Born to be Breastfed

It may seem surprising that breastfeeding is still a point of controversy. How can that be, when studies have shown over and over that human milk isn’t just a food but a substance optimized to meet the complex needs of the human child? Join Marie as she talks with special guest Jennifer Grayson, journalist and author of “UNLATCHED: The Evolution of Breastfeeding and the Making of a Controversy” -HarperCollins, 2016-, about the tension between “best is breast” messaging and lack of breastfeeding support. Learn about policies and practices that would make a big different, not just for breastfeeding dyads, but for overall public health. Find out what we can do to stem the controversy and find solutions that enable families to breastfeed. Comments? Questions? E-mail [email protected]

Whether you are a parent or a professional, you have already been frightened by some “scary” number associated with a newborns health. The baby has lost 10 percent of his weight. His glucose level is under 40. His bilirubin level is 18. Oh, these numbers are frightening, and the hospital insists on supplementing with artificial milk to make those numbers look better. But where is the context for these numbers? Where is the science? Are these numbers true indicators that some harm is about to happen?

Join Marie and her guest, pediatrician Jenny Thomas, MD IBCLC, FABM, as they discuss numbers related to newborn weight loss, glucose levels, and bilirubin levels. Learn how the traditionally “scary” numbers are not always an indicator of some imminent danger, and, consider the latest science that suggests that supposedly out-of-bounds numbers may be protective rather than harmful, or they may be simply inaccurate or misleading.

Happy World Breastfeeding Week! Join in celebrating with all who protect, promote, and support breastfeeding throughout the globe! Yet, as you celebrate, recognize that there’s work to be done. This year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme calls us to focus on gender-equitable strategies for breastfeeding families everywhere. So how can we do that?

Join Marie and her guest, Stephanie Brown, IBCLC for a lively discussion that addresses how clinical professionals exhibit helpful and unhelpful actions for the LGBTQIA community. Begin to become aware of how your attitude, your language, and even your clinical environment can undermine rather than empower parents, beware of how “othering” can creep into your messages, recognize how issues such as continuity of care and consent and body autonomy impact care. And, get Marie’s free handout at mariebiancuzzo.com to help you take actions to facilitate gender-equitable parental social protection.

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]

Vaping has become very popular in the United States. Unquestionably, nicotine is addictive, and mothers who are trying to kick the cigarette habit often try vaping instead. But what do we know about vaping and breastfeeding?

Join Marie and her guest, Lori Feldman-Winter, MD, MPH, in this episode that’s chock full of questions—and research-based answers—about vaping and breastfeeding. Is vaping less harmful than smoking cigarettes? Does vaping effectively help people to stop smoking cigarettes? Does frequency or number of vapes matter? Are some vaping products more or less harmful than others? Is it just nicotine, or do other chemicals pass into the milk while vaping—and are they toxic, carcinogenic, or deleterious to milk production, ejection or transfer? And, if vaping isn’t your thing, what effective strategies can you try to stop smoking? This episode truly delivers on Marie’s promise to debunk the myths and clarify the facts!

Legislation has been passed to give American mothers 12 weeks of maternity leave (1993) and private mothering rooms (2010). However, legislation alone is not enough to provide the support that breastfeeding mothers need when they return to the workplace. Three factors continue to undermine breastfeeding mothers: lack of a private place for pumping, supervisor and coworker concern about reduced worktime and interrupted productivity, and coworker resentment about mothers taking “breaks.”

Join Marie and her guests. Jie Zhuang, PhD and Joanne Goldbort RN PhD, as they describe how 25% of male and female colleagues create barriers though stigmatizing, focusing on the “ick” factor, and perceiving unfairness when working with breastfeeding colleagues. Consider how normalizing pumping/feeding at work, educating, and providing appropriate space is necessary, but not sufficient. Get some tips for how to get—or give—practical support for breastfeeding in the workplace.

Okay, so it’s just a vitamin. And hey, we’re all in good health, so consuming a little more or a little less vitamin D in a day won’t make much difference to us or to our fetuses or infants, right? And if we’re a little short on Vitamin D, we can just get a little extra sunshine on our shoulders, right? Wrong.

Join Marie and her guest, Dr. Carol Wagner, as they discuss several well-researched but lesser-known facts about the critical role of Vitamin D during pregnancy and lactation—more than any other time in a woman’s life cycle. You’ll learn the astonishing findings from Dr. Wagner’s research, the dangers of getting too little or too much vitamin D, and factors that can impact vitamin D status. And, you’ll understand why some studies suggest that Vitamin D plays a minimal role in achieving optimal health while some studies say otherwise. You’ll also get some real-life advice on natural sources of vitamin D, and find out a relatively simple way to reveal your own vitamin D status.

By now you know some basic facts: Pregnancy results in more stress on the woman’s body, more storage of body fat and body nutrients, and many hormonal changes. But you might not know how lactation impacts these factors after the birth of the baby.

Join Marie and her guest, Erica Gunderson, PhD, MPH, RD, as they discuss the lasting effects of pregnancy and lactation on the development of obesity, metabolic risk factors, type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease, especially in women with a history of gestational diabetes. Does breastfeeding protect mothers from developing diabetes in later life? How does breastfeeding protect a woman’s heart? Does lactation result in greater or faster weight loss after giving birth? Is it true that women with gestational diabetes have a delay in having their milk “come in”? Learn all of this and much more in today’s very informative episode.

Nowadays, many mothers pump and feed their milk to their full-term, healthy babies. Although the babies are capable of suckling at the breast, mothers name several reasons for doing pump-and-save or pump-and-feed, and those reasons change over time. Certainly, the benefits of the mother’s own milk outweigh the alternative: formula-feeding. But are there some consequences of feeding mother’s milk from the bottle?

Join Marie and her guest, Kathleen Rasmussen, ScD, RD, as they explore some previously-unanswered questions. What motivates breastfeeding mothers to use bottles? What methods are used for storing, transporting and preparing the milk—and are those methods optimal, or do they carry risk? Are some promised or presumed benefits lost through bottle-feeding, and if so, are the consequences identifiable, modifiable, or negligible? Whether you’re a breastfeeding mother or healthcare professional, you’ll want to hear all of the ups and downs of this increasingly-popular practice.

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!