Born to be Breastfed

Having a preemie can be stressful and frightening for many parents. Instead of having your baby in your arms while 'rooming in'' with you, he’s in a bed in the NICU with beeping machines and medical staff at the ready. The feeling of distance created by the demands of your baby’s health condition, which require others to be his primary caregivers, can make it hard to feel like you are “mothering” your little one. Tune in as Marie speaks with Jennifer Canvasser about how babywearing in the NICU can help your baby’s health and give you a sense of connecting with your baby. Find out how you can keep your baby safe while babywearing -in spite of the many wires and tubes-, and learn how to get support for babywearing in your hospital’s NICU. Learn from Jennifer’s experience as the NICU mom of twins, and get the “how to” tips you need to help you care for your preemie. Questions? E-mail [email protected]

Face it: You are not in love with your pump. Hooking yourself up to a machine that literally sucks the milk out of you isn’t something you enjoy or look forward to. Yet, day after day, you do it so that you can provide the goodness of your milk for your baby. But are you sick of hooking yourself up to a machine and having all the hassles of assembling, using, disassembling and cleaning pump parts? Plus lugging the pump around, losing tiny pump parts or not finding an electrical outlet? Wondering if is there an easier way?For many women, there is!

Join Marie as her special guest, Francie Webb, tells how she hated pumping, and accidentally discovered how to hand express—and get several ounces without really trying! Even if you’ve tried hand expression unsuccessfully in the past, it’s a good bet that you’ll hear Francie’s tried-and-true tips, and want to try it again!

You feel sure that your insurance plan will cover the purchase of a breast pump. But beyond that, what can you be sure of? You might simply assume that you can select any pump you want—and get it when and where you want it. That’s often not the case at all! More importantly, your insurance company might not cover the pump you need for your circumstances. And might you be better off renting a pump? But if you’re entitled to own a pump, why would that make any sense?

Join Marie and her guest, Robin Williams, as they jolt you out of any complacence or assumptions you might have about insurance covering your pump. They’ll tell you what might—or might not happen—and how that can affect you. Listen as they bust many myths, and clarify the facts about insurance and breast pumps, and help you to become your own best advocate, before it’s too late.

Are your nipples tender, painful, sore, cracked, bleeding, dry, or infected? Have your friends—or even health care professionals—urged you to put some cream, ointment, oil or other product on your nipples? Would it work if you did? Which is a magic bullet—if any? Do these products prevent, or cure—both, or neither? Have any been proven to be safe and effective? Does one work better than another? Are there any to avoid, or any that taste bad to the baby? How much do you apply, and must it be washed off before each feeding? And might putting some of you milk on your nipples work just as well, or perhaps better?

Join Marie and pharmacist Wendy Jones for a whirlwind tour of the 10 creams and ointments most often seen in clinical practice in the US and in the UK. Hear some verbatim quotes from the research, as well as Marie's and Wendy’s expert opinions. Find out when and if these are best for your problem—or if you need a different kind of help.

It's true: love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life. If you love breastfeeding—if it has been a life-changing event for you--it may seem like no work at all to help others do so. There are mother-to-mother support groups and peer counseling, but is it time for you to go pro?

Join Marie for a talk that will have you thinking about your experience and your options. If you don't think you have the time, resources, or stamina to go pro, listen for how other mothers have overcome such obstacles. Learn the one most important thing you need for going pro. (It’s not what you think!) Find out the 6 most important reasons why going pro probably fits with your values and aspirations. Tune in for insight about how you can complete your training and earn your credential, whether you are still breastfeeding, getting ready to retire, or somewhere in between. Now more than ever might be the time to go pro! For more info, see http://bit.ly/2Cz72YA

Three of four people who set New Year resolutions keep them through the first week. But fewer than 1 in 10 goal-setters actually achieve them. Yet people who don’t identify their aims are even less likely to attain them.

As a breastfeeding mom, maybe you have found it difficult to set your schedule and get things done in the same way as before you were feeding a baby every few hours. Maybe you wonder if you will meet your goal to breastfeed your baby beyond 6 months, when so many moms don’t. What are the differences between those who achieve their goals, and those who do not? What strategies can help you meet your goals?

As Hillary DePiano astutely notes under the tag MOTHER TIME: We all get the exact same 365 days. The only difference is what we do with them.” 365 days from now, will you have met your goals?

Join Marie for help with your resolutions, including intriguing facts, thought-provoking info, and practical tips for getting from wishing to achieving what you really want.

It seems inevitable. For many of us, the holidays bring joy and festivity, but also stress and an overfull to-do list. New parents are often charmed by sharing family celebrations and seasonal favorites with their young baby, but it can feel overwhelming. Are you wondering if you can survive this holiday season? You can! Tune in as Marie helps you figure out how to navigate the season’s particular challenges--from family gatherings with annoying critics to traveling across the miles to dealing with common breastfeeding problems to figuring out whether you can have that traditional New Year’s champagne—without going bonkers. Listen for advice that will help you meet your baby’s needs, you family’s needs, and your own during this hustle-bustle season without sacrificing your breastfeeding goals. Join Marie for essential strategies that will help you not just survive but thrive this holiday season.

Pregnancy and/or infant loss brings tremendous and life-altering sorrow to expectant families. In particular, the death of a child upends the imagined trajectory of the breastfeeding relationship. Some mothers who have experienced such a loss find healing by expressing and donating their milk. Others do not. How do we help all to know their options, support their efforts, or fend off inaccurate breastfeeding advice? In this episode, Amy Wright Glenn—author, doula, chaplain, and creator of the Holdings Space for Pregnancy Loss training—focuses on how pregnancy and/or infant loss connects to breastfeeding.

Whether or not you have been personally impacted by pregnancy or infant loss, you may find yourself wanting to make a connection with and become a companion to bereaved families. Join Amy and Marie as they help you to hold the space, speak the words, and companion the lactating mother within the broader human context of what it means for us mortals to live, love and let go.

New parents often hear that they should let the baby “cry it out” lest they “spoil” the baby. Many parents take such advice to heart and try strategies like “crying it out,” especially at naptime or bedtime. After all, the argument goes, how will the baby ever learn to settle himself? However, our understanding of brain development in infancy and toddlerhood shows the error in such thinking: Babies need loving and responsive positive caregiving for healthy development. If you’ve done “cry it out,” you may worry that you’ve damaged your child. Take heart. There is hope. Join Marie as she talks with Tracy Cassels, PhD about how to support your baby’s needs and recover from “cry it out.” (Be sure to also listen to: “Sleep Like A Baby: What it Means and What it Doesn't http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/90522/sleep-like-a-baby-what-it-means-and-what-it-doesnt)

You might have heard the term “cue-based” feeding or “on-demand” feeding. Do you know the difference between the early cues, and the late cues? Or, perhaps you learned about early or late cue-based feeding, but you now that your baby is here, it’s not always easy to recognize those cues. Today, Marie and her guest, Emily Cunningham talk about the easy-to-recognize cues, as well as the subtler cues. When should you to trust those cues, and when should you wonder: is there a situation where the clock is important?

Whether you’re a parent or a professional, you’ve probably bumped into some factors that make it easy to learn the newborn’s cues, as well as some that, quite truthfully, were barriers to learning the cues or being able to act on them. Listen as Marie and Emily tell you about a quality improvement project that raised awareness at Emily’s hospital of how to make cue-based feedings easier for parents, as well as for professionals, and the importance of a multi-level approach.