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All About Breastfeeding

Lori Jill Isenstadt from All About Breastfeeding is on a mission to normalize breastfeeding..... all around the world. Learn from mothers who are actively breastfeeding, sharing their personal stories of breastfeeding with ease and babies who just know exactly what to do. Hear intimate stories from mothers about their struggles and pain with breastfeeding. Everyday moms sharing extraordinary stories of what life was like behind their breastfeeding doors. Get help with common concerns such as low milk supply, oversupply, babies who are tongue and lip tied, premature babies, sick babies who are breastfeeding as well as babies who have had surgeries such as heart and cleft surgeries. Book authors and physicians who are huge breastfeeding supporters share their expertise as they all have a common interest. To normalize breastfeeding. Stories about mothering, parenting, pregnancy and postpartum are shared too.
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Now displaying: Page 19
Feb 15, 2016
Lori tells Nancy that she is a huge fan of her, why she loves her books and that she  really enjoys her approach to breastfeeding and the breastfeeding mother.  Nancy gives us a little info about herself and what life was like in the family she grew up in.  She was the oldest child and the only girl, with two younger brothers.  Grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, right on the cusp of a very large societal change in the 60s and 70s.  Her goal was to become an elementary school teacher.  In those days  womens lib was beginning to heat up and prior to this most women were going to be a mother who stayed home or a school teacher or a nurse. Nancy arrived at college right around the time that protests were happening and  it just felt like everything exploded and changed overnight.  My first year in the dorms was the last year they had curfews.  I came to school ready to wear my matching outfits only to find that suddenly everyone was wearing jeans. 
 
Her major was elementary education.  Nancy dropped out after 2 years of college, which was actually the thing to do in those days.  It took her a while to try and figure out what she wanted to do and it only came to her after she had her first child when she was 29 years old.  She states that  all of a sudden she knew what her mission in life was going to be and of course it related to breastfeeding.  She became a LLLL in 1982 as a volunteer.  It did become my passion and it did become my career.Nancy became Board Certified in 1991 and worked hard building her private lactation consulting practice in Chicago.  Since that time, she has worked for a major breast pump company and has become an International Speaker, sharing her love and knowledge of breastfeeding to professionals in the field as well as the every day mother. 
 
During this interview, Nancy takes us on a journey as she talks about her own early experiences with breastfeeding, having a breast implant when she was 20 and discovering something very interesting years later, about what happened to that implant.  Nancy talks about the changing world we live in with mothers returning to work much earlier than they did 20 years ago, with more returning to work before there baby is 6 weeks old.  This brings with it quite a bit of challenges as the mom struggles to figure out how to pump and store enough milk for her baby and how to maintain a good supply while she is working.
 
Nancy gives some great information on breastmilk storage capacity and the mothers "magic number."  She also talks about the importance of building a relationship, bonding with your baby.  We talked about the mindset of mothers if they are struggling to make enough milk for their baby.  Nancy tells us why it is so important to have a different mindset then thinking that if you can't make enough milk for your baby, then why bother at all. There is a lot to listen to and much to learn from this interview. 
 
 
 

 

Feb 12, 2016

There are some mothers who will need to or who chose to exclusively pump for their babies. In this show, Lori talks about hospital grade pumps and single user pumps. She explains why the hospital grade pump is the first choice for EP moms. Lori discussed what moms need to do so they can ensure a good milk supply and be comfortable while doing so. There are choices to be made and Lori shares some ideas and gives some great tips on how to make EP as easy as you possible can.

 

Feb 8, 2016

Heather grew up in Northern Indiana in the Southbend area. She lived with her parents and younger sister. Heather
describes herself as a child of the 70s and her parents were hippies from the 60's. With her hippie parents she ate organic
food from their garden and only had processed foods when she went to her aunts house, which she loved doing. There she could
get white bread and potato chips! Her parents were into recycling and organic gardening and loved nature. She planned on
becoming a teacher and never would have guessed that she would become a Special Agent and work undercover narcotics.

