“It all begins at the end of the feed. My nipple turns white and starts hurting. It hurts a lot and I don’t know what it is. Then, when I am in the shower or go outside and it is cold, the pain comes back again. What can it be?“ What this mother is describing is called nipple ischemia, which is a lack of blood supply that can cause a lot of pain. Ischemia can occur for many different reasons,…
How do you know if your newborn is breastfeeding well? And how do you know if exclusive breastfeeding is working? Mothers only learn how to breastfeed once they have their baby in their arms. Although we think breastfeeding is an instinct, in reality, it is not. Babies, however, do know instinctively how to breastfeed. Mothers can build their knowledge and learn it by watching other mothers breastfeeding, which is why finding a breastfeeding support group or joining other breastfeeding mothers…
When providing breastfeeding care after a cesarean section, healthcare professionals have to take into account a series of factors that have an impact on lactation. It is known that women who give birth by C-section have lower breastfeeding rates at discharge and weeks thereafter than those who have had a vaginal birth. In addition, certain myths about cesarean births can make breastfeeding even more difficult. Evidence suggests that the vast majority of difficulties with breastfeeding after a C-section are due…
When you start thinking about how to warm up pumped breast milk, you may have questions, especially the first few times you do it. But breast milk does not require much different handling than any other food. And heating breast milk is not very different from heating any other products. The only thing you have to keep in mind is that human milk is a living liquid, and therefore, mishandling it can cause the protective (living) cells to get lost….
“Hi, I’m going to have another baby soon; I’m now 34 weeks. I would like to ask you about what happened to me when I had my first baby because nobody knew what it was… My baby was breastfeeding just after the birth. Then, the midwife told me that at the end of the feed, I should put some colostrum on my nipple. And when I did, I realized that my colostrum was not yellow; it was brown; I was…
Biologist and IBCLC Catherine Watson Genna first proposed power pumping extraction techniques as effective methods for achieving a rapid increase in breast milk supply. These techniques are used to achieve, within 48 hours, an increase in milk production that allows providing a rapid response in case of emergency, such as a sick baby, premature babies, and so on, and also in the case of having to separate from the baby with no breast milk reserves or in the case of…
A common worry for many families is that their baby might suffer from low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) during the first few weeks after birth. Is this something to be concerned about? Are there babies who are more at risk? And how can we avoid this situation? Here, we try to clarify this issue and answer some basic questions. What is neonatal hypoglycemia? Glucose (sugar) is used to produce energy and is needed to carry out all the processes that occur…
High-demand baby – at LactApp, we don’t like labels, nor does anyone else as we grow up with them: the lazy one, the smart one, the grumpy one, the drama queen, and so on. But sometimes, by trying to escape from them, every description seems like a burden, far from the truth. Often, putting a name to what happens to us makes us feel calmer and start positively enjoying or living things. In motherhood, being able to name things is…
How safe is BLW? One of the biggest fears with Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) for both, families and healthcare professionals, is the risk of choking. It is sometimes perceived that this method might lead to more choking incidents in babies who are fed solid pieces of food from day one without being spoon-fed. For this reason, much research on BLW has focused on whether or not this method of initiation of complementary feeding increases the risk of choking or suffocation. Kahraman…
Women who have had a breast reduction surgery may have difficulties establishing breastfeeding. In this blog post, we will give some ideas on how to achieve breastfeeding if this is your case. How does a breast reduction surgery affect breast function? Breast reductions are complex surgeries for the mammary gland because apart from eliminating fat, breast tissue is also removed, and the ducts are cut. The incisions made in the areola cause the division of the mammary nerves that are…