Category Archives: Working and Breastfeeding

Is Breastfeeding Good for Business?

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Are you wondering if health care legislation that includes provisions for breastfeeding is a good idea?  How do you feel about requiring businesses to accommodate mothers who want to pump at work? Consider the following:

Every year, more than 3 million mothers in America breastfeed. These provisions are good public policy for not only the baby and the mother, but also for the business community and our overall economy. Breastfeeding can improve more than 10% of the Healthy People 2020 health goals for the nation. Continue reading →

Pacifiers and Newborns

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Nearly every new mother I see asks the question, “Is it ok for my baby to use a pacifier?”  Here is the simple answer: Yes and no!

What these mothers want to know is whether pacifier use will interfere with breastfeeding. I can say with confidence that I have never seen a baby prefer a pacifier over a breast filled with nummy milk! In addition, in over 20 years of helping resolve breastfeeding issues, I have never named the pacifier as the source of the problem. Continue reading →

Help! Baby Won’t Take a Bottle!

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A mother writes, “I have to go back to work soon and my 3-month-old baby won’t take a bottle. What can I do? Help!”

Congratulations on exclusively breastfeeding your daughter! It can be challenging to transition back to the workplace, so it’s great that you are being thoughtful about helping your baby learn another way to receive your milk. Let me assure you it is perfectly normal for a 3 month old baby to initially refuse a bottle. It is a foreign object to her. Why should she suck on a silicone nipple? Remember she doesn’t know that it is common for babies to bottle-feed in our culture.

Some professionals maintain that if you give your baby a bottle every day from birth that she will happily take a bottle throughout her baby-hood. This is not necessarily true. Even if she had been given a daily bottle since she was born, she may still refuse at about 3 months. This is the age when babies start taking more control of their world! Continue reading →

Breastfeeding and Work: Jane’s Story

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Jane contacted me because she had returned to work and she was worried about her milk production. Her baby, Ernie, was 3 months old and she’d just started working 3 days/week. We set up a phone consultation and she shared the following:

  • Away from her baby 8:30 a.m. To 4:00 p.m.
  • Pumps twice a day at the office for about 25 minutes each time.
  • Tries to pump at home so she can increase her supply as her baby grows.
  • Leaving 4 bottles of milk at the day care each day.
  • Ernie drinks 2-3 bottles at day care.
  • Feels rested and Ernie is thriving.
  • Eating milkmakers cookies for milk production.

Continue reading →

Breastfeeding and Fertility

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New mothers are often concerned about getting pregnant again before they are ready. With good reason! To address that concern, health care providers often counsel new mothers to begin a birth control method 6 weeks after the birth of a new baby. But if that mother is breastfeeding, an invasive birth control method may not be necessary.

Breastfeeding has many benefits to mothers—one of which is a delay in the return of fertility. Many mothers enjoy a year or more without periods after the birth of their babies. Breastfeeding as a birth control method is referred to as the lactational ammenorrhea method or LAM. When a mother is using LAM, any artificial method of birth control can be considered a back- up method. LAM is over 98% effective* when ALL of the following conditions are met: Continue reading →