BREASTFEEDING

Board-certified as a lactation consultant in 1991, from 1993 to 2003 she started and grew a large private lactation practice in the Chicago area, where she saw thousands of families. Since then, she's worked for a major breast-pump company and a national corporate lactation program. Currently, she speaks at events around the world, trains aspiring lactation consultants with the Breastfeeding for Love project in China, and contracts with hospitals to help improve breastfeeding practices. Her mission is to simplify life for new families, many of whom--without realizing it--make breastfeeding more complicated than it needs to be.

When pumping, choosing the right size breast shield is ultra-important! This will take you through all the breast shield sizing basics, including how to measure yourself to ensure correct sizing, warning signs, and more.

Most breastfeeding mothers can drink caffeine in moderation. Some babies, particularly those under 6 months, may be more sensitive to mom’s caffeine intake. Babies whose mothers avoided caffeine completely during pregnancy seem to react more to caffeine in their mothers ’ diet. Even if the baby is sensitive to the caffeine now, he may not be when he’s a little older — so if you do have to stop or limit your caffeine intake, you can try again when the baby is older.

Ever been curious as to what’s found in breast milk and what ingredients can be found in formula? Developed by the Douglas College for the Breastfeeding Course for Health Care Providers, this eye-opening comparison of breast milk ingredients and formula ingredients is astounding.

This is an amazing chart of all the ingredients found in breastmilk and compared to formula.

The holidays are all about extended family, which means, by necessity, they’re also all about alcohol. But what if you’re a nursing mom? On the one hand, you’ve probably been told by your friends to start drinking Guinness, based on the popular notion that dark beer can boost milk supply. But your parenting books almost certainly tell you the opposite—that you should be very careful about imbibing alcohol as a nursing mom because it seeps into breast milk and thus into your baby and could pose various risks.