Heather went into premature labor with her first baby and at 27 weeks was put on bedrest and kept her baby "cookin" until 31
1/1 weeks. She was prepared for having a small baby, who would probably need special care in the nursery, however, he was
whisked away to the nursery but they quickly realized he was a healthy almost 5 pound baby who did not need any help
breathing. So he was brought back to her room. She did have great difficulty breastfeeding and the Lactation Consultants at
the hospital explained to her the specific issues premature babies had with breastfeeding. Heather feels she had lots of
great support from her family, from the hospital Lactation Consultant that she saw numerous times, to the regular
Breastfeeding support groups she attended, as well as her pediatrician.

Heather shares with us her struggles and how she tried real hard for 3 months to make breastfeeding work. She had a baby that
cried frequently and ultimately found out that he had some health issues with his intestines which was probably at least one
of the reasons for the frequent crying. It was felt that perhaps there was something in her breastmilk that was bothering her
baby, so she was put on an elimination diet, however, this did not help. She tried different formulas and ultimately would up
using a very expensive hypo allergenic formula that he seemed to do well with. She combined pumping and formula went she
returned to work, however, finding the time to pump during her working hours, did not work out at all and she soon
discontinued pumping. She recognizes that some workplaces are better about giving their employees time and place to pump,
however, this was not available to her at the time.

Heather talks about what it was like returning to work with a new baby and why she decided to leave her position with NCIS and
founded her own business so she could be home with her kids. She does say that most people in her life thought she was pretty
insane to leave a great job with good benefits. However, she felt that it was the right thing to do for herself and her
family. She spent time trying to figure out exactly what she could do and like most entrepreneurs, she took what she has
learned and turned that into a business model and is very happy with what she has accomplished so far.

Feb 1, 2016

Dawn talks to us about the projects that she is working on. Her favorite topic and her Board Certification is addiction medicine. Her biggest interest is in alcoholism, drug addiction and recovery in all populations including pregnant and breastfeeding and women. Written two books about addiction and recovery, and are both available on Amazon or on her website on docdawn.com Her first book is about missionary medicine. Dawn and her husband have both done short term missionary work all over the world and she wrote a book about that.

We learn a lot from Dawn during this interview. She talks about prescription drugs and street drugs, marijuana use and alcohol us in women during their pregnancy and postpartum years. I am so glad that she was able to answer some very important questions that I had and I just know that you will find this part of her interview quite fascinating. If this topic is of interest to you and you are in healthcare, please know that Dawn is available to consult with and she also is a very experienced speaker on the subject of Drug Addicition and welcomes your request to speak at your facility.

 

 

Jan 30, 2016

Dawn Obrecht, MD is a frequent speaker on addiction and recovery to physicians and other interest groups. She has published 3 books. Doc Dawn lives in Colorado with her husband, Eric. She has 6 grandchildren and 2 wonderful daughters and son-in laws.

Dawn grew up in Baltimore and talks about her difficult childhood growing up in an alcoholic household. While she knows that her parents did love her and they did take care of her and her brother, this experience certainly had an impact on her pre-teen and teen years. She knew early on that she wanted to become a Dr. and is grateful that her parents supported her in this decision. Dawn tells us of her early years when she left home to go to school, as well as her early years of combining parenting and running a growing family practice.

We hear Dawn talk about her feelings of being a grandmother to 6 beautiful grandchildren and how she has navigated through this role and has a purposeful and thoughtful relationship with her adult daughters.
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<p>Quote - "He had the idea that human milk might boost his immune system. So he came to me as a friend and asked if I would prescribe it. He needed someone to prescribe it. He could not just go to the milk bank and buy it and apparently his oncologist would not prescribe it.

Jan 27, 2016

 Lori says her days are never the same, never boring, always begins with a sense of wonder.She wonders if her day going to be busy or slow.  Is it going to be home visits or office visits?In this show, Lori shares the story  of one of the moms she saw on a particular day. Breastfeeding is not always easy for some mothers.  It can be very challenging for some and Quite painful for others. Most of the time there are answers and the breastfeeding challenges  Can be fixed.  For some mothers, the challenges are great or medical issues makes it Impossible for them to breastfeed in the way or the length of time they had intended.  Listen as Lori shares the details of one mothers breastfeeding story.

