norfolk_breastfeeding_clinic

12/15/2022

12/17/2020

Watch your baby 👶 ...not the clock. ⏰

Today I saw a PDF from a sleep trainer that included very detailed, hour by hour scheduling for sleep, eating and awake time. While this looks good on paper and works within how we usually function within society (schedules!) it makes absolutely no sense for a breastfed baby and can cause so much worry and anxiety trying to fit a baby into the schedule.

Babies breastfeed for MANY different reasons. These reasons include; hunger, thirst, tiredness, unsettledness, boredom, needing connection with their caregiver, comfort...the list goes on. These needs do not fit into a schedule. Not to mention that your milk supply depends on following your baby's cues with frequent milk removal.

Also, breastfeeding and sleep go together. They don't happen separately. Breastfeeding happens before sleep, during sleep and after sleep. They are interconnected. And regardless if baby is full, gaining weight well, has a clean nappy and has their obvious needs "met"...it doesn't mean that they don't need a breastfeed. ♥️

09/12/2020

Wishing you sweet dreams and milky snuggles tonight. 💛🐣💛

Night feeding, well into the toddler years, is the norm, not the exception.

For more on the norms of night waking see:
https://sarahockwell-smith.com/2016/10/20/why-your-baby-will-never-sleep-through-the-night/

For more on night feeds and their impact on sleep see:
https://sarahockwell-smith.com/2014/08/10/how-to-gently-night-wean-a-breastfed-baby-or-toddler/

For more normal night waking statistics and research see:
https://kellymom.com/parenting/nighttime/sleepstudies/

Source of this particular statistic:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262927377_Trajectories_and_Predictors_of_Nocturnal_Awakenings_and_Sleep_Duration_in_Infants

📷 -smiles

09/09/2020

It’s a wonderful life ❤️

is about & keeping cozy in the love bubble ♥️

09/09/2020

Food before one
is just for fun!
🍌🥑🥕🥦
Breastfeeding? Thinking about starting solids? Book your Ohip covered consultation online www.NorfolkBreastfeedingClinic.ca

Have you heard the rule "Breastmilk first, solids after"?
When offering solids during the first year, nurse first. Even after you've begun offering solids, nurse the baby before each meal. This ensures that your milk supply remains plentiful and that solids are not replacing vital calories, fats, and nutrients found in breast milk.
Looking for info about when and how to start solids? Check out info here: https://lllusa.org/starting-solids/

[Image: Baby sitting in a high chair with their mouth open and face messy from food. Text: When starting solids, nurse first.]

08/26/2020

❤️

This week is and since it’s , we are sharing this beautiful image of fellow mamas feeding their babies.

Scary truth: Black women are three to four times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy, compared to white women. Their babies suffer an infant mortality rate that more than doubles that of white children, often due to low birthweight, premature birth or complications after birth. Black babies are more likely to be born prematurely than white babies. In 2017, 14 percent of black women gave birth prematurely, significantly more than 9 percent of white women, according to CDC data. That reflects the level of prenatal care black mothers receive.

Promoting better maternal care, including educating mothers about the value and practice of breastfeeding, could help reverse some of these trends.

Source PBS news

📸: ,

Thanks to and for sharing! Repost from

08/20/2020

Sharing again.

This is a question that is asked a lot.

It's very common for babies to be fussy and unsettled at times, and even quite often in some cases.
But it may be unnerving for parents who become concerned that perhaps the baby isn't getting enough milk.
So a bottle is given to 'test' this theory and the baby wolfs it down and then crashes to sleep. Parents are left feeling utterly deflated that the they were letting their baby go hungry.

So why is it that those of us in the world of lactation say that drinking a bottle after a breastfeed isn't neccessarily sign that the baby was hungry?

To understand fully we need to look at two things, firstly normal behaviour at the breast, and secondly, normal response to a bottle.

Society would have us believe that babies latch onto the breast, feed and then settle. But that's not actually the case. There is usually quite a lot of fussing and bashing while they figure out where they're latching, then lots of quick sucks and tugging and hitting while they encourage your milk to let down. Then there is likely a period of calmer feeding while they have a good quantity of milk (look and listen for swallowing!) and then they may start to qet squirmy, tugging, gumming and hitting again as the flow slows down. This is all VERY normal behaviour.
Keep in mind in an evening, when most parents find their supply is running slower, and during growth spurts, babies will often be a lot more fussy at the breast, and that's ok too! Its stimulation behaviour to get the milk flowing. And the more milk that's removed, the more milk is replaced.
Babies have tiny tummies, digest breastmilk quickly, and use the breast for plenty of reasons other than food, so it's also very common for babies to decide that actually they would quite like to go back to the breast please, even though they had appeared to have finished not long before. Again, normal. (I didn't say easy, I said normal!)
Looking at all of the above, we can completely understand why parents may assume their baby is unhappy or not getting enough. Usually once they've had the information about it all they feel empowered to carry on the way they are.

