Home Birth Lockdown Baby

Giving birth during the corona virus pandemic has been an experience. I finished work very suddenly after the prime minister declared me ‘vulnerable’ – no time for proper goodbyes with colleagues, and pupils, no cards and well wishes. My baby shower was cancelled, newborn photo shoot postponed and we suddenly found ourselves in lockdown with 7 weeks to go, feeling unprepared.

I’d said from the start that I wanted a home birth, my first baby was born quickly and the midwife that delivered him first planted the idea in my head “homebirth next time I think!” And then i had a friend who opted for a homebirth and recommended it to me. I joined the Homebirth support group and began following posts and asking questions. I found a local place to hire a pool from.

The closer it got to my due date the more worried I became because trusts were beginning to stop homebirths due to staffing and the pressure on ambulance service. Only 3 weeks before my due date did my trust confirm this service would be affected but my midwife was very supportive and told me that if I were to refuse to attend hospital then they could still arrange for someone to come out to me. To me it made sense now more than ever to stay at home, as that was the government message anyway.

39 weeks, the gestation my first was born at came and went. I was frustrated. I was in pain due to an existing hip condition. But other than that I’d had a fairly straight forward pregnancy.

At 40+3 from EDD (scan) and 40+1 (LMP) I woke up at 3am to a gush of waters in bed. I woke my partner up and told him we needed to change the sheets, I wasn’t having any pain or surges at this point but because my waters didn’t go until late on last time I was a bit confused so phoned triage. Home births are technically still off in my area but my midwife had assured me that mine and another’s names were ‘on the board’. Triage said the on call midwife was coming from quite far away so I needed to give them notice. My partner was already up and tidying up and setting the pool up. I told him to go back to bed because I felt nothing was happening. Luckily he didn’t listen.

Once I changed the sheets I lay down and put my hypnobirthing music on and after about 10 mins I was having surges so I started timing them and moved downstairs to sit on my birth ball. I had another gush of waters at 4:40. I phoned triage back at 5am and said since I laboured quite quick last time maybe they had better send someone. Surges were 4 mins apart at this point. In hindsight it was probably too late (I blame hypnobirthing and the up breathing, I was handling it well). At 530 they phoned back to say midwives were 25mins away.

I phoned my mum at 5:37 and between that and her arriving I started to feel like I was falling apart (I now realise this was the transition phase, I don’t remember noticing it with my first labour). I got in the pool at 6, it felt glorious. My mum arrived at 605 and I said I thought we should phone for an ambulance as I needed to push. Mum asked me to ‘hold on’ 🙈

Midwives arrived at 6:17, No time to get me gas and air, even though I asked for it. 2 pushes and she was born at 6:22.

My dad had arrived with my mum to take our little boy to their house. But as he had just woken up my dad did him some breakfast and sat upstairs with him. And then they came down not long after she was born and both looked a bit shocked.

We stayed in the pool for about 20mins, my mum cut the cord and we got out to deliver the placenta as I sent it off to be encapsulated. It took a while even after the injection because my bladder was so full so they emptied my bladder. I was worried I was going to have to be transferred in so was relieved when it was out. No stitches needed.

In the last few weeks I’d begun to worry about having a home birth and felt like it wasn’t going to happen anyway (I had a cough and had to get a covid test the week before, and due to staffing issues I wasn’t sure how I felt about free birth) but I’m so glad we stayed at home in the end. My partner commented later that night “well, it’s nice to be at home” and my dad has commented on what a wonderful experience it was. My first labour was 5 hours and this time 3 so it was definitely the right decision.

Baby was 8lb 2oz, smaller than Harvey but longer.

1 hour before baby was born, in between contractions feeling very calm.

15 minutes before baby arrived, I’d just been helped into the pool.

We are complete ❤

Breast milk donation

Guest post for @mumscomm

I was a first time mum, breastfeeding after a tough start. When my little boy was 5 days old we were readmitted after huge weight loss, due to poor feeding. During this time I was introduced to an electric breast pump and there began my journey of feeling like a cow!

I read an article one night about a lady who had sadly lost her baby at a few weeks old but continued to pump every 3 hours, even setting an alarm during the night to do so (as this is when breast milk supply is best) and she donated everything she pumped, then going on to meet the 4 babies she helped. I cried reading it and then i started looking into how I could also donate breast milk.

