The Boob Group
Breastfeeding Expectations: The First Month

Please be advised, this transcription was performed by a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[00:00:00]

Robin Kaplan: A mother’s breastfeeding experience changes drastically over time, starting with her child’s birth throughout the months of her baby’s life. I’m so excited today because, we are launching a brand new series called “Breastfeeding Expectations”. Over the next 12 months, we will be following three new mothers along their breastfeeding journeys, learning how they cope with breastfeeding challenges and settle into a breastfeeding rhythm with their babies. This is The Boob Group!

[Theme Song/Into]

Robin Kaplan: Welcome to The Boob Group, broadcasting from The Birth Education Center of San Diego. I’m your host Robin Kaplan. I am also a Certified Lactation Consultant and owner of The San Diego Breastfeeding Center. At The Boob Group, we are your online support group for all things related to Breastfeeding. Do you have an idea for a topic or an upcoming episode? Just visit our website at http://www.theboobgroup.com and send us your suggestion through the contact link. Or you can even call The Boob Group hotline at 619-866-4775. Now it’s time for me to introduce our lovely new moms who we will be following for the next 12 months. Ladies, will you introduce yourselves please?

Anney Hall: My name is Anney Hall, I am 36, I am an architect and I have one child, she is 5 weeks old.

Jennifer Oliver: I am Jennifer Oliver, I am 33 and I work in Arts Education Administration. I have one daughter who is two and a half and I have a new son, who is 12 days old.

Cherri Christiansen: Hi. I am Cherri Christiansen, I am 31 and I work in Consumer Research. I have a brand new daughter who is 10 days old today.

[Theme Music]
[Featured Segments: News Headlines - The Affordable Care Act and Breastfeeding]

Robin Kaplan: Let’s kick off today’s episode with some unbelievable breastfeeding stories making the headlines around the internet. All of these stories are posted on The Boob Group Pinterest Board if you want to check them out. So, a couple of days ago, the Supreme Court decided to uphold the Health Care Law that was passed, actually last year and what it’s called, is “The Affordable Care Act”. And I’m just wondering what your opinion was on this, and I’ll tell you what this actually, this Act says. Essentially, it’s going to provide break-time for nursing moms when they are at work, obviously, and preventative services required for health plan coverage care, essentially. So that means, that if you have a breastfeeding challenge, this preventative service is way to help you, should be covered by your insurance company. And so, for all those ladies who need to see a Lactation Consultant, either in the hospital, when they get out, go to a clinic, they are asking that your insurance company, as of August 1st, decide to cover that. So what do you guys think about that? I think that’s outstanding. I was actually calling my insurance company the other day to tell them about my baby being born add them on, and I had a couple of questions that were related to, you know, any challenges related to breastfeeding. And the woman on the phone was pretty rude to me and made it very clear that nothing related to Lactation Consultants or anything breastfeeding related, would be covered, ladies, I know that you all have very different birthing experiences, and since a mother’s labor and birth have such an impact on those first few days and sometimes the first few weeks of breastfeeding, do you mind sharing a little bit about your birth-story please? So, Jen, you want to tell us a little bit about yours?

Jenn: Yes, sure! So this birth was very different than my daughter. My son was ……three days over my due day, maybe 4 days over my due day and I labored through the day and it seemed really tolerable and I remember with my first that as soon as the labor became not tolerable that I needed to go to the hospital so I kept waiting at home and waiting and waiting thinking, “oh no! when it’s time,” and when I laid down with my daughter and my water broke and I gushed all over the couch and I ran to the bathroom and I gushed all the way to the bathroom and threw a towel in between my legs and looked at my husband and said, “ pack up the child, it’s time, it’s time,” and we went into the hospital and actually I was feeling pretty good about myself. I was thinking I was like, She-Ra walking in. I was like, “oh! I’m gonna do this. This is gonna be awesome. I’m so tough.” And I walked in and they put me in a room right away and the grandparents came and picked up my daughter and then it just, like a tide-a-wave, it just hit me. I had contraction after contraction and they were so intense. And I’m pretty sure I almost threw up. I almost passed out and then finally somebody grabbed me, put me on the bed and I said, “just give me an epidural.” [Laughs] And I laughed at myself and I said “ I swear I feel like She-Ra right now. I feel like Minnie Mouse.” So then I arrived at the hospital about 9 pm and my son was born at 1 am. So it was a really quick labor, about an hour and a half and I actually had to get a shot to slow down the labor because my son’s heart rate started to decrease and the doctor felt like it was too much for him. And so, even with that he was born very quickly.