But, if they don't have that information, they may carry on and give that bottle. So why would the baby take it?
Well, firstly, because babies love to suck. Its soothing and comforting and releases pain relieving hormones and means they are next to your body and in your arms. They're clever little creatures.
Plus, it's pretty easy to get a bottle teat into a baby's mouth, they barely need to open at all compared to latching at the breast.
But why once the teat is in do they drink? Well, sucking is a reflex that happens if something touches the back of the roof of the baby's mouth. So they can't actually help themselves.
When a baby feeds at the breast, sucking is only a part of it, the tongue compressing the breast against the roof of the mouth in a wave like motion moves the milk. But the feeding action with a bottle is very different. Even gentle sucks will cause milk to flow, and we've already seen that babies can't help but suck the teat, so end up with a mouth full of milk whether they want it or not. So they swallow, because once again it's a reflex in babies.
They end up sucking and swallowing until they're so exhausted that they stop.
By this point they're overly full and exhausted so their body shuts down to work on digesting the heavy meal.

So a baby will take a bottle because of their reflexes, not necessarily because they need it.
If they're doing plenty of wee and poo, and gaining weight as expected, there's no need to offer a bottle (unless you choose to). If you're concerned about your baby and feeding in any way get some skilled support to fully assess and reassure you that all is well. But try and trust your baby and trust your body, they know what they're doing x

08/06/2020

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

It's World Breastfeeding Week!
WABA World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is a global campaign to raise awareness and galvanize action on themes related to breastfeeding.
Looking to celebrate? Check out our events at Live, Love, Latch!

[Image: Photo of person smiling at a nursing baby. Text: Human milk is the ultimate renewable resource. World Breastfeeding Week 2020]

08/02/2020

Happy Breastfeeding Awareness Month 💙
Breast milk is more than nutrition. It's immune protection. It's medicine. It's living tissue!
Ingredients include:
water
fat
carbohydrates
oligosaccharides
protein
vitamins
minerals
antibodies
hormones
stem cells
leukocytes
macrophages
prebiotics
probiotic bacteria.. and on.. and on...
http://www.nationalperinatal.org/feeding_our_babies

08/01/2020

Can’t breastfeed because your ni***es hurt too much?

This is the third in a series of “Can’t breastfeed”. First in the series was on medications on July 24, and then premature babies on July 30.

The mother in the attached photo could be the mother in the case study as the baby is very young and fixing the latch resulted in an immediate relief of pain (but she’s not the same mother).

Case study: I see a mother and her 24 hour baby. The mother has “toe curling ni**le pain” every time the baby latches on. I help the mother improve how the baby latches on and the mother has virtually no pain. Furthermore, the baby drinks well at the breast for the very first time even though “my milk has not come in yet”.

How a baby latches on is critical to making sure breastfeeding goes well. See: http://ibconline.ca/the-asymmetric-latch/and http://ibconline.ca/latch-quiz/. The earlier the latch is improved, the better.

But what happens far too often? Many mothers, instead of receiving help with the baby latching on, are given a ni**le shield (the “cure all” for every breastfeeding problem http://ibconline.ca/ni**le-shields/), or are told to take the baby off the breast and bottle feed the baby for a few days “until the ni***es heal”.

The trouble with the ni**le shield, the trouble with the “taking the baby off the breast for a few days” is that these “treatments” only appear to help. Neither a ni**le shield, nor bottle feeding the baby for a few days improves the baby’s latch. Do they help sometimes? Yes, on occasion, but with the result in many cases that the milk supply decreases, and the baby prefers the ni**le shield or bottle.

The older advice “don’t worry, just keep breastfeeding and the pain will go away in 2 to 3 weeks” also works sometimes. But why should mothers suffer for 2 or 3 weeks? Many new mothers know how excruciating ni**le pain can be. But breastfeeding should not hurt!

Want more information on preventing and treating sore ni***es? See our eBook "Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents". The eBook contains videos, links to scholarly articles and more: https://ibconline.ca/ebook/.
New! An audiobook of my book Dr Jack Newman’s Guide to Breastfeeding. https://www.audible.ca/pd/Dr-Jack-Newmans-Guide-to-Breastfeeding-Audiobook/1515933490?fbclid=IwAR0A9lIm4_QggS4wKjGxdZUGdl3sl_K1pbMjqGVpuhxZymtxtudkk-_BY1s

07/29/2020

Join us for a Mom Meetup from 10-10:30 am!
Ainsley Anger is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Mom Meetup
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet Wednesday and Friday
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78186422086?pwd=a2NPcGk5SHB1YWR6TVlZWVMzRGFDdz09
Meeting ID: 781 8642 2086
Password: meetup

07/29/2020

Can’t breastfeed yet because your baby is premature? There are many obstacles put in the way of breastfeeding premature babies.