I hadn’t been able to give blood for a number of years due to medical procedures, tattoos, pregnancy and this felt like a similar ‘something amazing’. Plus, having known how difficult it was at the start but being lucky enough that my supply was unharmed (and referred to as ‘amazing’ in the early days) I decided I would like to give something to be able to help anyone in need. I came across: https://www.northwesthmb.org.uk

And enquired with them.

They phoned me and talked me through it. You have to make your first donation before your baby turns 6 months old and you can’t donate past 9 months old. I would have to visit my doctor and get blood samples done to test for HIV, HTLV, Hepatitis and Sypillis. You post your blood in a special postal box and they let you know you’re all clear.

You can start collecting milk before your blood test results come through and they send you a box containing: storage bottles, a microwaveable steriliser pouch, a marker pen and a freezer thermometer. They can even hire breast pumps if you don’t have your own. They send you some info with tips and suggestions (such as: having a washing up bowl just for breast milk components).  I started pumping daily either when my little boy napped or whenever I felt particularly overfull or uncomfortable. As I got better at juggling a tiny wriggly human I was able to pump on the opposite side to feeding, this was made easier by a haakaa style pump. I would then pour it into the ready sterilised bottles, write the amount and my name on the bottle and chuck them into a carrier bag into the coldest part of my freezer. 

Once I had around 2 litres I phoned the milk bank and they arranged for one of their volunteers to collect the milk. They come armed with ice bags, packs and boxes. They count the bottles in and you hand over a sheet which shows you’ve checked your freezer temp each day and details of anything to do with illness or medication for you. 

The hardest thing about it was waiting in for the collection. They try to offer a couple of options and the driver phones to let you know an ETA but I did lose a couple of mornings waiting around. I also struggled for freezer space as I got close to the required 20 bottles.

In total I donated 4.7 litres. I really hoped it would be more but during the time I was donating I went on holiday and didn’t pump daily as I had no way of storing the milk and therefore my supply dipped so it became harder. I also had to start stockpiling for my return to work and for some overnights with grandparents my little boy had booked in his diary.

I’m really proud of what I did manage to donate, as well as the fact our own breastfeeding journey lasted just over 14 months before he self weaned. I think it’s worth spreading the word that hospitals can access the milk I and other mums donate so if you are having problems and don’t want to opt for formula, make sure you request some stock from the milk bank.

I also came across a Facebook page called ‘human milk 4 human babies – UK’ which try to match people in need of top ups or breast milk supplies with those who have ‘spare’ milk (maybe left over stockpiles or mums with amazing milk supplies). So there are a few options for those who need the milk or want to donate their own! Happy milking! 😆

Photo 1: cup feeding a 5 day old Harvey my expressed milk so we could monitor his input

Photo 2 and 3:

Getting to grips with feeding and pumping!

Photo 4-7: First delivery from the north west milk bank and some of my expressed milk ready to go in the freezer, my freezer stash and the thanks I received at the end of my donor journey.

Dear Harvey Part 3

You are nearly 8 months old. SO much has happened.
You got your first 2 teeth, a week between each one, at 5 months old. 

You learnt to roll over and use it to help you get around the room. Then you learnt to turn yourself round 360 like a little break dancer! It’s really quite amusing. 

You went on your first little UK break to a house in Wales with family. 

You tried your first food – Sweet potato wedges! And you’ve took this eating thing (and baby led weaning) SO well. You even feed yourself with a spoon if someone loads it ready. 

You moved up to the next class at swimming but it’s been a bit hit and miss recently because we seem to be poorly all the time. 

Mummy did some KIT days at work, and you’ve been a little monkey for grandma on these days – refusing to take a bottle at first. (Yes, still breastfeeding! And mummy donated another 2litres to the milk bank in February!)
You celebrated your half birthday.

We went to the baby show in March and then our first 1st birthday party! (A teddy bears picnic – brilliant!) 

You learnt to sit up and currently you do a great ‘worm’ or army crawl whilst learning to properly crawl. There’s no stopping you though! 

We visited your Great Grandma and celebrated her big birthday with family. It was my first Mother’s Day on the same day, you did well and remembered to get me a card and a little box of my favourite chocolates ❤️ (you remembered my birthday a few days later too, I’m so lucky!) 

We had to buy you a sun hat and some sun cream because we had a couple of days of lovely weather, the Manchester gods soon fixed that. But don’t worry – we’ll save them for our holiday to Greece next month!! 