Robin: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing. Cherri, do you want to share your experience.

Cherri: Sure, this being my first pregnancy, I really had no idea what to expect and so in that respect I realized that I was in labor a lot longer than I thought I was and, you know, woke up the day before my daughter was born with incredible backache and it felt like the worst menstrual cramps I’ve ever had in my life and I was like, is that something? Is that something? And I’ve been going through couple of days and every time it felt something new going with, is this it? Is this it? Just really being on edge but, I hadn’t gotten to my due date yet and everyone had convinced me that I was definitely gonna go late. So mentally I had prepared to go, you know, 42 weeks and so, I was only 39 plus 4 at the time, I think and, you know, we just kept waiting and waiting for, you know, the labor to actually start, waiting to experience contractions when I realized I was actually having them and didn’t realize since I held out for as long as I possibly could. And from the time that I woke up with that incredible back pain to the time, I actually called my midwife was about 25 hours. And yeah, it wasn’t that intense, that whole 25 hours I would say of the, I would say really the last 7 or 8 hours but, the whole time I just kept thinking like, “ I don’t want to call her and wake her in the middle of the night even though that’s what she’s there for.” I kind of decided that by 8 or 9 if it looked like something was happening, we would give her a call so that she didn’t hear from us for the first time at 2 in the morning. But, it didn’t seem that bad then. So anyway, we called her about 6 o clock the following morning and she ended up coming over. I didn’t go to the hospital. I actually had the baby at home and she ended up coming over around 12:30 and she kept checking in and kept asking if, you know, if I wanted her to come and I kept saying no, I’m fine and then I had a really, really tough contraction and said, “I need her, I need her.” And afterwards, my husband said, “okay, I’m going to call her.” I’m like, “no, no, no, don’t call her. I’m fine.” But, she ended up coming here about 12:30 and my daughter was born at 4:23. So, she was actually only there for 4 hours. So, some of you, you know, your time in the hospital was like my time with my midwife. But, it was the most intense experience of my life. It was no option to yell out for an epidural at that point although I thought about it. I suddenly had this whole new empathy for a white woman getting an epidural because lying there was so much worse than anything I could possibly have imagined. But, it was in the grass skim if things, I think it was exactly the birth that I was hoping and planning for and it was wonderful that I hope to go back and do the delivery again soon. [Laughs]

Robin: I thank you Cherri. Anney, you want to share a little bit about yours?

