There are some strong opinions about how best to tackle breast feeding, especially for new mums. This article will deal with six of the most important issues.

Breastfeeding is considered by many to give your baby the best start in life for both health reasons and also emotional. There are not many people who would disagree with this fact but it has to become a mothers personal choice and popular opinion should not effect that decision.

A new mother is usually emotionally and physically worn out and this is probably not the best time for a woman to be faced with making a choice about whether to breast feed or bottle feed. This decision should be made before the birth and should be actively discussed with the father also if he is present. Here are three tips to ensure successful breast feeding for both mother and baby.

1. A lot of new mums find breastfeeding very painful initially and this is where a lot of times they decide to give up the breast and turn to bottle feeding instead. The pain will very quickly disappear and the whole sensation becomes very comfortable for mum after a few times.

2. To encourage baby to feed at regular intervals, don't wait until baby is so hungry that it becomes difficult for them to stop crying. Actively offer the breast to baby at regular intervals. If the baby is sleepy then offer the nipple to the babies top lip and this will stimulate your baby to open their mouth wide for feeding.

3. If you are worried that your baby is not getting enough milk then try feeding baby more often as this will stimulate more milk to be produced.

4. To express milk, it is best to find the time of day when you are producing the most milk and use that time to express every day. For a lot of mums, that tends to be in the morning.

5. If your baby refuses to feed it is important that you seek advice from your midwife or health visitor. It is important that you do not get stressed out about this because your baby will pick up on this tension and will only serve to compound the problem.

6. Having an occasional small glass of wine is unlikely to do any harm to baby but it is best to avoid alcohol completely, as whatever you digest in your body will be passed onto your baby. If you are going to drink a small amount of alcohol then just make sure you express enough milk on the morning before to last your baby through the night and the next morning.

The blame game and finger pointing culture at women who choose not to breast feed should disappear it just serves to pile guilt onto a new mother's shoulders which is not good for baby. Worse still some mothers physically cannot breastfeed and this can only serve to pile guilt on top of guilt.

The most important thing is to try and enjoy the breastfeeding experience and make sure you and baby are calm and relaxed about the whole thing.