Megan Stephenson Breastfeeding Counsellor

08/09/2026

I'll be at Ely Baby Bank this morning - 11 - 12, offering free, non-judgemental, infant feeding support. Do pop by if you have any concerns or questions about feeding your baby.

12/08/2026

🏥 When maternity services are being suspended because there simply aren’t enough staff to keep them running safely, we need to pay attention to what that tells us about the state of our maternity workforce.

Whilst North Devon District Hospital has suspended births because of obstetric staffing issues, other maternity services and birth centres across the UK have suspended services due to unsafe midwifery staffing levels. When a maternity unit has to suspend services - even temporarily - the impact on women, families and staff can be huge.

For women in rural and coastal communities in particular, losing a local maternity service can mean travelling much further in labour, being further from support networks and having fewer choices about where to give birth.

Strong local health services are also vital to sustaining rural and coastal communities. Women and families should be able to rely on safe, accessible maternity care wherever they live.

We’re urgently calling on the Government to take meaningful action on safe staffing. Without urgent action on the workforce crisis, we risk seeing more disruption, more pressure on neighbouring units and fewer choices for women.

Safe staffing means safe, reliable maternity services 💜

21/07/2026

Last session today offering free specialist infant feeding support at Ely Baby Bank until September. It's been lovely to have so many interesting conversations: when to introduce solids, how to manage breastfeeding when going out to work, how to bottle feed so that they baby gets the right amount for them, building strong relationships and brain connections for babies however they are fed, increasing amounts when expressing... I'll be back 11am on 8th September. Have a lovely summer.

19/05/2026

Offering free specialist infant feeding support, and home made bread pudding, at Ely Baby Bank today 11-12.

06/05/2026

https://www.menti.com/pxkncqgtwj If you've listened to any episodes of The Breastfeeding Show https://pod.co/the-breastfeeding-show, please let us know what you thought. It really helps us.

20/04/2026

"How to deal with the pain" is one of the questions I get frequently at antenatal classes about feeding babies. There's an assumption in that question: that breastfeeding is inevitably painful. But is it?

Pain is subjective - in that different people can experience the same stimulus as either painful or not, so it's hard to be absolutely confident about this. However, we know that effective attachment of the baby on the breast involves the ni**le (the most sensitive part of the breast) being in a place in the mouth where it is neither squashed nor rubbed during the feed.

It will be easier for the ni**le to easily get to that place in the mouth, if the baby has their neck extended, and their head tilted back. If you look at a baby's face on the breast when they are doing this, you are likely to see a gap between their nose and the breast, and their chin is likely to be deeply buried into the breast.

This NCT website article shows what I mean.

https://www.nct.org.uk/information/baby-toddler/feeding-your-baby-or-toddler/ breastfeeding-cues-attachment-and-positions

If this is not how your baby's face is at the breast, try moving their body in the direction that makes then have to stretch their neck more to stay on the breast.

If this is not enough, get skilled breastfeeding support. I am available at https://www.facebook.com/elybabybank every Tuesday morning or at https://www.facebook.com/cottenhambreastfeeding every Friday lunch time.

If neither of those is possible, check pbcinfantfeeding.org for other options.

31/03/2026

Setting up for an evening talking with expectant parents about what feeding their baby could be like is so much nicer after the clocks change.

26/03/2026

25/03/2026

It's important that parents are given accurate information so that they can make informed decisions. Misleading marketing should be illegal.

Formula milk marketing exploits parental anxieties about common infant behaviours such as fussiness or poor sleep.

Premium branding is paraded as having “premium benefits”, when in fact the only difference is the price.

Claims made by the formula milk industry about their products are often misleading, scientifically unsubstantiated & violate the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

WHO is calling on governments to end exploitative marketing and protect babies’ health.

23/03/2026

Recently I've been having a few conversations with mothers who are in the process of, or thinking about, introducing solid foods to their babies.

The guidance on this is the same regardless of what milk your baby is currently having - whether that's breastmilk, first infant formula or a mixture of both: wait until your baby is around six months (26 weeks) old, is able to sit unaided, can reach out and grab things and take them to put in their mouth and, more subtle this one, has lost their tongue thrust reflex.

The tongue thrust reflex is one that babies are born with - when they feel an object near the front of their mouth, they will push their tongue forward. By six months this reflex is starting to fade away. Babies who still have this reflex will be unlikely to swallow much solid food, this means that, as long as the other signs are there that your baby is ready, and you don't try to force your baby to swallow the solids, you can safely start offering solids without needing to check that final element.

Between six and twelve months the aim is to give your baby opportunities to experience different tastes and textures. They will still need to get the vast majority of their nutrients from milk. The chances are that the amount of milk feeding stays pretty much the same as it was before and that's healthy and normal.

If you're starting to think about this stage for your baby and you're feeling worried about it, NCT offers more detailed information here

Introducing your baby to solid food for the first time can be exciting – but may also be daunting. Read our guide to how and when to start your baby on solids.