The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

November's Carnival: Breastfeeding and Pumping CDs, plus one to give away.

Welcome to the November Carnival of Breastfeeding!  This month's theme is product reviews, and you'll find some great posts from other bloggers at the bottom of this post. 

If you're a nursing and/or pumping mom, you may have wrestled with the demons of declining milk production, inhibited let down while pumping, and the overall stress of motherhood. 

In the last few yeas some CDs have come on the market up to try to address these problems with guided relaxation exercises and meditations.  This makes sense because both rituals and relaxation can help with milk let down and production. I listened to each of these CDs, and am sharing what I learned about each one here.

More Mama's Milk, produced by Earth Mama Angel Baby, contains 3 tracks over a new age music score, read by Lori Dorman, a co-founder of Earth Mama Angel Baby.  It is not explicitly focused on helping mothers who pump, but it could certainly be used while pumping. 

The first track is a 12 minute visualization/relaxation exercise which asks you to imagine holding, touching, and loving your baby, and also a bountiful supply of milk.  It aims to evoke a strong emotional and presumably hormonal response in the service of making more milk.  The second track is a 20 minute is intended to be listened to while breastfeeding.  The first half of this track is a relaxation exercise which includes blessings for your baby, visualization of walking through a garden, and a focus on appreciating the time you're spending nursing.  The second half of this track is strictly a music score for those who want to stay in the relaxed state longer.  The third track is a 20 minute meditation on motherhood.  It's less relaxing and more focused on imparting messages about motherhood, particularly about nurturing  yourself.  I liked the compassionate and breastfeeding-focused messages in this meditation, but they might not be as effective over time as the first two tracks.  This is the most directed and most emotive of the three recordings I reviewed, and it's also my favorite of the three. 

Pumping Secrets, by Jenniffer Milone, is a mom-designed CD aimed at helping mothers pump more milk.  The feature which sets this recording apart is the sound of a baby nursing, with cooing, gulping, giggling, squealing, and fussing.  These sounds are heard over a piano score, and there is no narration.  Pumping Secrets contains three tracks: a 50 minute breastfeeding track, a 10 minute double-pumping track, and a 20 minute single pumping track. 

The creator of Pumping Secrets is a mother of three who pumped at work, and who found that she could pump more milk if she listened to a recording of the sounds of her son nursing.  Will listening to the sounds of someone else's baby nursing help you make and let down milk more easily, or will it just sound a little strange?  It's certainly true that making milk is a hormonal process and our hormones can be triggered by emotional responses to sounds, smells, and visualizations.  So, it seems worth a try.  It would also certainly help to imagine that you're listening to the sounds of your own baby while using this CD.  I have one copy of Pumping Secrets to give away. To enter to win it, leave a comment below by November 24th.  U.S. addresses only, please.

Breastfeeding Meditation, by Sheri Menelli, a certified hypnotherapist, contains two programs: an affirmations track, and a meditation track.  These tracks are provided with and without music.  It is not explicitly focused on helping pumping mothers, but could certainly be used while pumping.

The affirmations track is about 13 minutes long, and consists of positive, first person statements about breastfeeding ("I make plenty of milk for my baby") and about one's body, over a new age music score.  For someone who likes hearing affirmations, they may have a calming and supportive effect, though I'm not sure how one might respond to some of the statements if they are, in fact, not true.  Statements like "my baby latches on perfectly"  and "I eat well and I eat wonderful, nutritious foods" might actually be more discouraging than encouraging.  The second track is a 12 minute meditation which consists of a guided progressive relaxation exercise, followed by many of the same affirmations included in the first track.  I enjoyed the relaxation exercise, but again felt that the affirmations would not have helped me make more milk or feel more confident about breastfeeding or pumping.  While the overall tone of the recording is calming and supportive, I think that the recording would have been strengthened by more relaxation practice and less focus on affirmations which might not fit for everyone.

Check out these posts on different nursing products from other bloggers (updated throughout the day):

• Breastfeeding Mums:  The Food of Love
• Babyfingers:  Bravado Essential Nursing Tank
• Half Pint Pixie:  Gorgeous nursing bras - they do exist!
  
• Mama Knows Breast:  Utterly Yours pillow
• Blacktating:  More Milk Plus tincture
• Mama's Magic:  Breastfeeding basics (and bling)
• Breastfeeding 1-2-3: Medela Sleep Nursing Bra
• Hobo Mama:  Save your shirt and your dignity! (nursing pads review)
  
• Layla Beth: Favorite nursing products
  

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Salma Hayek on being "addicted" to nursing.

I thought that this was a cute quote from Salma Hayek on nursing her 13 month old daughter:

“I’m like an alcoholic,” she shrugs. “It’s like, I don’t care if I cry, I don’t care if I’m fat, I’m just gonna do it for one more week, one more month, and then, when I see how much good it is doing her, I can’t stop. It’s a very powerful thing you know.”

