Join Felicia, Bri, and special guest Kristen Allen, a certified lactation counselor and pediatric dietician who is passionate about providing the right information and support to new moms. Breastfeeding can be a rollercoaster ride - filled with beauty, struggle, and even pain. Tune in as we share our experiences the challenges, and shed light on the immense disconnect between breastfeeding support and the scarcity of current information for parents.
Ever worried about your milk supply? We've been there too. Let's navigate through the labyrinth of anxiety surrounding milk supply together. We debunk common myths, talk about the emotional toll of supplementing with formula, and stress the importance of understanding the signs of sufficient milk supply. Furthermore, we delve into the reality of breastfeeding pain, its causes, and the support needed to get through it.
To wrap things up, we lay bare the societal pressures and misconceptions around breastfeeding. Guided by real-life experiences, we'll look at ways to support lactation, acknowledge the physical and emotional struggles, and promote self-compassion for mothers who find breastfeeding challenging. Plus, we'll share some indispensable tips for new mothers embarking on their breastfeeding journey. So, no more second-guessing, mama, get ready to walk this journey with confidence.
Enroll in Kristen’s Lactation Support
@TheLactationMentor
Kristen’s Amazon List
Video Bri Mentions
Kristen’s Website
Thank you so much for joining us today . We’re so excited you’re taking this journey with us! They say it takes a village, welcome home mama!
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Join our village:
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Email us @: Hello@postpartumconfessions.co
Felicia’s Instagram: @Felicia_Sorby
Bri’s Instagram: @Brie.Rodriquez
Join Felicia, Bri, and special guest Kristen Allen, a certified lactation counselor and pediatric dietician who is passionate about providing the right information and support to new moms. Breastfeeding can be a rollercoaster ride - filled with beauty, struggle, and even pain. Tune in as we share our experiences the challenges, and shed light on the immense disconnect between breastfeeding support and the scarcity of current information for parents.
Ever worried about your milk supply? We've been there too. Let's navigate through the labyrinth of anxiety surrounding milk supply together. We debunk common myths, talk about the emotional toll of supplementing with formula, and stress the importance of understanding the signs of sufficient milk supply. Furthermore, we delve into the reality of breastfeeding pain, its causes, and the support needed to get through it.
To wrap things up, we lay bare the societal pressures and misconceptions around breastfeeding. Guided by real-life experiences, we'll look at ways to support lactation, acknowledge the physical and emotional struggles, and promote self-compassion for mothers who find breastfeeding challenging. Plus, we'll share some indispensable tips for new mothers embarking on their breastfeeding journey. So, no more second-guessing, mama, get ready to walk this journey with confidence.
Enroll in Kristen’s Lactation Support
@TheLactationMentor
Kristen’s Amazon List
Video Bri Mentions
Kristen’s Website
Thank you so much for joining us today . We’re so excited you’re taking this journey with us! They say it takes a village, welcome home mama!
Sign up for exclusive content!
Join our village:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
Threads
Leave us a voicemail
Buy us a coffee!
Email us @: Hello@postpartumconfessions.co
Felicia’s Instagram: @Felicia_Sorby
Bri’s Instagram: @Brie.Rodriquez
Hey Mama, welcome to Postpartum Confessions, a podcast for anyone navigating the ups and downs of becoming a mom.
Speaker 2:I'm Felicia, I'm Bri and we're here to bring you truly unfiltered conversations from the expected to the unexpected parts of being a mom, Whether you're trying to conceive, pregnant or already a mother, this podcast is for you.
Speaker 1:Let's discover the secrets no one told you about motherhood and how to overcome them together. They say it takes a village. Welcome home.
Speaker 2:Are you ready? Let's dive in. Hey Mama, this is Bri and we have an amazing episode for you today, all about breastfeeding. As you have probably heard a little bit of both mind and Felicia's struggles so far, we decided it would be best to bring on an expert guest to answer some of our questions. For our moms, Whether you've had a baby already or you're going to have another, this is going to be incredibly helpful for you, for all of us.
Speaker 1:Hey, Mama Felicia here I'd like to introduce our expert guest to you. Today we have an amazing episode with Kristin Allen. She's a certified lactation counselor and pediatric dietician. Hi, Kristin, we're so happy to have you on the show. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Hey, thank you so much for having me here. I'm really happy to be here, guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we're excited to have you. We've both been following you for a while and we've had some back and forth and we've just seen some of your reels. There's a few that stood out that I'm going to get into. But before we dive into that, can you tell us a little bit, just a little bit more about yourself, what you do and how you came to be an advocate for breastfeeding moms?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I started out as a registered dietician. I kind of always knew I wanted to get into pediatrics, but as a young, early 20-year-old I had no idea at that time. I don't have children on my own yet. I didn't really know anything about breastfeeding and as I got into my career I was like, wow, nobody knows anything about breastfeeding. It's not just me.
Speaker 3:I ended up working in inpatient hospitals, nicus. I've worked in community settings like WIC I'm not sure if you're familiar with that it's. For those of you that aren't, it's a program for low-income and medically fragile infants and children up to five. That's actually where I really really learned the most about breastfeeding in the community instead of in a hospital setting, and everyone struggled. I was just kind of like what are we doing here, that there's this huge disconnect and what can we do better? That's kind of how I really fell into it.
