The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Motherwear model Sabrina on her nursing experience.

Today I'm happy to share a guest post by Sabrina, Motherwear model for the Summer line.  She's shown in these pictures with her daughter Alexia, 8 months.

What has your breastfeeding experience been like?

Breastfeeding has been a great experience for me, as I feel that not only am I providing for my little one, but it gives her extra sense of security.  I think it gives us a close bonding experience you can't get from feeding from a bottle.  I enjoy feeding my baby skin to skin.  It relaxes her, especially during bedtime. 

Breastfeeding in public was very challenging at first.  I was terribly shy and awkward.  However, after a few times I became super confident.  I realized that no one notices you breastfeeding if you don't make a fuss out of it.  I always use my wrap for privacy reasons, plus I notice that it helps my baby stay more focused.  

What is your favorite thing about nursing?

That I don't have to get up through the middle of the night to make up a bottle.  I just place my baby in a lying down position and nurse her.  Most of the time I fall asleep before she finishes.  It's a beautiful experience waking up to see your baby snuggled up next to you.  I also must add that nursing helped me to get my figure back real quick.  Every time I nursed I felt the pulling sensation in my belly.  That was a great incentive to keep going.

How do you make breastfeeding work given your work schedule?

I'm currently unemployed but when I'm booked for last minute photoshoots I have pumped milk stored for the carer.  In case I ever have to be away from my darling for more the 4-6 hours I carry my breast pump and a cooler bag.

Where have you gotten support and help with breastfeeding?

I attended breastfeeding classes, Lamaze class, and had a consultation with a lactation expert at Coney Island hospital.  I received great support, and I also had a book given to me by a friend for reference.

Is there any advice you could give other nursing moms based on your experience?

Never ever give up breastfeeding in the early stages.  If you feel that your baby is not getting enough milk count the amount of wet diapers s/he goes through.

One of my biggest worries while I was pregnant was little breast milk supply.  Hot showers or heat packs placed on the breasts encouraged let down before feeding.  Also don't get lazy with the pump.  Use it when your baby misses a feeding during the night.  Even pump right after feeding if you're still full. This will keep up the supply as your baby grows and feeds less often.

I occasionally take Indian herbal tablets called Fenugreek to encourage good milk supply, with my doctor's permission.  Nursing clothes, bras and wraps are a must especially when nursing in public.  It makes life easier, believe me.

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Our breastfeeding coalition in the news.

Our breastfeeding coalition, which meets at Motherwear, has been making the local news a lot recently.  Here are some articles that showcase things we're doing:

Going Baby Friendly, Valley Advocate

A Victory for Nursing Moms and Babies, Valley Advocate

Breastfeeding Welcome, Pioneer Valley Parent

Milk Bank supplies 'the perfect food:' Breastfeeding task force brings critical resource to Pioneer Vallley, Valley Kids

There was also a great news segment about the breast cancer research project I'm working on.

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Now we are six, and still taking things quite literally.

This weekend:

Me:  "How was your swimming lesson?  Just give me one word."
My son:  "I."

(I had to explain to him why this was funny, after I stopped laughing.)

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Donate breastmilk for breast cancer research.

Some of you probably remember posts I wrote last Fall about a research project I'm involved with at the University of Massachusetts.  (That project is ongoing, and if you are nursing and have had, or are expecting to have, a biopsy, please see the study website for information on how to participate.)

The same professor, Dr. Kathleen Arcaro (shown to the right at a visit to my breastfeeding group), is now recruiting for a separate, though related study. 

This study, funded by the Avon Foundation, involves research on the breastmilk of mothers who have nursed over time.  Dr. Arcaro is examining the DNA of these mothers' milk to identify changes in the functioning of genes in breast epithelial cells.  This will help to identify which genes' functions are being altered (or not altered) over time.  The future of cancer therapy is thought to lie in a field called "epigenetics," (great video about it here) which involves the restoration of normal DNA functioning, so understanding which genes are involved in the development of breast cancer is key.

