As if they didn’t have enough to worry about, new Mums are now being shamed for ‘brexting’.
Brexting? That’s breastfeeding while texting.
A news report out of Southern California says “experts” are “beginning to caution against extended smartphone use during breastfeeding or bottle feeding.”
The report says using a phone while baby is on the breast may interfere with “critical to mother-child bonding.”
The report quotes a dreaded “lactation supervisor” saying: “It is very hard to bond and talk to the baby if you are on the phone.”
It goes on: “You assist (new Mums) latching on and you can see the phone buzzing, they’re getting an alert or something, and you see their eyes move down and look at it.
“Sometimes they will actually answer that right then and we go, ‘well let’s work on this (the feeding) now.'”
Another expert says Mums “distracted by their phones could be ignoring important messages from her baby … Babies need mums to respond to them to build a secure attachment whether they’re breast or bottle feeding.
“When babies are first born their vision is only basically from the breast to the mothers face. That’s as far as they can see. So babies do a lot of staring and bonding in that way.”
A mother “could be missing cues that they’re full or they’re still hungry or their latch isn’t secure or if they are having trouble swallowing.”