Speaker 3:I had been studying, like I said, pediatrics and infant feeding for a while at that point, but I was like I need to do something about this. I feel just really called to take action here because there's this huge gap that just doesn't exist for this support. I created it. I have, as you probably have noticed from just how I present myself. I have a loud voice, I am going to question things and why they are the way that they are, and I'm not afraid to have those hard conversations. I was like I can use this advocacy for so many good things. That's kind of why I'm here. I do other things other than lactation. I'm an artist actually. I love traveling, I love being outside of animals and, hopefully, children of my own one day. Yeah, that's kind of how I got here. I love this platform and I feel really lucky and honored to be able to help so many people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I love that so much. I know for my journey and I totally agree with you on there's so much more. I feel like that we can do and to advocate and to really bring light to so many different things surrounding breastfeeding, because I myself struggled immensely. I'm very surprised I'm even at the point where we're 16 months in because it was so much of a struggle. Honestly, there's so many people when I first started that were supposed to be helping me. I feel like, even in the other terms of lactation, consultants in the hospital sometimes don't even have the more updated information or there can be a gap, which is incredibly important for other people to understand that if someone's not providing the help, then you can definitely reach out to someone else that might be more intuitive to what's going on.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I'm sure we'll get talking about that, but it's unfortunate that so many people in lactation have been practicing for a while, and that's not the unfortunate part. The unfortunate part is that science and medicine and nutrition and lactation change. There's lots of things we know now that we didn't know even 10, 5 years ago, and the hospital also isn't the place to learn about breastfeeding. That's a big part of it too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it takes a while for, unfortunately, some of the hospital settings to catch up, and it's too detriment For me. I ended up not being able to breastfeed my kids, and we can get into my story a little bit later or at a different time, but it's really unfortunate because you are told to get the help there and to sign up for the classes or whatever it is. I went in to see somebody and they helped me latch my baby both of them and they helped me with a pump and different things, but nothing changed and it became excruciatingly painful mentally, physically, emotionally, everything. I'm not sure if I'll have any other kids or not, but for me, I think this is incredibly important to get out, because I often now think that, could it have been something that I'm okay with my decision, right? Let's put it that way. However, there's still, I think, boiled down a lot of let's call it maybe regret that I wasn't able to do something that, as a mom, you feel like you should do, right, yeah, so that's why this is incredibly important for us coming out, and I think we have a list of questions that I think we're totally going to get answered here, but there's one post in particular that you made recently and I'd like to link it in the show notes for anybody that wants to see it.
Speaker 2:But I literally can't stop thinking about it. And you said on there that you need to spend more time preparing for breastfeeding than you do preparing for birth. And literally I just could not. You know, I couldn't stop because that was the worst part of being a mom for me, for both of my babies. It wasn't the birth, it wasn't going home, it wasn't the late nights and learning how it was the breastfeeding. I mean, it tore me up. You know all the things. So without you know the tools and support that you know, like we just said, we kind of don't get. I guess what is the most important thing that you would want mothers to know before jumping into breastfeeding?
Speaker 3:I honestly feel like it boils down to exactly what you just said. Exactly what that post just said is that you have to prepare, and nobody tells you you have to prepare. So this is your PSA that nobody tells you. But I'm going to tell you that you literally need to spend more time preparing for breastfeeding than you do preparing for birth. And that is not to say you shouldn't prepare for childbirth.
Speaker 3:Dolas are amazing. Birth workers are amazing, like I think they are so important and so essential in your entire experience of becoming a parent. But that is an isolated event, right, and it's a life changing event and it's probably one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing, you're ever going to do. But then after that, you have to take the living being home that you just birthed and keep them alive with your body. So that is a much longer, more intensive process than actually getting the baby out. And once you get the baby out, it's like, okay, like you know, of course there's birth trauma and that's not what we're here to talk about today. But you get the baby out and now what? And suddenly you're exhausted and you're healing and everyone's like okay, you're great, the hard part's over, go home, enjoy your baby Again. Now, what so?
Speaker 3:Prenatal education and preparation is literally so essential and that's a huge part of what I, it's a huge part of how I practice, and I tell everyone that because it's not just about the education, because you can go and take a breastfeeding class at a hospital and learn about the physiology and the science behind breastfeeding. But what does that actually look like for you? What does that look like in your life? Do you have a partner? Do you have a supportive partner? Do you have really overbearing in-laws or family or people in your life that have opinions about breastfeeding that are going to put them on you? Do you have a job? Like are you going back to work in six weeks, 12 weeks, two weeks or not at all?
Speaker 3:Like you need to actually figure out what that looks like in your life and make a plan that's individualized to you or you're not going to be successful because you can, like I said, you can learn about the science behind it all you want, but if you don't actually figure out what that looks like when you copy and paste that into your life, that's not a plan. So that is like the biggest thing that I tell people that no one else is going to tell you about breastfeeding, and that is the key. That's not the only thing, of course, but that is the biggest thing. Yeah, and nobody tells you that. Nobody tells you that.
Speaker 1:No, they really don't, and that's like the biggest thing or that I can definitely advocate for, that is, I didn't prepare like I should have, and just you need to. It's going to be very life changing?
Speaker 3:if you do. I think part of the issue is that lactation professionals aren't marketed to be for during pregnancy. It's not like talked about that you can see a lactation professional while you're pregnant or you can make a plan while you're pregnant. It's thought of as like, I think, lactation professionals other than those in the hospital. It's thought of as if I'm having a problem, I'm going to go here, but it's more like let's prepare to not have a problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean for me, I got a course and I thought that was enough. You know, they give you like the birth course and there was one specifically for breastfeeding and in that course I'm like, oh yeah, I didn't learn a lot and you do learn, like the anatomy, and you see the picture of you know what they need to do and you're like, oh yeah, it seems easy. But yeah, even there, like, obviously they need to be positive and, do you know, keep up with all of that too. But the main issue that I got is they were almost too positive. They were almost too positive that there was no. I also want to know like, what, what could go wrong or what kind of struggles are there, what you know? That kind of thing. Because that wasn't addressed and it was almost like, oh, don't worry, you'll just, you'll be a milk making machine, everything's going to be great. Well, it wasn't great. I don't remember my person's name, but it wasn't. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there's a fine line between toxic positivity and fear mongering, right, and they sound so separate. But you have to like try that very lightly of you don't want to scare people, but you also don't want to say it's 100% going to be fine, you're going to make milk your baby's going to latch because I don't know that, Right, so you kind of have to like prepare people and empower people and inform them to understand. Well, if this goes wrong, these are the solutions you have, versus if this goes wrong, you can't breastfeed but at the same time, not say, yeah, it's 100% going to be fine, because then you're setting someone up for if something goes wrong, then they think that they failed. Right, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's just again like a really good point, like just being able to kind of bring truth to all of it without having that toxic positivity or like really fear mongering. It's just kind of like, like I said, more preparation, because the more you're prepared with what could happen, the more you're mentally not going to just kind of hit your head against a wall. So you're going to be able to kind of understand those things Exactly. And our next question, just because this might actually be a good one to jump into, is what are some specific struggles that you see every day from moms in terms of breastfeeding?
Speaker 3:I thought about this question before we recorded this and I was like I don't even know where to start, but I feel like the one that I hear the most often might be surprising, and it's anxiety over milk supply, not low milk supply. It's thinking you have a low milk supply when you vary. I say likely because, true, low milk supply is not that common and I can explain that in a second. But the anxiety over having a low milk supply and this comes from society expecting you to have this massive freezer stash or you're not successful, like our expectation, just based on social media and things that we see and things that we hear from our friends and other people is I need to make enough milk to make three babies, even though I have one baby, and that's not correct.
