Benzie-Leelanau WIC Breastfeeding Support

24/03/2026

Reverse Pressure Softening (RPS) is a breastfeeding technique for engorgement, where you apply firm, inward pressure to the ar**la (around the ni**le) for 30-60 seconds, moving fluid back into the breast, making the ni**le softer and easier for the baby to latch, often combined with cool compresses and hand expression for severe swelling. This technique works by temporarily displacing fluid, creating a soft target for the baby, and is done just before feeding. For more info, visit: https://share.google/qCYNknCrF3WCfZny8

24/03/2026

At the first sign of engorgement, nursing, pumping, or hand expressing until the breast is comfortable again can help to avoid mastitis. This article looks at the symptoms and causes of mastitis, how to prevent it, and its treatment.

Breast inflammation is a relatively common condition affecting breastfeeding women encompassing a range of conditions such as engorgement, a blocked

23/03/2026

When a baby nurses at the breast, a vacuum is created within which the infant's saliva is sucked back into the mother's ni**le, where receptors in her mammary gland read its signals. This "baby spit backwash," contains information about the baby's immune status, causing the mother's breast milk to adjust its immunological composition.

If the mammary gland receptors detect the presence of pathogens, they compel the mother's body to produce antibodies to fight it, and those antibodies travel through breast milk back into the baby's body, where they target the infection.

23/03/2026

No one tells you it’s going to be this hard.
That you’ll feel responsible for their beating heart long after they have left your body.
That the very second they take their first breath will also be the day you’ll began to forever hold your own.
That their arrival will signal the last time you ever truly put yourself first.
That every thought process will have them in mind regardless of whether it relates to them directly or not.
That every decision forevermore will be carefully calculated as to not effect them detrimentally.
No one tells you your heart will physically ache so profoundly. From sadness, worry, angst but mostly love.
No one tells you how you may struggle through each stage only to be desperately sad once the milestone is accomplished.
That you’ll wish more than anything to return to yesterday. To go back for just one day.
To witness their first smile, revel in their first giggle and be serenaded by their very first coos.
That their cries will in turn cause tears of your own until you fall into a learned rhythm of togetherness.
No one tells you they’ll become your proudest achievements.
Your first priority. Your initial waking and final bedtime thoughts.
The greatest loves of your life.
No one tells you beforehand.
Maybe they do and we just don’t listen?
And that’s okay.
Because it’s worth it.
Because it wouldn’t change a thing.
Because we’re Mothers.

Written by Lacey Owen, contributing writer for The Motherhood Project.
Image by Krystal Hipwell.

19/03/2026

A groundbreaking study provides the first global quantification of breastfeeding’s role in preventing chronic diseases.

The data is stunning 📈 and the study reinforces what we have long advocated: breastfeeding protection, promotion, and support are lifesaving, cost-effective, and essential.

Read the full results here: https://bit.ly/49fcYEc

(Shared from 1,000 Days)

18/03/2026

Did you know that your breast milk is made from your blood? The food you eat and the water you drink do not magically go directly to your breast milk. What you eat and drink goes first to your stomach to be broken down and then into your intestines to be absorbed and processed. Your digestive system breaks nutrients into parts small enough for your body to absorb and use for energy, growth, and cell repair. The muscles of the small intestine mix food with digestive juices from the pancreas, liver, and intestine. Special cells in the walls of the small intestine absorb water and the digested nutrients into your bloodstream. Your blood carries molecule-sized components such as simple sugars (carbohydrates), amino acids, white blood cells, enzymes, water, fat, and proteins throughout your body. As blood passes by the breasts, milk glands pull out these nutrients for milk production and pass some of them to your baby. Not all molecules are small enough to pass through into milk. (That’s why some medications are safe to take while breastfeeding and some are not. Molecules that are too big can’t get into the milk while really small molecules can.)

Nuts, seeds, beans, and grains all have plant based proteins. Meat and dairy are animal based proteins. Both plant and animal proteins carried in your blood can make it into your milk. Sometimes these proteins can affect baby’s digestive system, causing symptoms like reflux, gas, colic, and blood or mucus in the poops from iritations to baby’s intestinal lining. Diary proteins are the most common cause of upset in the stomach, however research suggests that the proportion of exclusively breastfed infants who are actually allergic to something in their mother’s milk is very small. Fussiness and gas alone are not enough to diagnose a cow milk protein allergy.

In general, there are NO foods that need to be avoided because you’re breastfeeding. Every baby is different in the foods they are sensitive to. IF your baby always seems to have a reaction when you eat a certain food or a large amount of a certain type of food, cutting back on it or cutting it out temporarily may be helpful.

18/03/2026

An NIH-funded study found that infants who had more diverse bacteria in their gut had lower childhood blood pressure. This protective association was stronger if they were breastfed for at least six months. Read more:

Nursing for at least six months may spur beneficial gut bacteria connected to better heart health years later.

17/03/2026

The other day someone told me I need to stop breastfeeding my baby to sleep because I am “creating a bad habit.”
A bad habit.
Apparently feeding my baby, holding them, and comforting them while they drift off to sleep is somehow wrong now.
Let me get this straight.
Breastmilk literally contains hormones that help babies relax and fall asleep. Nursing releases oxytocin, the bonding hormone that calms both mom and baby. Babies are biologically wired to nurse, feel safe, and fall asleep in their mother's arms.
But somehow THAT is the bad habit?
For thousands of years babies fell asleep at the breast. There were no sleep consultants, no rigid schedules, no people telling mothers their instincts were wrong.
Just mothers and babies doing what their bodies were literally designed to do.
So forgive me if I do not panic because my baby falls asleep while breastfeeding.
My baby is fed.
My baby is calm.
My baby feels safe enough to sleep.
That does not sound like a bad habit to me.
It sounds like biology.
But please, tell me again how comforting my baby is the problem.

~ Breastfeeding Mama Talk

17/03/2026

Breastfeeding Attachment, Part 2

For educational, non-commercial purposes

16/03/2026

New moms are often told in the hospital that they should only nurse every 2, 3, or 4 hours. While we say that newborns nurse 8-12 times in 24 hours, that can be a minimum rather than a maximum. Remember to watch your baby for hunger cues, not the clock!
Are you worried that your baby isn't getting enough? For more info, click here: https://lllusa.org/is-my-baby-getting-enough-milk/

16/03/2026

Breastfeeding Attachment, Part 1

For educational, non-commercial purposes

12/03/2026

Breast milk is nature’s perfect concoction for your little one’s health and happiness. However, it has been found to lack a key ingredient: vitamin D. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for your baby's growth and development, and a supplement may be needed. Follow this link for more information:

Vitamin D supports healthy bone development and helps prevent rickets. Learn More.