Mississippi Lactation Services

06/14/2024

I’m retiring today! The clinic will be closed and I am referring patients to Dr Leigh Campbell at UMMC Lactation clinic. The number is 601-984-5480. I will maintain licensure and my email address: crisglick@mslactation.com for my existing patients until the end of the year. I’ve been so blessed to be part of this amazing community and I’m so grateful to all of you.

04/22/2022

There's so much information about breastfeeding and some is widely quoted, but not always exactly right. Yesterday a patient told me that she had dumped all her stored milk because she had yeast. I've heard this over and over and it breaks my heart every time. Yes, when you have yeast there is yeast in your milk BUT it also has a million good things to help protect your baby from getting thrush from it. Your body pours out IgA antibodies through the milk that specifically targets yeast in your baby's mouth. Plus there are so many other factors that are also protective. When you store your milk in the refrigerator, the living organisms, such as yeast and bacteria, slowly begin to die off, and when you freeze your milk the colony counts drops drastically. So when you thaw milk that has been frozen, there are so many less living organisms left. Your milk is fine for your baby when you have yeast! Your baby needs your milk! Don't dump it!

03/15/2022

Let's talk about the type of pain you may be experiencing and where it is in the breast. Early breastfeeding can cause pain, particularly on initial latch, that improves over the first days to weeks of breastfeeding. It is important to help the baby to learn to achieve a deep and comfortable latch in the first days of life.
Deep pain can be aching or stabbing and is more often associated with infections, but can also arise as a result of a plugged duct. Mastitis, typically a bacterial infection, is of pretty sudden onset, with fever, body aches and redness on the breast, that is a single isolated tender, red lump. Yeast may come on slowly, with more ni**le pain, burning, itching and sharp shooting pains without fever or body aches. This can cause severe pain on latch that usually improves as the feeding progresses. Plugged ducts can be very painful with tenderness, but can be worked out with massage, heat and ice.
Latch pain from poor latch or tongue tie is typically a pinching pain that does not improve during the feeding. Significant ties that cause pain do so on each and every latch and make it very difficult to ever achieve a comfortable latch. Not all significant ties cause pain and it is important to have a suspected tie evaluated by someone who is trained, skilled and experienced in tie management. Tongue and lip tie management is complex, requiring an in depth evaluation.
Pain is a sign that something is not working, so if you are experiencing significant pain with breastfeeding, it is time to have it checked out by an experienced lactation consultant.

03/07/2022

How much pain is too much for the breastfeeding mom? The easy answer is that a normal latch is not painful...but how do we get there? Many of us have some pain/discomfort in the first days of breastfeeding as our babies and our bodies adjust to the new activity of breastfeeding. This should rapidly improve over the first days, unless there has been ni**le damage like cracking that can cause ongoing pain until healed. Pain that continues beyond those first few days usually needs further evaluation. Breastfeeding that was painfree and becomes painful suggests something has gone wrong. Has the baby started taking a bottle or paci and that changed the latch? Has one of pair been on antibiotics that may precipitate a yeast infection? Pain with breastfeeding is a guide that something may be amiss and needs further evaluation. Check with your HCP or a lactation consultant for help. Next time we'll talk about the quality of the pain; how if feels to help figure out what's going on.

03/01/2022

I am welcoming spring with open arms! We have been weathering a covid storm for a long time. It has injured us individually, as families, communities and our world. I hope we are ushering in a time of healing and recovery. My little clinic is eking its way through the storm, slowly, barely keeping the doors open. But as I look back on the past 2 years, I am so grateful for you, my breastfeeding friends and community - your loving support and tenacity! What describes breastfeeding better than the word tenacity?!? An example we all can use in these times. I'm sending out a simple message of hope; that we enter into a time of healing over the next months. Reach out for support from family and friends, professionals if needed. We need one another today and always.

08/24/2021

URGENT Covid-19 in Pregnancy Update:
Focusing on Vaccination &
Perinatal Outcomes
Wednesday, August 25th, 12pm
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81204804320

Featuring:
Dr. James M. Tucker
ACOG President, UMMC Ob/Gyn Chair

Kara Polen, MPH
CDC Maternal Immunization Team

Dr. Rachael Morris
Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist, UMMC
‌
Zoom Meeting: Wednesday 8/25 12pmClick Here