Speaker 3:So if you don't have that, people have this anxiety over their milk supply and having that anxiety over milk supply can lead people into mismanagement of breastfeeding, so pumping when they don't necessarily need to be, or underfeeding or overfeeding the baby, or it basically is like a spiral that causes you to create a secondary low milk supply. So anxiety over milk supply often leads people to introduce formula in a bottle or breast milk in a bottle instead of supporting actual physiological breastfeeding, which is nursing at the breast, and that spiral leads to actual low milk supply. So the anxiety over milk supply when someone has a full milk supply is often what leads to low milk supply and then termination of breastfeeding. So I think that's the most common thing, like I even have, and if she listens to this she's going to know exactly who she is.
Speaker 3:But I have a client right now who has like an eight week old baby and she has a bit of an oversupply and he is growing like an absolute weed and she texted me yesterday and said I feel like I'm not making enough milk and I'm like, let's, let's take a couple steps back here, because there are this list of 85 reasons that I can give to you that I know you also know that can tell you you're making enough milk, but that it's still. It just happens. So I think that's probably the biggest thing. Is the anxiety over milk supply is what I hear every day, even before before birth, like I'm not leaking, so I I'm not going to make breast milk. Well, no, not everybody leaks during pregnancy or postpartum, so that's not really an indicator either. Or my, my breasts are small, I'm not going to make enough milk. Breast size does not have anything to do with milk supply. So I could talk about that forever, but that's the biggest one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and whoever that is, if you're listening, you can definitely shoot me a DM, because I felt the same way. Yes, my daughter like hit like three months and we did try. I ended up giving her one little two milliliter or it was like really small, but the little ones for the other two ounce ones, yes, yeah, sorry, two ounce.
Speaker 1:And she, my daughter, was like not a fan. And then they didn't take it and then also like, just like had fell asleep right after and I was like, oh, I was like so I don't know, she was just very colicky. And at that point that's when I realized like oh, okay, so we're okay, and I just it was like now and then just feeling like the anxiety of not having enough, when I had like the weight gain was evidence and the fact that she was always like had a solid latch after the first like two months and you know it's just like the overall was giving me like so much evidence as to that wasn't true, but the anxiety just keeps like telling you that you're not making enough or not doing enough.
Speaker 3:Right. But then you can see if, if you don't have that knowledge to prove to yourself that you're actually making enough, you can see why that would very, very easily lead someone to start supplementing and then end up stopping breastfeeding. Like you're not, you're not set up for success, right, and you're not wrong. Because you're like, oh my gosh, my baby's not getting enough. My, my parental instinct is to feed my baby and care for my baby. Like you're not stupid, you're not. Like it makes sense, you don't think you're making enough, so you feed them formula. But then backpedaling, that tells us that the need for prenatal education is so high because you need to know those signs of making enough milk and how to know your baby is getting milk and transferring milk, so that when you have those moments you're like, wait a second. I can give myself this whole list of reasons why I know that this is just anxiety and I'm not actually not getting enough milk.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I don't know it's. It's almost incredibly frustrating, like listening to this in a good way, in the sense of like you know, it's just something that I wish. There's so many things now that I think I see as different signs of maybe just needing more help or needing a little bit more support. So, you know, sometimes the support I got was we'll just put the baby on. Well, it's incredibly painful, like I just got him off or something. You know I did it. That's not what somebody wants to hear at the time.
Speaker 2:Or then you go on social media and you see somebody filling up a whole bottle and still feeding their baby and you're like what? Because I just fed my baby and tried the pump thing, whatever, and nothing worked, you know. So there's different signs that, yeah, I mean you're 100% right, I don't think a lot of people know, and it becomes incredibly frustrating. You become, I don't know, powerless in a sense, because at the end of the day, you're going to feed your baby and that's important Number one, you know. So if it's not working here, then you know how can I fix it and you'll go to that.
Speaker 2:And you know, when I did introduce formula to both my kids, it was easier, you know, I have to say, in the sense of, you know, in the beginning, like my daughter in particular, she cried all the time and then we introduced formula after a while and, you know, we got the okay with the pediatrician and things, because they thought I wasn't doing enough either, but and she would sleep long stretches and do the things. So I remember bawling because I thought I was starving her at the same time too, you know, and so I can see now a million things maybe being different, but it is difficult when you one don't have the knowledge, don't nothing's presented to you at all, about different signs and symptoms and different things, and then your emotions are haywire because you just had the baby. So I can see, you know, looking back and you know hindsight, I can see a lot of different things that, had I had a different approach, maybe it would have been different.
Speaker 3:It's like the perfect storm. It's the perfect opportunity for the biggest doomsfire role of your life. Like, yeah, all of the things like your, your hormones, the need to feed the baby. If the baby is, like, crying or fussy, you're not satisfied. You just like okay, feed the baby number one.
Speaker 3:Yes, as as a lactation professional also, feeding the baby is always number one, even if that means formula first of all. Yeah, but then you miss not you, but the general, you miss the core problem, which is supporting lactation. So, yes, we feed the baby number one, but then we have to go back and support the milk supply and figure out is this true low milk supply? Is there something going on? Why is there pain? Which I am sure I'm getting ahead of myself, but there should never be pain, never, and no one believes me when I say that. But, like, because pain is common. Pain is so common and and all your friends that have breastfed before, I bet, will tell you it hurts a lot in the beginning, but then it gets better. Yeah, I've said that. No, you have, I know you have.
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously you won't know, but Felicia and I individually have had our own separate conversations with Kristen and I will say she's right, she is very vocal and all the things, and I love it and appreciate it. But I will say that she also listens, so it's not like she's just coming out here and just saying you know, blah, blah, blah and you don't get a chance. No, no, no, we've had some very good conversations about our disagreements and our and you know, trying to align, but end of the day, we always align on the main purpose. But the point is, you know, yeah, we do, we do because it does hurt. I mean, there is like a learning curve right Of maybe the baby does have a crappy latch, but you know, and it's going to hurt a little bit, but maybe and this is where I do agree with her is that if, if, maybe the baby wasn't just thrown on and and you got maybe some assistance, or maybe I learned that before like preparing for breastfeeding during pregnancy, maybe that would have been different.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so I don't know, but all I know now is that for two babies it was incredibly painful and you know that kind of thing. Yeah, it's not to say that there isn't going to be pain and it's and it isn't normal, but it is normal, unfortunately and that we all experience it because of the, maybe the lack of education or support, like that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So pain? I will not say pain is normal. I will say pain is common because in the beginning, baby is learning to latch and you're learning to breastfeed. So baby pops out with these innate reflexes and instincts to breastfeed, but, like you have to know how to position them and set them up for success. A newborn has a mouth and like the tiniest head movement, that's it. So you have to support the rest. So it's about educating the parents to be able to support the infant. And no one gets that. So you are set up to be in pain Period. So nobody who feels pain with breastfeeding is doing anything wrong. You're just not taught any different.
