Transcript:
Welcome back to the Milk Minute, everybody. It feels like it’s been a milk minute. It does, and I, I think at this point, because we’re spreading our energies between two podcasts now. It, it really feels, feels a lot longer between recording sessions.
It does, and also this is officially our first Milk Minute podcast episode in the new studio, right? It is. Together, yes. Where we’re sitting here together. We had a bunch of separate recording, like virtual recording sessions because the space wasn’t quite done. It’s still not quite done. Yeah. But big shocker.
The construction took a lot longer than we thought. Yes. But the floor is in, it’s painted, it’s functional right now. We’re gonna still do some stuff to make it homey. Yeah, but that’s okay. But lemme tell you, this cork floor makes me feel like a real fricking professional podcaster, and that’s all that matters.
We’re faking it to make it, and this cork floor is just really making me feel good. Absolutely. Yeah, so I’m really excited to be here in the new space on the other side of Morgantown. Out in the middle of nowhere it feels like. But it’s really nice and like, I don’t know, it’s peaceful over here. It is peaceful over here.
And you don’t have to pass like hordes of college students wearing pajama pants to class? No. Or like worry about like what lane you’re in for Turning at what? Like that hole? Mm-hmm. What? I don’t, I can’t remember what road that is. Beach. Beach? Yes. On Bee Hurst like. The mile before getting to your old office was just like, oh no, I’m in the wrong lane now.
It might as well the wrong way. 20 miles. It’s construction and potholes and college students and pajamas. That’s all it is. And the occasional homeless person who is wandering across the road. Sure. Yeah. It, it’s just, Anyway. Yeah, this is a really nice place, although we are underneath a daycare, so we’re working a little bit on soundproofing the studio more.
If you hear errant like child noises, we apologize. It should be a temporary problem. Yeah. The kids actually, I’ve found out what the noise is. That sounds like the thunder dome upstairs. Mm-hmm. They actually have little wooden cars that they ride around on all day. And boy, let me tell you, they get some miles in and I keep thinking like, how big of an asshole would I be if I offered to buy rubber casters for all of those cars?
Yeah, no. Or like, would it be cheaper if you’re like, what about the lowest pile carpet we could put on here? Something. But we might also put cork floor on the ceiling. I mean, who knows? Yeah, I think let’s, let’s do that first, cuz you know, I think we’ll do that first and we’ll see. Y’all can tell us if you can hear it or not, or you could just get over it because everyone’s doing their best.
All right. Well today I wanted to finally chat about I G T or insufficient glandular tissue. We also call this glandular hypoplasia. So a lot of people have asked us about this. I kind of avoided it for a while but I finally decided to do it. But first we’ve got a patron to thank and a question. We would like to thank our newest patron, Annaleigh. Thank you so much for supporting us and chipping in on this cork floor.
We couldn’t thank you enough and we like to put little behind the scenes stuff about our lives and now that I am officially out, With my pregnancy, I can start talking about that on Patreon and give you the real inside scoop, which might even be a little bit deeper than the Beyond the Boob podcast that we do weekly now every Tuesday.
Absolutely. And reminder Beyond the Boob is available by subscription on Apple Podcast or by joining our Patreon. Yep. All right. Well, what is our question today? Okay. Today’s question I pulled from the Facebook group. It’s a good one. This is from Stephanie DeLong. Stephanie says, I need help. I measured myself with the flange tool and I got 17 millimeters.
I have the motif, Luna and Mom, cozy S 12 pumps. The hospital told me my flange size was okay. That was before I got the tool. And I’ve been using the standard 24 millimeter. I got inserts of 21 millimeters due to measuring, but now when I pump, my nipples feel tender. After. Does this mean I’m usually the wrong size and should go back to the 24 instead of the 21?
I am due for replacements in April, so before I order them, I wanna see if I should stay with the 24 or go with the 21. I’m a first time mom, so this is all new to me. Any help would be appreciate. Stephanie, so here’s the thing, if you measured yourself at a 17, you’re probably a 17. Absolutely. And if you’re getting them through insurance, your insurance probably doesn’t have a 17 available for you to order.
Mm-hmm. So you would have to order that special from an off-brand company called Maam or Nini Supply Co. And just make sure it’s compatible with. Motif Luna, which means compatible with spectra. Those are the same. Yeah. And even like, you know, 19, 21 sometimes a bunch of sizes will work. We just wanna get closer.