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08/13/2021

US CDC VACCINATION GUIDANCE FOR PREGNANT WOMEN The US CDC on August 11 recommended that all people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant, or might become pregnant in the future be vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2. The agency cited a growing body of evidence showing vaccination during pregnancy is safe, noting new data that found no increased risk of miscarriage among pregnant people who received a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine during the first 20 weeks of gestation. Previously, the CDC said the vaccine could be offered during pregnancy, but the new recommendation urges all pregnant people to be vaccinated. According to CDC data, only about 23% of pregnant people have received at least one dose of a vaccine. The new recommendation comes amid a surge of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the US, driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant. The CDC’s updated recommendation came 2 days after the release of a joint statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics, and 20 other health organizations “strongly” urging pregnant and recently pregnant individuals, as well as those planning to become pregnant, to be vaccinated. The groups noted that pregnant individuals are at an increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease, including death, and the best way to protect themselves is through vaccination.

Just 23 percent of pregnant women have received at least one shot of vaccine. The CDC advice applies to all three vaccines, though the one-shot Johnson & Johnson version has not been studied as much as the versions produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

07/27/2021

UPDATE No. 16 - Reproductive Facts Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination

Jul 23, 2021
By: ASRM
Origin: ASRM Bulletin

American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Patient Management and Clinical Recommendations During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
UPDATE No. 16 – July 23, 2021
Reproductive Facts Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination

As of July 16, 2021, the 7-day moving average of daily new cases of COVID-19 in the United States (U.S.) increased by nearly 70% compared with the previous 7-day moving average.(1)

The current status of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. has been called “a pandemic of the unvaccinated”(2). The incidence of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths fell precipitously as COVID-19 vaccinations became widely available. Unfortunately, hospitalization rates are rising again, due to the highly contagious delta variant, especially in states with low vaccination rates. Nearly all (97%) recently hospitalized patients are unvaccinated.(2-5)

Current CDC data suggest only 16.3% of pregnant women included in CDC’s Vaccine Safety Data link have received >1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy.(6) This low rate of vaccination is particularly concerning given the known increased risk of adverse outcomes for women infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy. (7,8)

Reproductive endocrinologists should discuss COVID-19 vaccination with all patients and encourage vaccination for all patients during evaluation and treatment for infertility. Vaccination either pre-conception or early during pregnancy is the best way to reduce maternal/fetal complications. Physician counseling has been shown to have significant positive impact on patient willingness to consider vaccination.(9)

None of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines reach or cross the placenta. The intramuscularly administered vaccine mRNA remains in the deltoid muscle cell cytoplasm for just a few days before it is destroyed.(10,11) However, protective antibodies to COVID19 have been shown to cross the placenta and confer protection to the baby after delivery.(12,13)

COVID19 vaccination does not induce antibodies against the placenta.(14)

Existing data suggest COVID19 vaccination during pregnancy does not increase risk of miscarriage.(15)

COVID19 vaccination does not impact male or female fertility or fertility treatment outcomes.(16-18)
REFERENCES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html, last accessed July 2021.

Rochelle Walensky. July 16,2021 Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials. Accessible at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/07/16/press-briefing-by-white-house-covid-19-response-team-and-public-health-officials-45/, last accessed July 2021.

Allison Aubrey. 97% Of People Entering Hospitals For COVID-19 Are Unvaccinated. National Public Radio July 16, 2021. Available at https://www.npr.org/2021/07/16/1017012853/97-of-people-entering-hospitals-for-covid-19-are-unvaccinated, last accessed July 2021.

Johnson CK, Stobbe M. Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated. Associated Press June 29, 2021. Available at https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-941fcf43d9731c76c16e7354f5d5e187, last accessed July 2021.

Keating D, Shapiro L. For unvaccinated, coronavirus is soaring again. Washington Post July 21, 2021. Available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/unvaccinated-case-rate-delta-surge/, last accessed July 2021.

Razzaghi H, Meghani M, Pingali C, Crane B, Naleway A, Weintraub E, et al. COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Pregnant Women During Pregnancy — Eight Integrated Health Care Organizations, United States, December 14, 2020–May 8, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:895–9.

Zambrano LD, Ellington S, Strid P, Galang RR, Oduyebo T, Tong VT, et al. Update: Characteristics of Symptomatic Women of Reproductive Age with Laboratory-Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Pregnancy Status — United States, January 22–October 3, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:1641–7.

Villar J, Ariff S, Gunier R, Thiruvengadam R, Rauch S, Kholin A, et al. Maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality among pregnant women with and without COVID-19 infection. The INTERCOVID Multinational Cohort Study. JAMA Pediatr. Published online April 22, 2021. Available at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2779182, last accessed July 2021.