Jan 21, 2016
Abby felt that she had a fairly typical upbringing and remembers her childhood fondly.  Her family moved to Amsterdam when she was 15 years old and lived there until she was an adult.   This  move made her family a little more relaxed as Europe as a whole seems to be much more relaxed.  The atmosphere in  Amsterdam is family centered and very small townish.   She moved back to the United States and when she became pregnant, she assumed she was going to go back to work once her maternity leave was over.   She was a self-proclaimed  workaholic working with teenagers in a  high stress program with kids who struggled with mental illness and violent behavior. This was her identity and she figured her husband was probably going to stay home.  She was going to run her house like a residential community just like at work... but  she said: "they handed me Jack and I am like -   what am I suppose to do with this?  I am totally prepared to deal with a violent teenager and now they have handed me this newborn and I was not sure what to do with him.  I crumbled."  Staying at home, separated from her work, she began to realize just  how stressful her job had been.  She realized that this is something she did not want to bring home to her children.  Once home from the hospital, she began struggling with  breastfeeding issues.  Abby says that she does not know exactly why she wanted to Breastfeed so badly  and I doesn't know  why she tried so hard, but she did.  She talks about how she fought so hard for it and just doesn't know where this intensity came from. Abby said that she felt like she  was awake for like 3 months doing research and trying to figure it out.  She soon got into this great Breastfeeding place and then thought:  " I am so not into going back to work and said I needed to stay home." 

 

Jan 18, 2016

This show is all about steps you can take ahead of time to ensure a calm and peaceful household for when you have your newborn.
I am going to cover a small portion of my Ebook - The Guide to breastfeeding your newborn the first few days, and you can go to allaboutbreastfeeding.biz/guide and download the rest of the Ebook for the rest of the information This will be available for FREE until the end of January 2016. I have added much more and in February 2016, this will be available on the website as a booklet.

There is not a lack of information available about what you need to do to prepare for breastfeeding. Books, classes and items to purchase. I love talking about all this too. However, for now I would like to talk about some ideas, which are practical tips, and suggestions that are not necessarily shared. Some people think this is the boring stuff and just want to know what it is they should buy to prepare for your breastfeeding experience. I am here to say that you can have all the stuff in the world. You can have all the pretty things in pretty packages, just waiting to open up once you begin breastfeeding. However, there are also some things that you will be appreciative that someone told you ahead of time. I feel good to know that I am planting those seeds and having you think about some of this boring stuff. and believe me... you need to hear this

Jan 15, 2016

Courtney talks about her journey to become a massage therapist. Her dream job was being involved in music as a career. However, after a few car accidents, she began to pursue avenues for alternative healing and found her way to massage school. She always knew that she wanted to be a mom and is the proud mother of a beautiful 2 1/2 year old son, named Joshua. Courtney knows that her mother did breastfeed her and her siblings. She credits her mother for setting a good example about breastfeeding as well as credits herself for learning about the health benefits for mom and baby when you breastfeed. Courtney had a cesarean section and a hospital stay of 4 days. Breastfeeding was okay in the hospital, but her nipples cracked and bled soon after coming home. She stuck with it for a while because she had been told that breastfeeding hurts in the beginning and she kept trying to push through the pain. Her midwives did tell her that it was not normal to be in such a high degree of pain and did refer her for help with breastfeeding, however, Courtney just felt that if she could just give it a little longer, she would begin to heal. By the
time she came in for help, she had significant nipple trauma and tissue erosion.

Jan 12, 2016

Mary starts off by explaining to us how she came up with the name for her business. It all has to do with, believe it or not, how tall she is compared to the rest of Rhode Island. Mary is a middle child. Her mom breastfed all 3 children and at age 40 was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a mastectomy and is doing well. She had a loving childhood and tells us that having an older sister who is severely mentally and physically handicapped has taught her to be a strong person and to be grateful for every experience she has and to be a patient person. Mary reveals that she met her husband on match.com back in the days when it was kind of “racy.” She knew as a youngster that she would always want to be around kids and music. She is grateful that she has built her career around her family and music and what makes her happy each day. Mary shares with us that she had a very easy time with breastfeeding from the beginning with her baby crawling up to the breast right after birth and she says that it was one of the coolest things that ever happened to her. She realized she had an abundant supply, so much milk that it was spraying all over the place. This actually became a problem for her because it caused her breast pain and the need to pump frequently. Her lactation consultant suggested a care plan to lower her supply so her son could have more comfortable feedings. She went through dealing with oversupply issues and then colic and dealt with it, but realizes now that she was not taking good care of herself and she just did not know any different. She felt this is what life was like with a newborn. Mary was quite transparent and talked about suffering from postpartum depression, which was diagnosed at about 1 year postpartum. Her postpartum reaction was severe and she needed an inpatient program to recover and take care of herself. Listen to her story as she shares from the heart as she had to make some very hard choices. Mary tells us about how she got into blogging and podcasting. She started blogging because she wanted to share stories about her role as a parent and have fun with it. She shares the microphone with her husband Blake on Parentpodcast where she talks about topics that she wanted to learn more information about.

