“Your Facebook group has been the single most helpful resource and supportive space since I had a baby. I’m so grateful for it! Thank you so much.”

“I must thank you again for all the resources on the NWL Breastfeeding group. It has been extremely reassuring on matters of feeding, sleep and everything in between. Whenever I feel worried because of something purported in the general “noise” of misinformation out there, I turn to the group and often find the answer right there in a recent post. I feel empowered to co-sleep, cuddle, nurse to sleep, and breastfeed well beyond 12 months (generally just to follow my natural instincts without worrying it will sabotage me in the future as everyone seems to enjoy warning about!). That peace of mind is invaluable. Thank you again, from Kaitlyn and Luke.”

“I wanted to say a belated thank you to the admins on this group - Cordelia Uys and Cogs Sutherland in particular - for their extremely kind and valuable breastfeeding advice over recent months. Although my daughter was always an enthusiastic feeder (like mother like daughter), I had a rocky start over the first few weeks, with mastitis x2, severe nipple damage and a whacking great abscess that took two months of hospital treatment to fix. But this group gave me the confidence and reassurance to continue, as well as arming me with all the right information to seek out the best support - and somehow, having been desperately counting down the weeks until I felt I could stop the whole blasted endeavour with an easy conscience, I now find myself breastfeeding/pumping 10 months down the line as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

So thank you for all your incredible help in getting me to this point. I'm truly grateful for the time & commitment you put into this group, which has proved a real lifeline.”

“The NWL Facebook groups are some of the very few breastfeeding groups which are run and monitored by professionals. It isn’t a run of the mill group and it has a very clear purpose.”

“My friend Sophie recommended the NWL Facebook group and invited me to join. She said you were a huge help to her and the reason why she was able to breastfeed!”

“I'm a member of the NWL breastfeeding group. Firstly, thank you so much for providing such an informative and invaluable support network. My EBF son is approaching 6 months and I wondered if you could add me to the +6 months group please. I'm really enjoying breastfeeding and hope to do so for as long as my son will allow me to!”

“Thank you! For all the support and shared experiences and honesty. Without the work of Cordelia & the support of this group I’d never have managed to boob my little one for 2 years. With no sign of stopping. Like so many others, it was a tough journey with a tongue tie, laryngomalacia - she plummeted from 91st percentile to the 9th...  she found the 75th percentile curve at around 6m & has kinda stuck to it. Breastfeeding to me is more than nutrition, it’s comfort, warmth, a relationship and a way to reclaim my body after a difficult pregnancy (endometriosis & IVF). Thank you again Cordelia - without attending your workshop, drop-in centre and the emails of support I never would have achieved this.”

“I don’t have words to express how grateful I am to you and the NWL Facebook groups for all your support! I don’t know why but before giving birth I thought that breastfeeding was something old fashioned and I would be nursing for no longer than 6 months... Here I am, breastfeeding my 13 months old!”

“I just wanted to say a big thank you to this group. My son just turned 2 and it feels like yesterday he was born and I reached out to this group for help. The advice I received helped us navigate a difficult beginning to our breastfeeding journey and I’m so thankful I had you to turn to. I posted on here from hospital when I was heartbroken that something I hoped would come easily for us looked as though it could never happen at all. I so wanted to breastfeed and I’m just really thankful I found this group by chance. Thank you to all the amazing, patient, knowledgeable, caring and frankly magical IBCLCs at the drop in and on here, and all the mums who have taken the time to give support. 2 years on and we’re still going! Still using the nipple shields but I no longer mind!! And I’ve no idea when we’ll stop bf, but will no doubt be posting here again for advice when we do! Big fat massive thank you!! Breastfeeding my son has been the most rewarding and incredible thing I’ve ever done.”

“This group has been a special part of my life since having my little girl, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for setting up this incredible village that is having such a positive effect on soooo many of us!”

“Cordelia Uys thanks 🙏🏻 I thought I would never reach this [6 months] milestone and I’m so so happy I did. Just wanted to say how amazing this support group is. You’re doing such a great job encouraging and helping us all to breastfeed. Really wonderful and it deserves a massive thank you xxx”

“Hello everyone... my daughter and I reach a milestone today - 6 months breastfeeding 😁  It took us the first four months working through caesarean birth and tongue tie challenges, using all sorts of strategies (pumping, formula top ups, paced bottle feeding, SNS, nipple shields, cranial osteopathy...) and lots of expert guidance from the fantastic Cordelia Uys and Tower Hamlets Baby Feeding Service... but we made it!! Jasmine has claimed back her growth curve and is firmly rising above the 9th percentile (having dipped below the 0.4th at one point!). We are now off all top ups and dropped the nipple shields.  This group gathered around me at one of my lowest points and gave me the courage and strength to keep going. Thank you to everyone who sent love, wisdom, and shared vulnerability at that time. Having my desires validated re-energised my efforts... and it has been very much worth it!”

