Every breastfed baby is unique, and as mothers, we often have to find out what works best for ourselves and our babies by trial and error. To help us on our way, the mums of LLL Oxford let us in on their personal secrets for breastfeeding.

My ‘secrets’ are to be open to trying ideas like co-sleeping, and to learn to breastfeed lying down because this really made night-time breastfeeding so easy for me, especially after a Caesarean. The literature about your sleep cycle tuning into your baby’s so you are never dragged out of a deep sleep is true - it really does work! Guin, mother of Jemima, 10 months

• Trust yourself and trust your body
• Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help
• Just relax and go with the flow whilst feeding

There’s so much more that could be said but these were the most important ones for me (particularly when the going gets tough).

Klaudia, mother of Samuel, 3

I have two secrets of successful breastfeeding. One is selective deafness. The other, which I believe in firmly although it isn’t very correct, is that I latch on my baby without worrying about the correct ‘hold’. The hospital midwives were keen on hold, and it felt like playing that game where you have to fit different parts of your body onto coloured circles, but with the added challenge of an increasingly desperate infant, fast losing all respect for its idiot mother. I was also told I had to be sitting on the right chair, which was just silly as it belonged to the hospital and they wouldn’t let me take it home.
Obviously I think correct latch is important, and I would always focus on that. And getting a good latch is a lot easier if your baby hasn’t gone beyond rooting and got into a rage while you faff around. My theory is that it doesn’t matter if the baby is upside down or sideways or supported on a cup of tea and two rich tea biscuits (well maybe it should be tepid tea, but then it usually is). Once you have a contented sucking baby, you can twizzle him/her into some more sustainable position. There is a third secret too - house-elves!

• Commitment to and knowledge of the health benefits of breastfeeding.
• Spending as much time as possible in lovey-dovey mode (“babymoon”).
• Drinking lots of water.
• Recognizing what a faff bottles and formula are, and the disadvantages of cows’ milk.
• THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING
• LLL meetings, or just having like-minded friends
  Annie, mother of Elsa, 4 and Ned, 1

My ‘secrets’ would be: let your baby (particularly in the first three months) drink as often and long as she likes, especially in the early evening; invest in a couple of pint glasses to regularly top up your own fluid levels (mostly with diluted fruit juice and the occasional stout or real ale); and join an LLL group for support, even when things are going smoothly, because you pick up a lot from it for future reference.

• Learn which technique is best for winding/burping your child.
• Be aware of the growth spurts at three, six, and ten weeks that can make you feel like a failure, although the purpose of the extra feeds is to up your milk production.
• Good positioning really will prevent painful nipples in the early days (I didn’t believe it till the midwives got picky with me with my third baby, and it worked!).
  Kat, mother of Lauren, 5, Marcus, 2 and Antonia, 8 months

I think that one secret is to set yourself a short-term goal (like “I’ll work at this for the next six weeks no matter what”) so that you aren’t stressing out with trying to make decisions as you go. I remember that in my prenatal group the leader commented that deciding that you want to breastfeed before having the baby was the first step to having success at breastfeeding. That, and... practice, practice, practice! Michelle, mother of Sophie, 1 year

Michelle and Sophie aged six months. Photographed by Brandon Gallaher