Jan 8, 2016

In a previous show # 21,Lori talks about the fact that breastfeeding should not be painful. She talks about this a lot in her daily work. It is her working mantra:   If breastfeeding is hurting on Day 1, something is not right. If breastfeeding is hurting on Day 2, something is not right. And if breastfeeding is hurting on Day 3, something is definitely not right and I urge you to seek professional help right away.  This is her daily mantra to mothers, she says it many times a week.  Lori has  it on her website.  What Lori really would like to do is put it on every billboard, along every highway, in every town.  What Lori would like to do is put this mantra on her back car window shield.  She would like for this to be handed out to every mother in every childbirth education and breastfeeding class. When you enter the halls of the maternity unit or your birthing center or on the literature that your OBs and midwives give you, it would be great if this was  in big bold letters:    “Breastfeeding is not suppose to hurt“.   Her family hears her say this ad nauseum  and she knows they are bored of hearing her say it.  The BIG problem is, that 30 years later, Lori continues to meet with moms on a regular basis and it continues to astound her how frequently mothers are given the wrong information.  Download this episode to hear the full show.

Jan 2, 2016

Stephani is the mother of 2 daughters ages, 2 1/2 and 7 1/2. She works as a web accessibility consultant,is a budding entrepreneur and has her own pod cast, The Audacious Life. She was 1 of three children, her parents divorced when she was less than 2 years old. This was in the 70's and her mom spent time living in a somewhat alternative lifestyle so this meant that she spent her earlier years growing up in a beautiful Christian commune. As a young adult, Stephanie graduated from Emerson. She was drawn to the internet and studied New Media and Film and soon became employed with MIT. She started creating educational products for online learning that corresponds with programming at PBS. She is currently building an audience and interviewing great speakers for her newest endeavor a podcast called The Audacious Life.

Stephani had two very different breastfeeding experiences and shares with us how they were different. She learned so much from her experiences with her first baby, that she felt much better prepared with her second baby. Learning how to be assertive and asking for help and being prepared helped her have an easier experience with her second baby. She was told her position and latch were great with her first baby and yet when she came home, everything seemed to fall apart. Latching was difficult, and her baby was not gaining well. She remembered feeling like a failure as a mother and a woman. Stephani was glad that she persevered, met with another lactation consultant and ended up being quiet successful and breastfed her for over 20 months.

Dec 28, 2015

Lori brings up some stuff that many people don't like to talk about. Lori talks about it because she wants you to be prepared in the event you have a hard time with early breastfeeding. You will know you are not alone and you will know the importance of early intervention.

Lori talks about her breastfeeding mantra: "It is not suppose to hurt." If it does, get help. There is no need to suffer for days while you are waiting for it to get better. There are some things that you do want to wait it out and see if it gets better. Breastfeeding is not one of them. What motivates Lori? The facts! Listen as she shares with you the details about breastfeeding initiation in our country and how this changes as the weeks and months go on after birth and how this impacts breastfeeding. Lori talks about how there is no reason why mothers should be suffering with painful breasts and nipples when breastfeeding. If trauma has been created, please get help ASAP to stop from getting worse. There are many barriers to breastfeeding, particularly when it comes to returning to work. Please check out the below links from the World Health Organization and the Infographs they provide. You may get some ideas from this info and you might want to discuss these with your employer. 

