Lactation Cymru IBCLC

I'm four months postpartum and I still can't find the words to express how thankful I am to both Karen and Amy. Not only do they have a vast amount of knowledge and experience they have both guided and supported me during my nursing journey.If you are struggling with breastfeeding please give them a call. Diolch a gallon to you both ❤️

I attended the 5-week Mindful Baby course and can recommend it to any new parent. My baby was 10 weeks old at the time and we were going through a period of slow weight gain with lots of hospital appointments, which was very stressful and creating a lot of worries about baby, my milk supply and ability to carry on with exclusively breast feeding, all of which was having an impact on my milk supply and exacerbating the issue even more. The course helped me to focus on practical skills such as breathing and relaxation that I could use to refocus my attention on my baby, let go of worries and support the release of oxytocin to improve milk flow. Karen was amazingly helpful, listened to my concerns and gave me lots of suggestions and useful information about breastfeeding that improved my breastfeeding experience. As a result of the course I have also been able to focus better on self care and look beyond the fourth trimester to issues such as weaning and going back to work, which I had not thought about yet. If you are unsure whether to give the Mindful Baby course a go I would not hesitate and sign up, you won't regret it!

I had 4 week old, formula fed baby boy which I desperately wanted to breastfeed. Due to earlier complications this was not possible from the offset, and the thought of transitioning him without support seemed terrifying! We'd already lost a lot of weight, and it was super important for us to get this right. (It's also worth noting that we were told that having a fully breastfed baby at this stage was unlikely and that formula would likely be the path to continue taking). Karen made time for us immediately, listened to our story, and suggested a pathway get us transitioning in a safe manor. When things felt tough, Karen was always on the other end of the phone to chat, support, and tailor our plan to ensure that it always felt sustainable and enjoyable for both myself and baby. We are now doing amazingly well. Baby boy is now in the final stages of transition, gaining weight at a healthy weight and generally thriving. Thank you Karen, we have appreciated your expertise beyond words.

My fiancé and I decided to take these lactation classes with Lactation Cymru in preparation for meeting our little one.We didn't realise at the time that the 6 week course we'd signed up for was actually aimed at parents who'd already had their babies, but Karen really kindly tailored the course so that we had three sessions whilst I was still pregnant to learn the theory side of breastfeeding, and then we had three sessions once our baby had arrived to focus on practicalities, any troubleshooting we'd come across, and also several mindful ways to look after ourselves during the fourth trimester and beyond.Both my fiancé and I found the sessions extremely helpful - having learnt the theory behind breastfeeding before our baby arrived meant that feeding her wasn't as daunting as it could have been as we had a realistic idea of what to expect. The three postnatal sessions we had were useful too because even though we had lots of information from the initial sessions, we had several questions when it came to feeding in reality rather than theory. Karen answered every question we had without hesitation, and we both felt extremely supported by her.It was really lovely having Karen as such a good source of information and support in those early weeks of parenting, and having found breastfeeding quite challenging initially, knowing that there was such a wonderful source of help at hand really built my confidence.Karen was so kind and helpful, and her support really was invaluable to both my fiancé and I. If you're planning on breastfeeding your little one, don't hesitate to sign up for this course - you won't regret it!

Amy was a great help to us around the 6 week mark when we were trying to stop using nipple shields and I was experiencing pain on feeding. She reviewed the latch and offered tips on different feeding positions to improve latch and help baby to learn to feed again without shields. She was also a wealth of general feeding knowledge and responded to my questions by message very quickly. Thanks lactation cymru!

My fiancée and I were bought a six week course with Karen at IBCLC while we waited for our little girl to be born. During the Pandemic, it’s been hard to find support for new parents - even harder to find support that feels personal and actively engaged with new parents’ individual needs and worries. We took our first 3 classes before our little one was born - I don’t think Karen expected that when we turned up on day one without a baby, but she adapted to us immediately and the three weeks before baby’s birth were filled with antenatal advice about what to expect, how to prepare, and - really importantly - how my partner and I could stay connected with one another and manage our personal and emotional needs so as to better support our baby at the same time. The 3 classes after Matilda was born were even more crucial for us, as Karen’s incredible pool of knowledge and ability to empathise, understand, and encourage new parents shone through. Whether it was sleepless nights, stool colour questions, or breastfeeding anxieties and concerns, Karen took it all in her stride, offering expertise and emotional support. Lucy (my fiancée) told me she couldn’t have made it through the first few weeks breastfeeding without Karen - honestly, I don’t think we could’ve either. Her positivity and encouragement made us feel stronger, and helped us be stronger for each other and for Matilda. And it wasn’t just on the level of giving us advice either - Karen’s relaxations and affirmations made us grow in confidence and find peace in the chaos of building a new family and adapting to a whole new way of living. Knowing we had a session just a week away gave us a goal to work towards and made us notice the progress we were making more. Also, whilst the class is aimed primarily at mothers, and it’s safe to say a lot of the support given specifically helped Lucy a ton, I would wholeheartedly suggest and recommend that dads join their partners on this journey. Knowing how feeding worked, what Matilda needs, how to help, and what to do to support Lucy, Matilda, and the breastfeeding process made me feel like I could be a helpful part of the fourth trimester and not just a helpless passerby. Knowing what different cues mean, what week-by-week changes we could expect were, and just how much effort goes into feeding gave me a whole new perspective on breastfeeding and the strength mothers have. As a man, it was both humbling and inspiring to see the woman that I love in a whole new light, and it was very much Karen and IBCLC that enabled that and encouraged that. For the incredibly low price and the amazingly insightful and empowering experience it turned out to be, I couldn’t recommend IBCLC enough for new parents. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it has changed me and my fiancée’s lives in both little and big ways, and thanks in no small part to honorary Auntie Karen, we have a healthy, strong, bigger-by-the-day baby who breastfeeds well and who we feel confident will continue to be breastfed (and bottle-fed with breast milk) for many months to come! Thank you so much for all you guys at IBCLC do, you’re ace and we’ll never forget all you have given us.

