I remember sitting with a La Leche League Leader (volunteer breastfeeding counsellor) with my first born baby who was 3 months old at the time. I had a few questions that I was wondering about. One of them being, “Which pump should I buy and when should I buy it?” Looking back on this I can see how it was a question not from need but rather from the pressures I was feeling that I simply “needed” a pump! She was great in how she answered, “Why do you need a pump? Will you be returning to work or away from your baby for some reason?” Just by asking me this question I quickly realised that actual ..read more

Something wrong? Blame breastfeeding and tell them to wean! Any health care professional who advises a mother to just, “wean” their child abruptly, has NO idea what that would actually look like. I often hear stories from women during consultations where they were told by someone that they “need to wean” due to a variety of reasons. The vast majority of the time they are told to wean as a way to fix a “problem” that the health care provider has identified. And of course breastfeeding is usually to blame! Without any evidence to back up what they’re saying. The most common reasons people tell ..read more

So, imagine yourself sitting around a circle with other mothers. And as per usual, the conversation turns to how much our babies are sleeping and how often they are feeding. I’m sure this isn’t hard to imagine as it can be a weekly occurrence for many of us! As we sit there we start to wonder, “Is there something wrong with my baby? Why isn’t my baby sleeping as much as Sarah’s baby?” This is something that many of us struggle with and we start to think our babies are weird and there is something wrong with them. We can’t help but compare to all of the other babies! However, if a baby is sleep ..read more

Have you heard of paced bottle feeding? This is a way of bottle feeding which you can do for any baby. However, for breastfed babies or babies who are primarily breastfed but have bottles when their mother is at work or for occasional times of separation, this can be a great way to avoid over-feeding and using more of your expressed milk than necessary. By doing paced bottle feeding, you will help prevent your baby from being overfed and taking in more milk than they need. While it is not possible to overfeed a baby who is breastfeeding, you can overfeed with a bottle. This is because less ene ..read more

I’ve written a lot about low supply over the years. How to increase supply, how to drop supplements, myths surround low milk supply…and how YES, low supply is actually A THING! However there is something that drives me bonkers when it comes to low supply advice. Every day I speak with women around the world during breastfeeding consultations. And women with low supply or with baby’s who have slow weight gain or weight loss are almost always told the same thing. “You need to breastfeed, then pump, and then top up with your expressed milk”. This is told to women time and time again, in almost ev ..read more

Every once in awhile something breastfeeding related goes a bit viral and I start to get an influx of questions about a particular topic or start seeing it more in my newsfeed from sponsored posts. The latest topic that’s making the rounds is “digestive overload” of a baby. In other words, getting too much milk too frequently and the baby getting overfull, uncomfortable and refluxy (is that a word? ) or gassy. Now, I have written about this concept of overfeeding and how it’s actually not possible to feed your baby too much! In summary, the story goes like this… Mother: “I was told I’m over-f ..read more

I read an article recently that almost made me cry. It’s about a celebrity that is really struggling to get her toddler to sleep. My heart breaks for her for two reasons. Firstly because I completely understand her exhaustion and wanting her child to sleep. And secondly, because she was given bad advice that she has to leave her child to cry. In the article she stated: “‘I have never heard these kinds of screams from [son Jace, 19 months] and it’s literally BREAKING my heart,’ Kramer wrote. ‘Apparently it’s the 18-21 sleep regression. (I had his ears checked and all are good now). His molars ..read more

Recently I had a virtual consultation with a woman who lives in New York. She is currently in one of the worst “hot spots” of COVID-19 in the USA and has just given birth to a baby a couple of week ago. She has been self-isolating for the past 3 weeks with her husband, two year old and now newborn daughter. When she had her weighed at 3 days old, the doctor told her that she was not able to bring her baby back in until one month’s time, unless it was a serious emergency. These are very scary times for new mothers, especially if you are concerned with your baby’s breastmilk intake, weight gain ..read more

*This will be updated frequently to reflect the most current guidelines and recommendations. This article is to provide general information and is not medical advice. Contact your health care professional for more information. (Last update: 26/3/20 4:30pm Brisbane, Australia GTM +10 timezone) There is never a time we feel more vulnerable than when we become mothers. Suddenly we have another life to look after that is not our own, and this feeling continues throughout our lifetime raising them. As a breastfeeding mother, everything is even more amplified as we are the one who is feeding our chi ..read more

When we have our babies and are planning to breastfeed, it can be heartbreaking and frustrating when our baby just won’t latch on. Mothers will often think, “What is wrong with me?! What am I doing wrong?” However, there are many different things to consider and important steps to take if you find yourself in this situation. Have a read on how to best get through this while keeping up your supply and keeping your baby interesting in feeding… 1. Find support and help from an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) to find out WHY your baby isn’t latching. There are different ..read more