She stuck by her earlier comments on Oprah (video) about breastfeeding and weight loss, stating "the myth that says you lose all this weight when you breast-feed? That is sooo not true." 

Last year I ran a poll on that topic, and you can see the results here.

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Breastfeeding and hair loss.

I love my hairdresser, but I'm afraid he's wrong about this one. 

A while back he told me that breastfeeding caused hair loss.  Another mother recently repeated a similar statement from her hairdresser, who had suggested that the only remedy was weaning. 

I had pretty dramatic hair loss starting at about three months, but after a weird six months or so in which the new growth seemed to always want to stand straight up on my head, it pretty much returned to normal.

This connection between hair loss and breastfeeding never really made sense to me, since the hormones involved in lactation (oxytocin and prolactin) don't have anything to do with hair growth (as far as I knew). 

So, here's the real scoop, exerpted from kellymom's page on this topic.

Many new moms notice hair loss - sometimes quite dramatic - around three months postpartum. This is a normal - and temporary - postpartum change that is unrelated to breastfeeding.

Following is how the hair growth cycle works:

All hair has a growth phase, termed anagen, and a resting phase, telogen. On the scalp, anagen lasts approximately 3 years, while telogen  lasts roughly 3 months, although there can be wide variation in these times between individuals. During telogen, the resting hair remains in the follicle until it is pushed out by growth of a new anagen hair. -- from Telogen Effluvium by Elizabeth CW Hughes, MD            

Normally, around 85-95% of your hair is in the growth phase at any point in time, but the hormonal changes during pregnancy stimulate an increase in the percentage of hairs in the growth phase. As a result, many women enjoy thicker hair during pregnancy, as more hairs than normal are growing and fewer than normal are resting/shedding.             

With the birth of your baby (and the hormonal changes that accompany birth), a larger number of hairs than normal enter the resting phase. Since the resting phase is followed by hair shedding (and regrowth), new mothers will experience greater than normal hair loss once the resting phase ends.

Postpartum hair loss commonly starts at around three months after birth. The amount of time between childbirth and the onset of shedding corresponds to the length of the resting phase of hair growth (between 1 and 6 months, with an average of three months). The hair loss can seem more extreme if your hair grew much more than normal during pregnancy, or if you have long hair. Most women will return to their usual hair growth cycle within six months, or between 6 and 12 months  after birth.

Kellymom goes on to note that excessive hair loss can also be caused by hypothyroidism and iron deficiency anemia (two conditions that are pretty common in the postpartum period), so see your doctor if you're concerned.  A simple blood test can determine if you have either of those conditions, and they're relatively easy to treat.

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New policy gives some nursing mothers in the Army a 12 month deployment deferral.

On this Veteran's Day, I thought I'd share this news item on a new policy for some Army mothers in Germany:

With the Army recently extending its deployment deferral from four to six months for Army mothers of newborns and those adopting, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has done one better.

Landstuhl commander Col. Brian Lein signed a policy this summer that encourages a deployment deferment of 12 months for active-duty soldier mothers who are assigned to Landstuhl and its affiliated Army health clinics and breast-feed.

The policy includes other measures to support and empower women who choose to breast-feed, according to the Landstuhl memo.

"From a mom perspective, that policy empowers a woman to say, ‘Hey look, this is important. This is from the top down. This is a priority. When I ask for time and space to pump, this is not going above and beyond. This is something that’s reasonable and expected,’ " said Army Maj. (Dr.) Renee Pazdan, a Landstuhl neurologist and mother of two who spearheaded the effort to change the policy.

...The Landstuhl breast-feeding policy puts the hospital on par with the other military branches. Currently, the Navy has a 12-month, non-deployment policy for all post-partum women with support for lactation in the work environment. The Air Force has a policy that encourages commanders to modify activities such as field training, mobility exercises and deployment for airmen who are breast-feeding.

Described as an information tool for commanders of women who breast-feed, the Landstuhl policy on breast-feeding and deployment deferment is the most generous in the Army. 

 

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Making some progress.

Well, this has to be just about the most boring picture ever taken, but I'm sharing it because it represents some progress our local breastfeeding task force has made. 

It's the freezer we're going to use to establish a breastmilk collection station for the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England.  When the milk bank starts processing milk we'll be collecting approved donors' milk here before shipping it off to the Boston area.  We were very lucky to have a brand new freezer donated by Salemi Appliance, and it was delivered on Friday to the basement of the pediatric practice where I work.

