All About Breastfeeding

Eddie shares his personal insights about how he viewed breasts before his wife gave birth and after when she started breastfeeding: Yes, Eddie is the first Dad that I have interviewed on the show. Before his wife got pregnant he saw breastfeeding as being a natural part of normal everyday life, However, he does admit that being a guy there were some uncomfortable aspects of it. Being a guy and being attracted to woman and being attracted to breasts and seeing them with their breasts exposed, it was uncomfortable. There were times when he would be having a conversation with a woman and one part of his brain is going wow what a beautiful woman and looking at her breasts and the other part of my brain is like – look the other way.

Eddie grew up in a rather religious household that things like sex education were not being talked about. However, he definitely has always felt that breastfeeding is something that was totally natural. I was never offended previously tohis wife having their child and it is not something that I never found offensive. If anything, it was just about himfeeling uncomfortable with the sexuality part of it.

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I was introduced to Vanessa from Kate Erickson from Kates Take on Entrepreneur on Fire. I have loved her podcast and I wish I had this show around when I was pregnant.

Vanessa tells us she is originally from San Diego, mom, dad and brother. who is two years younger. Small family and no extended family.Dad serial entrepreneur and home with family a lot. She spent her childhood on the sand and sun and skateboarding. Love SD and lives with her husband and 1 1/2 year old. Went to college in Santa Barbara and then came back to San Diego.

She always thought she would have been that big corner office, big corporate job, which she feels she did achieve, but never thought she would be doing anything entrep or pregnancy at all, but being a parent has helped see the world and her life and through a differ perspective. It is through being a mom that I have found this passion to help parents navigate birth and all the craziness that all comes along with it. As a younger person, I never imagined that I would be doing the work that I am currently doing.

She got turned onto birth during her pregnancy. During her pregnancy she admits to being pretty obsessed with researching and making sure she made the best decisions for her and consuming all that information and then being able to have a really good birth experience. and being able to Sticking to her birth plan has been great and being nice to able to help other people where they can do the same thing. Helping them make good decisions about their pregnancy and birth where they feel good and confident about their decisions and plan for their birth and execute the plan for what they want.

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We have a discussion about the differences in how babies respond to the procedure, the aftercare exercises and how long it takes some babies to recover from the procedure and mothers and babies to get to the place of normal breastfeeding. Dr. Agarwal highlights the fact that the tongue does not know how to really move well as it has been restricted for so long. So all the mechanics of the tongue movement and how it is going to function – all this change needs an adjustment period. It takes a while for the tongue to figure out what it is suppose to do. There are also a lot of pieces to this recovery and normal breastfeeding. Some of these moving parts ( variables) are:

1. Mom's breast size,

2. Mom's milk production.

3. Mom's pain level

4. Mom's perception of babies pain

5. Babies pain or soreness level

6. Babies, palate, jaw, tongue length, just to name a few variables.

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Dr Rajeev Agarwal is a local pediatrician in Arizona. He has a beautiful wife and 2 children. Dr. Agarwal moved to Arizona in 2005 and opened his first office the same year. If you are ever in the area, you must take a tour of his amazing office, It truly is a treat. He has since moved to a second office. Over the years, he has received many awards, which he proudly displays in his office. He is an expert in tongue tie procedures and has performed many over the past few years. He is also a member of the (IATP) International Association of Tongue Tie Professionals. Dr Agarwal is in hot demand as a speaker and has spoken world wide.

Dr. Agarwal was born in India, and grew up in different cities because his father worked for the government as a telecommunications engineer and he would get transferred to different cities every few years. His mother stayed home with her 4 children. Dr. Agarwal describes his growing up years as being very blessed and living a very charmed life with doting parents and siblings. He was very creative with painting and drawing. His mother leaned towards treating childhood illnesses with home medicine and this is where the seeds were planted for being a physician and using natural medicine. He started engineering school and did well, but it was not very fulfilling. He did really well with it but did not feel the love. It was his sister who saw in him that he did not seem very happy with this. Since she saw that he was always the one asking people how they were doing and was so kind and caring, that perhaps he would enjoy being a Doctor. He said okay, took the exam and was accepted into medical school. As a kid growing up, it is not anything I ever thought I would be doing. We are a very close knit family She was in medical school. She said you will probably enjoy medicine more than the physics and math and I am so glad that she suggested as this was the best decision I made in my life.

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Joanna Wilder RN, BSN, LM, CPM has been practicing "good birth" for 25 years. As a nurse Joanna started out in an inner city Phoenix hospital in 1990. Three years gave her a good foundation in Labor and Delivery, Nursery and Postpartum. Next, she helped create Bethany Birth Center. For fourteen years, she had the privilege to work as a nurse in the birth center, led a unique childbirth education program, and served as a community liaison orienting women to birth choices in AZ. This birth center closed in 2007. In November 2006, she began to work toward her licensure as a midwife. In May 2010, she was licensed as a midwife in AZ and completed her national certification or CPM in April of 2011. Joanna has been involved in grass roots community development in inner city Phoenix for 25 years. She works with a teen mom program in "the neighborhood", and also with a breastfeeding grant program bringing support to Hispanic moms. She is passionate about helping women learn to trust their bodies. One of her passions, birthed from her own story, is walking with women as they heal from childhood sexual abuse. Joanna believes that the birth space is "holy ground". Breastfeeding creates a powerful space for attachment and bonding to occur, and for mothers to reclaim their bodies, and their stories.

Sleep deprivation

Heather Kinsy was born and raised in Arizona and now residing in Oregon. She is married to Michael and mom of 2 boys, Joseph 2 years old and Vincent 4 months. She is an Associate Director in Technical project management for an International Clinic Research Organization and enjoys the flexibility of a home based working arrangement She enjoys cooking and baking exercising is an advocate for natural birth and breastfeeding. Heather had a very tight knit community with her classmates and extended family living within 1 mile of the house that she grew up in. She is just now realizing what a blessing it was to have both sets of grandparents who lived close and were healthy for many, many years. Heather has a younger sister who is an amazing support person for her. While she misses her Phoenix family and friends, she does not miss the heat.

Heather shares with us her story of the births of both of her sons. She had natural childbirths with both her babies and was very pleased with her experiences. Heather had a difficult time with breastfeeding her first son Joseph and hoped for a better experience with her second son Vincent. Joseph was tongue tied and she suffered with poor latch, a high level of pain and low milk supply in this breastfeeding relationship. She worked very hard to keep up with pumping when she returned to work, and yet at a certain point, her supply began to gradually drop and she discontinued pumping and breastfeeding in his 8th month. When Heather was pregnant the second time, she took steps ahead of time to ensure that she educated herself during her pregnancy and she also made sure she connected with an IBCLC before giving birth.

After an evaluation by a specialist, she was told her son was tongue tied. While she was not happy that this was something she was going to have to deal with, she was happy to know that she was with the right pediatric practice who was familiar with babies with tongue tie. She had the procedure done and within a day, she realized that breastfeeding was so much better. She could really feel that her baby had a good latch now and there was very little soreness, if any. Heather could also tell that Vincent had a better, more productive feeding. He seemed more at ease and she could tell his belly was full. From that point on, she was able to breastfeed Vincent. With all the difficulties she had with Joseph, the pain and the low milk supply, she was pleasantly surprised to have a very different experience with Vincent and thrilled that she was making plenty of milk. Almost too much milk. Heather talks to us about how making too much milk can sometimes be a problem and what she did to work through this.

Medication and milk drying up

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.