Episode 40: This Week in Breastfeeding - Feb 12, 2021

Jacqueline Kincer

Welcome back to the Breastfeeding Talk Podcast. I’m your host, Jacqueline Kincer. And this is another edition of This Week in Breastfeeding. Today’s date is February 12, 2021. Yes, it is a Friday and I am not recording this in the morning. like I usually do this later in the afternoon. But I said I was going to do this series. And so I’m going to stick with it and get it out to you. So I’m just gonna dive in right away. The first article I’m sharing with you is from Fast Company. It’s from February 5, and it was written by Dr. Rachel Boardman. And the title is the one well-being benefit you may be overlooking for working parents. So this is really written and geared towards employers. But I think that there are a lot of great things that if you’re a breastfeeding mom, and you’re thinking about going back to work, and you’re, you know, wanting to address some of the things or wonder what challenges might face you ahead, this is a great article. So she talks about how there’s a last to protect worse workplace rights of nursing mothers. And you know, they require employers to provide for these rights. But there are still some big cultural issues. And obviously, a pandemic has contributed to a number of workplace challenges. So it could make it even more difficult for nursing parents to express milk at work. There’s always the issue of you knowing whether or not you’re going to breastfeed your baby on the video call for work. And I know that’s come up in the news, and the past.

So what she does is she goes into, you know, some of the benefits of breastfeeding and why it’s important for employers to support that, especially when it comes to mood disorders and absenteeism. And overall just, you know, health and well-being, including things like employee performance and productivity, which ultimately improve the company’s bottom line. And if you support a nursing parent in their breastfeeding journey, then you benefit your company overall. And we all know, well, hopefully, we all know, but unless you’ve ever been an employer, it costs a lot more money to replace an employee than it does to work with the ones that you have. So there are some legal and ethical, obviously, arguments for supporting breastfeeding in the workplace. One of the big things is that many employers do not give a private space to their employees to pump or they may give them a bathroom. And bathrooms are not clean, nor are they private. So that’s really not an appropriate place to pump.

So, you know, I think that it’s just something that we really have to keep talking about because unfortunately, it’s still a big problem. She did share a little tidbit that in a 2018 study commissioned by Byram health care 33% of working parents surveyed, reported that other employees have locked in on them while they were pumping 26% have experienced rude or inappropriate comments, and 19% have been asked to pump elsewhere. Not cool, it’s 2021. And I bet those survey results would not be very different. So she goes into the company’s role as an advocate for breastfeeding parents. And I really think she does a great job of laying that out. So I will link that up in the show notes just like I’ll link up every other article that I go through. So if you want to share that with some, you know, leadership in your company, or HR or something like that, definitely please do that. So on to the next one. I thought this was very interesting. This is from Fox News, which I probably normally wouldn’t share a bunch of their stuff.

But there’s no issue with the article that they have here. The headline is Illinois mom denied COVID-19 vaccine over breastfeeding concerns. I was shocked. So really, this made the rounds on several different news outlets. I just happen to have this one here pulled up to share with you but there was an Illinois mother who was denied getting a Maderna vaccine by county health officials. And that was because they sign up for the lack of data for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Now, this mother is a mother of two. She is a clinical therapist. She did her research she consulted her doctor before heading to this appointment. And it was with the Kane County Health Department. Originally I believe the Chicago Tribune might have been the one who reported this. So she went to go sit in the chair to get her vaccine and then they did not I had her. So, you know, I think really, what’s important here is the way that this particular mother felt. She said that to sit down in that metal chair and be told no, it’s like someone took a pin to a little kid’s balloon. So And anyway, what ended up happening when the Illinois Department of Health was consulted?

And with the guidance of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, and CBC, they state that pregnant lactating people may choose to receive COVID vaccines. And so now, they, that county health department is providing vaccines to pregnant lactating women who choose to be vaccinated. But really, I think the salient point here is how this mother felt. And she is quoted as saying, This internalized sense of shame and judgment that a county board felt that I couldn’t make this decision, and they would make it for me. So I think that’s really important, I do believe that we should be able to make our own choices over our healthcare decisions, and nothing should be forced on us. I do think that there’s no data to support that getting these vaccines as a breastfeeding or lactating parent would do any harm to your child. And we would have some data on that so far because there have been actually a fair number of lactating parents who have received these vaccines. So just sharing that. So if you are denied a vaccine, and you’re breastfeeding, and you have done your research, you’ve decided this is the choice you want to make for you and your baby.

