DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding you or your baby’s health. Please read my Medical Disclaimer for more info
Coming from a lactation counselor, I find so many things valuable that every breastfeeding mama should know, but today I’m going to share with you 5 things to start you with!
These are all things I wish I knew before having my daughter, so I can relate to you being in the position of figuring breastfeeding out or preparing for the unknown.
So let me walk you through a few things I would have told my younger self as a pregnant first-time mama:
1. Find a Lactation Consultant During Pregnancy
When you’re a new mama going through postpartum recovery and figuring out so many things, it can be difficult to do good research into finding a lactation consultant.
I recommend finding one you like so that you can save their information and give them a call any time you need it! Then you can deal with everything else and rest when you can instead of trying to find one while you’re sleep-deprived and healing.
Remember, breastfeeding is natural, but it is not always intuitive! I believe so many more women would benefit from a lactation counselor if they spoke with one instead of look towards Google for answers.
2. A Lactation Consultant is So Worth the Money
Speaking of Google… I know it’s free and sometimes you can find good information on there! But there’s also an abundance of inaccurate advice, and as someone looking for help, you won’t know what is true or not so easily.
By utilizing a lactation consultant’s help and knowledge, you can also avoid misdiagnosing yourself or using “band-aids” that may help you but cover up the real issue that can still affect your breastfeeding journey.
Furthermore, many people in the medical field also often give inaccurate advice. Unless they are a CLC (Certified Lactation Counselor) or IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Counselor), they are not a reliable source of lactation or formula help.
3. Know That Lactation is NOT a Part of Medical School Curriculum
As I just mentioned, if someone doesn’t have the CLC or IBCLC credentials, then they aren’t a dependable source of information, and this includes doctors!
Lactation is not a part of the medical school curriculum and I have heard many stories of false or unhelpful lactation education from doctors including OB-GYNs and Pediatricians.
It can be confusing trying to figure out who is a reliable lactation consultant. Click here to learn how you can find one and more about their education! (Coming soon!).
4. Formula Can Easily Become a Necessity
Remember, supply=demand!! If you want to breastfeed and don’t want to formula feed, see a lactation consultant before starting formula!
A common scenario I hear about is when a mom’s baby starts to cluster feed and mom begins to think she’s not making enough breastmilk, so she begins to worry and supplements with formula. Then, instead of cluster feeding working the way it was meant to, now both mom and baby rely on the formula for feedings.
And guess what? This common story I hear happened to ME too! Before I became a CLC, of course. But this is something that could have so easily have been fixed in less than 5 minutes with a lactation consultant.
No matter what is going on, if you have a good lactation consultant, you will get help, and things will go better than if you didn’t see one for a confusing part of your breastfeeding journey.
And if you need to or want to do mixed feeding (breastmilk and formula) or exclusive formula feeding, I still highly recommend talking with a lactation consultant first! They are the best people to go to for evidence-based knowledge on all these topics.
5. Have a LC Teach You Everything About Pumping Your Breastmilk
Thinking back to myself using a breast pump is shocking. I was SO lost and confused.
At the moment, I thought it was simple, and I was doing it all right, but, oh my, I’m pretty sure I did almost everything wrong!
Some topics I view as a necessity to learn from a lactation consultant regarding pumping include:
- When should you introduce the pump?
- How to use the settings correctly and effectively
- How often you should pump
- When should you introduce a bottle to your baby, and how often?
- How to find your flange size
I view even more topics on this topic as crucial to know, and you can find all of these answers in my breastfeeding course (Coming soon!).
I hope that this helped you learn and think about some things you may not have without reading this blog post!
Leave your questions or comments below, please! And if you have breastfed before, what’s something you wish you knew the first time around?
DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding you or your baby’s health. Please read my Medical Disclaimer for more info
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