UCSF Aspire. Assessing the Safety of Pregnancy In the CoRonavirus PandEmic, Unpublished data. Available at https://aspire.ucsf.edu, last accessed July 2021.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Infectious Diseases Society of America. COVID-19 Realtime Learning Website. Vaccines FAQ, mRNA vaccines. Available at https://www.idsociety.org/covid-19-real-time-learning-network/vaccines/vaccines-information--faq/, last accessed July 2021.

Pardi N, Tuyishimea S, Muramatsua H, Karikoa K, Muib BL, Tamb YK, et al. Expression kinetics of nucleoside-modified mRNA delivered in lipid nanoparticles to mice by various routes. J Controlled Release 2015;217:345-51. Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4624045/, last accessed July 2021.

Gray KJ, Bordt EA, Atyeo C, Deriso E, Akinwunmi B, Young N et al. Coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine response in pregnant and lactating women: a cohort study. Am J Obstet Gynecol Gynecology. Published online March 2021, available at https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(21)00187-3/fulltext, last accessed July 2021.

Beharier O, Mayo RP, Raz T, Sacks KN, Schreiber L, Suissa-Cohen Y, et al. Efficient maternal to neonatal transfer of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. J Clin Invest 2021;131:e150319. Available at https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI150319, last accessed July 2021.

Shanes ED, Otero S, Mithal LB, Mupanomunda CA, Miller ES, Goldstein JA, et al. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Vaccination in Pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol. Published online July 08, 2021. Available at https://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Fulltext/9900/
Severe_Acute_Respiratory_Syndrome_Coronavirus_2.206.aspx, last accessed July 2021.

Shimabukuro TT, Kim SY, Myers TR, Moro PL, Oduyebi T, Panagiotakopoulos L, et al. Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons. N Engl J Med 2021;384:2273-82.

Gonzalez DC, Nassau DE, Khodamoradi K, Ibrahim E, Blachman-Braun R, Ory J, et al. S***m parameters before and after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination. JAMA 2021;326:273-4.

Morris RS. 2021 SARS-CoV-2 spike protein seropositivity from vaccination or infection does not cause sterility. Fertil Steril Reports. Available online June 2, 2021. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666334121000684, last accessed July 2021.

Orvieto R, Segev-Zahav A, Aizer A. Does COVID-19 infection influence patients’ performance during IVF-ET cycle?: an observational study. Gynecol Endocrinol. Published online May 11, 2021. Available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33974475/, last accessed July 2021.
The ASRM Bulletin is published by ASRM's Office of Public Affairs to inform Society members of important recent developments. Republication or any other use of the contents of the Bulletin without permission is prohibited. To request permission to quote or excerpt material from the Bulletin, contact Sean Tipton at stipton@asrm.org.

COVID-19 infection did not affect patients' performance or ovarian reserve in their immediate subsequent IVF cycle, except for a reduced proportion of top-quality embryos (TQEs). We therefore suggest, to postpone IVF treatment for a least 3 months (duration of folliculogenesis and spermatogenesis) a...

01/25/2021

I've had many questions about safety of the vaccine. I'm posting a link to the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine statement on the covid vaccine. https://abm.memberclicks.net/abm-statement-considerations-for-covid-19-vaccination-in-lactation. As it states, there is no data because pregnant and lactating women were not included in the original studies. This vaccine is based on new technology and is an mRNA vaccine. Very little of the original dose is expected to circulate and therefore would not show up in the breastmilk. What will show up is the natural antibody response of your body to the vaccine. These antibodies will pass through to the milk for your baby's protection. We believe it is safer to get the vaccine than the disease, for both you and your baby. I am gently recommending that if you have the opportunity to get the covid vaccine that you get it.

December 14, 2020 - Several countries have recently issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer/BioNtech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. A second mRNA COVID vaccine, manufactured by Moderna, will be reviewed in the coming weeks. Since these two vaccines are similar, the information in this doc...