Speaker 3:People say oh, you have to like break in your nipples and you have to. You know, just get used to it and after time it will go away, not true? Your nipple is meant for that. Your nipple is not meant to hurt when it is being expressed, whether it's by the pumper in the baby's mouth. That being said, I will say this that it might get chapped, like it's not used to being wet all the time, which is a weird sentence. But like that yes, pain no. But every single person I've ever talked to says that breastfeeding was painful.
Speaker 1:Yes and I can advocate. On the other side of I went to. It was like two weeks in and I was like when as far as like I was bleeding, I was like so frustrated I would cry during feeds and I just ended up trying to resort to pumping like every other feed to try to relieve the pain. I tried a nipple shield, I tried a bunch of different things and then I went to. I didn't even go to the hospital. I went to someone that I knew that was a lactation consultant and she positioned my daughter correctly and then it, even with the chaps and the like cracked nipples, it felt immediately better. So I can definitely vouch for like even positioning or revising some sort of lip or tongue the ties, because my daughter did end up having a lip tie, so I know that can be a problem.
Speaker 3:Yes, so pain is common, but pain is your body telling you that something's wrong, and not that you're doing anything wrong. Yes, I may suggest things like, oh, let's adjust this or that, but I will never say you're doing something wrong because you weren't taught any different. Right Like you don't just get pregnant and then suddenly this whole pocket of knowledge just enters into your brain, that, like, I know how to breastfeed. But that's what everyone expects Legitimate.
Speaker 2:And that's what you're kind of told too is that it's just going to happen.
Speaker 3:you know no and it's not, and I it's like really unfortunate, because I am support. I feel like I need to say this and I think it's very, very apparent on my page, but I want to say this to speak it into existence I will support any kind of feeding journey that anyone has. I will never, ever, ever, shame someone or guilt someone for choosing however they want to feed their baby, and that is something that is a huge pillar of my practice, and I say I'm a pediatric dietitian first, and part of me says thanks. That's why. But also, like I just really think it's important to be inclusive and be understanding that everyone's life situation is different. Everyone's birth and postpartum experience is different and we need to be respectful of that.
Speaker 3:And saying that you have to breastfeed your baby is not how you actually promote and support breastfeeding, because you're setting someone up for an unrealistic expectation versus if you actually give them the education and are gentle and give the option of like this doesn't have to look like what it looks like for this person who exclusively breastfed for 16 months right, it doesn't have to look like that. What does it look like for you to provide your baby with some breast milk? That is much more realistic for a lot of people. And either way, like I, just inclusivity is very important to me and supporting those issues is very important to me. But at the same time, if someone is, you know, six weeks postpartum and is having so much pain and crying with every feed and we've tried all these things and nothing is working, I would support whatever decision that person made in that moment, if they wanted to stop. If you want me to push you, I'll push you, but at the same time, like it's okay if you don't.
Speaker 2:I think that's very important to kind of get out, because there's a lot of conversation around like breast is best and fed is best and this and that. And you know there's no arguing that breast milk is the best you know for a baby out there, but that doesn't mean that it's the only way, and you know so. I've gotten in many conversations about this, because there's no denying that breast milk is best. Totally get it. But you don't have to knock on people who are either not doing it for any reason. It doesn't matter what the reason is there's. We don't have to make an excuse, you know. So I like that. I think that's smart and a good way to go about it in the approach, and I think it's also good for for moms who are struggling to know that when they work with you or somebody like you, it's not going to be. Oh, you know, she just is. You know one way and I have to do this. No, no, there are options, but we're going to try to go.
Speaker 2:You know, here's step one and we're going to work our way down, you know.
Speaker 3:Yep, and I always check in with people to like, when something's hard, like how are you feeling about this right now? Where are you at with this? Like, and it's okay if that changes. You know, like today you think one thing, tomorrow you think another thing, that's okay. My business is not why you want to do something. My business is to give you the information and to let you make an informed decision and support you in that and doing that safely and in doing that in the way that supports your goals and, at the same time, hopefully supports the baby getting as much breast milk as possible. That's all.
Speaker 2:I mean that's great and it's helpful we're. It's nice to know there are people out there and that's why we wanted to have you on to kind of bring just even more awareness, or as much awareness as possible, because I do think that this approach needs to be. You know more out there. I agree, you know we did talk a little bit about supply and you know kind of knowing what the you know do. Do I have low, do I have too much? And you know those kind of things. So, yeah, I guess I have a little bit of a question, like do you have a maybe a tip on to how you know it's enough and then maybe get into a little bit on how do you create and maintain if it's? You know potentially not, or you know how do we get the supply going?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so this I'm going to get a little nerdy for a minute Because I like science, but I like to present it in a way that hopefully people understand so. So lactation starts in pregnancy and a normal I don't like the word normal, but I'm saying typical like a typical healthy pregnancy and birth. So lactation starts in about the second or third trimester. That is the first phase of lactation and that is made by the placenta hormones. So the placenta is what's nourishing your baby throughout your pregnancy. And about the second to third trimester those high levels of progesterone and estrogen which are made by your placenta start lactation and the progesterone fills up the milk making cells in your breasts. I tell this to every single client because I know it's kind of nerdy, but I think it's like it really helps you visualize and understand this.
Speaker 3:So the progesterone is hanging out in your breasts during pregnancy and it's like keeping these little spots, these receptors, open, waiting for prolactin, which is the milk making hormone. So progesterone from your placenta makes colostrum, which is the first milk. It's like that thick, sticky liquid gold people call it. It comes out and just drops. It's all your baby needs for the first couple days of life. It's like the highest antibody immune property in existence. That's made in, like the second and third trimester, by the progesterone from your placenta that's hanging out in your boobs. So then you birth the baby, you birth the placenta and then the progesterone just drops. So the placenta comes out, your estrogen and progesterone just like plummet. And then these receptors are now just like open and they're like hey, if you want to lactate you have to fill me up with prolactin. So this is where latching the baby and or expressing milk by your hands or by a pump, so removing milk, is what spikes prolactin, which is the milk making hormone. So these receptors are open. You just birthed the baby in the placenta, these receptors are open in your breasts and you start latching your baby, your brain starts pumping out prolactin and in that window, those first couple of days, you want to fill those receptors with as much prolactin as possible, which happens by feeding your baby every couple hours or pumping or hand expressing every two to three hours, and then that prolactin fills up those milk receptors and then you transition into transitional and then mature milk, that more white, watery milk. And that's when people are like, oh, my milk came in.
