Clare Byam-Cook

About Clare

Clare is a qualified nurse and midwife, who retired from midwifery after the birth of her second child in 1985. Since that time she has worked in private practice in London seeing mothers with feeding problems (breast or bottle) on an individual basis and she also teaches at Christine Hill’s ante-natal classes in Chiswick.

All Clare’s clients come to her by word-of-mouth referral from their friends, GPs, obstetricians, paediatricians, midwives local NCT teachers and health visitors. Clare has never advertised her services and says that when the referrals dry up she knows it will  time for her to retire!

Clare says:

I have great respect for Annabel Karmel and have long admired her straight forward and clear advice on weaning, combined with her healthy recipes for children of all ages. I am honoured to be invited to be an expert on her website and hope that my breastfeeding tips will prove to be useful to mothers in need of help and advice.

I am committed to helping mothers to breastfeed but I also think it is important to err on the side of safety when advising mothers who are experiencing breastfeeding problems. For example, doctors are currently launching a study to establish exactly how many breastfed babies fall dangerously ill (hypernatraemic dehydration) after failing to take in enough milk – they are investigating the possibility that this could be happening to as many as 8,000 babies a year. This is why I recommend a baby is given a bottle if he is losing too much weight.

I am well aware that some of my advice and techniques are different to the standard advice that is offered by many breastfeeding organisations and breastfeeding counsellors, but everything I recommend is based on 20 years of first hand experience gained from seeing mothers on a one-to-one basis, combined with my medical background as a nurse and midwife. As you will see from my testimonials, my books have been endorsed by highly qualified doctors and paediatricians, who also refer mothers to me for what they consider to be safe and practical advice.