See also Can’t breastfeed because you are taking medications? Posted July 24.

The attached photo shows a premature baby born at 28 weeks gestation and breastfeeding at the age of 10 days.

Myth #1: premature babies need to live in incubators.

Premature babies are more stable skin to skin with the mother than in an incubator http://ibconline.ca/premature1/ In fact, the sicker the baby the more this is true because skin to skin is what supports the physiological function of every system in the baby's body. The link http://ibconline.ca/premature1/lists several articles how Kangaroo Mother Care supports the physiological function of every system in the baby's body. Breastfeeding is much more likely to work well when the baby is in Kangaroo Mother Care.

Myth #2: premature babies cannot breastfeed until they are at least 34 weeks gestation.

Many premature babies can latch on and breastfeed (and receive milk) even by 28 weeks gestation and most well before 34 weeks gestation http://ibconline.ca/premature2/ See the attached photo.

Myth #3: “non-nutritive sucking” is a good way to teach premature babies to breastfeed

How does this make sense? There seem to be two reasons for some neonatal special care units to ask mothers to “empty” their breasts and only then put the baby to the breast. 1. To prevent the baby from “accidentally getting milk” before he is ready to suck and swallow, and thus aspirating milk. Why is a baby more likely to aspirate at the breast than from a bottle or nasogastric tube? And 2. So that the staff can measure how much the baby gets from the breast. Oh, we love to measure, but this process often results in mothers and babies never really breastfeeding successfully.

This notion also “supports” the notion that premature babies need to use pacifiers to learn to suck “before they are ready to swallow”.

Myth #4: Breastfeeding tires out premature babies (the same is said about term babies and babies with cardiac problems)

This notion seems to come from the idea that “babies transfer milk”. But babies do not transfer milk . Mothers transfer milk http://ibconline.ca/who-transfers/. But starting with the notion that “babies transfer milk”, essentially, that babies “suck milk out of the breast”, breastfeeding is felt to be “hard work” and babies fall asleep at the breast because they tire out. Babies tend to fall asleep at the breast when the flow of milk slows down.

Myth #5: Premature babies need to learn how to bottle feed before they can breastfeed

This one is still around. Never made sense and still doesn’t.

The use of bottles in NICUs usually results in very few premature babies leaving hospital exclusively breastfeeding.

Myth #6: Most premature babies need “human milk” fortifier.

“Human milk” fortifier is misnamed and is formula milk, and makes many, even health professionals, think that it’s made from breastmilk. Most such products are made from cow’s milk. “Human milk fortifier” has been associated with an increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). If a premature baby needs extra nutrients and/or volume, these can be given with banked breastmilk, which is used more and more in some, but not all, special care units.

Want more information on breastfeeding the premature baby? See our eBook "Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents". The eBook contains videos, links to scholarly articles and more: https://ibconline.ca/ebook/.

New! An audiobook of my book Dr Jack Newman’s Guide to Breastfeeding. https://www.audible.ca/pd/Dr-Jack-Newmans-Guide-to-Breastfeeding-Audiobook/1515933490?fbclid=IwAR3pEM-CGHwn57sTHt5gT13lQzCpn-pRycvG7RSydw8IX7Ro25ZvOGUssfw

07/27/2020

Happy World Breastfeeding Week! The 2020 slogan is “Support Breastfeeding for a Healthier Planet” and BreastfeedLA is excited to partner with Chichiualli Lactation and highlight the links between breast/chestfeeding and planetary health! Join me in supporting BreastfeedLA’s outreach efforts & learn more about

https://breastfeedla.networkforgood.com/projects/102854-arissa-palmer-s-fundraiser

07/27/2020

Have you nursed with flat or inverted ni***es?
Protruding ni***es are not a requirement for effective nursing.
While inverted or flat ni***es can make the initial learning period more difficult, it is possible to nurse with ni***es that don't stick out.
[Image: Close up photo of baby nursing. Text: Protruding ni***es are not a requirement for effective nursing.]

07/18/2020

Mother: “My toddler is breastfeeding more frequently than a newborn!”

Me: “Congratulations! You have a completely normal toddler.”

The End.

-Short story by The Milk Meg. Meg Nagle, IBCLC

{For more on breastfeeding toddlers: https://themilkmeg.com/category/breastfeeding-toddlers/}

07/08/2020

We're back!
Join us for a Mom Meetup from 10-10:30 am!
Ainsley Anger is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Mom Meetup
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet Wednesday and Friday
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78186422086?pwd=a2NPcGk5SHB1YWR6TVlZWVMzRGFDdz09
Meeting ID: 781 8642 2086
Password: meetup