have very large
families.

I, myself, am from that community, and as a BfC have found that I would
quite frequently get calls from mothers who had bf any number of children,
but the latest one was not behaving as all the others had.

It always seems to me that this is more to do with the mothers' expectations
rather than anything particular to do with their age or other circumstances.
It is most convenient when one can bf automatically, as it were, without
having to pay much attention to details.  When it works out that way for a
series of babies, then it's fine, but as soon as you get one who needs more
attention to, say, positioning, then it raises all sorts of complications
because a mother of a large family has to spread herself so thinly.

I have to admit that in most cases I have found that if I am contacted soon
enough and we can adjust the positioning so that whatever concerned the
mother is no longer an issue, then that mother will invariably continue to
bf for as long as she feels is appropriate.

Heather, you might be interested in a comparison between the community in
Gateshead and that in Stamford Hill:  Gateshead is a small and intimate
community, whereas in Stamford Hill the community is very large and spread
out.  It would seem to me that your experience of Gateshead may mean that
mothers there tend to have the same expectations and make their choices
accordingly, whereas in Stamford Hill because there is such a variety of
backgrounds, mothers have wider expectations.

How do our experiences compare with yours, Jessica?

Best wishes

Nena Blake
BfC/Tutor for NCT
Edgware, Middlesex.

"There's always another way of looking at things".

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