Speaker 3:And then your breasts feel full, sometimes engorged, but that's what people are referring to when their milk comes in, and then to continue to support that supply I'm sure you've probably heard this before. It's supply and demand. So you ask your body for it, your body makes it. If you ask your body for less meaning if you put the baby to breast less, you pump less your body is like, well, you don't need this, so I'm not going to make it. So the way to support your milk supply is frequent, effective milk removal every two to three hours, so at least once every two to three hours for at least the first month or two postpartum. I'm not really going to go into much beyond that because that waxes and wanes a little bit, but every two to three hours at least once.
Speaker 3:Removing milk is what supports your milk supply and the reason for that is that prolactin, that milk making hormone, is the more frequently you ask your body for milk, so the shorter the interval between milk removals. That's what spikes your prolactin. The more prolactin spikes you have, the more milk your body makes. So if you go a long time between milk removals so say you sleep for six hours overnight in the second week and skip that feeding session and have someone give a bottle or you know, whatever happens, that milk is just going to sit in there and that's going to tell your brain, hey, we're not removing this, so we must not need it, and very quickly your body will stop making less over like a 24 hour period. Your prolactin is highest overnight. So those nighttime pumps, those nighttime feedings, are super important, of course, right the time that everyone wants to be sleeping, but that is the time the prolactin is highest. That is the time that you never want to skip a pumping or a feeding session and that's also the time your baby is gonna get the most milk. So that's really important for your baby to get that feeding overnight, or those feedings, excuse me, to be able to grow and get that milk. So if you're feeding just at the breast, baby needs those nighttime feeds. If you're trying to maintain a milk supply period, your baby you have to remove milk overnight.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna go off on a tangent here so I Don't even remember. The original question was how to support a milk supply, right? Yes, so frequent, effective milk removal, especially in that nighttime, to know you have a good supply. There are a couple things we look at. So your pediatrician will look at waking and I want to pin that because I want to talk Just quickly about, like, the weight loss and the waking after birth. So I want to pin that to come back to. But your pediatricians gonna look at waking, your lactation Professionals also gonna look at waking. But the other things we will look at are the first thing I ask people is are you in pain? Does that hurt? Is that comfortable? So if that latch is comfortable, great. I make sure the latch is deep.
Speaker 3:So the baby's mouth needs to. One of you guys did this. The baby's mouth needs to be wide open. There shouldn't be like puckers in their cheeks that can mean they're getting air. They shouldn't be clicking or spilling milk out the sides. It's hard with newborns but you should be able to hear them swallowing but not like smacking or clicking. You should be able to hear or see a swallow like in their neck. Satisfied after feeds is a big one. So if they're starting their feed really tense and clenched but then they're kind of flaccid Floppy at the end of a feed, that can mean they're full.
Speaker 3:Having frequent yellow CD diapers by day, like six or so of life, is really important, and having about six to eight pee diapers by about day six of life. And Crying is not, or a fussy baby is not necessarily a sign that they're not getting enough milk. Oftentimes they want comforted. They've been inside your belly for however long, and now they're outside and the world is big and scary and Oftentimes they want comforted. So a baby that wants to come back to breast frequently does not mean you have low milk supply, and that is another thing.
Speaker 3:I think that spikes anxiety for people because it's like, oh, baby wants to come back to breast. They must not be getting enough. No, they just want to nurse, they just want to be with their mom, and Especially in the evening time. So you're prolactin kind of waxes and wanes throughout the day. If it's highest overnight, then In the early morning hours it's still pretty high and then by afternoon and evening it's at its lowest and that's normal. So babies often cluster and get that witching hour in, like the evening and late afternoon. It's not that they're not getting enough milk throughout the day, but yes, your body is not making as much at that time, so they might want to keep coming back to breast. But again, it's not that you have low milk supply and allowing them back to breast frequently is what promotes you to have a good Milk supply. I'm gonna make myself stop there.
Speaker 2:I was like okay, keep going, I'm learning so much.
Speaker 3:I do want to talk about the weight gain and weight loss thing, but yeah, yeah, I don't want to go off on a tangent depending on what question you have.
Speaker 3:Okay. So I feel like something we run into a lot and I think this is really important to say and this is something I teach people is you have to be able to advocate for yourself and your breastfeeding goals, because, unfortunately, not all of your providers are going to be on the same page, because Just as breastfeeding education is not great for us, it's also not great for providers. So which sucks and is stupid, but that means we're trying to fix things. We're trying, you know, to educate people, but unfortunately, the Pediatrics practices are often the place where breastfeeding really falls off, and they're very well intentioned. There can be an amazing pediatrician with very good intentions, but it can sabotage breastfeeding.
Speaker 3:So the normal thing that happens after birth is babies lose weight. That is normal because they are losing fluid. It's called diuretics so they come out. They were sitting in this fluid filled sack for however long, and now they're In the world, so they kind of get rid of all that extra fluid. You have to think, though, if you got fluids during birth which you will if you have an epidural, if you get pain medicine, if you have a C-section so most people get fluids during birth that will falsely elevate baby's birth weight. So One thing I like to look at is a weight at 24 hours of life to say, okay, maybe this is more accurate because what your doctors are looking at is prevention of more than a 10 weight loss in that early, in those early days of life. So usually babies weight kind of bottoms out at around day three of life and if they lose more than 10 percent that's when the doctors will say we need to supplement. But if you think about it, day like three or four is also when your milk comes in, right, so that's when your colostrum changes to that transitional milk. So Usually around that time they're they're just going to take off right after that if you are frequently removing milk, frequently latching your baby.
Speaker 3:So Oftentimes what I tell people because I never want to go against a pediatrician's advice I never want to put you in a situation where Obviously we need to feed the baby first, we need the baby to grow. However, if Baby is right around that 10 mark, maybe lost like a little bit more, but that's from birth weight, not the 24 hour weight. I encourage people to ask their pediatrician Can you give me another day or two and let me continue to support breastfeeding, let me continue to nurse my baby and then bring the baby back in for a weight check. Usually by that time the milk has come in or changed the transitional milk and baby is now gaining steadily. So it's just something to be aware of that.