Anney: Sure. I went into pre labor on, let’s see, Monday was May 21st, and that was my last day at work and I work until 10 o clock in the night and then I got home and had some diner and then I believe I lost my mucous plug and called Robin or actually somebody and said, “I think I’ve lost this gelatinous goodness.” [Laughs] and I think it’s my mucous plug and I looked it up in the very wonderful guide and I was like, okay, okay, so this could last for two weeks or this could be happening right now and that lasted for two days, Monday to Wednesday and Wednesday it started to get a little more intense. I had no, I didn’t realize I would be having pre labor. So, that I would be feeling like I was in labor for a week by the time I finally have her. I didn’t…..that was not in my birth plan in my mind to go all natural. That wasn’t part of it so, when we went into the hospital on Wednesday I thought that the pain that I was feeling was, I was far long, I was gonna be atleast a 6 or 7 when we got there and I was a 3.5 at 2 in the morning on Thursday. So that was the 24th of, that was my due date. And we were not far enough long for them to admit us so we went to Denny’s. Robin Kaplan was with us and she was acting like my personal lactation consultant and friend and my stepmom and my husband and we went to Denny’s and I had some oatmeal and ordered it through a contraction or a surge, excuse me. And then, we got back and they let us come in at just a little bit about 4 and I was dilating very slowly. So, I had about 30 hours of active labor from 4 cms on. And the experience with the nurses was, I couldn’t have asked for better nurses and the experience throughout the day,…..I don’t know what envisioned it to be and it was super intense and the music that we had playing was wonderful for that, that was part of the experience in my head that I would have music to take me through and I had some really special moments with some of the music that was playing that would bring me to tears then they weren’t bad tears. It wasn’t just because I was feeling so much pain. It was just that it was beautiful to me. But, we got to a place where I was at seven and a half centimeters and I thought I was at ten and I was pushing. I was ready to push when I was only at 71/2. And so, that’s when the doctor came in and said I want you to have a vaginal birth and this is how we’re gonna do it and this is what your option is and the option was to have an epidural because I was exhausted and I was at a hospital. So, it wasn’t like I was going to be at a place where they would slow me down and, you know, sit in the bathtub and all these things would probably been a little bit different and much longer but, I was done. I was on a schedule in my head that I didn’t know I was and they said epidural and I said okay and the anesthesiologist came in and I fell in love and it was the most amazing feelings in my entire life and then, I got to sleep. And so, from Wednesday through to Thursday, I finally had her on Friday morning after pushing for three hours which really pushing for three hours was nothing compared to where I was before.
And we had a baby girl and….it was a long week. It was a really long week and I was gonna go shopping. I was gonna do all these things by myself and I still haven’t gone shopping. [Laughs]

Cherri: I haven’t either. I was going there for the birth and I still haven’t recovered. [Laughs]

Robin: Alright ladies, well, when we come back, we will be discussing what breastfeeding looks like for Anney, Jen and Cherri with a brand new baby. So, we’ll be right back.
[Theme Music]

Robin: Alright, so we’re back and we’re discussing with Anney, Jen and Cherri about their breastfeeding experience with their brand new babies and so ladies, we just heard about your birth stories which was fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing and I’d also just like to ask is well, how did you prepare for breastfeeding before your baby was born? So Cherri, how about you?

Cherri: Well, I did a couple of things but, I think by far the two most that was important and helpful things that it was one, I actually took Robin’s clause, that was super helpful. I didn’t really know much about breastfeeding at all and it was one of those things where, you know, you see a woman doing it and it looks so simple and so natural and so easy and I’m sure we’re going to talk about the fact that it has not seemed that way at all in the last ten days. And then the other thing that I actually did and I highly recommended was while I was pregnant I actually sorted out to try and find as many people to pull like a support network as possible in advance. I went to a La Leche League meeting while I was pregnant. I tried to find other moms that had, I found more moms who had struggled than moms who had been successful. So I tried to stay away from the ones who had struggled too much and I’ll stay away from them but not let their negativity sort of get to me and rather try and seek out people who have had a positive experience so that I would have bunch of numbers on speed dial that I could call in the first 24 hours and I did need to do that. Robin was one of the people I called. So, those two things were very, very helpful for me beforehand.

[00:15:37]
Robin: Fantastic, how about you Anney?

Anney: I sorted out to you. [Laughs] Although I went to your class but before I went to your class, I even just talked to you about some of the fears that I had and had you look at my breasts because you just live a block away. But, I thought that one of my nipples wasn’t whatever it was going to be and I just had that fear and you said, we’ll figure it out. It’s okay. We’re going to work it out and that was I think one of the biggest things for me was hearing and constantly having that rerated through the course of taking your class and talking with you that we’ll figure it out, there’s steps so I just let it go. I let everything else go. I was working. I was doing all these things that I couldn’t let go and so I just let that part go. So, that was actually a big help for me.

