The Holding Time Podcast

Welcome to the Holding Time Podcast. Here we discuss breastfeeding in all its complexity - the ups and downs, the challenges, and the triumphs. Whether you are expectant, a new mother or simply interested, I hope you’ll appreciate the incredible warrior women who are managing to breastfeed babies across the country.

This podcast is part of the Holding Time Project, an experimental intervention in chronically low breastfeeding statistics...

Welcome to the Holding Time Podcast. Here we discuss breastfeeding in all it’s complexity - the ups and down, the challenges, the triumphs. Whether you are expectant, a new mother or simply interested, I hope you’ll appreciate the incredible warrior women who are managing to breastfeed babies across the country.

This podcast is part of the Holding Time Project, an experimental intervention in chronically low breastfeeding statistics...

Jennifer I wanted to be with my mum but I needed to be with him as well

Jennifer talks about breastfeeding whilst nursing her dying mother and how she never expected to feed for so long...

Ellen It’s been the highlight of my mothering journey so far

Ellen talks about the importance of a network of mothers, especially during lockdown and reflects on breastfeeding in public.

"Throughout lockdown it was very difficult, you didn’t want to meet people in different stages: one lady would have given birth so you didn’t want to go meet them because they’d just had the baby and you were heavily pregnant yourself and, yeah, it was hard"...

Michelle ‘I was Told I Couldn’t Breastfeed’

Michelle talks about how her awareness about the importance of breastfeeding has grown across the years, after feeding three children. As an experienced breastfeeding mother, she says she grieved after being told in pregnancy that she wouldn’t be able to breastfeed her newborn as she would need surgery...

Victoria

Victoria talks about her struggle to feed her premature baby, born 2.7lbs nine weeks early and her second 4lb child after having an emergency C-Section. Starting out in the hospital with Midwives who are too busy to sit with her whilst she attempts to feed, she struggles to establish a pain-free latch. When she returns home, the local support service, Koala North West support her in trying nipple shields for a month but her baby doesn’t gain much weight...

Natalie W I just thought I could like, ask for the help, and it would be there

Natalie talks about how her sons tongue tie wasn’t diagnosed for the first four weeks because the hospital where she gave birth didn’t automatically refer her to breastfeeding support. Natalie’s son had a tongue tie which was eventually cut after she paid to have it cut privately.

“I just thought, Oh, the help that I need, like when I want to breastfeed will just be there...

Suzanne ‘When people tell you stuff, you assume it’s right’

Suzanne talks about the differences she has experienced growing up in Birkenhead, where breastfeeding rates are low, compared to Indonesia where she has been working and where breastfeeding is the norm...

Amy

Amy talks about establishing breastfeeding during lockdown, post natal depression, breastfeeding support, and comparing her experiences of breast and formula feeding.

“When she got weighed she’d lost about 11.5% of her birth weight. And they were like threatening like hospital and put me on a feeding plan. It was just really, really intense. I ended up pumping, breastfeeding and giving her a top of a formula as well at the beginning...

Kelly It made such a difference straightaway

Kelly on breastfeeding support and dealing with tongue tie after her baby was born at Liverpool Mother and Baby Unit. Kelly began training as a midwife and would still like to support mothers. She says, ” I think that the support’s not there for women. But I don’t mean like the support services...