Speaker 3:Yes, we don't want babies to lose more than 10 percent of their weight, that is true. However, breastfed babies usually lose more than formula fed babies because we are overfeeding formula fed babies with two ounces on day one of life, because Baby's belly isn't even that big, so of course they're going to gain more weight faster than breastfed babies. It usually takes breastfed babies about 10 to 14 days to get back to birth weight, whereas formula fed babies usually get back to birth weight by about day seven. So just something to be aware of, to arm yourself with that knowledge. If you're put in a situation where there's a recommendation that might derail your breastfeeding goals and it's a very well intentioned recommendation but Having that conversation with your provider, that you're both aligned to help you meet your breastfeeding goals and, of course, nourish and keep your baby safe and fed and healthy, that's super important to be on that same page and be able to advocate for yourself.
Speaker 1:I love the information, yeah, but I love your good information, yeah it is.
Speaker 3:No, I know that's a lot.
Speaker 2:I remember, with my first and they, the pediatrician asked like has your milk come in? And I was like I don't know, you know like, maybe like, because it didn't feel like I didn't feel anything or whatever. So maybe it hadn't um, and they, you know um, luckily at the time he was very like, well, um, you know, if you want you could supplement, but keep trying and we'll do a weight check because she wasn't like you know, she hadn't lost like a ton of weight or anything. So it was kind of like in that middle ground, nice, um, but yeah, I mean, when you said that, I was like, oh, thank goodness they, you know they did, at least at the time, you know was very yes a little bit more like Well, you know, played the line a little bit and that's.
Speaker 3:Perfect. That's where we hope that, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just remember when I had gone home after like two days in the hospital and you know it was overnight and it was literally the next morning I woke up and gorged and I was, I completely freaked out. I just they didn't even tell me what engorgement was or what felt like or what. Yeah, and it was just like. Yeah. So weird to me that they don't even tell you like the what to me feels like the smaller things that you can deal with More easily if you like just knew what it was 100% it's harder to laugh.
Speaker 3:They don't tell you that. Yes, yes, people are like oh, your milk came in great. Well, now you're trying to latch your baby to a rock and like and that doesn't, that doesn't work. So yeah, so tricks, just quick tricks for that are to hand express or try to soften the nipple and the areola before baby latches. Um, you can also dunk your boobs in a Like literal bowl of warm water and it will just like score it out milk and then you'll soften a little bit and then baby can latch better.
Speaker 2:I remember my sister in law recently we were talking about breastfeeding again, literally the other day, because I always go to her because she has three kids and she breastfed all of them and she had a problem kind of with making a lot of milk. And so she said oftentimes like she would get in the shower and it was warm, and that's what would happen is that the warm water would hit and it was just like See a milk like everybody, literally oh my god and I was that's you know.
Speaker 2:So when you hear stuff like that, though, like it was funny, luckily I heard that, like later on, but I was like, yeah, no, that that didn't happen. Or, like you know, people would say their right breast would leak, or things like that with the water, and I didn't get any of that. So that's you know.
Speaker 3:I went down a different path of yeah, I'm so curious, like, obviously, you know, I know you said you have some regret and I I think that's why that makes me so sad for you, because I think your story is similar to a lot of peoples that you didn't have that education or support at that time. And then it's like when you learn about this stuff later it's hard because you look back and you're like, well crap, like if I had only known that then. But I so I say this not to Cause you that regret, but I say this to say I wonder what happened in those early days that did not support your milk supply. That you know what I mean, that Cause not everybody leaks and that's not a sign of milk supply. But it sounds like that's kind of what happened for you, that something happened that did not support your milk supply, and then again you go down that normal trajectory of baby needs to eat and that's, and that often ends up in stopping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know I couldn't tell you, but if I do have another kid out, I would definitely like look into it a little bit more. But you know, it felt like a, you know, and I'm sure other moms that struggle with it relate. It felt like I was doing everything right, you know, and then I would yeah, you know, you put the baby on, they get off. You put the baby on. It felt constant with both of my babies, you know. So I felt like I was doing it right. And then when I noticed, like you know, supply was low or this was happening, or you know, I googled things like what's a pumping schedule? What's this, what's that? How can I, you know, make more milk? Like what I went, supplements, I went what I always forget, like the Super pump or something, session, whatever that's called. Oh power pumping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I had multiple different things, so I feel like I put in the effort, right, but there was still something that I I know there was something there and maybe it was, you know, going through the pain a little bit more of, or or trying to heal that more instead of trying all of the other Things, the extra things you know, like I said, the supplements, the pumping that, this and that, and really narrowing down on the pain and the latch. Maybe it would have been different. I don't, you know, I I couldn't tell you I'd, but you know that's okay, and you don't have to have that answer.
Speaker 3:I just I say to you that you didn't fail. You Clearly tried everything in your arsenal and everything that is out there as far as recommendations, and that's kind of. The unfortunate part, though, is that there's so many recommendations out there, but if it's not like individualized to you, then none of those things will work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think that's I. That's true with everything you know, nutrition wise and in this breastfeeding and all the things, if so many things out there but if you don't get it to work for you individually, it's not going to go anywhere. And I think exactly breastfeeding in particular it's. It's very scary because it's something like you said you, you take this baby home and you're responsible for feeding them with your body. So it does feel like you're the issue that you're, you know, not doing something right, and maybe it is, but it's because of a lack of education and knowledge about it.
Speaker 1:Exactly because you don't want to and different things.
Speaker 2:So that's something I want to be clear, because there are some people on social media that we've come across recently too, that Kind of make it feel like it's your fault that you gave up, that you did. You know, you just should have stuck with it. You know that kind of thing. And that's not the case at all, because many people Do stick with it and they do the things. But instead of saying that you should have just stuck with it, give us some more knowledge, give us some more support.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I there are some of those accounts and I do not subscribe to that and I have to hold my tongue because it makes me so, so deeply angry. But there is and I'm like don't do it be the bigger person. But there is this group of people out there that believes that if you don't breastfeed, then you didn't try hard enough and you did not love your baby enough and you did not choose what was best for your baby and that if you feel shame around that, that you are the problem and that you need to go, like, check your mental health. And that makes me so angry.
Speaker 1:As someone who like actively breastfeeds, that makes me angry. I don't like seeing the things on there that says are you ashamed that you couldn't breastfeed? Because you're ashamed by a society or because you feel shame that you didn't? And I'm like what?
