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Breastfeeding / MILC Moment

MILC Moment: The Truth About Pumping & Dumping

By Rebecca Costello, IBCLC Pumping and dumping: not being able to nurse, and pouring your milk down the drain, is NOT a fun experience! Mothers are often told to stop breastfeeding and/or “pump and dump” because they are on medications, or needed to have a scan or test (like an MRI). This seems to be widespread – we hear about this advice being given by everyone from dentists to urgent care doctors to pediatricians. And yet so often, when we look up the medication or test, it is perfectly safe for breastfeeding to continue. You poured your milk down the drain for nothing! Moms may pump and dump for hours or days before finding out they could have breastfed all along. Why does this happen? Which book or website your health care provider uses to look up medication or test safety can make a big difference. One study used a list of 14 drugs that were commonly prescribed to breastfeeding mothers, and looked how many were considered safe in frequently consulted resources. Several resources said NONE of the medications were safe. Others said about 50% were. It turns out, 85% were fine! Many health care providers don’t get any education about which resources are most accurate. So where should you turn for advice about medication safety and breastfeeding? One option, of course, is WBWC! We often take calls with questions like “I had a CT scan today – they told me I couldn’t breastfeed for 24 hours, is that true?” or “I’m having a dental procedure next week – which pain meds are safe?” Our most frequently used accurate resource is the book Medications & Mother’s Milk, one of the “bibles” of breastfeeding and medication safety. It’s on the shelf in almost every office! An even more accessible reference we sometimes use – and that you can use from anywhere with an internet connection – is Lactmed, a free website from the National Library of Medicine. They provide information on thousands of medications, herbal supplements, contrast used for scans (try typing “CT contrast” into the search box), and even specific procedures (try “MRI” or “X-ray”). Often the information makes it very clear that it’s safe to keep breastfeeding. If you have questions or concerns about what you read, please give us a call; we are happy to help you sort through it. We want you to continue nursing or pumping … Read More

MILC Moment: How to make breastfeeding successful – before you even give birth!

By Rebecca Costello, IBCLC Our lactation consultants work with a lot of families – over a third of the moms who give birth with WBWC end up seeing one (or more!) of our LCs. We also see many moms and babies who birthed elsewhere – often they say we were recommended to them by a friend or family member who came to WBWC for their birth/and or breastfeeding help. (Thank you, and we are honored!)      Working with so many new families, we get a chance to see up close what types of resources help new parents. Many people take childbirth classes, but we really notice a difference when first-time parents were also able to do some preparation for what happens after birth! They tend to be calmer, more confident, and adjust more easily to life with a newborn. All of this affects breastfeeding – big time! (Especially when challenges arise.)      How can you prepare for your baby to arrive? Spend some time asking your friends who are parents about what life with a newborn is like, and their best tips for a smooth transition! Get some books on baby care and breastfeeding – read them, and get your partner to read them too! No friends with kids? Not into reading? WBWC offers classes on Breastfeeding Basics and Newborn Care to help you get ready. Our classes are fun, interactive, and taught by experienced lactation consultants and nurses! Not able to make it to the WBWC classes? Many local childbirth educators, doulas, and other professionals offer baby care and breastfeeding classes. We encourage all first-time parents to sign up and study up! We think you’ll be more likely to have a successful experience breastfeeding, and be happier, more confident parents all around.

MILC Moment

A lot of things go pink in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We talk about early detection of breast cancer, supporting breast cancer patients and survivors, and finding better treatments for breast cancer. But let’s also talk about breast cancer prevention – and part of that is breastfeeding! So much of the discussion of breastfeeding focuses on benefits for the baby. But we know that there are big benefits for mom as well. When we get pregnant and give birth, there’s a complicated interplay of hormonal and physiological changes that prepare the body for breastfeeding. Our bodies expect it to be part of our reproductive life cycle. When our society doesn’t support mothers to breastfeed, we are disrupting this cycle and placing them at increased risk for a number of issues later in life: osteoporosis, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and ovarian and breast cancer. The longer you breastfeed, the stronger the “dose” of prevention against getting breast cancer later in life. For each 12-month period a woman breastfeeds, one study calculated a 4.3% reduction in relative risk of getting breast cancer later in life, compared with women who didn’t breastfeed. So a mother who breastfeeds 3 children for 2 years each would reduce her relative risk by over 25%! There is also growing evidence that breastfeeding specifically reduces the risk of particular aggressive types of breast cancer, which are more common in African-American women. Does this mean someone who breastfeeds is totally protected against breast cancer, and someone who doesn’t breastfeed will definitely get it? Nope! This is just about changes in risk – sadly, there is no way to know exactly who will get breast cancer. But we know that by supporting all moms to breastfeed, some cases of breast cancer will be avoided. And the next time someone tells you your baby is “too old to breastfeed”, smile and say “Oh, we need at least another 12 months! We’re reducing my risk of breast cancer!” Your MILC LCs, Rebecca, Ellen, Deborah, Elley, and Nancy

