Pregnancy

• Relactation and Adoptive Nursing

  Relactation is the process of rebuilding your milk supply once you have started nursing and then stopped for a period of weeks or months. Induced lactation is the process of building a milk supply in a mother who has either never nursed a baby, or who has nursed years before.

• Oversupply: Too Much Milk

  Although concern about not having enough milk is the number one reason that mothers wean their babies early, having too much milk can also be a problem.When you consider the fact that a small percentage of women dont have the capacity to produce enough milk for their babies no matter what they do, then having too much milk is a relatively good breastfeeding problem to have, and is usually fairly easy to resolve.

• Nutrition, Exercise, and Weight Loss While Breastfeeding

  Most mothers are highly motivated to eat a nutritious diet during their pregnancies. Assuming that you ate an adequate diet while you were pregnant, you can produce plenty of milk for your baby by keeping up this motivation and making sure that you continue your healthy eating patterns during lactation. While you should attempt to eat a “good diet” while you are nursing, you need to be aware that your diet doesn’t have to be perfect in order to support lactation. You can still breastfeed even if your diet is less than ideal. You may be surprised to learn that studies have shown that maternal nutrition has only a minor effect on the composition and quantity of breastmilk produced. Usually, unless a mother is severely malnourished, her milk is fine. Mothers whose diets are poor deplete their own energy levels, and may become anemic, but their bodies will continue to produce the milk their baby needs by pulling from the mother’s energy stores at her expense, but not her baby’s. Most women in this country don’t suffer from a lack of food, but rather from eating too much of the wrong kinds.

• Nursing Discreetly

  While my personal belief is that nothing in the world is more natural than breastfeeding, and therefore every nursing mother should feel comfortable pulling her shirt up or off and nursing anywhere at all, I understand that we live in a society where this just isnt possible. In this country, breasts are considered sexual objects, and while it is just fine to expose them on Baywatch or in Penthouse, many people feel that there is something disgusting about a baby at the breast.

• Nursing During Pregnancy and Tandem Nursing

  The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends exclusively breastfeeding your baby for the first six months of life, with no solids or supplements, and continuing to nurse throughout the first year of life and beyond. During the period of exclusive breastfeeding, it is very unlikely that you will become pregnant. However, as more and more mothers recognize the advantages of long-term nursing and natural weaning, more of them will become pregnant while they are nursing their baby.

• Lactation Suppression

  Once your milk supply is established, stopping abruptly causes certain physical changes. Your breasts will continue to produce milk for a while, and if some isnt removed, you may become engorged, and possibly develop mastitis.You will also experience a sudden drop in prolaction levels, which may add to your feelings of depression.

• Jaundice

  The diagnosis of jaundice in their newborn baby is often very frightening to new parents. They immediately begin to think that something is very wrong with their infant, and may not be fully informed about the facts, which are actually very reassuring. Because jaundice is such a common condition, some medical professionals don’t take the time to explain all the details, because they deal with jaundiced babies every day. However, when the baby in question is your own precious newborn, you need to get as much information as possible to put your mind at ease.

• Introducing Bottles and Pacifiers to a Breastfed Baby

  Many babies switch forth effortlessly between breast and bottle from day one. Others become “nipple confused” if artificial nipples are introduced during the early days of nursing.