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Melissa Evans, AAHCC |
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Resources—Breastfeeding |
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Preparation: Leave the “breastfeeding bag” from the hospital at the hospital. The free samples of artificial milk in it aren’t there to help you, I promise. The amount of milk you produce depends on how often baby nurses; if baby gets food from somewhere else, then mom loses that cue to make more milk causing baby to need more supplements causing mom to make less milk and so on. It can also introduce nipple confusion – nursing from the breast takes more work than from a bottle. Some babies get used to the bottle and have a hard time going back to the breast (if supplements really are needed, there are other ways to get food into baby without a bottle—talk to your local LLL leader or a lactation consultant). Those samples are given in hopes that you will fail. Read some good books, attend La Leche League meetings, get the support you need and you can do it. It’s a system that’s been working since the dawn of the human family. “Babies are born to breastfeed!” This is an amazing article on the language we use. Breastfeeding is not best; it is normal. When this shift is made in our thinking, it’s shocking what follows! La Leche League International (LLL or LLLI) is a group of nursing moms who get together and support one another. There are many groups in the Denver area, including a few PM groups. Most groups (including ours) have a lending library also which is great! You're encouraged to go to a few meeting when you're still pregnant; then if you need to call for help, you're not calling a total stranger for help with your breasts. =) I’m a leader with the Aurora SE groups, I’d love to see you! An IBCLC is an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant, aka a Lactation Goddess. You can find IBCLC’s here. Hathor the Cow Goddess has very silly cartoons, some are pretty radical, but others are just plain funny! A researcher in Australia discovered that breastmilk contains stem cells!! How much more amazing can our bodies be? Try to put that in a can! Tools: There are Mother’s Milk Banks throughout the country, and we have one here in Denver. Some people think that “Breastfeeding is best” but artificial milk is second best. Actually, according to the World Health Organization, artificial milk is fourth best. In order: 1-Mother’s milk directly from her breast, 2-Mother’s milk expressed and offered in another container, 3-Another human’s milk, 4-Artificial milk. Donating to a milk bank can be very rewarding! And as a perk, you can borrow a hospital grade pump for free. =) Bosom Buddies is a great place to find nursing bras, pumps, and more; they even have an amazing IBCLC on staff. Sweet Beginnings is another store to help nursing moms and Natural Choices has tools for local moms as well. They both rent pumps as does the Babies R Us at Southlands. Down in Colorado Springs, Alliance Breastfeeding Center rents pumps and offers help to nursing moms. WIC also offers pumps for free to qualifying moms. There is often concern when it comes to nursing mothers taking medications. Sometimes a care provider will instruct mom to “pump and dump” while on a certain drug—and sometimes that is needless. You can check medications and how they affect nursing at LactMed and Dr. Hale’s (go to the forum and you can enter as a guest) sites. The World Health Organization remade growth charts to reflect breastfed babies. If there is concern about your child’s growth, be sure that your care provider is using the updated information. My Brest Friend: I used one of these pillows when my li'l guy was, well... little. It was a great help when we were getting started. It's the one Kathleen Huggins, author of “The Nursing Mother’s Companion” recommends (she really doesn't like the Boppy for nursing, so I took her up on her recommendation). Luna Lullaby has another pillow as does Blessed Nest; Kid Kozy is an amazing tool too! Lansinoh or PureLan lanolin are great helps if you get sore/cracked nipples. I was expecting it to be a lotion or a cream, and when this thick, gooey yellow stuff came out, I thought, “What the heck is this? Ear wax?!” I found out that’s what it’s supposed to look like. =) When it is rubbed between fingers, it thins a bit and gets more liquid-ish. Also, be warned that it stains anything it touches, so it’s a really good idea to use nursing pads while wearing the lanolin. Be sure the nursing pads don’t have any plastic in it; it’s usually a good idea to cut one in half to verify there isn’t any hiding in the middle. I wouldn’t recommend using them with lanolin, but to prevent leaking, Lily Padz are great! Not for 24 hour use, but they’d be great for work for pumping moms who are concerned about looking... “perky.” Maternal Concepts has some great tools online, including Hydrogel pads and non-bottle feeders. Some babies will develop a preference for bottles if they are introduced too early. This can have a huge negative impact on breastfeeding. There are other ways to get expressed milk (or even artificial if necessary) that don’t require a bottle. A Supplemental Nursing System is an amazing tool! There are cups and droppers and spoons and finger feeders and more too. Locally, you can find them at Bosom Buddies. I have mixed feelings about nursing cover-ups. If they help a mom nurse in public who otherwise wouldn’t, then they’re great!! If it’s because mother feels she *has* to cover in public, then it’s not so great. Sometimes those covers make what mom’s doing way more obvious than not using one at all. A local mom who makes cute covers is Bosom Blanket. An alternative is the Slurp and Burp—it covers any exposed skin for mom, but doesn’t force baby to eat while hiding under a blanket. Some sources will tell mom to nurse for a short period of time and then remove baby from that breast. The article The Cure for Colic recommends letting baby finish the first breast first, then offer the second. It is possible to return to work without baby and continue your nursing relationship. Work and Pump is a great resource. Kelly Mom, Common Sense Breastfeeding, Breastfeeding.com and Breastfeeding Online have great general information on breastfeeding too. Latch On is a group that helps people support breastfeeding throughout the world. Starting Solids: When it’s time for baby to start solids (usually about 6 months), Happy Baby Food is a great concept as is Plum Organics. I know Gerber instructs parents to use a grain cereal for baby’s first food, but La Leche League recommends squashed bananas or avocados—after all, baby’s been getting real food for so long, introducing processed stuff (that many people can be allergic to) so early seems silly. Of course, one of the best things about waiting until baby is really ready for solids is you can skip that whole jar bit all together and go straight to what you’re eating. =) Tips: I found that as soon as I got the baby latched on, I was extremely thirsty! And of course, with a baby on the boob, it was hard getting a glass of water myself. So I either had to plan ahead (which I wasn’t terribly good at when I was worried about taking care of the baby first), or poor Brian became my personal water boy. I heard one mom got a glass of ice and kept it on her nightstand when she went to bed so when the baby and she woke to nurse in the middle of the night, the ice had melted and she was all set with a glass of cold water.
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Bradley Method® Childbirth Educator |
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Families start here |