Involving your partner

[fionas]

Have already posted but just thought I would add that I think it's really important that partners educate themselves/go to classes/whatever about breastfeeding. I was lucky in that my partner had already had a child whereas this one was my first so he was more cluey than I was and, to be honest, if I'd listened to him more instead of the midwives who got me in a blind panic about DD losing weight (very normal) when my milk wasn't even in yet, I may still be breastfeeding. Long story.

I think it's useful for everyone to know just how much time/how often you can be breastfeeding in those early days AND that it can sometimes be a struggle.

[Marlene]

I am a public hospital maternity ward patient, my DH comes to all my midwife appts and ultrasounds, he works at the hospital though, LOL, so sneaks away to be with me even if he is working. I plan on having a drug-free birth (as my last 3 births have been) but we don't do birth classes or BF classes as I dont feel we need them, seeing as this is our 4th bub.

It is a very personal decision for the mum and the dad as to how much dad will be involved in all the appt's etc. Some men feel uncomfortable taking part and some women actually don't want the men around. I also think it would be very hard for some dads to get out of work too attend appt's, my DH saved a couple weeks of his holiday leave from last year to take when the baby is born as we wouldn't be able to afford for him to have time off without holiday pay.

Different strokes for different folks.

[luey]

I am attending a BF class run by my (private) hospital next week. The information said that it was only for the woman. My DH would not be able to come anyway due to still being back home. I have had to come to the city 3 weeks prior to due date and he cannot get that amount of time off. He has only missed one appointment, on monday, and that is because he is a long way away. We discussed what happened at the appointment. I did not feel a lack of support because he wasn't there.

[meow]

I guess involvement is whatever is important to the individual. I don't need my partner at my regular appointments as I can tell him what my BP and tummy measurements were afterwards. But I felt coming to the BFing class was important so we both knew what to expect in the early days and understood how to care for our baby.
I was just curious about how it ended up that the birth centre and regular hospital patients were so opposite on this. Maybe it was one of those random things.