As emerging research sheds light on possible reasons for lactation trouble even when mothers receive competent support, insulin resistance, or IR, is rising to the forefront of the discussion of possible causes. The following is an adapted-for-the-blogosphere excerpt of my upcoming book, Finding Sufficiency: Breastfeeding with Insufficient Glandular Tissue, which will be available this summer from…
It was a simple enough text message from my husband, who is holding down the fort at home in New York while I’m working in a public health fellowship in Washington, DC. “Forgot to tell you, a nurse from Keller called. Said you are due for mammogram. Said you can call radiology directly to schedule.”…
If you’ve visited my blog before, you know that I believe in human milk for human babies, and I have a deep understanding and empathy for those mothers who can’t or choose not to breastfeed their babies, for whatever reason. This week, World Milksharing Week, offers a perfect opportunity to highlight a beautiful story of…
I am often asked, through networks of professionals, to connect a reporter or media representative to breastfeeding mothers in a particular situation. There are some requests that I scramble to satisfy, without reservation, because either the journalist is one whose work I am familiar with (and is truly supportive of breastfeeding), or because the population…
Well, no, it’s not really like that. I wasn’t sick, and the “changing” part was that the guy refused to operate on me. At the time, I was kind of mad about it. I was 26, and in the best shape of my life having just run my first marathon. I loved running and spent a…
Oversupply, forceful let-down, foremilk/hindmilk imbalance … all of these strike fear in the heart of new mothers because they translate to an inconsolable, visibly uncomfortable, crying baby. He may want to nurse all the time, because the sucking behavior soothes him when his tummy hurts, but the more he nurses, the more miserable he becomes. …
I haven’t met a single person who enjoys “the mommy wars.” I’d go so far to say I even despise the WORDS describing this us vs. them concept that has permeated our culture. Let me cut to the chase: mothers who parent differently from me are not my problem. The culture that makes the biological…
This is Gabriella. She’s my youngest daughter, and she turned 4 in December. Two weeks after her 4th birthday, Gabriella underwent a 3-hour craniofacial surgery to resolve a rare birth defect. Two pediatric neurosurgeons and a pediatric plastic surgeon cut open my little girl’s head in an incision that wrapped from ear to ear. They…
In April of 2011, Best for Babes unveiled a new website, and I was thrilled to be the first guest for the “Making Sense of the Science” blog section. My article on vitamin D and breastfeeding has caused quite a stir on Facebook fan pages where its link was posted, such as The Leaky Boob…
My son was a few weeks from his 3rd birthday, and lingering congestion and a cough weren’t passing. He started running a fever and was nursing non-stop, which was starting to wear me a bit thin, since, at that point in my pregnancy (about 30 weeks), there wasn’t much milk and my breasts were very,…
normal, like breathing 