The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Guest post: Sarah on relactating to give her baby 'something he always should have had."

I'm pleased to share a guest post from Sarah today, who relactated after weaning in order to restart her nursing relationship with her son.

Initially for me breastfeeding didn't work. My son Clive was too small to get a decent latch/suck, as a result my supply went down.  And to top it off (after I got the supply fixed through pumping) the medication that I'm on (lamotrigine) for bipolar made him sleepy.

I'd been warned about the medication and if Clive hadn't been so small at birth I think there would've been a better chance at things working. I also passed chunks of placenta for a few weeks postpartum, something that nobody had caught, despite me hemorrhaging during labor and immediately postpartum.

Beyond that, when I was pumping every 2-2.5 hours to get my supply up and feeding Clive at the same time I was wrecked. As someone with a mental illness that is exacerbated by sleep deprivation I couldn't add to my lack of sleep that much.

I cried from disappointment and anger for many days over the span of a week until I could see that Clive had a full belly, was happier and finally gaining weight (he was 5lb15oz at birth, 5lb9oz at discharge and went down to 5lb4oz before we switched to formula).  

In reality, I don't think I was ever really "okay" with not breastfeeding, and apparently neither was Clive.  My husband and I take turns bathing with Clive. On nights when I did, as his bath was drawing near, he'd latch onto me and start suckling with what looked and felt like a proper latch. He started doing it whenever he had access, too. I could see that he still wanted to nurse, even though he only had for the first 10 days of his life.

When Clive was 9 months old, I researched re-lactation. As soon as I wasn't nursing I went on the birth control pill so my milk had dried up by about 6 weeks postpartum. Everything that I read said that it might take upwards of 6 weeks to see milk again and up to 9 months (the length of time I'd stopped for) to be able to provide enough milk for Clive. I prayed for acceptance and slept on my decision for a few nights.

Once I knew I could commit I went to my doctor and got a prescription for domperidone. I bought a dual pump. I started taking the drugs and pumping every 2-2.5 hours, except at night where I slept as usual. On day five I was able to hand express my first drop of milk. 

On day 12 and I was able to express enough milk, through pumping, so that it drips through the valves and into the bottle. 

For me this is not about forcing him to do something new, or forcing him to be uncomfortable, or forcing him to only take food or comfort from the breast. For me this is about giving Clive an opportunity to give him something he always should have had. It's also about connecting with him on a deeper level and following his cues. He said "Hey mama, I'd like to nurse, at least for comfort", so I responded. 

Even without the nightly waking, the physical toll became quickly apparent. I started taking afternoon naps with Clive every couple of days - not through choice, really. I'd just lay down with him until he was asleep and suddenly it became two hours later. I've been hungrier, thirstier and lacking the energy to do much other than pump and spend time with Clive. I love every minute of it, I love knowing that my body is making something so precious.

As of today, two months into this journey, Clive nurses to sleep for all of his naps, asks to nurse, while awake, 4-6 times per day, occasionally nurses during the night and always nurses upon waking in the morning. It's simply wonderful and easily the best decision I've made for us since he was born.

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Nightime formula?

Last year the U.K. formula maker Cow and Gate introduced "Good Night" thickened formula, intended to help babies sleep longer at night.  I wrote a post about it here.

This week several of you emailed me about Enfamil's new product, "RestFull" which promises the same thing. 

I thought I'd revisit some thoughts about the idea of formulas to make babies sleep (modified from last year's post):

There's no evidence that babies whose feedings are "thickened" before bedtime sleep any better. 

But let's just say for a moment that this new formula does work and babies sleep longer.

Is that a good thing?  Many researchers believe that babies' natural tendency to wake during the night is protective against SIDS.  Dr. Sears says, "Breastfed babies sleep less soundly than artificially fed infants and are more likely to sleep with their mothers; thus, they may be more easily aroused when they experience a stop-breathing episode."   

I emailed Marsha Walker about this.  She said that she had spoken with the makers of Enfamil and they told her that this formula is the same as Enfamil AR, just with a different label and new indication for use. Enfamil AR (and RestFull) contain rice starch to thicken the feed and slow digestion.

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Motherwear's fall line is here!

Motherwear's new fall line is now up on the website, and there are some great new styles to choose from.

Dara, Motherwear's buyer also told me that there are more items made with a bamboo/cotton/spandex blend, which holds its shape and is less clingy than previous versions of the bamboo fabric.

My favorites are here:  the City Girl's Top, in that bamboo/cotton/spandex blend, the Twice as Nice Sweater with an all-around nursing underlayer, and the Timeless Dress.

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Podcast: Learn Spanish for Breastfeeding Support

I'm very pleased to share with you a Spanish lesson today, aimed at helping those of you who work or volunteer in breastfeeding support speak a little "breastfeeding Spanish."