Speaker 3:Exactly. That's crazy and people are like I'm not shaming you. If you feel shame, that means that you have something internally that you need to work on and I can't. I just can't Because there is a bigger problem here. There's a bigger problem that I'm one person. I can't fix it, but I'm going to try. I'm going to try to do whatever I can, but at the same time it's a society problem that it's the health insurance, it's the lack of paid maternal leave, it is the lack of societal acceptance of nursing your baby.
Speaker 3:It is the sexualization of breastfeeding in our society that deters people and people are like I've never seen anyone breastfeed, so I don't know how to breastfeed. It's not normal to just go breastfeed your baby somewhere. There's so many things and that is not even including Brie what you went through of people that tried their hardest and something was not working. So, like I said, I really have to hold my tongue, but sometimes I don't because you're just being mean, You're just being unrealistic and I can tell you've never actually worked one-on-one with a new parent if you're actually saying those things Like no, yeah right.
Speaker 1:And again out in public and stuff. I still have a problem, 16 months in, still have a problem with feeling I get so anxious in public. I just can't do it. It just has been one of the biggest things for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's funny because, as much as I say, whip it out whatever, I don't know how I'm going to feel and I don't Right right, because I'm like, and I think about it sometimes, I'll be somewhere. I'm like, how would I feel if my boob was out right now? Like I just, you know, probably weird and probably people would look at me. But I think it's the more of us that do it, the more people that see it, the more normal it becomes. I know, I know you're one person and I'm one person, but it takes one and then more come and that is part of the societal change. So I don't know how we got here, but yeah, I mean I think it's important too.
Speaker 2:It's just it sucks. Because you're right, though, sharing your story, sharing something and sharing, if you have, like, the knowledge around it to support, I think is important just to make that change. I mean I feel for you, felicia, like you know, pulling, having to pull it out, but I mean, in one way I don't relate because I haven't. I didn't do that, you know, just because my experience was so different. But I saw women do it and I remember feeling like, you know, like a little bit of some of that shame, but maybe it was because sometimes people make you feel like you should be ashamed of it. And I mean thinking about breastfeeding and like women get hate all the time for not wearing a bra and you have a shirt on. Imagine, like breastfeeding, like, oh my gosh, we, the steps to this, are just out of control.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, there's so many layers, there's so many layers, there's so many layers. And then I'm like well, yes, I can understand why you might feel like not shame or guilt in those situations when you see other people doing it. But I take that so many steps back and say, well, that's because society told you that your body could do it and you are meant to breastfeed, and it'll just happen and it's fine, like that's, because 18 steps ago that's what you were led to believe, right, and so that's not your fault.
Speaker 1:Exactly and full circle back to the education part is like you need to be prepared. Yes and just, we just have like. One last thing is can you give a tip for our mamas who are getting started with breastfeeding, or something that is often missed in the first few sessions that we don't typically get?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so are you talking about someone who has just delivered or someone who's pregnant?
Speaker 1:Let's go with pregnant, because further back well, the further back we go, the more you're prepared, you can be right.
Speaker 2:Let's go with delivered.
Speaker 3:Oh, so, yeah, so I'll do both. I'll do both, yeah, okay. So a tip for someone who's pregnant and just getting started is, I mean, I feel like this is expected to educate yourself but also learn that this information will not just be given to you. You have to seek it out and you have to take an active role in learning this. And that is not me saying like, oh, you just have to try hard enough and it'll work. No, that's just me saying like, just because of how everything in life is structured, this like you have to go find it.
Speaker 3:The other thing is that you're probably not a 24 millimeter size flange. Okay, Like PSA, those people are smaller than a 24 millimeter flange. So measure your flange size. And if you don't know what a flange size is, it's the thing that actually cups your breast and your nipple, goes in and out of on your breast pump and I think you do video on your thing. So it's this. So measure your flange and like, for reference this is a funny fact this is a 27 millimeter flange and this 27 and 24 come standard in most pumps. This fits a cow udder.
Speaker 1:Oh my word, are you serious? Yes, hi.
Speaker 3:I'm serious. Wow. Why do we give this to human women? Please tell me. I know Some people are a 27 millimeter, so if you're listening to this and you're a 27 millimeter, first of all I would say are you really happy measured? But number two, if you are, no shade, no shame. However, most people like the average flange size is like 15 to 17.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and those don't exist.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they don't. So you have to buy them from a third party on Amazon, which tells me men made breast pumps Right, like, why would you? That doesn't make sense. Those aren't most people's nipples. So those are my two tips during pregnancy Also, like, set boundaries and have a plan and share your goals with your circle.
Speaker 3:Like, share your goals with your partner so they know how to support you and they know how to advocate for you, because there will be moments where you feel like you're the only one that can feed the baby, and that is true. But your partner can help with everything else and I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole of like, well, they might not get paternity leave, and I understand that. However, you're both making a decision to make a child, or, if you're not making a decision to make a child, you are in a situation where you're having a child now. So if you have a partner, they can help. Number two is set boundaries with your family members, because everyone in their brother will have an opinion about everything you do in parenting, but very much how you feed your baby. So set boundaries early so it's not as uncomfortable when you have the baby and you're half asleep and you can't really advocate for yourself.
Speaker 3:My number one tip for postpartum is ask for support early and often so if there's something that you think is off, if you're having pain, don't wait. Like it is not worth it to wait until your nipples are bleeding to reach out for support and that is no shame to you guys. Like I'm saying, I wish someone would have told you that sooner and would have helped you sooner, because once you have an open area, it's really hard to heal it. So if you're having pain, reach out immediately so it doesn't get to that point. Or if there's a weight gain issue with the baby, or if there's a medical condition, like, get support early, do not wait. I think the structure of how traditional lactation support is that it's there for if you have a problem, versus it needs to be there before you have a problem. So don't wait until there's a problem, because it's often like so much harder to unravel that problem than it is to like just put you on a better trajectory so it doesn't get worse. So that is my best post-product.
Speaker 2:I love it absolutely and I think with second baby I did ask for more help than I did with the first, because that was something I learned. But I think it's important to keep in mind that, depending on your insurance or the hospital you go to or different things, they're still unfortunately kind of limited within bounds, so you may have to seek outside help, which might even be better. And I just didn't do that because I thought, oh, I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask, but that is something that possibly it could have done different. Also, and I just like to put out there because, if it's in your means because I know that's an issue for some people too to please maybe branch out elsewhere too.