This time, we're looking for mothers who:

• Are in our area (Western Massachusetts, but anywhere within reasonable driving distance to our area may be okay)
• Had and nursed a baby in your mid-20's
• Are now in your mid 30's or older, and are nursing or pumping
• Willing to provide a milk sample. 

Participants also fill out a questionnaire, and receive $25 in thanks.  If that sounds like you, please email me.  More information is available at Dr. Arcaro's website.

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I'm feeling proud today.

A while back some members of the group Moms Rising of the Pioneer Valley (a local group affiliated with the national Moms Rising organization) asked me what they could do to try to improve support for breastfeeding moms in our area.  I told them about the UNICEF/WHO Baby Friendly initiative.  They were immediately interested. 

Some background:  Baby Friendly is an award, established in 1990 by UNICEF and the WHO, which earned is earned by hospitals which meet an evidence-based standards of good breastfeeding care.  They follow the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, which means that they do thinks like not routinely supplement or give pacifiers to breastfeeding babies, training nurses and doctors on how to help mothers breastfeed, and have babies 'room-in' with mothers.  What happens when you do these things?  More mothers breastfeed exclusively.

There are around 16,000 Baby Friendly hospitals in the world.  There are about 75 in the U.S.  There is one in Massachusetts.

So today, the Moms Rising group, along with my breastfeeding coalition, held an event for all of the hospitals in Western Massachusetts.  We had representatives of 8 hospitals there, along with a lot of moms, doulas, and WIC staff.  We had presentations by Baby Friendly USA, Boston Medical Center (the one Baby Friendly Hospital in Massachusetts), and stories written by moms.  Each participant got a 20 page packet of stories written by local moms about their breastfeeding experiences, and each table had table tents with quotes from those stories. 

Why am I feeling proud of this?  Usually the initiative to go Baby Friendly comes from within a hospital.  But this effort is led by moms who want better breastfeeding care.  I asked the representative of Baby Friendly USA if mothers in a community have ever organized to push hospitals to become Baby Friendly and she said she thinks that this is a first. 

I think that's something to be proud of.

Here's an article on the event from our local independent newspaper. 

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What I learned at the milk banking conference.

A few weeks ago I spent the day at the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England's first annual conference.  It was a great event, with people from all over New England and many good presentations on the use of donor milk.

The sponsoring milk bank (you may remember from a flurry of posts I wrote about the Ideablob contest last year) is currently dispensing milk from the Mothers' Milk Bank of Ohio, and expects to be processing milk later this year for NICUs all over our region.  Currently, the nearest milk banks to our area are in Ohio or North Carolina. 

The night before the conference some of us gathered to learn more about how to open a donor breastmilk "depot," where approved donors can drop off their milk to be stored until it's shipped to the milk bank.  Our local breastfeeding coalition has been working to open a depot at a pediatric practice where I work.

The most striking things to me about the presentations at the conference were: 1) how incredibly powerful donor milk can be in preventing serious, life-threatening conditions like necrotilizing enterocolitis (NEC) and late onset sepsis, and 2) how astonishing it is that insurance companies often don't pay for it.  One neonatologist talked about the hours she spends faxing studies to insurance companies and arguing over the phone to try to get donor milk covered for her patients.  

You may have heard that pasteurized donor milk can cost $3.00 to $4.50 an ounce.  That might sound like a lot.  But consider that a tiny preemie who is primarily receiving her mother's own milk may need a supplement of only a few ounces a day.  Then compare that to the estimated $350,000 cost of surgically treating NEC.  That number doesn't even start to take into account the lifelong medical costs from that episode of NEC.  

I'm not going to pretend to understand how insurance companies look at something like this, but doesn't it seem worth it to pay for donor milk?

The most inspiring thing about the conference was the number of people - neonatologists in particular - who are dedicated to making donor milk part of the standard of care for tiny preterm babies.  People have been at this for a long time, but I still felt like I was at the birth of something big - a moment to look back on when donor milk is as accepted as any other therapy for vulnerable babies.  

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.

Miss any of these podcasts?