“We reached the milestone on the 7th and are looking forwards to starting BLW when we get home from holiday. Thank you to the group for educating me about breastfeeding, I’m doing my level best to pass the messages on to pregnant friends. It’s so easy to want to throw it all in at the beginning but this group and Cordelia Uys (and my wonderful partner) helped me hold strong even against the headwinds of well meaning family and friends.”

“Before leaving this group I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone for sharing your BF stories, posting supportive and helpful comments and interesting articles. This group has played a HUGE part in munchkin enjoying 19 months of BF. I only feel sad that I didn't also BF my daughter this long but where we lived then, no one suggested that I could continue to BF when returning to work after 12 months and I guess I didn't think it was doable (it totally is!!) I LOVE that this group and Cordelia in particular has made breastfeeding toddlers so normal. Thank you all! I have absolutely loved breastfeeding my little munchkin. I will never forget the sensation of my little baby greedily lapping up his milk while stroking my face. Its magic on all accounts.”

“Dear Cordelia, please may I be added to the 6 months-plus group? Thank you to all who are part of this brilliant and knowledgeable network. I would have not been able to breastfeed without you. My baby is healthy happy and loving life on the boob. Much gratitude. Next 6 months, here we come.”

“Girls I just wanted to say. THANK YOU!! Yesterday was my gorgeous boy’s 1st birthday. Still breastfeeding and I can’t believe we have come this far. Thanks for the amazing help and support. Especially Hayley Weston and Cordelia Uys!”

“L turned 2 on Friday. Two years of breastfeeding! I never thought we would go for this long, and in the first weeks after he was born, I even doubted whether we would be able to do it at all. This group has been both a wonderful source of information (thank you Cordelia and administrators!), as well as a space where I could share the ups and downs of nursing a toddler without being told I should just wean. That you all!”

“I want to say such a heartfelt thank-you; the FB group has been so informative, it is just a huge shame that not all mothers have access to a group like it. I‘ve learnt so much and also changed the way I have thought about breastfeeding and parenting fairly dramatically. I plan on writing about the journey in a short piece soon and will send it you once written as your FB group has been pivotal to what has been quite a transformational journey.

Final early morning thought - even my mum who breastfed me to 2.5 years is learning a lot about new breastfeeding research from the FB group via me. She is sharing the information with her young female colleagues who are having babies; the reach of the group goes beyond its members and will be benefiting babies as far as the South West!”

 “I want to thank you so much for your groups.  They provide such a space of help, support, relief, peace, sanity and warmth that is just so needed. My mothering journey so far would have felt so incredibly different had it not been for you, and all the lovely people in your Facebook groups that have made me feel a confidence in my instinct that society just simply has not.  Thank you.”

6 months of exclusive breastfeeding as of yesterday! Please can I be added to 6M+ group and baby led weaning group?

I want to say a HUGE thank you to this warm, responsive community I don’t think I would have managed without you.

Before I gave birth I just wanted to breastfeed until 6M and naively believed it would be ‘easy’ from the get-go . The birth was difficult with extreme understaffing in hospital (no midwife available to help me latch after emergency c-section until 9hrs after baby born), and then when I told Day 2 home visit midwife that I was struggling with latch she advised me formula top ups because baby had lost weight (which I subsequently found out was normal after c-section). I didn’t do the top ups and persevered - thanks to this group and the Breastfeeding Network who had a drop in clinic at local children’s centre we had tongue tie suspected, diagnosed and fixed which was then made 100% better with cranial osteopathy (saved my agonised nipples from her right jaw and stopped recurring mastitis!). Thanks to searching & reading the threads in this group I went to the brilliant Sharon Silberstein for the tongue tie procedure and Emily Jackson with the magic hands for the osteopathy. Was also recommended koala hold and never looked back!