You’ve learnt to whinge if we walk away from you, and also to fake cry when you want your own way. You’re also quickly learning the words ‘no!’ And ‘gentle!’ Since you’ve made it your mission to chase the bunnies! Poor things!

I’m loving seeing your personality develop!

Mummy x

Breastfeeding advice

After speaking to many new mums it became apparent that there isn’t enough info given during pregnancy about the realities of breastfeeding. I’m glad I’ve been quite public on Facebook and Instagram about the fact I’m breastfeeding because it’s meant a couple of people have felt able to reach out and ask me for help or tips. Some of this I learnt from a friend of mine, who’s little girl is 6months older than Harvey and has been wonderfully helpful during not just our breastfeeding journey but absolutely anything I’ve needed help with.

You’ve gone through labour and there is suddenly a tiny human in your arms. As soon as possible skin to skin, and hope baby knows what to do, because it seems we certainly don’t. 
Ask for help. There are breast feeding peer workers, health visitors, midwives all around to help. Some better than others. Having breastfed doesn’t make them automatically good. It means you have to whip a boob out and probably be manhandled and probably sit in awkward positions whilst you get used to it but even when you think you’ve cracked it, ask for more help! 
Stay in hospital for aslong as you need, do not rush to leave! At least in there you have an excuse to keep visitors to a minimum (or away entirely should you want to)
Join a Facebook group – if you’re local to me then try ‘Glossop breastfeeding group’ or ‘Cherubs’. Although Ive never actually been along to the groups they run (a bit too far) I have asked questions and read others advice on there. I attended a local breast feeding group but it was just before we were readmitted to hospital and I was very overwhelmed so didn’t find it particularly helpful. 
If you are unfortunate enough to have a rough labour and require surgery, discuss with your partner how you wish baby to be fed in your absence. Giving a baby a bottle this soon is not ideal, syringe or cup feeding is a possibility.
Buy some nipple shields. Handy to have in for particularly sore days, incase baby can’t latch etc. Don’t let anyone tell you they’re not advised for long term. We used them for 3 months, Harvey weaned himself off them when he was ready.

Did you know…
1. you should be waking your newborn baby every 2 or 3 hours to feed them for at least the first 4/6weeks. This might involve undressing them, wet wiping them down, and keeping them awake might involve jiggling their arm/leg etc. They might do this themselves very quickly. 
2. Babies do something very clever known as cluster feeding. They might want feeding every 30mins one day, or every hour during the night. You start to worry that your boobs aren’t working but it’s your babies way of telling your boobs to make more milk, and it will pass. Make yourself comfy with the tv, lots of water and snacks and just ride it out. I highly recommend a feeding pillow and a rocking chair during these times – you get so tired you think you’re going to fall asleep on the baby or drop the baby. 
3. you’ll eventually not care about people seeing your boobs because they’re now fulfilling their purpose, but until then it’s okay to sit upstairs whilst feeding your new baby if you feel you need to because you’ve got a house full of visitors
4. you will eventually be able to feed very discreetly, so you won’t be trapped in the house forever 
5. although you’ve read horror stories of people being verbally abused for feeding in public it is much rarer than you think, and there are actually people out there who might hand you a card congratulating you for helping to break the stigma! If someone is looking, chances are they don’t realise you’re feeding and it’s just because everyone loves a baby!
6. breastfed babies sometimes do green, stringy poo and it’s okay! Most of the time it’s like korma though. And poo-splosions happen ALOT! Always have a change of clothes for baby with you.
7. breastfed babies sometimes put weight on in small bursts. One week maybe just 3oz, the next maybe 1lb + and that’s okay too! A gain is still a gain, if they’re tracking the weight chart in their book then don’t let anyone make you feel like it’s not good enough!
8. the world health organisation state benefits to feeding until aged 2 years now, so those people who ask you ‘how long you’ll feed him for’ – tell them until he’s 18!  

9. your nipples will hurt. They’ll either be chapped or baby will pull off so violently you’ll end up with niplash or even they’ll get teeth and not quite know what to do with them to start with. The pain goes away, babies grow out of things.

Tips for upping supply:
Oats (porridge, flapjacks), lactation cookies (find recipes online), fenugreek tablets, raspberry leaf tea, *whispers* placenta encapsulation and generally just eating ALOT. You need 500 extra calories, forget the diet! 