A couple of years ago, when Motherwear asked me to create podcasts for the blog, I almost said no.  I felt nervous about doing recordings, and wasn't sure what people would want to hear.

The president of Motherwear had me meet with the owners of a big yarn store in our area, who do a weekly radio show about knitting.  Their show is produced as a podcast and is very popular.  I went with them to the radio station to watch them record it.  It actually looked like fun, and I committed to giving it a try. 

The funny thing is that I really enjoy the process of putting these podcasts together.  I like reading the books, coming up with questions, and talking with authors.  I've had a chance to talk with people I might never have contacted.

Can you guess which one is the most frequently downloaded from the iTunes store?  A breastfeeding welcome here sticker goes to the first person to guess correctly (leave your guess as a comment).  And if you're feeling friendly, please go to our iTunes store and write a review! 

• Breastfeeding and early sexual abuse, with Penny Simkin
• African American moms and breastfeeding, with Kathi Barber
• How do other mammals do it? With Dia Michels
• What's the problem with those formula company bags? With Alison Stuebe
• Starting solid foods, with Ellyn Satter
• Breastfeeding in the movies, with Sarah Rubenstein Gillis
• Low milk supply: Could it be your hormones? With Lisa Marasco
• So, you want to work in breastfeeding support (just me)
  
• Nursing in public and the law, with Jake Marcus
• Making more milk, with Diana West
• Hathor the Cow Goddess, with Heather Cushman-Dowdee
• Postpartum depression and breastfeeding, with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett
• MilkShare, with Kelly Faulkner
• The Milk Memos, with Cate Colburn-Smith

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Imagine pumping at work with one of these things.

Last Friday my breastfeeding coalition sponsored a training run by Medela for local WIC agencies and other people involved in breastfeeding support.  We had about 20 WIC and other breastfeeding support people there, plus three babies!

The training was on using pumps to sustain breastfeeding.  Our coalition just donated three hospital grade pumps to our local WIC offices, so this training opportunity was well timed.

For me, the best part of the morning was checking out the many different pumps the trainer brought. 

There were hospital grade pumps (the kind you'd use in the hospital or to increase milk supply), frequent use pumps for working mothers, and manual and basic electric pumps for occasional pumping.

But the most interesting for me were the older manual pumps.  I'd heard of the 'bicycle horn' pumps (to the right) but never seen one.  Note that the 'reservoir' where the milk collects holds about 1/4 of an ounce, so it would have to be emptied pretty frequently.  And there's nothing to prevent milk from going back into the bulb part of the pump, which would be almost impossible to wash.

Don't they look like those bulb syringes for babies' noses?  Can you imagine trying to pump at work with one of these things?  Most mothers would probably have done much better with hand expression.

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.

January's Carnival of Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding goals.

Welcome to this month's Carnival of Breastfeeding!  This month's theme is breastfeeding goals.  Be sure to check out what other bloggers have to say on this topic at the bottom of this post.

I have a whole lot of breastfeeding goals for this year.  Some of them are:

Finish Spanish for Breastfeeding Support.  Last week my co-author and I finished a final draft of a book which will help breastfeeding support people communicate with mothers in Spanish.  It should be out by this summer, and I'm very excited to have reached this stage.  I'm setting up a website for the book, which will have a 'how do I say this?' forum, extra exercises, and links to breastfeeding resources in Spanish.  Here are a few audio clips from when we were recording the audio portion.

Recruit mothers for a breastfeeding/biopsy study.  As I've mentioned before, I'm helping Dr. Kathleen Arcaro at the University of Massachusetts recruit mothers for an important study on breast cancer.  If you know of a nursing mother who has recently had, or expecting to have, a biopsy, please ask them to contact me.  I've set up a website for this and other studies using breastmilk.

Distribute pumps to WIC.  As a result of some fundraising, my breastfeeding coalition recently purchased three pumps for area WIC offices.  They'll loan them out to mothers who might not otherwise be able to afford to rent one.