This podcast is the audio portion of the first chapter in my book, Spanish for Breastfeeding Support.  

Bear in mind that there is much more to this chapter in the text in the book, including grammar lessons, practice exercises, and diagrams.  You won't have these things, but I think that you'll be able to learn some basic vocabulary and phrases that will be useful.

You can use click on the player below to listen to the audio on this site, or use this link to open the audio in Quick Time.  You can also download it at Motherwear's iTunes store.

Spanish for Breastfeeding Support Podcast

You can find more audio and exercises on the Spanish for Breastfeeding Support website.  If you're an IBCLC, you can get CERPs for completing the exercises in the book.

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Guest post: Mindi on breastfeeding from a chiropractic perspective

Dr. Mindi Palmer Fried is a mother of two and a family wellness chiropractor with an office  in Easthampton, Massachusetts.  She specializes in the care of pregnant women, infants, and children of all ages.  She is board certified by the Academy Counsel on Chiropractic Pediatrics (CACCP). 

Many people react with shock and horror at the idea of taking an infant to see a chiropractor.  And most folks don’t see a link at all between chiropractic and breastfeeding.  I’d like to address those concerns in this post.  

I’d like to start with two premises that are central to chiropractic:

First, the nervous system is the master system of our bodies – it controls and coordinates the function of every organ, tissue and cell in your body.  Without the nervous system, our bodies are just organic blobs.

Second, our bodies are self healing and self regulating as long as there is no interference.  Our bodies are designed to be healthy and work properly   We don’t have to teach our bodies how to heal from a cut – we don’t even have to put a bandage on it – our bodies clot, repair and renew themselves totally on their own.

The interference to the life force (innate intelligence) that the nervous system carries through our bodies is what we call in chiropractic “subluxation." A subluxation is caused when your body is overwhelmed by stress, and like the circuit breaker in your house, something small has to “give” to protect the entire body.  The area that “gives” in the spine is a joint that stops moving properly or gets out of position. 

Stress comes in many forms, but can be narrowed down to three general categories:  Physical, chemical and emotional.   Physical stress happens when we fall down, get in a car accident, sit in an uncomfortable chair, always carry a 10 pound purse on one shoulder – things that happen to your physical body are physical stressors.  Chemical stressors are things that we take in – through our mouths like caffeine, drugs, fast food, and trans-fats, through our lungs like environmental pollutants, and through our skin – like the chemicals in the skin “care” products we use.  Emotional stressors can be work, relationships, death of a loved one, and can also be internal – how you talk to yourself.  (A good guideline – if you wouldn’t talk to your loved one the way you talk to yourself, you need to rethink your self talk!).

I can hear you say – “What does this have to do with babies?  Babies don’t get stressed!”   Sure, maybe they aren’t at work with a screaming boss, but they’ve just been through a very intensely stressful experience called birth – remember that?  Even the most natural childbirth can be traumatic, and for that reason, I recommend that EVERY baby, regardless of symptoms, be checked out by a chiropractor that is trained to see babies.

Birth can place a special stress on the upper neck, especially in instances where there are interventions used to help get the baby out like forceps or vacuum, and even when it’s just a practitioner using the baby’s head as a lever to help get the rest of the body delivered.  (Although most babies who have been delivered by c-section have the “perfect head” because they haven’t been squeezed through the birth canal, they often have more issues because they are pulled from the womb without the benefit of the propulsive forces called contractions pushing them out.)  These stresses can cause a subluxation in the baby’s upper neck, which can have a very close relationship with the process of breastfeeding.  When the joints in the upper neck aren’t working the way they should, a baby may have difficulty opening his mouth very wide or turning her head to one side or the other.  Some specific symptoms to look for that would indicate subluxation include latching well on one side but not on the other, a weak suck, difficulty opening the mouth wide enough to latch, Mom complaining of pain with a latch that appears normal (especially if it’s only on one side), and Mom noticing that one breast isn’t getting emptied as well as the other.

Of course, breastfeeding involves more than just the baby – don’t forget about you when it comes to chiropractic care.  Not only can chiropractic help with the changes from all the stressors that she experienced while pregnant and with delivery.  A study was published in 2007 about chiropractic care helping mothers with low milk supply produce more milk.  Given the premises I mentioned earlier – this makes perfect sense.  Chiropractic care was simply removing the interference that was not allowing these women’s bodies to produce the milk they needed.  Again, the nervous system is in charge here - it sends the messages to the brain to release prolactin and oxytocin, the hormones you need to produce and let down milk.