Please know that a County Health Department of State Health Department, a Walgreens wherever you’re going to get it cannot deny that for you. So just sharing that with you guys. There’s an article that I thought was interesting. It’s from Romper, I’ve actually been interviewed for some of their publications before. They generally have some decent articles. And this one is called everything you need to know about your milk coming in After Delivery. And this was updated on February 6. So it really starts out great by talking about how colostrum is the first to milk, and that you start producing it as early as 16 weeks during your pregnancy. That’s very true. So I love that they share that this colostrum is not separate from milk, it’s just a different type of milk, and that it’s all that your baby nutritionally needs until your milk starts increasing dramatically in production. So I think that’s really great, very factual information, then they talk about your milk coming in around three to four days postpartum.

That kind of gives some average figures in terms of hours postpartum when you might expect that. And really, just again, encouraging a great start to breastfeeding with, you know, good information about lactation management. So, you know, I love that, you know, no need to pump unless you’re, you know if your baby is latching and feeding fine. So that’s always a really great thing to talk about. Now, they do have some great tips here on how to make your milk come in faster. Real Tips that actually work, not gimmicky ones are ones that are put out there by celebrities, who are, you know, going to be on a movie set a week later or something crazy like that. And they’re just, you know, setting up some unrealistic, unrealistic expectations. Not to Knox celebrities, but I’ve definitely seen a fair amount of that. And it’s always really frustrating. But a baby that nurses frequently will bring in the mom’s milk faster. Yes, exactly. Tons of skin-to-skin contact, initiating breastfeeding, and that golden hour, you know, sometimes in those first 30 to 60 minutes postpartum.

There’s no magic, anything to really do to bring it in. There’s nothing you can really eat or drink or take, you know before your milk has transitioned to make it come in any faster. It’s just repeat and rinse, right rinse and repeat just breastfeed often skin to skin, all those wonderful things. So I actually thought was a really great article. They had two lactation consultants interviewed for it. So love to see that there’s publications out there like that. On a kind of a little bit different, you know, the angle here I’ve been talking about this on many episodes, whether it’s this weekend’s breastfeeding episodes or the one I did specifically on COVID-19 and vaccines. And this one is from ABC. I think it’s actually their Australian one, but it doesn’t really matter. The title is breastfeeding mothers in COVID-19 Trials, immunity, breast milk alcohol reduction interventions, and salt reduction in packaged food. It’s actually more of a podcast episode, so I’m going to link this up for you. But they did talk about breastfeeding mothers in COVID-19 trials and that we are seeing mothers who have been vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccines that there is no or they’ve been infected with COVID-19 There’s no evidence of any infectious viral proteins in the breast milk of COVID-19 infected mothers are SARS cov two infected mothers And the antibodies that they make, too, you know, get as a result of getting the vaccine that their babies get those antibodies through breast milk.

So there’s a great discussion on there, I thought they had done a nice job with that. And then there are some non-breastfeeding-related things on there as well. So I’m going to share this article, I don’t normally take any kind of publication like this seriously, it was on a few different publications in the UK, but this is from the Sun. And it’s kind of one of those sort of tabloid magazines where you might see an alien head and someone talking about him adduction on the front cover in your grocery store line, but I love the headline, it’s given a breast, my mother in law wants to breastfeed my baby. She’s 70. And I’m horrified. So long story short, apparently, there was a mother who posted on Reddit that her husband’s mom, her mother-in-law wanted to try breastfeeding. Her sister-in-law’s first baby. So this woman was still with the baby at the time of the posting, and she wants to start practicing breastfeeding with this mother’s baby who actually made the Reddit post. And I would say that this headline is very sensational. When you get into the article.