10/16/2020

Breastfeeding is a daily adventure, some days better than others! And everyone's journey unique; it's a relationship that evolves over time and changes, sometimes frequently. So how to navigate it in these crazy times we're living in? Thank goodness for remote connectedness! I'll go back to my old mantra, "The only rule of breastfeeding that applies to everyone is that you have to get the milk out to make milk." How you do that is an individual process. Some people use only a pump, some people use only a baby, some people use both. There's not even a good rule for how often to do that emptying. For some it's a few times a day, for some it's a constant 24/7 requirement. Follow your body, your baby. What are they telling you? Are you making enough milk, too much, or not enough? Adjust your emptying accordingly. I often hear that the supply is low, only to find out there is infrequent breastfeeding, once or twice a day and a pumping session here or there. Most people have to empty their breasts very frequently at first, at least every 2 to 3 hours, without fail, without breaks, day in and day out. It gets better, but that first week or two is highly demanding and difficult for most of us. So I'll invoke my second, softer rule: "Listen to your body, your baby, and your intuition." How??? Mindfulness is a key to the mystery. It takes time and dedication to develop a regular connection between the body, the mind and the soul, but frequent practice paves the way, so it becomes a natural and easy path to follow the more you do it. It aids in the breastfeeding journey by reducing your stress, which reduces your baby's stress. It helps with letdown, pumping, pain, fatigue...there's not much it doesn't help with. Give it a try. Start with noticing your breathing, use an app if that helps. Sometimes just nature sounds can help guide you. Happy Breastfeeding!

09/18/2020

We are doing our best to serve breastfeeding mamas while keeping everyone save during the pandemic. Since the office is small, we are limiting the number of patients at any given time. To protect you and your family. To protect us and our families. To keep the virus from spreading in our community. This means that we can't see as many patients as quickly as we used to. Please be patient with us when there is a couple day window between when you call and your appointment. We are committed to serving you safely and as quickly as possible! As always, keep breastfeeding, it's important, now more than ever! Wear a mask, wash your hands, distance. Thanks for all your support. Stay safe!

04/04/2020

I’ve been dreading this day, but here it is! The CDC recommends we all wear masks. Here are simple instructions for making one with items you already have. See you with my mask on!

03/30/2020

breastfeeding #
Welcome to our new and strange lives. And welcome to my new waiting room! Mississippi Lactation Services is now offering telemedicine services. Just call like usual and we will set up your appointment and walk you through how to "zoom" with us. You will need to download the zoom app and then just click on the link at your appointment time and we will connect.
If you need to still come in we are using utmost infection control precautions, keeping you in a separate room throughout your visit, no waiting room unless you are the only patient in the clinic. Be mindful and safe in these scary times. I'm still here to help support your breastfeeding - we'll figure it out together.

03/18/2020

# breastfeeding

Our Goals We offer breastfeeding support in a family centered, comfortable environment, giving you our full attention to answer questions and concerns. We strive to promote self-efficacy so that you will learn the tools you need to successfully breastfeed, honoring your own goals and desires. Breast...

03/15/2020

Ms Lactation is open and seeing patients. We are taking extra precautions, including frequent sanitizing with alcohol and bleach as appropriate for different surfaces. We are also using more frequent handwashing and hand sanitizing. We have alcohol based hand sanitizer for your use at the front desk and in each room. We ask that if you are in the waiting room with other patients, make use of the 2 separate areas for seating and the spacing in the larger area between couches. We will make special efforts to keep you and your baby in the separate patient rooms as soon as possible. We are committed to supporting your breastfeeding experience in a safe and family centered environment. If you have fever, cough or any other illness we ask that you re-schedule. This clinic is primarily for healthy visits for healthy patients!

01/03/2020

Breastfeeding is natural and seems like it should be easy to figure out - but it's not! The basics are supply and demand. Get the milk out to make milk. How you accomplish that can be the confusing part - to pump or not pump? How often, how long? Directly breastfeed? How long and how often? The answer is different for each pair. You will hear and read all sorts of advice. Try to begin to listen to your heart, your baby and what is working for the two of you. It's easy to get in your head and start thinking too much, worrying and wondering if what you're doing is right or wrong. Try to settle into the moment and notice what your baby is telling you, what your body is saying and what your heart is feeling. Breathe and relax. Stay in the present moment. If you're struggling with supply, with pain, ask for help, but remember your experience is different than your neighbor, your sister, your mother. Trust what you know to be true about you and your breastfeeding. You are your own expert! Breastfeeding has sustained humanity forever. It is a natural process for your body to help you - trust your body!

11/26/2019

breastfeedingduringholidayrush #
Take time to replenish yourself during these rushed days of the holidays. The more there is to do, the more you need to take some "off" time for yourself. You can only give what you have, and if you deplete yourself, there'll be nothing left to give. It seems impossible to slow down when there's so much to do. It helps to stop, breathe, relax your neck and shoulders. Just stop momentarily. Breathe. Enjoy this moment. Be thankful for all that is good around you. ...the sunrise, beautiful fall leaves, a baby's cry. Savor this moment, this day. Give yourself the gift of relishing the season.