DESPITE dwindling numbers Australia-wide, Yorke Peninsula’s only Australian Breastfeeding Association support group is continuing to thrive.

Led by mother and daughter duo Sally Michael and Mary Carroll, the group meets in the Kadina Library at 11am on the third Tuesday of every month.

They are expanding their group, with another member joining as a breastfeeding counsellor and aiming to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant soon.

Ms Michael said she wanted mothers to remember to be kind to themselves.

“Be kind to yourself and do not beat yourself up over every little thing,” Ms Michael said.

“The more we can look after a new mother as far as the community goes, the better.”

Ms Michael has been a breastfeeding counsellor since 1991 and, since then, she said there had been a significant decrease in mothers becoming breastfeeding counsellors.

She said this was because mothers are needed to go back to work sooner.

“In the past, many women would stay at home at least until their child went to school,” she said.

She said to become a breastfeeding counsellor, you need to have breastfed for at least six months.

“Say you start training when your first child is 12 months old, by the time your child is 3 and you may have had another child, you soon have to go back to work,” she said.

“And so then, they give up (on training).”

Ms Michael said her background in nursing advanced her counselling work, allowing her to continue developing her skills while employed.

Now a few of the members were grandmothers, like Ms Michael, who were filling this gap, but she encouraged new and old mothers to join to assist each other in motherhood.

“Some people have no partner — they have (no support), nothing,” Ms Michael said.

According to the ABA, 96 per cent of mothers start breastfeeding, but there is a rapid fall in breastfeeding rates in the early weeks.

By three months, only 39 per cent of babies are being exclusively breastfed and, by five months, this falls to 15 per cent.

Ms Michael said new mothers who attended her group commonly faced two main issues: incorrect attachment of the baby to the breast, and a perceived lack of milk supply. 

These often led women to stop breastfeeding, Ms Michael said.

“That (attachment of baby to breast) should not cause pain, so something isn’t right, and sometimes that can be helped if you seek help,” she said.

Ms Michael also said it was very rare to not have enough milk.

For more information, head to https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/resources, call Ms Michael on 0429 091 624 or join the Yorke Peninsula ABA Facebook group.