WBWC Officially Part of First Breastfeeding Family Friendly Community

by Rebecca Costello, IBCLC One year ago, the mayors of Chapel Hill and Carrboro partnered with members of Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, health departments, faith communities, and UNC-Chapel Hill on an initiative to become the first Breastfeeding Family Friendly Cities in the country. One important step is for businesses throughout the community to welcome and support breastfeeding families. They just have to follow 4 simple practices: 1.      Breastfeeding mothers are always welcome and respected. They will never be treated poorly, asked to stop breastfeeding, or asked to cover up or move.2.      All lactating employees are allowed breaks to express milk or nurse their children, and access to a private space for expressing milk or nursing that is not a bathroom. The space is lockable and shielded from view, includes an electrical outlet, and has hand hygiene available3.      Business does not advertise infant formula or related products.4.      Business will post the “Breastfeeding Welcome Here” window cling.WBWC definitely qualified on all counts, and we were excited to join the other local businesses that have signed up – everything from physical therapy to boutiques to optical shops to restaurants! Above is a photo of Kathleen Anderson, from the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute at UNC, with our executive director Maureen Darcey and with our new window cling. Do you know other businesses in Carrboro/Chapel Hill that might be interested in signing up? Or do you own a business and want to complete a quick and easy application? You can e-mail klanderson@unc.edu for an application. Get more information at:  https://www.facebook.com/BreastfeedingFriendlyCommunities/ – like the page to get updates on businesses that have joined

MILC Moment

     Two of our IBCLCs, Ellen Chetwynd and Rebecca Costello, attended the North Carolina Lactation Consultant Association summit in Wilmington June 9-10 and helped teach a hands-on preconference workshop on breast massage and drainage. These techniques can help prevent and treat engorgement, plugged ducts, and mastitis – definitely things mamas want to avoid! Getting our LCs, nurses, midwives, and nurse practitioners trained on these techniques has made a big difference for so many of our WBWC mamas – we want to spread the knowledge!       A number of Wilmington mamas volunteered to be teaching models for over 30 IBCLCs from around the state who wanted to learn these vital skills. We were able to do hands-on demonstration and practice how to massage and hand express to relieve painful breast congestion. We got wonderful feedback from the participants, and we are so excited for them to bring this care back to the moms and babies they work with all over North Carolina.       The workshop was done in collaboration with Kathy Parry (one of our partners at Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute) and Lindsey Hurd (an IBCLC who also teaches our starting solids “Pass the Puree Please” class) – we are lucky to have such great colleagues!      Ellen also presented at the Summit on new Medicaid regulations that will give more families access to lactation consultant care, and Rebecca presented on our partnership for the “Momma’s Village” project to increase support for breastfeeding among women of color. We are proud to represent WBWC and MILC to our IBCLC colleagues statewide!      Looking to the future, we are hoping to plan a fun event around World Breastfeeding Week in August – stay tuned! Your MILC IBCLCs, Deborah AdlerNancy AlbrechtEllen ChetwyndRebecca CostelloElley Schopler milc@ncbirthcenter.org Follow this link for a great instructional video on breast massage and hand expression https://vimeo.com/65196007

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Breastfeeding

by Claire C. McKiernan I was sitting on a futon in a back room of the WBWC boutique on a particularly busy afternoon. Nancy Albrecht, the lactation nurse, had squeezed us (my husband, baby, and me) into her busy schedule for a nursing consultation. I was holding back tears as I tried unsuccessfully to get my newborn daughter to nurse.  She latched on eagerly, but after 20 minutes of “nursing”, she wasn’t gaining an ounce and my breast had not softened. This simply couldn’t be happening. I knew how to nurse; after all, Rosemary was not my first baby: she was my fourth!  Nancy looked at me reassuringly and stated matter-of-factly: “Every baby has something new to teach you.” I suppose it was a magical combination of her tone, my mental/emotional state, having my concerned and loving husband by my side, and the innocent sweetness of my newborn nuzzled against me, but Nancy’s words had an immediate relaxing effect. Those words wafted past me like a warm, gentle breeze.  It was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment and helped me to look past my emotional state and tune into the methods we would need to correct Rosie’s tongue-thrusting habit.  This included tongue exercises, and lacing a tube through a nipple guard to squirt expressed breast milk or formula into the baby’s mouth while she was latched on. The latter would ensure she received enough milk while she was still learning to nurse properly.  I can’t say I wasn’t in tears over this awkward and unnatural set up, but the problem was corrected within two weeks. Rosie and I soon became the relaxed nursing duo that I hoped, and ultimately knew, we would be. Nancy’s words, however, stayed curiously and contemplatively in my mind. It was true: each of my nursing experiences had been different, yet with time, effort, and faith in my baby and myself, they had all been successful and enjoyable. My first baby, Christina, had been a natural, nursing before her umbilical cord was even cut. Her latch-on was perfect and she nursed fully and contentedly. I was not prepared, however, for the colic that would soon keep her screaming in seeming distress for hours every evening. The only time she stopped was when she was nursing. I recruited my husband and parents whenever possible to walk her around and give me a 10-20 minute … Read More