A chiropractor who has had special training on working with babies will know exactly how to adapt their care to fit the tiny body of the infant.  An adjustment (what we chiropractors call the correction for a subluxation) is often given with just a pinky fingertip, and so slight that it is imperceptible to most folks seeing it.  A good place to find a chiropractor who has been trained to work with babies is the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association website – www.ICPA4Kids.org.  There is a doctor locator button on the main page there. 

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Dr. Bobbi Phillip on how change happened at one hospital.

A few months ago a group of mothers and my breastfeeding coalition organized an event to advocate for our area hospitals to become Baby Friendly.  It was a big success.  We can't claim all the credit for this, but there are now several hospitals in our region planning to seek the award.

The biggest hit of the event was Dr. Bobbi Phillip, pediatrician and Medical Director of The Birth Place at Boston Medical Center.  While there are 16,000 Baby Friendly Hospitals in the world, there are only around 75 in the U.S., and one in Massachusetts.  Dr. Phillip was a driving force in the successful effort to get the award for her hospital.

I was really happy to find a series of videos which are essentially the talk she gave at our event.  I'm putting two segments up in which she discusses the effort to improve breastfeeding rates at Boston Medical Center, but the whole talk is really worth watching.  You can hear about the amazing effects of changing breastfeeding policies at her hospital, and her take on what happened to breastfeeding in the last hundred years. 

Her conclusion, speaking for the medical community: "We own most of this problem...the problem lies with us.  And we have to look seriously at what's going on."

Send us a picture of a breastfeeding sticker in a public place, and be entered to win a $25 gift certificate!

Dara, Motherwear's buyer, recently returned from Ireland, where she saw this sticker at an ice cream shop.

This made me think that it would be fun to hold a contest in which you sent in pictures of 'breastfeeding welcome here' stickers. 

So, send me your pictures of breastfeeding stickers or signs posted at public places and establishments  - like shops, offices, parks, etc.  Try to get a shot of the place itself, if you can.  I'll post all of the pictures I receive, and will pick three runners up to receive our breastfeeding coalition's 'breastfeeding welcome here' sticker.

When you send a picture you'll be entered into the contest.  Send your picture by September 7th, 2009.  Winner will be picked by random.org and posted in the comments section.  U.S. addresses only, please.  Please note that by sending it in you give permission to have it posted on the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog. 

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Book review: Mommy Breastfeeds my Baby Brother

Expecting an addition to your family?  You might want to check out a new children's book, Mommy Breastfeeds my Baby Brother (Istoria House, 2009). 

This book teaches young children about breastfeeding by telling the story of Jenna, a little girl whose family welcomes a new baby.  Jenna asks questions about breastfeeding, and learns to adapt to the mother's divided attention, especially at feeding times.

The mother in the story wants Jenna to play quietly during feedings.  To make nursing times more positive for Jenna is a box of old and new toys, which they call "feeding time toys."  This makes the baby's frequent feedings less difficult for Jenna.

This book addresses a topic not covered in any detail in other children's books, and it does so in a positive and empathetic way.  A range of feelings is expressed, from curiosity to frustration and jealousy.  The illustrations are bright and pleasant.

Two notes for those considering buying the book:  1)  The story does not involve tandem nursing (there's an idea for another book!), and 2) the mother in the story is returning to work and using a breastpump - a situation which may or may not apply in your family.  This was the only part of the story which I didn't find realistic; the mother begins pumping to return to work only a few days after coming home from the hospital.

Overall, I think that this book is a fun and helpful tool to help an older sibling learn about breastfeeding.

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Have questions about nursing twins (or more)?

I'm planning a podcast interview with Karen Gromada, author of Mothering Multiples.  Do you have any questions for her about nursing twins (or more)?

If so, leave them in the comments section.  I'll ask as many as I can during the interview!

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

Study: Breastfeeding protects against premenopausal breast cancer in women with a family history.

Dr. Alison Steube, whom I interviewed for this podcast on formula gift bags, is co-author of a new study showing that breastfeeding offers some protection against breast cancer for premenopausal women with a family history. 

The study, to be published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found:

"Women who had a first-degree relative with breast cancer had a lower risk of developing the disease if they had ever breastfed than if they had never breastfed. The association did not appear to change based on duration of breastfeeding, whether breastfeeding was exclusive or whether the woman experienced amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) as a result. There was no association between breastfeeding and breast cancer among women without a family history.

Women who did not breastfeed but used medication to suppress breast milk production also appeared to have a lower risk of breast cancer than women who neither breastfed nor used lactation suppression. This association could be related to disordered involution, or a malfunction in the process by which mammary tissue returns to its pre-pregnant state caused by engorgement and inflammation, the authors note."

More posts on breast cancer and breastfeeding are here.  More on this study is here at the New York Times.

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