You know, there’s definitely some family drama going on here. I think there’s more behind the scenes love the quote that says this woman is a special kind of delusional can women that age really even relax ate? Well, the answer is, yes. There’s absolutely evidence, especially where we’ve seen natural disasters, particularly in third world countries where, let’s say the parents, you know, they tragically, you know, get wiped out and whatever has occurred, and the grandmother takes the newborn or the infant and spontaneously relaxing, it’s and now can breastfeed the baby, I would say, you know, it’s obviously sort of a very unlikely scenario, it is definitely possible. And so apparently, that’s what the 60 or 70-year-old mother-in-law was thinking of. Now I have So my feeling that she might have some sort of background is something involving lactation somehow. But anyway, really, the big point here was that there’s no consent happening, that this mother-in-law is trying to do this. And she wants to do this. Now, the family is so weirded out by it, and she’s been so pushy about it, that they never want to leave this child alone with her, which is completely understandable.

So, you know, I know that some of us have overreaching mothers-in-law, I’m sure a lot of you, you know, could probably state that that’s true. But this is the biggest mother-in-law overreach I think I’ve ever heard. So that’s kind of a more fun one that I’m sharing with you for a good laugh. Now, here’s a news release. This is out of the University of Idaho, Idaho, and this is from February 9. It says breastfeeding mothers produce COVID-19 antibodies capable of neutralizing the virus. So I’m just going to read a little excerpt here from you. But it says just what I told you about the podcast episode that I’m going to link up breastfeeding women with COVID-19 Do not pass along the SARS cov to the virus in their milk, but do transfer, does transfer milk-born antibodies that are able to neutralize the virus, a multi-institutional team of researchers, led by the University of Ohio reported. So here’s what happened.

The team analyzed 37 milk samples submitted by 18 Women totally understanding this is a small sample size, and they were diagnosed with COVID-19. None of the milk samples were found to contain the virus, but nearly two-thirds of the samples did contain two antibodies specific to the virus. So the data that they found do not support maternal to infant transmission of SARS, cov. Two via breast milk, it’s important because it still could happen, you know, through the respiratory tract, obviously, but definitely not through breast milk. And I never thought that it would, there are very few viruses that really do transfer through breast milk, actually, although I’d love to see more research in this area. So I’m more than happy to link that up for you. But they do go through kind of the, you know, details of everybody who was working on that research team. So here’s one from the University of Manitoba. This is from February 9. It says breastfeeding research improves lives and advances health but faces conflicts. This is more of a sort of thought piece or thought leadership piece if you will. But they do talk about you know, breastfeeding, breast milk, providing, you know, huge opportunities to support Maternal infants and overall population health.

And they say how much more true that is with the pandemic facing us. Breastfeeding also helps to alleviate food insecurity. So they’re really talking about a global perspective there. And you know, research shows that the breast milk of women who have recovered from COVID-19 offers a source of COVID-19 antibodies. So this is wonderful. Although I really wish they would get the language right here, it would actually be SARS CoV. Two antibodies, not COVID-19. So SARS CoV. Two is the virus that causes the disease known as COVID-19. So you all get what I’m saying I’m sure. But they do reiterate that breastfeeding saves lives. It prevents illness, it’s environmentally friendly. And it’s profoundly important to children’s long-term development. And breast milk is the only food that evolved specifically to feed humans. This is really, really important. This is not a breast milk versus formula argument. This is not to say formulas, evil, or anything like that. This is just scientific truth. And we need to acknowledge this as a community as a society, as you know, an entire planet. Because the problem is, is that there’s this whole breast versus formula argument that’s happening, which is really not helpful in any way, shape, or form. It’s actually not relevant. Right?

Breast milk is a dynamic food that is meant to feed our human babies. It’s really incredible stuff. So they talk about breastfeeding matters. It’s it offers immune protection shapes, the developing microbiome, it’s got enzymes, hormones, antibodies, and live cells, and all these bioactive components are even things that advanced science because they can potentially develop new therapies for autoimmune diseases, diabetes, cancer, and COVID-19. So it’s pretty amazing. They do acknowledge that we still don’t understand the full composition of breast milk, or some of the biological basis for its health effects. We just know that it does have these incredible health effects. So there’s a lot that we still understand about the human body, and especially breast milk. So they talk about just, you know, all that sort of health benefit stuff aside. Breastfeeding also supports mother-infant bonding, it helps prevent breast and ovarian cancer and mothers and mothers don’t even meet their own breastfeeding goals most of the time, they usually don’t achieve the recommendations, you know, for exclusive breastfeeding for six months, followed by complementing with, you know, solid foods beyond that time period. But we still see so many health benefits from it. But it’s still an issue that breastfeeding mothers aren’t meeting these goals. So they do acknowledge that public health visits.