Hold a breastpump training.  My breastfeeding coalition is also planning to hold a training on breastpumps conducted by Medela in March.  Email me if you'd like more information (use link on sidebar).

Get the word out about Massachusetts' new nursing in public law.  I recently had 500 business cards printed with sections of our new law on nursing in public.  Our coalition will distribute them, and I'll be trying to think of other ways to raise awareness of the new law.

Help get pumping rooms set up at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  For a while a group has been working on setting up pumping rooms at UMass.  So far there is one, newly designated room, and we're hoping for many more.  A list of other campus lactation programs is here. 

Get trained to accept breastmilk donations.  Our breastfeeding coalition has gotten a freezer set up to accept breastmilk donations (see thrilling picture to the left), and as soon as we get trained in how to operate our 'milk depot,' we'll start to receive and ship approved donors' milk to the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England.

Do more podcasts.  You gave me some great ideas for podcast topics last year, and I'm planning on doing them on tandem nursing, extended breastfeeding, sexual abuse and breastfeeding, and breastfeeding and African American moms.

And finally, cut back a little!  I'll be turning over the leadership of our coalition, as well as the responsibility of the newsletter for the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England.  Here's the current newsletter.

Check out these posts from other bloggers participating in this months' carnival (updated throughout the day):

• Zen Mommy's 2009 breastfeeding resolutions
• Secrets of Orual's breastfeeding goals
  
• Hobo Mama's breastfeeding resolutions
• Breastfeeding 1-2-3 on the goal of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months
  
• Blacktating's breastfeeding goals
  
• Milk Act's breastfeeding goals
• Beautiful Letdown's breastfeeding goals
• Mama Knows Breast's breastfeeding goals
  
• Breastfeeding Mums breastfeeding goals
  

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.

Motherwear model Glynnis on her nursing experience.

Today I'm happy to share some thoughts from Motherwear model Glynnis on her breastfeeding experience.  Everyone at Motherwear fell in love with her baby Nikolas.  They say he was in a happy mood throughout the shoot, and even woke up from a nap with a smile!

What has your breastfeeding experience been like?

Truly an amazing experience.  One that I was not expecting, actually...I only planned to do it for 6 months but ended up going a whole year.

What is your favorite thing about nursing?

There were so many things, Tanya, that I can't just tell you one... I loved the special bond that it gave me and my little one.  Also, just knowing that I was doing something really beneficial for my baby gave me such a sense of accomplishment and pride. Providing him all the natural immunizations and antibodies for his little body made me feel great.  For me breastfeeding is the most natural thing and I wa s so blessed to have been able to do it from the very first day.  What could be better than nourishing and loving him at the same time?? Not to mention, I was able to shed twenty pounds in a week and 1/2!! It really does help to shrink your uterus and get everything back to normal pre-pregnancy size.

How do you make breastfeeding work given your work schedule?

That was a challenge, but I was up for it.  I went back to work 3 months after Nikolas was born.  I had two shoots in two different cities.  To prepare for the trip, I pumped religiously; labeled and stored the milk in the freezer in advance.  Also, we began giving him breast milk from the bottle right away so that my husband could participate in the feedings.  I'm sure introducing him to it early helped a lot because Nikolas got accustomed to drinking from the bottle when I was away.  Of course I always pack my deluxe electric pump for every trip.  The hotels are always very accommodating and don't mind freezing my ice pack.That way I can pump and store the milk for easy and safe transit home to baby...

Who were your sources of support for breastfeeding?

Mostly friends and family, and other mothers on a mommy group on babyfit.com

Is there any advice you can offer other mothers based on your experience?

Every woman is different so don't beat your self up if you are unwilling or not able to do it...but
I say that you should always TRY to breastfeed as it is the most natural thing for a mother to do.  Sure at first it does take some getting used to and some women leak and find it messy or painful.  I know it sounds crazy but I used cabbage leaves in between feedings and frozen cranberries in ziplocks on each breast for the first two weeks.  It really helped with the soreness and then one day it just stopped hurting and became a really great bonding experience for me and my son...

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