Dec 26, 2015

Jessica is from New Jersey. She always had an interest in womens issue and social justice issues. She was a Peace Corp volunteer, helped start up and franchise a non-profit organization, has her MBA, led her to Tom’s Shoes and built and ran the One for One program. She was the first woman to have a baby in the job. Her kids are now 5 and 2 years old now. There was so much to know about being a breastfeeding mom and pumping and returning to work and coordinating it all. She likes solving problems and the information she desperately needed, she just could not find. So, she decided to be the one to write the book she could not find. My first big trip once I returned to work was taking a trip to Nepal, without my son. I learned a lot of practical tips along the way. Like what to do when you are in a hotel room and they tell you they don’t have another refrigerator. Well, you lie! Tell them it is a medical need because when you ask nicely it is easy for them to turn you down. So you lie a little. And a medical need is respected and all of a sudden you will get a refrigerator.

Jessica felt a lot of pressure that was put on her by others to exclusively breastfeed her baby, and also the pressures she put on herself. She became quite manic and this greatly affected her maternity leave. She sought help and was prescribed a pill which caused her a really bad reaction. She describes her maternity leave as a really horrible time for her as her anxiety and panic attacks escalated. Jessica reached out to a lactation consultant and told her she was having major problems, high anxiety and unfortunately this lactation consultant did not do her justice at all. She made her feel bad by saying that she needed to keep breastfeeding to get her son past the flu months. Jessica continued to do so, but surely put her mental health at a major risk. Jessica talks about what she did during her next pregnancy to prepare for her next pp experience. She basically told her husband and a few friends that they were in charge of her mental health because she felt she could not think clearly and objectively during that time period. Very smart on her part. Jessica gives some great tips on how to approach your boss or manager or HR person regarding your need to pump.

Dec 24, 2015

Here are a few of my favorite things:

My Brest friend pillow:
Yes, there are lots of breastfeeding pillows on the market. Not all pillows work well for all mothers. I find that My Brest Friend works well for a nice amount of woman.
Selling points:
The adjustable strap with a release clip that is silent so you don’t wake up a sleeping baby when you want to remove the pillow. I like the firm, flatt front cushion. When you strap on the pillow, you have this nice firm surface and it stays put. There is no gap between you and your baby, which is what I find, happens a lot with other pillows. It wraps around your body, you can make it nice and snug and it provides good back support, which is also something that is sorely missing with many pillows. https://www.mybrestfriend.com/

Babywearing….
f any kind slings and wraps and front and back structured carriers. It is one of my favorite ways for moms and dads and caregivers to spend quality time with their baby particularly when holding them for an extended period of time.

1. You will notice that many baby love to be held,,, even when they are well fed and burped and with a fresh diaper. They will still fuss when you put them down. Why? Because they have had a steady supply of rocking and soothing sounds of mom’s heartbeat in utero. Now on the outside, they crave touch, smell, rhythm, rocking, soothing voice, just the right temperature and babywearing provides all this for baby. On the adult side of things, it can be pretty tiring on your back and neck and arm muscles to hold a baby, without support for long periods of time. Wrap your baby around you and you have solved many problems.

Boba wrap is one of my faves for first time moms. It looks complicated, but it is easy to figure out. After about the 10th practice session, you will be good at it. So, don’t be scared when you look at this long piece of material and think: how am I going to figure this out? I love the Boba Wrap particularly for newbies at babywearing. You can wear a baby from 5 to 30 pounds in the Boba Wrap. It is nice and comfy for mom and baby, rolls up in a bunch, very portable and it is priced right with some really nice solide colors. Don’t want to spend too much or too complicated with first time moms.

Skin to Skin: This is a fabulous way to love, nurture and connect with newborns and anyone can do it and it cost nothing. Premature babies greatly benefit with Kangaroo care where their parents wear their babies for several hours each day. Research has shown that when you tuck a baby in skin to skin, upright, they respond really well. Their breathing is better regulated, it improves oxygen levels, they sleep better, gain weight quicker, cry less, quicker to go home. We now have numerous well researched studies that show how bneficial the practice of STS is to health premature babies, which is why many hospitals encourage parents to spend time with their babies STS. Your baby does not have to have been born early to benefit from skin to skin. Previous it was thought that only premature babies benefited from STS, but now the research backs up what parents have intuitively know for years. STS contact for healthy newborns is beneficial to their physical and emotional regular at the time of birth. For millions of years mothers have kept their babies safely tucked in with them after birth. It is only in the last 100 years or so that mothers and babies have been separated.

