lecheymiel

11/22/2025

Did you know that in Japan, over 70% of infants and toddlers co-sleep with their parents?

It’s not controversial.
It’s not something they hide.
It’s a tradition called *soine*, a sleep arrangement where baby sleeps between mother and father, like the character for “river.”

It’s done to promote security.
Not independence. Not training.
Security.

And in Japan, “sleep training” doesn’t even exist as a concept.
Night waking isn’t treated as a problem, no matter how a baby is fed.

Their SIDS rate?
0.2 per 1,000 births.

Compare that to the U.S., where SIDS rates are more than 30 times higher.

Some research suggests Japan’s low SIDS rate is related to their high rates of co-sleeping.

Dr. James McKenna, the world’s leading infant sleep researcher, spent 30 years studying this.
His research shows,

Babies who sleep close to their mothers have more stable breathing.
They wake more easily, which helps protect against deep, risky sleep.
Their sleep cycles sync with their mother’s.
They regulate better.
It’s not broken sleep.
It’s biologically normal sleep.

But somewhere along the way, Western culture sold us a different story:
That babies should sleep alone.
In a crib.
Through the night.
By 6 months.

That story was built in the 1950s
based on formula-feeding, isolated sleep, and adult centered routines.
It wasn’t based on biology.
It wasn’t based on connection.
And it’s not working.

Most babies don’t sleep through the night by 6 months.
Most parents who try sleep training eventually stop, because it doesn’t feel right.

Maybe the problem isn’t your baby.
Maybe it’s the expectation that babies should sleep like adults.

Your baby isn’t broken.
They’re waking because that’s what human babies do.
They’re following instincts that have kept our species alive.

Waking. Reaching. Responding.
That’s how connection grows.
That’s how brains build.
That’s what safety feels like to a baby.

So if you’re contact napping, co-sleeping
if you’re tired, touched out, and wondering if you're doing it wrong...

This is your reminder
You’re not failing.
You’re doing what humans have always done.
And your baby is doing exactly what they’re meant to do 🖤

11/18/2025

Ogni madre ha il diritto di compiere una scelta informata riguardo l’alimentazione artificiale del proprio bambino. Allora perché, quando una madre fa la scelta informata di allattare il proprio bambino al seno, non ha lo stesso diritto?

11/13/2025

New research reveals a hidden way breastfeeding may protect moms for decades
It’s a discovery that deepens what we know about the lasting strength of maternal biology.

By Himanshi Bahuguna
Updated Oct. 23, 2025
For years, mothers have heard that breastfeeding can lower the risk of breast cancer—but until recently, scientists didn’t fully understand how. Now, new research is revealing an extraordinary layer of protection: breastfeeding may actually “train” the body to guard itself for decades.

The findings, published in Nature, by researchers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Australia, suggest that the immune system activates a long-term defense response in the breast during lactation—one that may last well beyond the early years of motherhood. It’s a discovery that deepens what we know about the lasting strength of maternal biology.

Researchers found long-lived immune “guards” in breast tissue
Led by Dr. Sherene Loi, oncologist and researcher at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the study analyzed breast tissue samples from 260 women between the ages of 20 and 70, representing a diverse range of backgrounds.

The researchers discovered that women who had breastfed had significantly higher levels of specialized immune cells known as CD8+ T cells. These cells patrol breast tissue like guards, ready to recognize and attack abnormal cells that could turn malignant. Some of these cells were found to persist in breast tissue for up to 50 years.

In follow-up studies, mice that went through pregnancy, lactation, and weaning showed a surge of these same protective T cells. When exposed to aggressive breast cancer cells, those mice had slower tumor growth than those that had not nursed—suggesting the immune system “remembers” the experience of lactation and keeps up its guard.

Why this matters for maternal health
Breastfeeding has long been associated with a 4.3% lower risk of breast cancer for every year of nursing, according to research published in Cancer Medicine. What’s been unclear is why this protective effect exists.

The Nature study offers a key clue: by stimulating the production of specialized immune cells, breastfeeding may leave behind an immune imprint that continues to identify and respond to abnormal changes.

Dr. Loi and her colleagues believe this discovery could help researchers design new ways to strengthen immune resilience or develop breast cancer prevention strategies modeled after the same mechanism. It may also explain why some women are naturally more protected from aggressive forms of the disease than others.

At the same time, experts emphasize that this research doesn’t mean breastfeeding prevents breast cancer outright. Many other factors: such as age, genetics, and hormone exposure, shape an individual’s risk.

Related: Over half of moms stop breastfeeding early—and it’s not for the reason you think

Science continues to uncover the body’s brilliance
This study adds to growing evidence that pregnancy and postpartum changes influence long-term health in powerful ways. Scientists think these immune cells originally form to help prevent infections such as mastitis, but they may also help patrol for early cancer cells later in life.