Robin: Well, nice to know. Jen, how about you?

Jen: So, I feel like the underachiever because I didn’t prepare.

Robin: Well, this is also your second.

Jen: My second, it was a huge difference and I don’t know if I necessarily prepared for the first one. I did have a couple books that I read and so I felt that I kind of had a little bit of an understanding. I also had a Doula with my first birth and so she had walked me through a few tips as far as how to start. But, with this one I didn’t prepare at all. I just crossed my fingers and hoped that it would be easier this time. And then, I was not surprised but a little disappointed when I found out actually, it starts off just as hard. And so, that was really my preparation was with the thinking back through my experience with my daughter and how I had solved some of the challenges and also some of the challenges that I didn’t solve and had to kind of just grin, bare it and make it through it. Somehow I managed to feed her for 17 months. So, it ended up working out in being really successful. But, there was a lot of work at the front.

Robin: Absolutely! So, how often is your breastfeeding, right now ladies? Are you feeling like you’re, kind of like a 24
hour drive through or has your baby started to get on a little bit of a pattern? What is it looking like? Anney, you have the oldest baby here at almost 5 weeks.

Anney: She’s 5 weeks and I feel like we’re in a pattern right when she’s going to go to her 6 weeks or 7 weeks and she’s going to lose her pattern. She’s feeding about 6 times a day so, two to three hours, somewhere in there. So, sometimes it’s two, sometimes it’s two and a half, sometimes it’s three. And then, actually, I was really surprised about, she’s sleeping from like, 8’O clock to about 4:30. Or 9’O Clock to…somewhere in there till 4:30. So that midnight, 1’O clock feeding, she just, this week, she sort of just stopped which is really cool. So, that feels normal. Finally this week, I feel like I’m, there’s this new normal I’ve reached and this is okay. But, I’ve never been so regulated by time and looking at the time and asking my husband what time is it and I’m thinking, okay I have another hour and he has no idea. He doesn’t. But, that’s okay. He’s not, you know, putting on a boob to feed a child.

Robin: Exactly, how about you Jen? What’s your schedule looking like? How often is your baby feeding?

Jen: He’s really a cluster feeder. So, he sort of feeds a lot for about 30-45 minutes and then he’ll stop and then he’ll come back on the boob again like maybe, 15 minutes later and feed again and then again stop and then probably about 30 times, he’ll feed that way and then he’ll be done for like, 2 hours. And usually, he conks out which is an experience for me ‘coz my first never. I swear she never slept. So, he sleeps a lot. He’ll sort of dis-conk out for couple hours and then he’ll wake up and then want to do it all over again. So, he seems to feed in chunks. I would say probably around 5 or 6 times a day and then through the nighttime, he feeds 3 times through the night which also seems like a luxury. He really sleeps for a good 2-3 hours and then he wakes up, he feeds and goes right back to sleep which seems really nice.

Robin: At 12 days?

Jen: Yeah.

Robin: He’s your second baby too. So, sometimes it’s more flexible and relaxed. How about you Cherri?

[00:20:09]
Cherri: Gosh, I’m thinking about how to answer this question. Do I know the answer to this question? You know, one of the things that I loved during my labor was that I had no clocks, no watches, we turned the phone off, everything like that and you’re talking about the time. I still don’t have a watch and so, it’s still, I’m not constantly, what’s the time? What’s the time and I hate having to constantly be aware of that. One of the things that I did was I tried to track the feedings and I’ve realized it was driving me a little bit nuts by doing that and so, now what I do is I got this little bracelet that someone gave me that has different times on it and what I do is I track when was the last time that I fed her and I put it on my left wrist towards the left boob and I put it on the right wrist towards the right boob. And that’s the only thing I have to think about. So, I can look and see. I don’t have to worry how many times was it. I just look and see okay, it was 11, it only works actually if you updated the last time and I know I didn’t feed at 11’O clock on the left last but, I think overall I would say it’s probably about every 2-3 hours, probably more like every 2 but, she’s super, super sleepy. And it’s really difficult to wake her up. She doesn’t really wake up on her own and so, I’m constantly having to wake her and then, she doesn’t nurse for very long. So, it’s not that she’s doing, you know, you kind of spoke about the clusters Jen and the 30-45 minutes. We’ve had like 3 45 minutes feeds in the last 10 days and most of the time, it’s usually like 5- 10-15 minutes if I’m lucky and then she just passes out. So, an hour later, if she wakes up for some reason and she wants to nurse again, I’m like, “go for it.” you know, because I feel like I’d rather that she was there every single hour and then I know she’s nursing then just be, you know, rather getting some sleep or something like that. So, I’m hoping things will get better and we’re going to weigh her today and we’ll see how this, if this system has been working for us for 6 days.