When I teach BF classes, I am like a pain in the tush as parents have to hear me say some of the same things over and over. One of them is,,, keep the baby with the mommy, keep the baby with the mommy. If there is no medical reason to separate mom and baby, just don’t. Your baby is born, tuck your baby in with your, keep nice and warm with blanket wrapped around both of you. This helps to regulate their breathing, temperature, sleep, and helps that baby is right there when he/she begins to cue for breastfeeding. Bathing and clothing and putting on hats and swaddling babies and passing them around to family members does not help with early breastfeeding… so this is why STS is one of my favorite things. And if mom is unable to provide STS, then Dad or another close family member can.

Books for Breastfeeding: I have quite a few favorites and will talk about some of the others in future shows. I am choosing these first two as they are my favorites for helping moms prepare for a good start with breastfeeding. They cover a lot, in an easy to read fashion, without being technical and too many pages. I want you to be able to pick up a book and not be overwhelmed.

BFMade Simple – Nancy Mohrbacher – Great book, practical advise on getting started with breastfeding, easy to read and does cover some of the not so popular challenges that mothers have in the early days and on through weaning problems.

The Ultimate Book of Breastfeeding Answers – by Dr. Jack Newman and Teresa Pitman – I list this as one of my favorite books because it is filled with practical advise about breastfeeding and provides solutions for common problems that may arise for the new mother. One of the reasons I like this book is because it does not just tell you what you should do, it explains the reason behind the advice. There are lots of misinformation and myths circulating out there in cyberspace and Dr. Jack Newman spends time making sure the reader understands what is true and what you need to pay attention to and what you should ignore. Of course, one might say that I am plugging these two books because they have said yes to being a guest on my show. Perhaps, but it is really the other way around. It is because I love their books and respect their work so highly, that I reached out to them and asked them to be a guest. Don’t worry, I will let you know when their shows are going to be released.

Mother Support Groups: If you know me, you will know that I am a huge fan of Mothers Support Groups. Mothering is one of the hardest things most of us will ever do in our lives. I have asked mothers all over the world, who are in many different professions, and no matter how hard their paying job is, they will all say that Mothering is one of the most important jobs they will ever do in their lifetime and it is one of the most hardest jobs they will ever do in their lifetime. Mothers groups provides support, information, friendship and a safe place to go and talk about your stuff.

On a National level, listeners of All About Breastfeeding already know that Mom-mentum is my favorite organization that offers Mothers groups. You have heard me talk about Mom-mentum on many of my shows. My mission is to help support this organization and help them grow more Mother Centers around the country. On a local level, with a little bit of research you can find a mothers group that best fits your needs. Breastfeeding mothers groups meet regularly with La Leche League and in your local hospital or birthing centers. Groups like Mom-mentum that are mother centered, not only for BF mothers, can often be found in your community as well. Check out your local library and hospital for what they offer.

Online Virtual Breastfeeding Mothers Group, I have the perfect solution for moms who cannot make it out of the house to attend a group. Perhaps you live in an area where you just cannot find a group., or realistically it is just too far to drive, or you just want the convenience of not having to leave the house, you can join the All About Breastfeeding Online Virtual Breastfeeding Mothers Group, which is specifically for pregnant woman who are planning on breastfeeding and mothers who are in the early months of breastfeeding. Detailed information can be found at allaboutbreastfeeding.biz/support

PSI – Postpartum Support International was founded in 1987 by Jane Honikman in Santa Barbara, CA. The purpose of the organization is to increase awareness among public and professional communities about the emotional changes that women experience during pregnancy and postpartum. This organization and their volunteers really cares about the emotional health of all mothers and have systems and information in place so that you can get the help you need. PSI has volunteer coordinaters all over the US and 36 other countries. There is a free helpline, a membership directory, and lots of resources and education.

This organization provides help during your pregnancy months and your postpartum period. They let you know you are not alone and they take action to help you, get the help you need if you feel like you are in a state of crisis. I have facilitated several hundred mothers groups and am currently interviewing mom in this podcast. If you are a steady listener, you will note that one of the most common themes mothers express are the very strong feelings and emotions they go through during the pp period, which is not just a few weeks after the birth, but up to a whole year later.