Pumping:
People say ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’ (sigh!) and ‘get daddy to give them a bottle while you sleep’ – the latter is not so easy when breastfeeding. Of course you can pump or hand express, but you shouldn’t do it too much in the first 6 weeks, and if you do make sure baby has that milk in a bottle in that 24hrs, don’t start building a freezer stash just yet! (After that the 6 rule applies to breast milk. 6 hours at room temp, 6 days in fridge, 6 months in freezer)

Happy Boobin’! xx

Questions we need to stop asking new and expectant parents

It’s 430am. Ive been awake since 330 feeding my now 5 month old baby. He just did a poo that somehow made it onto his sleeping bag, I chose his return to the land of sleep to nip downstairs and hang the washing from the machine and empty the dishwasher. I am now wide awake so started to think about something I’d said to a friend about the annoying stages of ‘people’. This could be people you know but sometimes it’s complete strangers too. 

Things we need to stop doing/saying to and asking pregnant women (in no particular order):

-“Can I touch your bump?” INFACT, no one even asked this – they just did. I wanted to punch people. I would loved to have been given the choice, or at least the warning!

– “Was it planned?” When someone has just shared their extremely exciting news with you do not ask this. It’s probably none of your business. I don’t know if there’s a right answer to this either really.

– “Do you want a boy or a girl?” My standard answer was ‘I don’t mind, just as long it’s healthy’ because I was worried I would have the opposite to whatever I said and people would think ‘she didn’t want them…’

– “Are you excited?” Again… feels like there’s no right answer here. They’re probably nervous as hell, or maybe they don’t know how they feel but admitting this is a no go so you’ll get a nod at best.

– “Gosh aren’t you big/small” It can still be offensive, baby on board or not. Everyone is different, so everyone will carry different. Get over it.

Things we need to stop doing/saying to and asking new parents:

– “Do you want anymore/when?” Under the age of one at least, just don’t. The traumas of labour and the sleepless nights still haven’t left us. 

– “Are you going to try for a girl/boy?” You hear this mostly when a parent has all of one gender. It’s almost like everyone is expected to have one of each.

– “How are you finding motherhood/parentlife?” This was probably the worst. We either went with ‘tiring’ or ‘fine, yeah..’. My partners line was ‘doesn’t feel much different’. How is it supposed to feel? Amazing, yes but do they expect a new mum to break down at that point and say how hard it is?!

– “Gosh isn’t he/she big/small for their age” See point above about everyone being different!

– “How’s he sleeping?” Babies are not supposed to sleep through the night, get this out of your head. A breastfed baby might have been up all night cluster feeding. Shush.

– “He can’t be hungry again can he? ” see above about cluster feeding, this idea that all babies feed every 3 or 4 hours really needs shaking!

– “When can he have food?” (or sticking food in their mouth)  Don’t rush it. 6 months. If he needed it, I’d be feeding him – I’m not neglecting him. Ice cream is not an exception to this!

– “try giving him some boiled cooled water” Again, out dated advice. No. And when we tell you it’s outdated advice, don’t respond with “well it never did you/me/my kids any harm”

-“How long will you breastfeed for?” People asked me this right at the start, I still didn’t know if we’d be able to long term because it’s H-A-R-D but I definitely hadn’t planned in my head how long – I was just grateful I could. Following it with “it’ll be weird when he gets teeth” is not helpful either. The health advice now is until 2 years but I haven’t yet decided what will work for us and what’s best for my little boy. 

– “where is he?” My child has another parent who is equally as capable of looking after him, might he be with him?! 

I reserve the right to add to this list in future! 

Dear Harvey Part 2,

You are now 4 months old (18weeks),

It is 2 days after your first Christmas – we are EXHAUSTED. You woke me up at 7:30 on Christmas morning and since we had to be at Grandma’s and Grandads for 10am we got you dressed and opened presents. You were asleep again by 9am but the rest of the day was so exciting you didn’t want to miss a second and so didn’t sleep much at all. Boxing Day repeat and sale shopping today has definitely worn us all out. 

Santa brought you lots of clothes and books and some little toys to play with since you are now able to hold thin rattle type toys (and want to stick them all in your mouth – those bottom teeth have a lot to answer for!) What a lucky little boy!

Before Christmas you continued swimming lessons, grandad has been taking you which is a nice 30mins off for mummy! 

We also attended baby sensory, they were Christmas themed and some of it you seemed to love, other things were a bit too advanced for such a little boy! We finished our early days sessions too, they gave us this lovely poem with your footprints on:

and invited some of the other mummy & babies round the week after. It’s nice to have mummy friends. 