Robin: Awesome and what type of support have you needed from your partner in all this? Have you found that it was different those first couple days that it is now? Or for those of you are just kind of still in those first couple days, what have you needed him for?

Cherri: Everything, you know, we kind of set up a system and you know, I’m 100% responsible for feeding our baby and so he is now 100% responsible for feeding me and that’s kind of the way that things have been working and yeah, it’s, I mean, it’s pretty awesome and I think it’s as hard as it’s for him. I think it’s easier for him to feed me but it’s for me to feed the baby so….

Anney: They’re much more willing to participate sometimes.

Cherri: And it’s been hard because I spent first, she’s only ten days old but I spent the first couple of days like, apologizing him every two minutes because I’d, you know, I’d sit down, one other things I’ve been struggling with a lot is just really getting comfortable. I was so focused on her nursing and that she’d be in a position and my back would be killing me and I’m like, “I’ll just sit here in pain for 45 minutes. And so, I’d sit down someway and realize that I don’t have anything. I don’t have my phone. I don’t know what the time is. I’ll call him and say, “could you bring me my phone?” and he’ll bring me my phone and leave and I suddenly look around and I don’t have water. “Nick, can you bring me water?” So, I feel like I’m constantly, you know, like, he’s like my butler on demand and so, I was constantly apologizing and then, you know, I soon realized that what I’m doing is taking a lot more work and a lot more effort and so we’ve been working together really nicely. But, I couldn’t do without him. If I didn’t have him there helping me and feeding me and telling me what the time was, I think I’d be going a little crazy. And, I’m still going a little crazy.

Jen: Oh my goodness! It’s so, we have two. It’s so different. The first time I felt like, gosh, you know, I felt bad at the beginning asking him for so much. But then, I thought angry because I felt like, why does he have to yell, I just need water. Like, I’m feeding your child right now. You can get me some water. So, I remember I went through this sort of transition of first feeling guilty and then feeling angry and then having to work through that and it’s really hard. I feel like for my husband to really understand how much work, I think at the beginning he got it because he saw the labor and he saw my struggles with breastfeeding. But then, it sort of faded away and it didn’t actually get any easier right away. He just kind of lost that, I don’t know, that newness of it and sort of wanted to not have to wait on me anymore which I didn’t really feel like was that much effort. So, with the second one though, it’s different ‘coz I just need him to entertain my two and a half year old. So, unfortunately, and fortunately, I have a few more skills so I can walk around holding my baby as she’s breastfeeding to go get some water, etc. so, I feel a little bit more on my own. He’s much better this time. He’s sort of accustomed to the needs and also how much work that I’m putting into this. But, I definitely feel like I have to kind of really maneuver more without him because I really need him to keep and my daughter, she’s amazing but, she has a lot of energy and I want her to feel like, we’re still there for her and that this new baby is not taking away time from her. It’s adding something new to the family that’s great and that’s something that she’s gonna look forward to. So, it’s really tricky that balance of, you know, making her feel like we’re still here for you. There’s still time for you. When you call our name, we’re still gonna look at you and help you out with whatever it is that you need. But, at the same time, I’m also breastfeeding my son. So, it’s a challenge and I’m really looking to him. Unfortunately, he only took off work for about a week. He went back to work a couple of days last week and then he’ll start going back to work full time again this week. So, you know, I have a lot less time with him which is really unfortunate. But, I think that I have a great family network. So, I’m kind of depending on mother in-laws and mothers to come over and help for the first, for the next couple weeks ‘coz again my baby is only 12 days old.

