When a woman gets pregnant, her body changes and transforms. Surely the most obvious change is the increase in the size of the belly, but did you know that the breasts also grow and change? So in this article, we will talk about the changes and sensations that a woman usually experiences in her breasts during pregnancy. Before we start, a little note to understand this topic better: the mammary gland at birth is the same in girls and boys….
Lumps can occur in the breast during lactation, which usually puts the woman on alert. A thorough anamnesis is essential to know the cause of the complaint and its treatment. The most common causes of lumps are duct obstruction, breast abscess, and galactocele. Obstructions of the duct are due to stasis of milk caused by difficulties in the milk let-down due to suboptimal breastfeeding technique. In addition, pressure may be performed on the duct, for example, the pressure applied by…
The 8-month developmental leap occurs when the infants have reached some essential developmental milestones: they will sit up on their own or almost, eat solid foods, understand some words, and be able to express basic emotions (anger, sadness, joy). Although, undoubtedly, they still have a lot of learning to do. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that infants experience different cognitive and emotional development stages as they grow and mature. In the sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to 2…
Throughout the breastfeeding journey, there are many moments of change. Some of these new situations are directly related to the baby’s growth and development. Sleep is one of these areas of development. The newborn will go through an evolutionary process of sleep during the first years of its life until sleep is considered more mature. At first, the infant has only two phases of sleep: active sleep and deep sleep. Active sleep is the phase of sleep in which rapid…
Babies have different sleep patterns than adults. Their sleep patterns involve a more superficial rest, with more frequent awakenings, so they can make sure their mother is by their side and that everything is going well. Even though most parents know that this means little sleep, you can’t help but be surprised by the way your baby sleeps, when it’s your first. The popular saying “You sleep like a baby!” should be more realistically changed to “You sleep like a…
With the first breath, the lungs expand, and gas exchange begins due to decreased lung resistance. Blood circulation is modified, and in the heart, the orifices and ductus that favor the passage of blood to the fetal brain close. This is a critical moment for the newborn, and it is essential that they are able to make this transition calmly and to the best of their abilities. The transition to life outside the uterus is the time immediately after birth,…
Breastfeeding grief can occur when a mother has desired, and even prepared, to be able to breastfeed her baby but is unable to do so because of circumstances. In these cases, very intense emotions are often experienced. The experience of motherhood is full of sacrifice that involves multiple emotional processes that can be categorized as grief. Although these are always natural and normal emotional processes, the healthiest thing for the person experiencing them is to feel accompanied and supported by…
When it comes to breastfeeding myths, those about breastfeeding and your period are some of the most common misconceptions. There is a lot of fear that, with the reappearance of the menstrual cycle and the period, breastfeeding will end or that breastmilk could dry up, so we have decided to answer all your questions so that you can be reassured about what happens when your period is back and you are a breastfeeding mother. Around one month after birth I…
To refrigerate and freeze pumped or hand-expressed breastmilk, you need suitable containers that guarantee breastmilk’s optimal storage and hygiene. There are several types of containers specially designed for this purpose on the market: bags and containers, of which we will see the pros and cons below. On top of that, you can also use containers that, although they have not been created to store breastmilk, are perfectly suitable for this purpose. Containers that are not specific If a container was…
We are born with a biological tendency to prefer sweet food and to avoid those that give us a bitter taste. Certain scientific hypotheses propose that this is purely for survival, so we prefer more energy-dense food. But nowadays, basing our diet on this “survival instinct,” with the type of food we have at hand today, is not very appropriate. The taste of food in mother’s milk More and more studies suggest that even before the birth of a child,…