Beastfeeding is easy, don't let anyone make you think otherwise! Many myths exist that put expectant mums off breastfeeding before they've even started, and most of these myths simply are not true.

I don’t want to go over old ground in this guide, so I’m avoiding all of the obvious stuff your Health Visitor or a book can tell you. I mainly do this because I know if you are reading this then you’ve probably read lots of other breastfeeding literature, and already know that kind of thing. These are just a few myths that I’ve heard said around playgroup, at nursery gates or in anti-natal clinics that I wanted to dispel.

I speak only from personal experience, from my two breastfed children. My daughter was exclusively breastfed for 4 months, from 4 to 6 months was on a mixture of breast, formula and solids, and I stopped breastfeeding her at 6 months. My son was exclusively breastfed until 6 months when he was weaned onto solids. All of his milk feeds are still breastmilk and I hope it continues that way for a good 12 months (he is now 9 months old).

MYTH: BREASTFED BABIES FEED MORE OFTEN

Some babies feed often, some babies don’t. Some are breastfed and others are bottle fed. The two are not correlated or related in any way. I started mixed feeding (formula and breast) and then ultimately stopped breastfeeding my daughter because I incorrectly thought that the cause of her frequent feeding was the fact that she breastfed. I was wrong, on formula she continued two hourly feeding day and night right up until 9 months. My son on the other hand was a textbook four hourly feeder almost from birth. I believe that your child’s will decide if he/she wants to feed little and often, or have bigger feeds less often. Whether you breastfeed or bottle feed makes no difference.

MYTH: BREASTFED BABIES TAKE LONGER BEFORE THEY CAN SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT

Some babies sleep through quickly, others don’t. Again, it has nothing to do with if they are breast or bottle fed. My children explain this perfectly.

My daughter fed 2 hourly from birth. Gradually over time the space between night feeds increased until, at 9 months (and on formula milk by this time) she slept from 11pm-7am. She did not manage a full 7pm-7am with no feed inbetween until she was 14 months old. My exclusively breastfed son (not even weaned onto solids) was waking for just one feed between 7am and 7pm from the first day he was born, by 4 months he was sleeping 11pm-7am, and was sleeping the full 7pm-7am without waking in between by 6 months old.

I believe that my daughter would have taken a long time to learn to sleep through regardless of breast or bottle, and I also think my son would have slept through quickly regardless of how he was fed.

MYTH: GIVING ANY FORMULA MILK IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Controversial one this, because I can see where the Breast is Best lobby are coming from in promoting that you don’t have formula milk in the house so that you don’t give in to temptation when you’re having a tough day. I know it is very easy to slip into bottle feeding more often if it’s there and ultimately give up breastfeeding if you’re not careful, as I did with my daughter.

However, this does not mean that you can’t have a break. There is always expressing your breastmilk if you want a break from feeding, however I never have managed to master expressing. My boobs don’t seem to want to make milk unless there’s a baby attached. Therefore, as long as it is just occasionally, the odd bottle of formula won’t harm anyone, won’t make your milk dry up and will give you some much needed rest. So if the odd night you really need a nights sleep or want the occasional Sunday morning lie-in, you can leave hubby with a bottle, and the world won’t end. Likewise, I was really ill for a few days, and desperately needed a duvet-day (do you remember them from your blissfully easy pre-baby days!?), so my son had formula feeds for the whole day and night once, and I still managed to get back to normal breastfeeding the following day.

Basically, it is true that relying on formula too often will be the beginning of the end of breastfeeding, but don’t worry about doing it every now and again – give yourself a break, you deserve it!

MYTH: BREAST FEEDING AND DUMMIES DO NOT MIX

Simply untrue. Whether or not you choose to give your baby a dummy has it's own pros and cons (which I won't go into here), but using a dummy does not mean your child will stop breastfeeding or won't breastfeed as easily.

Before baby number 1 came along I was massively anti-dummy. However, the realities of parenthood are very different and I finally gave her a dummy at sleep time at about 10 weeks. My son has had a dummy to get to sleep from birth. Both have breast fed without any trouble.