I'm also really pleased to say that we recently purchased three hospital grade breastpumps to donate to area WIC offices.  This it the result of lots of fundraising work over the last year or so.  I'm really excited that WIC offices in our area will be able to loan pumps to more moms who might otherwise not be able to afford to rent them.  A recent study (pdf) about the effect of pumps on breastfeeding among moms enrolled in WIC came out last year, and it confirms what we all would have guessed - access to pumps helps moms breastfeed exclusively longer.  The study found that mothers who had pumps were 5.5 times less likely to have requested formula by the time their babies were six months old than moms who didn't have access to pumps.  We're also planning to put on a free half day training on pumps for WIC offices and other people involved in breastfeeding support in our area, probably in March.

I also reached a bit of a milestone on a personal project.  I'm writing a book, with a friend, which will help breastfeeding support people learn Spanish.  The goal is to help people who support nursing moms be able to communicate more effectively with Spanish speaking mothers.  I shared a few audio clips a while back.  We're getting the book approved for continuing education credits for lactation consultants, and we have just finished a draft that is good enough for field testers to try it out.  We'll be rerecording and editing in December, with a final deadline of January. 

So, there are some things moving in the right direction here!

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Do you have questions about introducing solid foods?

I'm preparing for a podcast interview with one of my favorite authors, Ellyn Satter, whose book Child of Mine was my guide through starting solid foods.

She's agreed to answer some of your questions during the interview.  I'd like to focus the interview around the "how," of introducing solid foods and not the "what" or "when," so please pose questions along those lines. 

I can't guarantee that we'll have time to talk about every question, but I'll try!  Leave your questions in the comments section by November 30th, 2008.

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Book review and a copy to give away: Nursing Mother, Working Mother

To enter to win a copy of this book, leave a comment below by November 12, 2008.  Be sure to leave a 'real' email address.  U.S. addresses only, please.  Winner will be notified by email.

Nursing Mother, Working Mother by Gale Pryor and Kathleen Huggins (Harvard Common Press, 2007) is now in it's second edition.

This book is part basic breastfeeding reference book, and part guide to returning to work and continuing to breastfeed. 

The first half of the book reads a lot like The Nursing Mother's Companion (written by one of the co-authors), covering the basics of breastfeeding.  The second half is full of useful advice on combining working and breastfeeding.  While other breastfeeding reference books cover this in a single chapter, this book gets deep into the issues and, notably, feelings associated with a return to work.  Topics include finding a good daycare provider, finding space at work to pump, your legal rights, alternative work arrangements, and all the mechanics of pumping, storing, and feeding expressed milk. 

The tone of the book is reassuring, and the authors spend a lot of time discussing common feelings and concerns.  The authors approach the topic with empathy, and their calm approach makes it clear that you aren't the only one who has faced the daunting task of combining breastfeeding and work. 

When you see a section in a book on this topic entitled "Falling Apart," you know you're reading the truth.   

If you don't have the time or inclination for such a comprehensive look at this topic, The Nursing Mother's Companion gives you the basics in a concise form.  For sheer enjoyment of reading, I'd still recommend The Milk Memos (my review here) for it's humor and personal stories.  But Nursing Mother, Working Mother remains a classic, and is well worth reading if you'll be combining breastfeeding and work.

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Catching up on some recent research.

The news has been full of stories about new breastfeeding research lately.  Below are a few studies of note, and many more can be found here.

Breastfeeding may reduce childhood obesity risk.  Researchers at Temple University found that breastfeeding may reduce obesity risk, perhaps due to behavioral factors.  The authors "found breastfed children could more easily determine when they were full. Children who were bottle-fed with pumped breast milk were less likely to respond to the feeling of being full by the time they were preschool-aged.  Also, children who had a lower response to fullness had a higher body mass index."

Breastfed children are reported to have fewer behavioral problems.  A study from Massachusetts General Hospital found that "parents of youngsters who were breast-fed as infants were less likely to report that their child had a behavior problem or psychiatric illness during the first five years of life."

Breastfeeding reduces asthma risk.  A British research team found that breastfeeding "lowers the incidence of allergic disorders, and that children breast fed from 4-9 months had a significantly lower risk of asthma."  The authors found that "those breast fed up to 7-9 months had lower instances of persistence wheezing and coughing."

Traumatic birth experience has an impact on breastfeeding.  A University of Connecticut researcher found that "the impact of birth trauma can lead new mothers down two strikingly different paths with regard to breastfeeding.  For some, the trauma propels them into persevering in breastfeeding to prove their “success” as a mother and perhaps to make up to their infant for the difficult birth."

Researchers identify how breastfeeding transfers immunity.  A Brigham Young University research team has identified a molecule that makes antibodies, which usually circulate throughout mothers' bodies, take the "off ramp" to transfer to the breast so that they can transfer into breastmilk.  Until this study, "scientists did not know how the mother’s body signaled the antibody-producing cells to take the different off-ramp. The new study identifies the molecule that gives them the green light."

And while this isn't related to research, I did want to note another item in the news:  The Navajo Nation recently approved legislation which would require that employers provide time and space for nursing mothers to pump at work. 

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