Understanding this connection could have meaningful implications for cancer prevention and treatment in the future. For now, it serves as a reminder of how intricately the maternal body adapts and protects.

Related: Breastfeeding just got less stressful: This new device shows how much milk your baby is drinking in real time

A personal choice, a powerful insight
Researchers emphasize that breastfeeding remains a personal choice and is not always possible for every mother. This research offers a deeper understanding of the ways a mother’s body continues to protect and adapt.

For many parents, findings like these are both humbling and affirming. They reveal how much the body continues to give, even years after the baby stage has passed.

Science keeps uncovering what many moms have felt all along—the work our bodies do in those early months of nurturing continues to protect us long after.

Sources:

Nature. 2025. “Parity and lactation induce T cell mediated breast cancer protection”
Cancer Medicine. 2023. “Breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer: A call for action in high-income countries with low rates of breastfeeding”
https://www.mother.ly/health-wellness/womens-health/breastfeeding-immune-cells-cancer-protection/?brid=H9Wfwvq06KuBj0KtonSzYg

11/12/2025

11/06/2025

Ella no amamanta a su Bebé directo a su pecho,
… pero su bebé solo recibe su leche: y esa práctica también es “Lactancia Materna Exclusiva…”!!!

Por alguna razón que solo Sunami conoce, deseando amamantar a su bebé, nunca pudo lograrlo…pero su producción de leche le permitió extraérsela y darla a su bebé, y así ha sido en estos 5 meses de post Parto…

Miguel, su precioso chiquitico, toma exclusivamente “La Leche de su Mamá” extraída, y cuando no está trabajando, ella misma le administra sus biberones, cantándole o conversándole…y cuando sale a trabajar, es su Abuela, recién llegada de Cuba, quien amorosamente le prepara sus biberones y se los da…o su Abuelo, o en las noches, su papá…!!

A veces una mujer decide no Amamantar directo al seno a su bebé, por razones valiosas, como es el caso de Sunami, razones que solo a ella y al papá de Miguelito les atañen. Así lo decidió. Y eso hay que respetarlo, porque es la decisión y el derecho de la Madre.

Sunami tiene su “Banco de Leche Humana Doméstico” que surte de leche humana a su pequeño Miguelito, bebé privilegiado a quien le sobran manos y seres que lo atiendan y lo consientan…!!!

11/01/2025

10/22/2025

Hoy en lecheymiel...
Importantísimo el acompañamiento del papa:
Aquí, Richard apoya a Genesis, quien está amamantando del seno izquierdo y, simultáneamente, le coloca el tiraleche ( Manual Marca Medela)en el seno derecho y va saliendo el Calostro...

10/19/2025

Science shows that even after birth, a child’s DNA can remain inside a mother’s body for years, sometimes a lifetime. These fetal cells travel through her blood, settle in her brain and organs, and become part of her. The phenomenon is known as fetal-maternal microchimerism.

Research led by Amy Boddy, associate professor at UC Santa Barbara, has found these cells in a wide range of maternal tissues. She describes it as “a small amount of genetically different cells or DNA in someone’s body.”

Some of these cells even take on new roles. For example, fetal cells that migrate to the mother’s heart can transform into cardiac cells, working alongside her own to help that organ function. It’s a biological connection that quite literally beats on.

Even after a miscarriage, fetal cells remain in the mother’s body. For women who experience pregnancy loss, “it’s not just in their head that they’re forever changed by that pregnancy,” Boddy says. “Those cells may exist and influence their biology.”

With so much we still don’t know about how these cells function, one thing is certain: motherhood leaves a mark that science is only beginning to understand.
Credit The Female Quotient
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1429591659203840&set=a.472059978290351

Fetal microchimerism and maternal health: A review and evolutionary analysis of cooperation and conflict beyond the womb
Amy M. Boddy, Angelo Fortunato, Melissa Wilson Sayres, Athena Aktipis
First published: 28 August 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201500059

Abstract
The presence of fetal cells has been associated with both positive and negative effects on maternal health. These paradoxical effects may be due to the fact that maternal and offspring fitness interests are aligned in certain domains and conflicting in others, which may have led to the evolution of fetal microchimeric phenotypes that can manipulate maternal tissues. We use cooperation and conflict theory to generate testable predictions about domains in which fetal microchimerism may enhance maternal health and those in which it may be detrimental. This framework suggests that fetal cells may function both to contribute to maternal somatic maintenance (e.g. wound healing) and to manipulate maternal physiology to enhance resource transmission to offspring (e.g. enhancing milk production). In this review, we use an evolutionary framework to make testable predictions about the role of fetal microchimerism in lactation, thyroid function, autoimmune disease, cancer and maternal emotional, and psychological health.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.201500059

10/19/2025