Speaker 3:Yes, and I love that you said that, because insurance, I'm pretty sure, is only required to cover two lactation visits, unless there's like a diagnosis. So, number one, you may be paying privately. If you have an HSA account, you probably just depleted it with your birth, so that's something to prepare for as well during pregnancy and put in your budget if you can. If you can't, if you can't afford that postpartum support, if you are in the US, wic is an amazing resource, like WIC does.
Speaker 3:It's not just for low income, it is also for kiddos with medical assistance or parents with medical assistance for any qualifying medical condition, and all of the people at WIC are trained in lactation support, so many of them are certified lactation counselors. There are a lot that are lactation consultants. There's a lot of dieticians, but every single staff member is trained in lactation support and it's free. So WIC is a resource that's really important to keep in mind. But if not, like you said, sometimes you have to reach out privately, which is what I do, and I do not accept insurance for the reason that insurance does not allow me to do what I do because it's too many visits and it's too much support. I do accept HSA, but, yeah, I just it's stupid but, I agree.
Speaker 2:Just that sentence in general was just like. I mean, it's a fact, it's just a little fresh, it is.
Speaker 3:It's so frustrating and I hope that that changes in my lifetime, but I'm not convinced that it will. So that means that I think just sharing this knowledge with each other and sharing it with a person that gets pregnant like hey, you might need to budget for lactation support also, like put that on your baby registry, oh yeah that's a great idea.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's an excellent idea. Excellent, excellent idea oh yeah, that's a good one. We're gonna have to put that. Write that in like the show and highlight that again. Or my next child. Yeah that's yeah, I know for real.
Speaker 3:That is such a good one and I say that, yeah, like obviously I have something unique to give when my friends have babies, but I give them, like, either a huge coupon or like here's your lactation support, like that's what I give to people that want breastfeed, and I did that before I had this business, because people don't need it or, excuse me, people don't know they need it until you're there and I'm telling you right now on your baby registry you need it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually that's gonna have to go we were talking about making like a list or like things just, you know, to help and get questions and stuff, and we wanna support our momma. So it's like, okay, that's definitely going on the list, yeah it's good.
Speaker 3:I also have an Amazon list that I made. This is like. You're welcome to take a look at that.
Speaker 1:I was about to bring that up. I was just about to ask you if you could have like a Kristen's like list, like for products, because I know, like the nipple butter or you know, that kind of stuff is really yes, can be helpful.
Speaker 3:So you know what's funny. Nipple butter is not on my list.
Speaker 1:Oh it's not.
Speaker 3:It's not.
Speaker 1:I actually didn't like using it, so I was like maybe it works for someone else. It didn't work for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's usually harmless, like the ones with lanolin are usually harmless. But yeah, it goes back to that core concept of that. If you're having pain, nipple butter is not gonna help it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It didn't Right. Yeah, it's not it did not right.
Speaker 3:So they're called silverettes. Oh yeah, so they're these. Tell me about those. Yes, they're these little tiny silver cups that just go in your in your box. Looks like you're a robot when you're walking around with them, unless you have padding over them, but this is what's used in like hospitals for healing wounds and your nipples. If you leave them yep, if you leave them dry, they're gonna crack. So if they're already sore, put breast milk in this cup, put it in your bra and wear them all day between nursing sessions. The breast milk has healing properties, has the immune properties. These keep it wet and sanitized and safe and these heal way better than nipple butter ever will. So this is an essential.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know about those until right this moment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah so that's really cool, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But that list is we need to check out. I just wanna check out the link now to see like if there was other things that I didn't buy that I was like, oh, that would have helped or anything but.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:Some of them are like for older babies, like cause I also do feeding therapy, so some of them are like like certain kinds of pacifiers are better than others, so like this is terrible because this teaches your baby to compress the nipple. This is better, this is best, that's so good to know. So things like that.
Speaker 1:My daughter actually preferred that the. Was it the Phillips advent? Yeah, so that was okay, that was like a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Almost that was okay. It's not my. I actually feel like these might be. I think these are knock off to the advent. Oh, really yeah. But you just don't want something with like a squished nipple, cause that's teaching them. We kind of yeah, yeah, and you also had bleeding nipples, yes.
Speaker 1:And then I also get little blisters that I would have to pop with a sanitary needle myself. That's how bad some of them got. I was like it was blocked and I got my sinus once from it and I was like this is horrible.
Speaker 3:He has say to everyone go to your doctor to pop the blister.
Speaker 1:Yes, actually, please don't take that as advice. It was horrible. Don't do it.
Speaker 2:We're your mom friends. We're not qualified on this, telling them experience.
Speaker 1:Don't take the advice, please, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Well, that seriously was an amazing episode. I think we got a ton of great advice. I think this is gonna be incredibly, incredibly helpful. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your expertise with us. Before we go, can you please share how our mamas can find you or any resources you may have, just so they know a little bit more about you?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, so. You can find me on Instagram at the lactation mentor or at thelactationmentorcom. I'm on Instagram, tiktok, facebook primarily on Instagram. I have a free prenatal planning guide. It's like 23 pages of all the things that you need to know before birth for breastfeeding, because I feel like everyone should have access to that information, whether you choose to work with me or not. So that is linked to my bio. It's completely free, and then I am also launching my fall groups. So I do like, based on your due date, I onboard people and obviously we meet one to one and do prenatal, but then I also am throwing you all together in a group of beautiful, wonderful new moms that can lean on each other, commiserate together and share and celebrate wins and not be in a toxic, scary Facebook group where you get some crazy advice. So that is what is going on in my business right now and I would love to have all of you join me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. We will definitely put those in the show notes, guys. So if you want to go down there and click on our stuff and check her out, there's so much stuff going on in there and we absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, if anything, go check out her Instagram, because there's something that's going to resonate, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:Try to be as relatable and digestible as possible. I'm not trying to be like unrealistic. I want to be as realistic as possible because that's how you're successful Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we love to see it. And well, thank you so much for coming on here and letting us give everyone some really good resources and advice, and hopefully everyone has learned something. But thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me, of course.
Speaker 1:Bye, mama.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for joining us today. We're so excited you're taking this journey with us. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please subscribe, leave a rating or review or tell another mama about us.
Speaker 1:To stay up to date with Post-Pond and Confessions and get all the behind the scenes content, you can join our email list or follow us on Instagram at postpondandconfessions underscore. All the links are in our show notes. They say it takes a village. Welcome home, mama.