Category: Pregnancy, Birth & Babies

The true facts about breastfeeding l www.FranglaiseMummy.com l French and English Parenting and Lifestyle Ramblings

Breastfeeding: What they don’t tell you

Breastfeeding is such a controversial topic. You will only just have announced your pregnancy and everyone will already be interested in whether you’re going breast or bottle. Never has it been so acceptable to be this interested in a woman’s mammary glands!

I know many women (in the UK) who were given the impression that breastfeeding should be such a natural, automatic, easy act that they felt such a failure when it didn’t work for them.… Read more

How do you know if you’re suffering from post-natal depression?

This post has been going round in my mind for the longest time, and I’ve ummed and ahhed about whether to write it or not over and over again, as it is deeply personal and revealing, and very few people, if anyone, know this whole story. But recently I’ve read some very honest and open blog posts about fellow bloggers’ experiences with pregnancy, childbirth and life with a new baby, all of which I have found very useful, so here goes.… Read more

Amber for teething: a defence

For those of you who don’t know, the girls and I were recently filmed for a Channel 4 programme called Health Freaks as I was talking about using amber beads to ease the pain of teething for my daughters. If you missed it you can watch the episode here: http://healthfreaks.channel4.com/

Since this aired last night my social media feeds have been going crazy with a mix of reactions; mostly positive with own personal experiences of amber working, but a few sceptical, negative and generally ignorant.… Read more

To sterilise or not, that is the question

Should you sterilise this?

Should you sterilise this?

I’ve heard lots of mums talking about sterilising in various online places recently which has prompted this blog post. I had my eldest daughter, L, when we were living in France and when I talked about sterilising there I was met with two schools of thought:

School of thought 1
You must sterilise to protect your baby from the nasties that are everywhere, especially on baby bottles.… Read more

What should you do if your baby has a rash?

This is the question I had to ask myself yesterday as C – now 10 months – had developed a rash. My first reaction (like most mums I’m sure) was to have a minor panic, as I ran through meningitis symptoms in my head. She was grizzly, but not really a surprise as she had a cold and a snotty nose, she didn’t shy away from the light, wasn’t floppy and her cries were normal ones.… Read more

Should you bother doing an NCT refresher course?

Around this time last year I was 7 months pregnant and was mulling over whether to bother doing an NCT refresher course or not. I had had L in France in 2006 with no NCT or any antenatal preparation at all really – not that it made much difference as I ended up with an induction and an epidural and she was born pretty quickly, so I wasn’t sure if there was any point in doing NCT with our second.… Read more

How long is 9 months?

My beautiful C is 9 months old today, which got me thinking about what 9 months means. When I found out I was pregnant with C I knew I had 9 months ahead of me, and they draaaaaggggggeeeeddddd on. (As they did during my pregnancy with L.) Every day lasted a week and it felt like I’d been pregnant forever, and still had ages left to go.… Read more

Amber beads and teething – your feedback please

As those of you who regularly read my blog will know, I’ve written about amber beads and their healing properties (or not) when it comes to babies’ teething, you can read those posts here and here. On the back of this I have been contacted and asked to appear in a Channel 4 health show (eek!) which is going to be exploring the world of alternative and home remedies.… Read more