Mummy had the first lot of donor milk collected (2.1litres!) and then had the blood tests done!

Your head control is really good, and you were starting to show signs of rolling over but you seem more interested in doing tummy crunches to try and sit up!

You met Santa, dressed up like an elf and you bought mummy the loveliest Christmas card and presents. 

A year ago today you were a little blue cross on a pee stick and we remember the excitement well! How our lives have changed!

Dear Harvey

Dear Harvey,

You are 12 weeks old tomorrow. Since you were born you have seemed to know night from day, and aside from the first few days you’ve slept well… for a baby. At about 2 weeks olds you started sleeping at least 12-4 if not 10-3/11-4 or there abouts. And would easily go back to sleep for 3hours after a feed! Then the clocks changed, but it’s hard to explain about that to a baby…

In the last 2 weeks you seemed to have dropped that 4am feed and we had a few 11-6/11-7 runs from you! Amazing.

You make THE BEST noises. You smile at us LOTS. You really like being read to (and the video I made has been shown to everyone in the world by your proud grandparents!). Last week we took you swimming, and you were absolutely wonderful! The week before we took you to a firework display and you loved looking at the colours. 

You are a little monkey, stretching out those little legs of yours at the most inconvenient times (including at swimming, right into my face and usually when we are trying to wind you, which makes it really hard). But when you are excited you kick those legs to show us, and it’s a pleasure to see! 

I have lots of fun dressing you in the cutest outfits, especially at Halloween! You never moan at me, although often you are sick on them and on my clothes too. Sometimes you get really upset at your wind after a feed, recently you wanted to tell all the people in a Costa Coffee how much it hurt you. You also told me and grandma how upset you were that you couldn’t see what we could whilst you were in your carry cot on the buggy so I put you in the sling so you could have a good nosey. People stop and ask me about you and tell me how gorgeous you are all the time, in the sling everyone pointed and ‘aww’ed as we passed them.

You have 2 new future friends now as two of mummy’s friends babies’ have entered the world. Holding one of them at 4 days old made you seem so big. Please don’t grow too quickly!

Your Aunty Spam got a kitten and he’s a week younger than you. Being a kitten mummy seems very similar to being your mummy, but milestones seem to happen a lot quicker with a kitten (he’s already being an inquisitive toddler!)

You’ve had your first set of immunisations, which broke mine and grandmas hearts. And soon you have the second set. You are gaining weight really well and feeding much more efficiently!

 

Some of the hardest things about getting out and about with you are the things you never think about. Shopping trolleys with your car seat on are so hard to move and see over. Taking the buggy out is hard work if there aren’t drop kerbs or if people park in silly places. Getting your buggy and car seat out of the car is so difficult if we can’t get a ‘parent and child’ space. Sometimes we see people parking in these without children and it’s very frustrating. Most shops don’t account for space getting a buggy through between racks so even shopping is difficult!

I was finding our time during the week to be very lonely as most people I know work then, but the health visitor invited us to a group to meet other mummy’s and babies and so we now have some more friends to speak to and eat cake with! Hurray.

Grandma’s Aunty Vera passed away in October and last week you attended her funeral. She would have been your Great, Great Aunty and she really was Great! She was 96 years old and one of the loveliest ladies Ive ever known! You were so good at the funeral, although we had to step outside for a short while. Amazingly, you weren’t the youngest person there. Grandma’s cousins granddaughter was just 3 weeks old! 

I can’t wait for more of your firsts!

Lots of Love,

Mummy xx

Baby must haves/don’t bothers

Recently someone asked me whether I’d bought anything for the Baby that we hadn’t used and what the best things we’d bought were. So I thought I’d write a blog post.
Must haves:

1) isofix base for the car seat – click in and out with ease, why would you faff around with seat belts??

2) nappy bin – I have to admit I didn’t think I’d need one of these but when it became clear that baby boys like to decorate whilst you change them (!!) we figured it was best to always use the changing table and large mat we have set up in the nursery rather than risking our carpets anywhere. And if you consider you change around every feed (every 2hrs or less to start with) then you do a lot of nappies a day! I didn’t want them in our kitchen bin and I wasn’t keen on going outside every time. Ours was reduced and came with 3 of the bag cartridges, win! 