And sizing is confusing. There’s not like one set rule about it, but we definitely wanna get as close to that measurement as we can. We have an episode on Flange Sizing right? I’m sure we do. We’ll put it in the show notes. Stephanie, I also wanna say if you are sore using inserts, you might wanna just go ahead and try getting a whole flange instead of using the insert and then use lube and see how that goes.
And I would give it a few pumps before you decide if it works or not, because sometimes there’s a little bit of an adjustment period. Where your body’s nerves and muscles have to get back on track because it’s being stretched in a completely different way. Yeah. And sometimes you find you have to turn your suction down a little bit when you actually have a flange that fits.
Mm-hmm. And I recommend when you’re putting it on to start from the bottom. Mm-hmm. And then roll up to the top, because you always wanna make sure when you’re using a snug or flange, which we do recommend that you have clearance on the bottom. Yeah. And you can’t see the bottom. So, Lift your boob up. Start at the bottom, make sure we have clearance, and then roll it up to the top, and of course, make sure there’s clearance on top as well.
Yes, and good luck. Good luck. Alright, Heather let’s take a little short break and then we’ll get into the down and dirty of this episode. I do too. Yeah. You know me.
Imagine a world where you seek lactation care and it’s easy and someone greets you at the door and they’re nice to you and they give you a hot cup of tea and let you sit on the couch and talk about all the issues, not just the breastfeeding issues. What a cozy fantasy is there anywhere that’s real? Oh, it’s real girl.
It’s real, and I’ve been building it for quite a long time. My business is called Breastfeeding for Busy Moms and me and every member of my team are trained in our three major tenants, which is accessibility, kindness, and personalization. If you wanna book a consult with Heather or anyone else on her team, you should head over to breastfeeding for busy moms.com.
We do accept some limited insurance and we’d be happy to walk you through it if you wanna give us a call. And that number’s on Google. So go sit on the cozy couch with Heather at Breastfeeding for Busy Moms. Love you guys.
Welcome back, everyone. All right. So I know that I, well, I feel like I sound like a broken record. You know, I’m sure you guys know by the, what I’m, what I’m about to say here is that we don’t have a lot of research on this topic. Oh my God. Shocker. Yeah, I actually was a little bit surprised though because, you know, this condition has like a real medical name and we do think we know the cause.
And I was like, oh, like we must have researched that backs this up. We don’t, we don’t, I think this is like the IBS of lactation. It really is. It’s, it’s what we say. Anytime there is like an unexplained flow supply issue, we’re like, oh, I g t, sorry. Nothing we can do. And. Call bullshit on that. On a lot of it, yes.
Not, not all of it for sure. So insufficient glandular tissue is kind of one of the true physiologic reasons for low milk supply. However, I think it’s over diagnosed and I think that it is a spectrum and we’re gonna talk a little bit more about that. But before we begin, I know a lot of people have been scared by this diagnosis have been discouraged from breastfeeding because of.
Especially folks that have gone through fertility treatments. Absolutely. So I just wanna start out by saying it’s not like an automatic death sentence to making breast milk. It’s a spectrum of how much you can make. It varies from pregnancy to pregnancy. Glandular tissue is not like this static thing that can never change.
Okay. So, I G T is a disorder where our milk making tissue in our breasts just doesn’t develop the way that we would like normally expect it to. So that can happen at a number of times. Right? If you guys remember when we chatted about breast development? It doesn’t just happen at like puberty or pregnancy.
It happens in utero. It happens during a few years of puberty, and then it happens again in every single pregnancy. And it happens a little bit with every menstrual cycle. Exactly. So it can be caused by a variety of factors, but it all essentially comes down to some kind of endocrine imbalance where we’re just not.
Creating the right hormones to support that glandular growth. But it can happen during any of those stages. And I personally would like to see some research on that because I think that is really important for them. Determining like what your actual outlook for milk production is. Yeah. And is it something we can get ahead of?
Mm-hmm. If you already know about. Can we fix it? Like much, much like with fertility treatments. Yeah. You know, it’s like, okay, you’ve got a uterus, you’ve got ovaries. How can we make this work for us? Maybe we can do the same thing with your glandular tissue. Right. And you know, I think that our, if we ever get to the point where we have real treatment protocols for this, like with hormones and medication, I would imagine that we’re gonna have different plans if, like, the issue is that you had no glandular growth in pregnancy versus the issue where you were born with like insufficient breast buds or you know, didn’t have breast development and puberty.
Like those all feel like different issues to me. Mm-hmm. But they kind of end you up in the same place postpartum. If you’ve got I g T now. If you have I G T or somebody told you you did, or you’ve suspected you do, it’s usually because of the way your breasts look. So let’s talk a little bit about that.