Anyway cut to today where I absolutely LOVE breastfeeding my baby, she is efficient on the boob, gaining weight and it’s such a gift to be able to give her all the benefits of breastmilk and comfort of breastfeeding. My aim now is to go 1yr+ until it feels right.

I think in a post Cordelia mentioned the best way to increase breastfeeding rates was social support and this group is exactly the village I didn’t know I needed and who then came through when it felt no one else was there. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart at all for the speedy and responsive posts when I needed reassurance, and for the bank of info built up here (Search “X” in NWL Breastfeeding must be my most common activity on Facebook these days!) and simply normalising everything to do with BF so I knew what was likely expected baby behaviour and what was worth checking up on. Thank you x

“Just wanted to say a huge thanks to this group. Like many of you here, my little girl and I had a rough start to our breastfeeding journey. But thanks to all the support and encouragement and answers to unending questions, we made it through the first couple of weeks and somehow, not that I planned it, for another 2.5 years. A week ago on Monday morning, we had our last quick breastfeed. After that she stopped asking, so that’s it for us, I guess. Thank you all from both of us.”

“Hi Cordelia, I'm a member of the NWL Breastfeeding - 6 months and beyond group and have found the shared experiences of mothers in the group absolutely invaluable in keeping me going with breastfeeding my 12-month old and reminding me that there are so many kinds of normal when it comes to breastfeeding. Motivated by the positive impact the group has had on me and so many others I've decided to start training as a mother supporter with the ABM. Hopefully once this first training is complete, I'll be able to train as a breastfeeding counsellor so that I can volunteer on the national breastfeeding helpline. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the group and the work that you and the other admins put in to keeping it going. Thanks again!”

“My daughter turned one today, so I want to do a quick shout out to Cordelia Uys. Despite it being my 2nd child and thinking I had it all sorted (breastfeeding pillow at the ready, midwife to do a frenulotomy if needed etc etc etc) it was, as many/most of us have experienced, a rough ride in the beginning. This group was a lifeline in the middle of the night and Cordelia's help saved me and kept me going when I wanted to throw in the towel. My mum still refers to you as "that really passionate breastfeeding lady" Cordelia! With baby S not regaining her birth weight until she was 6weeks old everyone around me was pushing formula hard so it was amazing to have someone so wholeheartedly on my side, believing S and I could figure it out together. I am still breastfeeding, and it is the easiest thing in the world now (she is a total milk monster) and I have no plans/urge to stop.  Thank you Cordelia Uys and everyone else who was kind enough to comment on my late-night posts.”

"Hi all, I’m relatively new here. 36+5 weeks with Gestational Diabetes on diet control. I just wanted to write a quick note for you all. The positivity I get from reading the posts here are unbelievable. It’s really changed my mindset about breastfeeding and colostrum harvesting. I felt so positive, I thought I would give it a go this morning and I’m so chuffed with my first “harvest”! I genuinely feel that I couldn’t have done it without knowing this amazing supportive friendly group of women exists who all believe in breastfeeding and it’s benefits too and knowing I can give my baby the best beginning.

Thank you especially to Cordelia Uys. I’m an obstretric and gynaecologist doctor and we just don’t get taught much about colostrum harvesting or how to support women who want to do it. So I really am grateful for everything you have discussed with me. Thank you.”

“Hello, a massive thank you from us now that we have passed the 6 month milestone. We really have loved exclusively breastfeeding and can’t thank Cordelia Uys, the other wonderful admins and all of the amazingly helpful members enough. The amount of times I have been concerned about something and a quick search here has solved my concern in minutes.”

“One whole year of breastfeeding this incredible human. Thank you to everyone in this group for helping me with my problems and concerns (mastitis and all) and a special thank you to Cordelia with whom I had the most wonderful, informative session on Zoom during lockdown, pre-baby.”

“I just needed to post on the group to thank the admins and all the incredible people who post, comment, and support (silently or by commenting) on this page. I started experiencing pain in one breast, knew it couldn’t be thrush and didn’t seem like mastitis. After some digging here, I was pretty confident it was mammary constriction syndrome. I started treating it as such and figured I’d get medical attention if it didn’t start to improve in 12-24 hours. Well, lo and behold, things started to improve rapidly. So grateful I had this page as a resource!

This group offers such support, reassurance, community, and a helpful first step with the ups and downs of breastfeeding. I don’t know if I would’ve made it to three months with my first without you all, and we’re still going at well over two years, while I’m at nearly three months with my second. Thank you!!”