MYTH: IF YOUR CHILD HAS TO SPEND TIME IN HOSPITAL, THIS SPELLS THE END OF BREASTFEEDING

My son was 4 weeks old when he spent 5 days in hospital on oxygen and being tube fed directly into his stomach. I was devastated. As I said above, my boobs never perform when there is an expressing machine there instead of a baby, so I knew expressing would be difficult, but my poorly little boy needed feeding.

We managed to work something like this: He’d need feeding and would be tube fed about 10-20ml (less than 1 floz) of expressed milk, and then would get all of the rest of his feed as formula through his tube. At every feed time I would express ready for the next feed (and too keep my milk going) but would only get about 10-20ml when he needed about 60ml. I thought that after 4 days of this my breasts would assume the baby needs less milk, and so start producing less milk (as the literature says happens if you miss feeds out). I was therefore heartbroken by the fact that on coming out of hospital, I wouldn’t be producing enough milk for him so would have to supplement with formula (spelling the end of breastfeeding).

Not so. When he got better and came home I simply made a conscious effort to feed him every hour throughout the day, to make my breasts realise that more milk was needed. I didn’t give him any formula at all, just fed very often. It took 2 days of doing this for everything to return to normal. Not long at all, and certainly not cause for giving up breastfeeding.

MYTH: YOUR MILK DRIES UP REALLY EASILY

This is linked to the above answer, and it is one of the most common reasons (excuses) I’ve heard used ("I had to stop, I wasn't producing enough milk anymore"). You produce enough milk for you baby as often as he feeds. If you think he needs more (like a growth spurt)? then simply feed him more often. If I ever felt that my baby needed more milk than I had, I’d simply have a few days of feeding him an hour or so earlier than he normally needed a feed, and bob’s your uncle, sorted!

I make that sound really simple... and I know it isn't. Having a crying baby who’s hungry and you can’t satisfy that hunger is heartbreaking. These growth spurts are when most people give up, and I can honestly understand why. However, keep telling yourself (and get as many supportive people you can to keep reminding you) that it will only last a few days. Giving formula during a growth spurt will simply mean that you don’t increase your milk supply to meet the new demand, and so there will continue to not be enough. Promise yourself at times like these that you will allow one week, just seven days, for it to improve. Even write it on the calendar, and agree that if things gaven't improved by, say, next Tuesday, then he can have formula on Wednesday and you won’t feel bad about it. I always do that when I’m having a tough time, and I never need to go through with it because everything will return to normal well before the 7 days are up.

MYTH: LATCHING ON IS A MASSIVE HASSLE

So many leaflets make such a big thing about latching on, that mums often assume that it must be some really difficult thing that no-one can ever manage to do correctly. Rubbish. Don’t stress about it, because that is likely to be half the problem. The odd few mums might need a bit of help or guidance, but nothing major.

Put simply, baby goes near the breast, opens mouth, gets breast and sucks. Get a comfortable position that looks about right and don’t overly concern yourself with the details unless you have to. You only need worry about latching on if your baby isn’t putting on weight. If he/she is, then don’t fret.

MYTH: BABY WILL BE DEPENDENT ON MUM/BREATFEEDING IN ORDER TO GO TO SLEEP.

Being dependent on milk of any kind (breast, formula, or late on cow’s milk) in order to go to sleep is a behavioural issue and nothing to do with the type of feed given. Because my little girl is still dependent on her milk in order to go to sleep, I wanted to make a conscious effort to make sure my son wasn’t.

All you need to do to stop that dependency on mum-has-to-do-bedtime-while-dad-gets-to-watch-tv thing is simply to not feed at bedtime. I have always fed my son before bathtime. He then has his bath, gets ready for bed, goes to bed and goes to sleep. If you start as you mean to go on it really does work (or it did with us). No hassle with settling him, no need to feed him to sleep etc etc. Because I was determined and consistent from day one with how bedtime happened, he never developed a dependency at all. So now anyone can put him to bed. Easy peesy!

I may add to this guide as I think of other things, but for now that’s all I can think of.