Some it is feelings of sadness, lots of crying, some depression and others it is major anxiety, wanting to not eat or having problems sleeping and it is interfering with their joy of new motherhood and some moms have expressed the extreme side of ppd which has caused them extreme highs and lows and the need for medical intervention. Most talk about not getting help because either they or there partner of family member had no idea what was g oing on, or they secretly knew, but did not address it with anyone because of the perceived stigma surrounding this. I want you to know that you are not alone and there is help.

Happier a podcast by Gretchin Rubin : I first got turned on to Gretchen Rubin when I read her book, The Happiness Project. It is a great book and one I found very helpful. The beginning was a good read, just getting into her mindset about how and why she even wrote a book about Happiness was fascinating to me. When I found out that she had a podcast also, I was thrilled. She co-hosts it with her sister Elizabeth and every show I pick up little tidbits of useful information and on top of that, they make me laugh. Their latest episode a the time of this podcast is: You can’t make me and neither can i. If this intrigues you, be sure to check out there show.

Dec 22, 2015

Elisabeth tells us that her mother breastfed all 6 of her children. She has memories of her mother breastfeeding her little sister. Elisabeth grew up in Tuscon, is married , lives in Phoenix and has 2 adult children. She had an emergency cesarean section and tried to breastfeed her son several hours after his birth. She became upset and spent some time crying because she was trying hard to breastfeed but she could not get her son to latch on. She spoke to her nurse and requested the help of a lactation specialist who could help her with breastfeeding. And the nurse took her crying baby from her arms  and she said out loud to my newborn baby, “your mommy is so mean, she won’t feed you.” I burst into tears. The Lactation Consultant figured out that he was putting his tongue on the roof of his mouth and she helped Elisabeth with latch  and within 24 hours her son was breastfeeding well and it went easy from that point on. Chase is now 19 years old, and yet Elisabeth clearly remembers the nurse who said such harsh words, all these years later. Elisabeth stopped nursing when her babies got teeth. She just did not know that you can get through this period with some help. Elisabeth offers valuable and insightful information and advise on how pregnant moms can manage their eating habits thoughout their pregnancy. Extreme eating habits are often born out of morning/afternoon/evening/all around sickness and the times when pregnant moms are so hungry and have to fight off urges to eat high carbs and sweets. She offers some great tools and skills to help us deal with stress and anxiety during pregnancy. This info is practical and no cost and is real helpful for any time during our life.

Dec 12, 2015

Susan is the 31 year old mother. Her son John is 2 1/2 and they continue to enjoy a breastfeeding relationship. This does not seem unusual for Susan as she knows she was breastfed until she was 3 years old. Susan planned a home birth with her husband Robert, midwife and midwives assistant and doula at the birth. Her son weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. Breastfeeding for her was something that was not an option and was just something she knew she would do. Susan shares how she navigated the very early days of newborn breastfeeding. She was initially concerned when her baby did not seem to be hungry the first 4 hours. She did realize though that he needed to rest, he pooped and then all of a sudden he was interested in eating and they never looked back. It took her a few weeks until she felt like she found her groove with breastfeeding. It took her a little time to find what positions were most comfortable with John and what felt right for her. While Susan was never approached by a store owner who asked her to not breastfeed in their store, she shares with us her prepared speech if that should ever happen! She also feels that it is very important to find a pediatrician that fully supports breastfeeding.

Dec 11, 2015

New stuff learned about Jessica. She is a twin! Her mother did breastfeed her and her siblings for about 6 months each. Now that Jessica has breastfed two babies, she can really appreciate the fact that her mother breastfed twins. Jessica grew up in South Eastern Pennsylvania She met her husband in college and carried on a long distance relationship. The day after she graduated college, the moving truck came and she left for Rhode Island to be with him. She had her first baby Nathan a few years later and Lucy just 3 months ago. She started her business when she was pregnant with Nathan and has been working from home, until just recently when she started working from an office from outside the home. Jessica shares a lot about her early breastfeeding experience with Nathan. At a certain point, she realized that she had an abundant milk supply and shares some funny stories about milk leaking and milk spraying and brings lots of humor to her breastfeeding experience. Jessica wants to encourage other mothers to breastfeed around other family members and friends. She agrees this is what we need to happen in order to help normalize breastfeeding. The critics are allowed, but they are in the minority.

