How to choose the size of your breast pump funnel? The breast pump provokes feelings of love and hate for the mothers who use it. It can be a great ally to maintaining your breastfeeding journey, but it can also be torture, especially if you do not find a pump that suits you well. Getting the funnel size right is the key to a pleasant and effective breastmilk extraction. And just in the same way as you buy shoes in…
Sometimes babies need additional milk, but many get “little top-ups” or are supplemented when they don’t need it. Supplementing milk is mostly associated with artificial milk, which can create problems for breastfeeding. Today, we will talk about supplementing additional milk to breastfeeding, when a milk top-up is necessary, if it is needed, and the best options of how to give them. What are “top-ups”, and what is supplementing? These are variable amounts of milk, which are given to the baby…
Today is World Lupus Day and we would like to talk about breastfeeding with lupus. Worldwide more than 5 million people have this disease and nine out of every ten of them are women. Nutritionist Iria Quintáns Álvarez wrote this post, she is an expert in lupus as she suffers from this autoimmune disease herself. You can find her on Instagram @nutrienfamilia Lupus and breastfeeding Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the body mistakenly believes it should ‘attack’ its own…
Today marks the International Day of the Midwife! Congratulations to all midwives! Midwives are the best-qualified professionals to monitor pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care for low-risk births. Numerous studies show that having access to a professional midwife improves health outcomes for mother and baby. What differentiates a midwife from an ob-gyn/gynaecologist? Midwives are specialists in the normality of childbirth, while gynaecologists specialise in the care of pathologies or whenever risks and problems arise. As we said, a low-risk, physiological pregnancy…
“It was a real challenge.” This is how Vicotria’s, one of our users, breastfeeding journey started. If you also wish to send us yours, you can do so by sending your story to: [email protected] I had a complex and long labor in which my daughter had a hard time. With every contraction, she strangled herself with the umbilical cord but it was only seen afterwards when she was born. When they put her on top of me for skin to…
1 – Why start with solids? Breastmilk is possibly the most complete nutrition and can exclusively nourish a baby up to about 6 months of age. At about this age, breastmilk is still excellent for feeding a baby, but not exclusively, which is why we begin introducing solids. Iron, zinc, and vitamin A are the nutrients that the baby now needs in bigger quantities, and so she begins to diversify her diet. 2 – At 4 or 6 months? Some…
Cristina has sent us this moving story, which we have called “By the time we went home, I felt helpless”, about her breastfeeding journey. If you would like to send us yours, please email it to: [email protected]. We would like to thank Cristina for her generosity in sharing her story. Here is her experience: If there is something, I always wanted throughout my life, it was to be a mom. Raising children and caring is something that has always been…
Breastfeeding works on demand, which means that there is no need for the baby or the mother to wait for a certain amount of time between feeds. The knowledge related to breastfeeding was gradually lost with the introduction of the bottle-feeding culture in our society. What was worse is that practices associated with bottle feeding were simply applied to breastfeeding. Although it later became clear that this was not necessary, bottle-feeding was introduced with a regular schedule, and this mistake…
Breastfeeding one single baby can be complicated, but how is breastfeeding triplets? We have been lucky enough to hear the first hand experience of our user Laia, who has shared her story with us. Thank you, Laia! “I planned to breastfeed the triplets, just as I did with my older son. In addition, I knew that because they were premature, breastfeeding was a great help for them. In fact, our breastfeeding journey started in the NICU. The first drops of…
It is not the first time that in light of a conflict situation, initiatives are created to provide formula milk to the areas where it may be needed. Despite the fact that these initiatives have a noble and charitable background, they can cause complicated and counterproductive situations. We have received a comment from a person who is an international aid worker and who knows first-hand how formula milk is managed in conflict zones. We would like to share it here…