Keep in mind, this is a Canadian publication. So they have public health there have been canceled, and lactation services have been suspended in many places. And absolutely, that’s true. I’ve seen lactation consultants in other areas of my country, and the world that has shuttered their practices during this time, they absolutely will not see anybody in person. Now the vaccine has started to become available for many of us. Some will choose to get it some will not. So that’s been a huge, huge barrier. And I will be interested to see what the breastfeeding rates are, you know, coming out of this pandemic, and being on the other side, I hope that there is going to be someone that is doing a study on that, or at least some sort of a survey. So they really get into the tensions about breastfeeding. And I was sort of alluding to that just a moment ago.

And they say that you know, every parent knows that infant feeding is a complex issue often evoking strong emotions based on personal experience. Difficult or negative breastfeeding experiences can fuel a defensive breastfeeding denialism attitude. Conversely, some breastfeeding advocates refuse to acknowledge that for some families formula is necessary for medical, personal, societal, or socio-economic reasons. These extreme attitudes can cause a tense and unproductive environment for researchers working to generate inclusive evidence-based guidance for infant feeding. I cannot agree more, I read that to you word for word because they just phrased it so perfectly. So they really go on to say that these tensions often detract from the energy and resources that breastfeeding advocates, researchers, health professionals, and policymakers could be used to advance their shared goal of reporting of supporting maternal and child health. Absolutely, we need to stop getting hung up on this, you know, Mommy Wars kind of stuff are politicizing the issue of breastfeeding, or making it a breast versus formula argument or anything like that. I don’t know why we can’t all just sit here and go. Sometimes formulas necessary are wanted, and that’s fine.

But we need to understand and help support mothers and babies who want to breastfeed and who want to create optimal health through breastfeeding, we need to figure out what’s going on there and help them and that has nothing to do with formula. It has everything to do with supporting them. It doesn’t have anything to do with, you know, moms groups and infighting and all of that kind of stuff. So, you know, I could go to a soapbox there. And in fact, I sort of did let Professor Amy Brown do that a few podcast episodes ago. So if you want to learn more about that situation, she’s an excellent resource, and that episode was incredible and absolutely worth listening to. So they go on to suggest you know what could be done. They talk about the role of government and nonprofit organizations, researchers, companies, and advocacy groups. So honestly, I just think it was overall a really nice summary of the sort of the state of breastfeeding if you will, and where we’re at. So, kudos to you, the University of Manitoba, and your today news segment. I think that was really wonderful.

So here’s what I did promise you guys, I would go into some celebrity stuff. I think the last time I talked about Cardi B. Oh, my. That’s, you know, I gotta say, I like some of Cardi B’s songs. Katy Perry is who we’re gonna talk about today. There are a lot of articles, the Internet was abuzz with Katy Perry’s breastfeeding stuff. This is from Buzzfeed. This is on February 8. And it says Katy Perry thinks we should talk more about how intense it is to go back to work while breastfeeding. I actually really like this article from a celebrity because Katy Perry is not like most of us moms, right? She’s got a lot of incredible financial support behind her. She’s got a team of people that can help her with things. So I know, it can sometimes be hard to have a lot of sympathy for people like Katy Perry. But I do think that she is really sharing something that most moms feel. And it’s interesting because she actually does really announce that she’s sort of out of touch with the average mom.

So last August, Katy Perry became mom, and she’s sort of held back I’m sharing some candid moments of motherhood. But she did have a post, where she posed shortly after having her baby in a pumping bra with the pump flanges sticking out in the postpartum underwear. And she said Hair and Makeup by exhaustion, which was kind of funny, I remember that post. But she recently opened up about her experience on the Live with Kelly and Ryan Show, saying that she started filming American Idol season four after she’d given birth five weeks later. And this is her quote, she says, and I didn’t plan that, but it was like, Oh, my God, it was so intense, you know, which I know is not the most explanatory language, but she said giving birth and going back to work and breastfeeding, like, holy crap, this is what women do. Oh, my God. Yes, Katy Perry, this is what women do. Now you’ve experienced herself for yourself. Kelly Ripa apparently agreed with her. And she said it’s kind of amazing. It’s like you can’t believe what your body is capable of. And yeah, we are amazing.

