Breastfeeding Resources

‘Motherhood changes you forever’ – the cliché your own mother forewarned you. And she was right. Motherhood, and specifically breastfeeding – the most central physiological act of mothering during infancy, changes you because it literally alters your brain – structurally, functionally, and in many ways, irreversibly. I am about to explain how the act of […]

Paced bottle feeding is a method of bottle feeding that is designed to mimic breastfeeding. There are many reasons families might decide to try it.Some mothe...

To understand how to effectively increase (or decrease) milk supply, we need to look at how milk production works... For the most part, milk production is a "use it or lose it" process. The more often and effectively your baby nurses, the more milk you will make.

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More health care providers are observing that mothers receiving multiple intrapartum IV’s experience delay in expected postpartum fluid shift. Increased edema during the puerperium complicates engorgement, increases sub-areolar tissue resistance, distorts the nipple and interferes with comfortable, efficient latching. Edema may appear early, or later, within 48-96 hours, often lasting 10-14 days. (This may depend on both the quantity of IV fluid given and the time of infusion in relation to…

Infant Stomach Capacity: Why Anything You can Pump is Great! - "A day old full term baby only has a 5-7 ml stomach capacity, or the size of a marble. The amount of colostrum that comes out from the mother’s breast is enough to satisfy the baby. The stomach becomes the size of a shooter marble by day 3. After a week, the stomach capacity reaches 2 oz, or the size of a ping pong ball."

"The Basics of Breast massage and Hand Expression" video by Maya Bolman, IBCLC and Ann Witt, MD, FABM, IBCLC

Babies should be fed when they indicate hunger. Crying is a late indicator of hunger - breastfeeding is much easier for both mom and baby if mom is able to pick up on baby's earlier hunger cues.

By Dr Predeep Jain Today is 1st day of World Breast Feeding Week and this time, a weeklong campaign will be run by the Indian Academy of Paediatrics and other social organisations of India to obser…

Many moms feel guilty for nursing their baby to sleep. Nursing your baby to sleep is not a bad thing to do! It's very normal and developmentally appropriate for babies to nurse to sleep and to wake 1-3 times during the night for the first year or so. Some babies don't do this, but they are the exception, not the rule. Many children, if given the choice, prefer to nurse to sleep through the second year and beyond. Nursing is obviously designed to comfort baby and to help baby sleep, and I've…

"The Basics of Breast massage and Hand Expression" video by Maya Bolman, IBCLC and Ann Witt, MD, FABM, IBCLC

Are you an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant® (IBCLC®) who gets questions about how to join the profession? Or are you considering becoming an IBCLC? The International Lactation Co...

By Christine Staricka, BS, IBCLC, CCE, ILCA Medialert Team When Maya Bolman was a young girl in Russia, her godmother was known to all the women in her village as the one who could help with breastfeeding. People said her hands were 'like magic.” A young Bolman paid attention. She is now a well-respected clinical lactation care provider in the U.S. who uses her hands to help nursing mothers relieve the breast fullness that can interfere with their breastfeeding. In July, she brought her…

The breast is made up of soft tissue, with a fine line of milk ducts running over the tisue, and under the skin. They are producing milk constantly, and the...

Dr. Bruce Hollis is the lead author of a 2015 study that concluded that supplementing the mothers of exclusively breastfed babies with 6400 IU vitamin D per day is a safe and effective alternative to directly supplementing babies with 400 IU vitamin D per day.