3) An easy to set up and fold down pram with detachable and fold up carry cot. So easy even my mum can do it (with a bit of help to begin with). No one wants to see grandma flapping in asda car park on the first day she’s taken baby off you to give you a well needed break. The detachable, fold up carry cot that came with out concord travel system is brilliant. Fits in the boot (and mine isn’t massive!) and means we don’t have to take a Moses basket ASWELL if we travel anywhere! 

4) Baby sling – I bought a stretchy wrap from groupon. Get help from your local sling library or a friend that knows how to wrap them because for a few days I wasn’t quite doing it right enough! On those whingy baby days it saves my arms but gives him all the mummy cuddles he needs. I once sat and sewed with him tied to my chest!? Usually sends him off the sleep too.

5) Ewan the dream sheep – plays heartbeat noises, womb sounds, white noise and a lullaby. A few people told us we would NEED this. It depends on your baby ultimately. Ours didn’t seem to take too long to adapting to being outside of the womb. He was happy to be put down, would fall asleep without being on someone’s chest, but I think it does help him drift off. And he’s cute! 

6) Muslin cloths – you think you’ve got enough? Think again, go out and buy another pack at least. Even breastfed babies get lots of wind and spit up some (seems like ALOT) of their milk.

7) Bandana/dribble bibs: Dribble or sick, protect your babies outfit with a cute looking dribble bib, can make it look part of the outfit and means you don’t have to change them out of soggy tops every few hours. Not just for feeding time!

So far useless or annoying items:
1) Bottle set – we bought a tommee tippee bottle set just incase we ended up formula feeding. I’m glad we did because once I began to express for others to be able to feed him (when I was going out etc) we had bottles to use. The only problem is the steriliser is too big. It holds about 8 bottles and lids but once you take then lid off the steriliser its no longer sterile so why would you do 8…?! Annoying.

2) Snugglebundl – I bought this from one of the baby shows, looked great, was really excited. It’s to go under baby in the pram to allow you to transfer to the car seat or from car seat into the house without waking them. Our car seat has a newborn insert so it wouldn’t fit. I can see myself using it at the supermarket in those plastic seat things but he’s definitely not going into them yet so as of yet it’s been a bit of a waste.

3) Normal bibs – maybe when he’s on proper food or if we were formula feeding but the dribble bibs do the job for breast feeding! 

I’m a rubbish human being…

Before I was pregnant I have to admit that when pregnant women moaned about anything I used to think they were exaggerating a bit, using it as an excuse etc. If they were off sick I had little sympathy. And then I was on the other side. I was so ill at Easter, had really bad flu and it was 10 times worse because I was pregnant and couldn’t take anything to ease it. It really does make every day tasks harder too, carrying all the extra weight, pain in hips/pelvis/back etc.

So I’m sorry for pre-pregnancy me and my horrible human being thoughts!!

I’m also sorry for new mum me and my inability to return baby compliments. Wherever I go people comment on how gorgeous/cute/lovely my boy is, most of these people have babies of their own and I realised that I don’t even look at theirs… Let alone manage to assess whether their child is any of the above compliments, probably because I know I can’t force a response if they’re not, maybe because I’m too besotted with my own to take my eyes of him. Yes, let’s go with the latter!

I’m a rubbish human being.

Jen x 

Placenta encapsulation

I’ve had many strange looks and reactions when I tell people about this but I really believe it’s helped.
After reading up about the benefits I decided it was something I wanted to do. During pregnancy your body creates this extra organ which keeps your little person alive for 9 months, and then you get rid of it. I read it was supposed to improve your mood and help prevent post natal depression, give you more energy and help with milk production for breast feeding.

It cost £150 for a specialist (IPEN) to steam my placenta with herbs etc and dehydrate it and then grind it up into capsules. It also takes prior planning as you have to take a large zip lock bag and an airtight container to store it in, and then a cool bag and ice packs to keep it cool whilst at hospital. It then has to be transferred to a fridge or freezer within 12 hours. 

This is what was delivered back to me just 4 days after I’d given birth 

I was also given a ‘cord keepsake’ which I didn’t expect and does take a little bit of getting used to. I think I’ll put that in a memory box with some other bits. 

I take 3 a day and my recovery has been very good (although with such a good labour I guess that might have been the case anyway). The tablets taste and smell of nothing so it’s not offensive in anyway. 

Definitely something id recommend.

And our little boy is certainly smug with the amount of milk he can get from mama! 

Jen x