Born to be Breastfed

If you are an active-duty mother or mother-to-be (or a partner, support person, or health care provider), be sure to listen in as Marie talks with Robyn Roche-Paull, BSN, RN, IBCLC, author of Breastfeeding in Combat Boots: A Survival Guide to Successful Breastfeeding While Serving in the Military about how to juggle the roles of breastfeeding mom and active serviceperson.

Do you want to breastfeed and wonder how you will combine long shifts, training exercises, and/or deployment with meeting the needs of your baby?

This is a must-listen show for tried-and-true tips and how-to information that will ensure your success. Learn about the written policies many branches of the military now have in place to support breastfeeding, which

direct commanders to provide time and space for pumping needs, as well as how to overcome criticism and other challenges. Questions? E-mail [email protected] anytime.

Body modifications—piercings, tattoos, and laser removal of tattoos—are increasingly popular among women of childbearing age. Millions of women in the U.S. have them, and these days, many artists may refuse to offer body mods to pregnant or breastfeeding women. Does that mean they’re incompatible during the childbearing cycle? What’s the impact of body mods on breastfeeding? And, conversely, what is the impact of breastfeeding on body mods, if any?

Join Marie and her guest, Robyn Roche-Paull, RN BSN IBCLC, as they explain that it’s not just a matter of safety. What are the best practices, worst practices, or optional practices? Find out: What questions should you ask? What precautions should you take? When is the optimal time for getting your body mods in relation to pregnancy or breastfeeding? The extent of physical, practical and financial implications differ from one individual to another, but you need to know those implications, their effect on breastfeeding and beyond.

Weaning is about the process of getting the nursing baby to stop nursing. That’s simple enough to understand, right? But is there more to know? Oh yes! With so much criticism of weaning a baby who is too young or too old, we all need to ask ourselves…what’s the social norm, and what’s the biological norm? What can we learn from other cultures, or other mammalian species? Is it possible that parents misinterpret the baby’s interest in weaning? Is the baby trying to wean himself, or is he staging a nursing strike? If he is simply disinterested, what three possibilities might explain the disinterest? What’s a nursing strike, and how do you resolve it if you recognize it? What can you do or not do to help the breastfed baby consume table foods? On the whole, how can you make weaning from the breast a better experience for the baby and the entire family? Listen as Marie gives some evidence-based insights and some practical tips.

We all agree on the importance of support for breastfeeding mothers. But how can we get—or give—that support? You might not need a one-on-one appointment and expertise of an IBCLC. A support group run by La Leche League or Breastfeeding USA might not appeal to you. Yet, you’d like a little more than good advice from a friendly neighbor. Is there any other option? Yes! You could drop into a Baby-Café! With multiple locations throughout the United States open one or more times a week, this model has a proven track record for good outcomes.

Join Marie and her special guest, Lucia Jenkins, founder of Baby-Café USA. See why the Baby Café model works in many settings and is flexible enough to accommodate different community profiles. Learn how you can get support from specially-trained staff, share experiences and make friends, and engage in open-forum discussions. Or, if you want to start a Baby Café, find out how little time, effort, and money it takes to get it up and running.

Your Quick Guide to Therapeutic Breast Massage in Lactation.

Have you ever been in that situation where seemingly nothing relieves the pain and swelling of engorgement? You’ve tried hand expression, warm packs, cold packs, pumping and more, and still, the milk seems completely stuck! What more is there to try? How about Therapeutic Breast Massage in Lactation (TBML). Is this some new technique? No. Is it the same as massage? No. Okay, then how is it different? Is it the same as hand expression? No. Does it work? Yes! So how can we learn to perform TBML or teach other women to do it so that it relieves that painful engorgement? Then, after it works, how will we explain why?

Join Marie and her special guests, Maya Bolman RN IBCLC and Ann Witt, MD, as they explain this simple technique that is easy to perform, is immediately effective, and has no side effects!

Whether you’re breastfeeding or formula-feeding, you have days when you feel overwhelmed, underprepared, fearful, and stuck. You feel like you are accomplishing nothing, and you realize that the excuses are piled higher than the dishes. Have you heard yourself apologizing that your house is too cluttered for guests to come over? Are you fearful that you’ll need to give up your own hopes and dreams in order to raise your family? Do you find yourself not feeling like “you” anymore? And maybe you have already been told that “breastfeeding ties you down”. But is that true? Now is the time to take stock of what is, what isn’t, and get some insights on how to cope with it all. The truth is that mothers have the strength within—it’s just a matter of finding it.

Join Marie and her special guest, Rachel Marie Martin, author of The Brave Art of Motherhood and find out how you can fight fear, gain confidence, and find yourself.

Most of the advice you’ll hear from friends and family during your baby’s early days will fall into the category of “same old, same old.” Join Marie as she goes beyond the usual topics with Tipper Gallagher (www.theboobgeek.com). Listen for discussion about info mothers want to hear, need to hear, don’t hear (but need to), and don’t want to hear. Learn strategies for finding a breastfeeding supportive health care provider, parenting through the tough spots, deciding about galactagogues, and figuring out strategies to sustain breastfeeding when going back to work. If you have comments or questions, e-mail [email protected] any time.

Over the years, hundreds of people have asked, Marie, how did you get into the breastfeeding business? In this episode, you'll find out how Marie's early struggles led to a successful career in promoting, protecting, and supporting breastfeeding. Just as importantly, you'll realize that wherever you are in your own journey, personal or professional you have the ability to help yourself, and to help others. Find out what Marie deems to be critical skills needed to help others to breastfeed, even if you don't yet have any formal knowledge or credentials. And, you'll be inspired! Marie claims that being a top host on VoiceAmerica's Health & Wellness channel for five years given her a bigger platform to continue promoting, protecting, and supporting breastfeeding, as Born to Be Breastfed airs in 65 different countries. Best of all, this is a rare opportunity to hear some personal anecdotes that shaped Marie's past and will shape her future.

Custody battles are never pretty. Courts use a number of considerations to determine the outcome of such battles. Why is it that the breastfeeding relationship is often not considered, or its importance minimized? Is it that breastfeeding isn’t on the court’s radar? Is it that the courts are uninformed, or misinformed? Or is it something else? And how does breastfeeding complicate custody arrangements?

Join Marie and her guest, Shannon McKenny Shubert, Executive Director of the Michigan Breastfeeding Network. As a breastfeeding advocate, Shannon explains issues from a legal as well as cultural perspective. Learn about the actions and reactions of mothers, fathers, lawyers, judges and friends of the court—and how the child’s age impacts the situation. Explore how or if the courts have a supportive role for breastfeeding couplets, and discover what all of us can do, right now, to promote, protect and support breastfeeding as child custody threatens the nursing relationship.

You’ve heard others say how important it is to create a birthing plan. Maybe you even created a birthing plan for yourself! But who has ever created a postpartum plan? And why should they? Once you’ve had the baby it’s all smooth sailing, right? Maybe. Unless you feel like you’re set adrift in a sea of undone tasks—and you’re already exhausted.

In this episode, Marie and her guest, postpartum doula Erin Huiatt, explain the importance of creating a plan to make your postpartum course, including your breastfeeding experience, a little smoother. You’ll get insights into questions you might not have thought of, hurdles you didn’t know you’d need to jump, and tips on how to enable others to provide the help they would honestly like to give. You can choose what’s important to include in your plan. But having that plan in advance helps you to nurture yourself and your family—and be nurtured by others.