Dec 2, 2015

This week Lori talks about meeting Stacy, who was tearful and exhausted when she came in for her consult.  She talked about having a good breastfeeding experience with her first baby and yet with her second baby, she was in so much pain.  Stacy was not quite sure if she could continue breastfeeding as it was really taking it’s toll on her.  Lori shares how she was able to help Stacy understand why breastfeeding her baby was so painful.  She was able to help her understand what an immediate care plan would look like while she was working on resolving her breastfeeding issues.  While this was certainly far from the most interesting or difficult lactation problems Lori has dealt with, it was one that she remembers quite vividly.  It represents what all mothers want – They just want the simplicity of being a mom and being able to breastfeed their baby, in comfort and joy.  With all the tools and tricks of the trade and the care plans we give moms, and sometimes it seems to complicated,  all she wants is to simply breastfeed her baby.

Dec 2, 2015

Eve went to school for music and graduated as a classically trained vocalist and graduated with a music degree. She had every intention of going to NY and becoming rich and famous. Six months after graduation she realized that was not going to happen. Needing to pay the bills she got a job with Quickbooks. In Sept of 2001, her sister was suppose to be on Flight 93 and she lost 30% of her clients that day. Mad and angry, she joined the Navy. Eve planned on making that a career, but after the birth of her first baby, she realized she could not deploy. So, she went into the reserves, went back to Quickbooks. After the traumatic birth of her first baby for which was diagnosed with PTSD, she decided she wanted a very different experience with her second and planed a homebirth, she encapsulated her placenta and went “full on” crunchy and this was life changing.

Dec 2, 2015

This week Lori talks about some of the exciting shows that are coming up over the next few weeks.  Lori shares with All About Breastfeeding listeners that not all shows are going to be with all women as she has interviewed a few guys and they will be sharing some interesting information and personal thoughts about their experiences in the breastfeeding world.

Nov 18, 2015

Brandy grew up in a traditional household for the time. Her Dad worked outside the home and her mother was a stay at home until she returned to school years later and became an RN. She feels good about being brought up in a family with strong work ethics and with a philosophy that said:  family is everything.  She is the middle child, with  brother 4 years older and another brother 4 years younger than her.  Brandy made me laugh when she revealed that as a youngster she  wanted to own a candy store. As a young adult, she wanted to be a lawyer, however, ultimately went to school and became educated in HR work.  There was something about everything being black and white  that really attracted me to the law.  However, I eventually became involved with HR  and started my own content writing firm and Mom-mentum became a client of mine. I  Was member first after the birth of my second baby.   Had first baby and allow as okay and had lots of control and 5 yers later, experiencedm ore of a challenge than having the fist child.  Looking for support and like minded mothers that we could help me through this confusing and challenging time i my life  I fell in love with org., value and missio of entired organiation.  Think the second time around she found it harded to have control   I wanted to be a supermom and pinterest crafts and dinner and trying to do it all with the second child, reality just hit me really hard I think,  Brandy was surprised to learn that  her mother did not breastfeed.  I am a planner because things don’t come naturally and I like to practice at things.  Because I could not practice breastfeeding ahead of time, to so I read and researched and took classes, taking notes, highlighting articles. I had pictures and arrows and diagrams.  I was really nervouse about not being able to “get it” largely because I could not practice it first.  With all of my anxiety, my early breastfeeding, it went so easy.  It was comfortable, my baby thrived, gain well and met all developmental milestones.  I returned back to work at 10 weeks and this was another transitioned that she became anxious about. Listen to the show as Brandy shares how she prepared for this next transition.

Nov 18, 2015

Jan tells us how her childhood experiences, specifically her relationship with her mother, paved the way for her future as a psychotherapist. She describes herself as a late bloomer, in more ways than one. For example, she enrolled in Graduate School when she was 48. Jan describes how she felt when her mother told her that at 3 weeks old, Jan rejected her as she did not want to breastfeed. She shares some intimate moments related to breastfeeding her babies and how shocked she was that breastfeeding was very different with her second baby than with her first. Jan talks about the difficulty she had breastfeeding her son as she suffered with postpartum depression. She felt devastated by this and needed to get help for her depression. Jan shares her mother guilt about how her postpartum depression affected all areas of mothering her son. She also talks about her role as a Library Program Coordinator and facilitator trainer in Mom-mentum and what this means to her.

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