Robin: Absolutely, alright so, before we wrap up, can you all give us one piece of advice that you would give to a pregnant mom to kind of help her through, may be those, these first couple weeks that we’ve been talking about ‘coz there’s obviously lots of bad advice so, may be some positive advice that you’ve seen just, in your experience in the past month?

Jen: It’s always funny when people ask for advice. I really hate to give advice. I just don’t feel like advice actually really helpful. But, I like to talk from my experience and my experience is just, you know, it was really tough for me. It was really hard and I cried and I broke down and I called a lactation consultant which was Robin and I reached out as much as possible and that was really helpful reaching out, talking about it, asking how other people were experiencing their challenges with breastfeeding and just knowing that our bodies are made to do this and that’s what I have to keep telling myself. My body is made to do this. So, this is tough but it works. It has to work otherwise we wouldn’t be here on this planet. So, I just kept telling myself that and reaching out and eventually it got really easy. In fact when my daughter was, it actually makes me a little tearful. I hated to stop. It was such a precious moment that I had with my daughter and it was so easy and it was, I can’t even imagine how I induced formula. I mean, honestly, it’s free, my body just makes it and at any moment if she felt uncomfortable or if she, my daughter is very sensitive to new situations so she started to get scared. I could stick her on my boob and she felt so comforted and it was just such a special thing that only I could provide for her. So I was really sad to let it go. So, you know, I think that if you can stick with it, reach out for help that it’s worth it.

[00:30:04]
Robin: Thanks Jen. How about you Cherri?

Cherri: Well, I was gonna say something very similar. You see I don’t have the experience of another child but, I think reaching out for help and having that support network I think was very, very helpful. But then, the one caveat to that, that I would say is that it got to be a little bit overwhelming because I found that I was trying to be very proactive about reaching out to people and I was getting so much comforting advice and you know, I remember from the clause, you know, to try and aim for about 8 times a day and I was, I went to the pediatrician and I spoke to a lactation educator in the building and she said, “oh 8 times, no, no, no, you need to be doing it 10 times.” And someone else said something else and someone said, “oh! You have to make sure that, you know, you cover both boobs and each feeding.” And then, someone else said don’t worry about that, just do one and then it actually got to a point where I was reaching out for this help and I was getting so much comforting advice that it actually just became overwhelming. And so, the one Anney think, have a support network and have people who are ready to help you and support you but at the same time, I think even though, I don’t know what I’m doing and I have a 10 days old baby and everything is so overwhelming, I finally got to this point where I just felt like I just had to trust my instincts a little bit and just feel like, you know what, if it’s been, you know, an hour and she wants to nurse, then great. And if it’s been 4 hours and she looks fine and she’s sleeping, I’m not quite comfortable with that yet. I still kind of feel like I want to wake her but, for the most part, I’m trying just to relax more because I found that the more anxious and the more overwhelmed I got, the harder and the most stressful it was and the only thing that really helped was just to kind of trust in myself and like, Jen said, no this is what I’m supposed to do. My body is supposed to do this and trust in the process a little bit more.

Robin: Great, great, okay, how about you Anney?