But I also think that it’s such a shame that so many women have to be really hard on themselves immediately after having a baby. Now, obviously, it’s a choice for Katy Perry, she probably could have delayed doing certain things. You know, it’s easy to say, you know, to walk away from what she does for work, but I would say that really, for any family, it’s very often important that the mom goes back to work. And it’s really such a challenge. So they just kind of go on to share some more of her posts and things that she’s done, you know, about breastfeeding or pregnancy. And I just think sometimes if you are into following celebrity stuff, or you happen to be a fan of hers, you know, it’s nice to just see, hey, you know what, I’m not weird celebrities go through this to my struggles. And then there’ll be others of you who will go, you know, what does Katy Perry know about the struggle of going back to work? She probably has five nannies. She has a crew that does her hair and makeup, she can always look great. You know, I get it. I get it, believe me, I get it.

And I did just want to share something else. It’s not a news article, but I’m happy to link this up for you in the show notes as well. But I recently released my new advanced lactation formula. It’s an herbal supplement for supporting and increasing milk production for anyone who’s lactating. And it is available right now for pre-order on Amazon. But some people who have already pre-ordered it says your order won’t ship until February 20. That’s not true. Depending on where you are in the United States, your order may have already shipped or will ship soon. So for those of you who have not checked it out, I encourage you to do that. Again, I’ll link it up in the show notes. But I have poured my heart and soul blood sweat and tears into years of clinical experience, sleepless nights, researching so many things, getting feedback from clients and non-clients and also my colleagues, and finally created a product that I feel really really good about.

And what’s super cool is I had someone actually share with me. Her name’s Sarah and she got her pre-order delivered. And she tried it and I’m just going to share with you her review that she left because it says it all and I mean honestly it made my day so Here’s what Sara says, holy milk. I am eight months postpartum and exclusively nurse, I pump once a day before I go to bed and nurse between three to 4 am. I got the lactation blend yesterday and I took it in the afternoon, I pumped my typical amount before bed and woke at 230 and gorged grabbed baby out of bed and she nursed to one side and I had to get up and pump 11 Extra ounces at 245. I will def stick to taking it once a day, and may just take and may take just one to two capsules. Important to note I am generally pretty sensitive to herbs but haven’t had this much response to any other brands. This is pretty potent. So thank you so much for sharing that, Sarah. I will say that because I’m always trying to be really scientifically accurate and just very intentional in my language. And I never want to promise something I can’t deliver. I feel like when I’ve spoken about the product, and I guess you can call it marketing, although I don’t feel like I’ve done a ton of marketing on it, just sharing it with you guys on Instagram or the podcast.

You know, I’m like, Well, you know, it may take one to two weeks for you to notice a difference and taking the product just because some of these herbs, you know, it works better if you’re taking it more consistently over time, sort of a rinse and repeat. That’s generally true with all herbs. Now in my heart of hearts. I know and especially with clinical experience, you know, sometimes moms can take this kind of stuff. And in one or two days, they notice a difference. But what I never want to do is to sell on a large platform like Amazon to people that will probably never be my clients and have them take it and expect miracles in one to two days or after the first dose. And then they don’t get it and they’re like this product doesn’t work and they never end up taking the rest. So I never want to set people up for failure. I always kind of want to, you know, underpromise and over-deliver. And from Sarah’s review, it sounds like that’s what’s happened. So I’m super happy to hear that from you, Sarah. The cool thing for her is that that bottle if she’s actually going to lower the dose that she’s going to take because you know, she just read the label there on the suggested dose she’ll get more than a month out of that. So that’s super, super cool. So if you want to check it out, I’ll link it up for you in the show notes. Again, right now. It’s only available in the US. It’s on Amazon. It’s holistic lactation, an advanced lactation blend. And if you have had a chance to try it out, I’d love to hear from you what you thought of it, leave a review on Amazon that helps the product get found. So people know that that’s the right one. It helps it look a little more legitimate if it’s got reviews behind it, which is super cool. So anyways, that’s it for this weekend’s breastfeeding, and I will talk to you guys next week on the next episode.