Hi! I’m Shaheda, Registered Midwife with 9 years experience, Breastfeeding Specialist and Trainee Tongue Tie Assessor.

I am so passionate and commited in supporting mums in getting the positive feeding experience they want. I use my clinical experience from working in an NHS trust and understanding the challanges in the system that can affect your feeding journey as well as my knowledge in infant feeding to support you in your experience.

Oral function plays a huge part in feeding difficulties and unfortunately, this is something that is lacking in the NHS.

I provide thorough feeding assessments to highlight if this is a potential issue and provide the correct guidance to achieve a better feeding experience for you and your baby.

My Story

Colostrum harvesting, pumping for 3 months & bottle feeding and then breastfeeding- I’ve done it all!

When I was 28 weeks, I had a growth scan due to my low BMI just to check growth of baby and it was found that she was a bit smaller than they would have liked. So I was asked to come in for daily monitoring of her heart until another scan. The first day I went to be monitored, she had unprovoked decelerations so they were going to deliver me there and then via an emergency caeserean (I was 29 weeks!).

While waiting for my husband, she decided to behave and her heart rate was OK so we held off but I had to stay in hospital until my delivery and it was decided she would be best delivered at 34 weeks to get her out and grow her from the outside as my scans weren't looking good and she just wasn't putting on weight.

My Story Timeline

From 30 weeks, after one week of crying and stressing, I decided to accept my fate of becoming a NICU mum and was just so grateful for the amazing care I was receiving, I decided to start hand expressing and collecting my colostrum.

I got a lot of stares from doctors as there is a theory that hand expressing can stimulate labour however, 4 weeks later with 75 syringes, I can safely say my uterus didn't even twinge!

After she was born, I continued to hand express until my milk came in and then went on to exclusively pump and bottle feed my breastmilk as she was 1.47kg (3lbs 4oz) at birth and I just wanted to bulk her up to a good size and then breastfeed.

This included me pumping regularly every day for 3 months, every 3 hours day and night, wherever I was. My medela pump went with me to my mums house, when meeting friends, Westfield, weddings- everywhere! I knew the importance of stimulating otherwise my supply would drop so nothing came in the way!

Until one day, I just had enough of the moo sound medela makes, carrying everything with me and washing and sterilsing bottles! My daughter was 3 months old and at this point weighing 3.5kg (above 7lbs), so I decided to wack her on the breast.

From that day onwards, we never looked at a bottle again and I went on to breastfeed until she was 20 months.

Lack of Support and Raised Eyebrows

 

My experience made me realise that although I made informed decisions throughout my journey, I was never 100% supported.

When I was colostrum harvesting, there were concerns I was doing it too early. When she was born and I tried to breastfeed, the SCBU nurses were doubting and undermining how much she was getting, when I was pumping, I was told to take it easy at night and sleep as I had lot’s of milk so can afford to not do it at night (which is not true! Night expressions are key to boosting your supply!) and when I was giving breastmilk in a bottle, the health visitor told me “just to put her to the breast”.

There was no understanding from anyone my rationale behind my choices and little to no support. As I was a midwife with an infant feeding specialist background, I felt like I was left to do it but everyone was just waiting for something to go wrong so they can waltz in and say “I told you so”. But because I had confidence in myself, in my knowledge and my decisions, it never go to that!

 

 Mother Shaheda is born

Mother Shaheda was established in February 2021. The name is a play on Mother Teresa which was created by my good friend, Tess. Mother Teresa was someone who was kind, compassionate and committed to her cause and I definitely carry myself this way in how I work.

Also, I am a mother myself who helps mothers in my role as a midwife and a feeding specialist. I decided to create my private practice and my instagram page to provide mums with accurate, non judgemental information regardless of how they chose to feed their baby. I recognised that there were existing pages that focus heavily on breastfeeding and maybe the odd post/ information about pumping or bottle feeding. But there is so much more to know about this and if mums don’t know this, it can have a negative impact on their experiences so it’s important this information is out there to allow them to make fully informed decisions.

I created my instagram page and feeding guide to have this information accessible to women and hopefully reduce their chances of seeking 1:1 support with reduced problems and also to empower them to make decisions for themselves and their babies. I do also offer 1:1 services if anyone would like some personalised support.

 Whether you just want reassurance in what you are doing, change the way you are feeding or understand your baby’s feeding, I can help you.

My approach is making mums understand what the norm is in relation to feeding and when do we need to intervene. Feeding plans are put in place when they don't need to if baby is doing what we would expect them to do or some babies are left to feed with issues without actually finding out the underlying cause. I strive to help mums get the feeding experience they want by carrying out thorough feeding assessments and trying to address the cause and then provide a solution.