Anney: I think that the first few weeks are the hardest. You are balancing your hormones. You’re healing and you’re supposed to be breastfeeding at the same time and learning how to do that. And I remember feeling like, how do you do that? I can’t do this. All three of these things at the same time. So I just thought it was such a cosmic joke. But, I have an incredible support group with my family, our family in town and then I have my lactation consultant who’s a very close friend. So, listening to you and listening to the doctor and family, all three sort of helped balance my crazy and when the doctor would say one thing, I would bounce that off to the lactation consultant and hear what she had to say and feel comfortable with what her compromise was ‘coz they’re coming from like a medical place and a sort of survival and the lactation is a little more holistic and a little more, yeah, trust yourself and from a mom, a mom’s place. And then, after getting through those few weeks, I felt that it was incredibly helpful to go to a support class which, I don’t know what you call it. Support group, where there were a bunch of moms that were all the same level and stage and talking through some of the things that I had felt that have been scary for me like, spit coming up through her nose. They all had the same, some of them had the same experience and that’s normal. So, a lot of these things that I felt that are scary, I’ve never seen them before or even if you have seen them before, but you’ve never seen this child before. They’ve had the same experiences so, the scary turned into normal and so, I felt a lot more comfortable and a lot less scared over the last few weeks. So, that transition has happened and I’m sure I’m gonna get scared about something else again too but, I would say that, all three of us have said that find some kind of support, that would be my advice.

Robin: Cool, alright ladies, well, I’m so excited that we’re hanging out together every month as we chronicle your breastfeeding journey with your little ones. So, thank
you so much for your insight into breastfeeding during the first month of your baby’s life and I really look forward to continuing this conversation in the upcoming months. So, thank you so much.

[Theme Music]
[Featured Segment: Ask The Experts]

Robin: Before we end our show, here’s a question for one of our show’s experts.

Karen: Hi Boob Group. My name is Karen. I’m from California. I just listened to your episode about breastfeeding and acupuncture. My question is for Jamie Boyd, the acupuncturist. Jamie, I have an oversupply. I feel like I’m constantly drowning my little guy whenever I’m breastfeeding. So is this something that acupuncture can help with? I have to back to work in about a month. I just want to help my son feel more comfortable and help reduce some of his gas pain. Thank you.

Jamie: Hi this is Jamie Boyd, licensed acupuncture support family, acupuncture in Sand Diego, California and I am returning the call from Karen from California who has asked me about the oversupply of breast milk for her little baby boy and she’s exactly right in worrying about overregulating supply especially if she’s going back to work. A lot of times, I just try to educate moms about what foods make milk in the body and maybe have them reduce their intake of those foods if their supply seems overabundant. Certain galactogogues, like buckwheat, caraway, rye bread, too many greens especially barley wheatgrass. Things like that can actually create more milk, and by taking them out of the diet, it can lessen the milk. And doing positions with the baby so that baby doesn’t take in too much milk. So, like, having the mom sort of lie back a little bit so that the baby can latch on. In terms of acupuncture, it can regulate milk supply both boosting and reducing supply. However, it depends on how many months postpartum the mom is. At three months postpartum and six months postpartum, mom’s milk always self regulates again and a lot of times women who have had a perfectly good supply, their supply will tank at those times. So, I always assess that first before I do too much acupuncture, in terms of turning down milk supply. And also, I treat babies. So, I usually o magnetics on the baby to help it with digestion so they aren’t too gassy or colicy, due to oversupply or having to gulp. You can always visit an acupuncturist and give them a call and ask them what sort of protocols they do for milk regulation. But, acupuncture should help for you to lessen the milk supply without totally turning the supply down or off. Alright, thank you very much.

Robin: Thank you to all of our listeners. I hope you’ll visit our website, http://www.theboobgroup.com and our Facebook page to offer your personal stories about breastfeeding your baby during the first month. If you have any questions about today’s show or the topics we discussed, please call our Boob Group hotline at 619-866-4775 and we’ll answer your question on an upcoming episode. Also, if you’re a blogger and want to share your story about breastfeeding your baby during the first month, please email me at robin@theboobgroup.com. Coming up next week, we’ll be discussing breastfeeding tips for the working mom. Thanks for listening to The Boob Group because mothers know breasts.

[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Suggestions and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. For such information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or TBG011_Breastfeeding_Expectations_First_Monthadvi sor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing
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