I can not recommend Karen enough for all her amazing help, my breast feeding journey started out very different to most as I didn’t decide I wanted to do it until 10 days post baby. 14 days post baby I got access to a pump and start out getting a ml a day, catching every last drop for days on end, I reached out for help to my local HV and had very basic advice and not much guidance, I had never been told anything about breastfeeding while pregnant with both of babies or afterwards. I was trying breastfeeding cookies and taking breastfeeding capsules to try and help up my supply. I felt so disheartened for days I was only getting 1ml into a tiny colostrum syringe but it was slowly going up each day, everytime I was putting baby to latch it was very painful and baby didn’t want to latch was being fussy,made me think I’d never be able to breast feed, after 2 weeks of just carrying on with the pain and managing to pump about an ounce a day and still reaching out to HV and still not getting good guidance I decided to take action and get in contact with Karen at Lactation Cymru IBCLC. This was the best thing I did for me and my baby and our breastfeeding journey. Karen was able to come to my house within 48 hours of contacting her for an at home consultation, which was perfect for me as I had a 4 week old and a 14 month old at the time and getting out the house with the 2 at this point felt almost impossible. When Karen come over she talked to me and discussed what I wanted out of my breast feeding journey, to which at this point was to be able to fully breast feed my baby which felt impossible with the very little process I had made in 2 weeks, we talked about how to up my supply, how often I should be pumping and the most effect strategies to do so, then we moved on to the dreaded painful latch, Karen observed me feeding and helped my with my latch showed me techniques to help ensure a deep and effective latch. She brought an SNS for me to try which I also found very helpful to give baby the formula I needed to supplement with while keeping him on the breast. I had also expressed my feelings about how little help I had received from my HV to Karen. Following our consultation the next morning I received a lengthy email going over everything we had discussed the day before with links and lots of extra helpful advice, this helped so much as I was able to keep looking back onto the email. I then received virtual support from Karen over the next 2 weeks , within those 2 weeks Karen had contacted my lHV and arranged for baby to be weighed once a week and for me to get a hospital grade pump and a spare SNS. Over the two weeks Karen contacted me lots and followed me on my journey and answered any questions I had and gave me lots of encouragement! Baby is now 8 weeks old and I am only supplementing with one bottle of formula a day that is 4 ounces, my milk supply has increased massively and baby has been being weighted every week since and gaining weight brilliantly and very content in himself, none of which I could of done without Karen from Lactation Cymru IBCLC, latching is no longer painful and I’m so close to fully breastfeeding and my supply is increasing daily! I can’t believe I’ve managed to achieve these results after searching all over the internet and Facebook groups for success stories on someone that has started to breast feed as late on as I did and not finding anything, made me lose all hope but Karen encouraged me and supported me throughout daily! I am so grateful for all the help I have received and can not recommend enough!If you’re thinking about booking a consultation just do it honestly you won’t regret it!

I would highly recommend working with these lactation consultants if you are looking for support with breastfeeding. I attended their free antenatal online class which was very informative. Two days into my breastfeeding journey I had a few issues, so I opted for a 1-1 online breastfeeding consultation with two weeks of follow up support which was incredibly helpful (worth every penny). I felt listened to and received very personalised guidance - overall it gave me the tools and the confidence to breastfeed my baby. Furthermore, I enjoyed their online Mindful breastfeeding course when my baby was a few weeks old.

I was having some problems with breastfeeding in the first fortnight after birth- my son wasn’t latching well and I had some concerns about his patterns of feeding and managing pain and sleep. I booked an initial consultation and worked with Amy through video conferencing.Amy was able to work really flexibly around the chaos of settling into life with a newborn. She responded really quickly to all my communication. She consistently followed up our chats by emails with further info and summaries of our discussion (these details would otherwise have quickly been lost in the depths of my sleep-deprived brain), and she checked in to see how we were doing. It made a huge difference to our success at breastfeeding and my confidence in our ability to get there.It was amazing to have this kind of support from an expert, there is so much conflicting advice online. It enabled me to keep breastfeeding when I might otherwise have panicked and given up it. Thank you so much Amy and Lactation Cymru!

They say breastfeeding is based on instinct. There I was, four months later, and the instinct never came for me. Karen found us when we were bleeding, cracked, sore and vomiting after every feed. She’s received more messages saying I am giving up than messages saying I want to carry on.And yet, with only a couple of sessions, I found that instinct lost somewhere between fear and pain. She taught us how to properly position ourselves, what do to for a better latch, she even reminded me how to breathe. A month later and I am now pain free with a baby that’s properly gaining weight and not vomiting. I wake up wanting to feed my little one instead of dreading the time.If I say Karen changed my breastfeeding journey I’m not kidding. I only wish I found her four months earlier. I know for sure I will call her for the next baby to come.