Let’s. And, and we, I’m laughing because this is frustrating to me. We see this a lot especially when we get clients who have already seen other lactation professionals before us, you know, and they say, oh yeah, in pregnancy, a lactation consultant or an OB looked at my boobs and said, oh, you have I g t, you should just formula feed.
Oh, now I don’t ever say that to people. I feel the same way about inverted nipples, by the way. Absolutely. Absolutely. But what they’re looking for is, is kind of a variety of characteristics. And you, when I want, when I list them, I don’t want you to feel like, oh no, I have one of those. I have I G T.
A lot of people have like some of these and not all of them. So when I list these characteristics, I don’t want you to worry. I do not believe that a true diagnosis can be made visually. And I don’t think we should be doing that. No, I mean, you can screen Yes. Like a screening is not a diagnosis. Screening is appropriate prenatally.
And so what we’re looking for is often breasts that are wide spaced. I think technically the like diagnostic criteria says at least four centimeters of flat space between your breasts. We’re looking for breasts that are. Tubular or like kind of longer, more like socks and less like melons.
Mm-hmm. Right. Maybe the aerial are bulbus almost like they’re like another feature on the breast, not just like a flat colored space. Some boys in middle school called these pepperoni boobs. Yeah. That was rude, but that was I think a lot of us have some traumatizing experiences about when we had puffy nipples in puberty and children made fun of us.
Yeah. But me tits, oh God, I remember you telling me that. But yeah, they’re like a little bit puffy or maybe even like larger themselves than really most of the brush tissue. And one of the key characteristics that I’m looking for typically, Is a lack of breast growth or change in pregnancy. Yeah, same here.
I mean, and also I see a lot of people prenatally who informed me that no women in their family were able to make milk. Mm-hmm. My, my mom said her milk never came in. Grandma said her milk never came in. And I’m like, okay, well first of all, if that’s you and you’re thinking that, throw it out the window because we don’t know what happened there.
Yeah. And that for me is a red flag for two reasons, right? One is we might have genetic endocrine issues. Two is then we might also have a family who is not gonna be supportive. Mm. If there is an uphill battle, right. The family’s gonna be like, I formula fed you and you came out fine. Yeah. So like those are separate but related issues.
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so, you know, I think it is appropriate if. You know, we were having prenatal and we’re like, Hey, like could I, would you mind if I visually assess your breasts? Like let’s do a breast exam. You know, those are important to do anyway. Let’s talk about have you felt changes? And if I see a client who very obviously has these like quote, like classic I G T, look, we’re gonna have a conversation about what that might mean in the future, because being prepared.
Is going to kind of give you the best shot at making this work. And that’s a hard conversation to have. So if you’re a lactation consultant listening, we’re gonna kind of go through a little bit mm-hmm. About how you can approach this with a patient in a respectful way without freaking them out.
Absolutely. And I do wanna say, I have certainly seen a lot of patients with like several characteristics visually of I G T who just end up having a small storage capacity. I have some of the characteristics of I G T as well, like I’ve got that wide spacing. My breasts are a little more tubular. Me too.
Yeah, and I have a really small capacity and I think that. Postpartum, the symptoms of that, like are often confused with I g T. Mm-hmm. Right. If your baby is feeding really, really often where you know, it, it may not necessarily be low supply, but if it is, you know, or if we think it is, we’re gonna look at your breasts maybe and just be like, oh yeah, I g t and, and we don’t want that to, to come out of nowhere for you.
Yeah. We don’t wanna be like, surprise, you have diabetes and we knew it all along, but we let you eat. Yeah. Right, exactly. And you know, just for reference, it’s, it’s hard to get accurate numbers on how common this is. As I said, we don’t have a lot of research. There was an interesting paper I found though, from 1958 actually.
Yeah, yeah. That talked about this. But anyway, from all of the different sources, I could find numbers varied between two and 4% of parents, which is, is significant enough that we should really be looking further into. I agree. And then also we have the breast augmentation Yes. Situation where it’s pretty difficult to parse out who actually has I G T.
Mm-hmm. Because you can’t visually assess somebody that has a breast augmentation. Yeah. Because you, you really absolutely can’t do that easily. And also you can’t palpate the glandular tissue very easily. Mm-hmm. Because of the implant. And I know that because I have implants. Yeah. And a lot of people think that.
Well, people and research admits that it’s difficult to say whether or not a breast augmentation can affect your milk supply. Mm-hmm. Or if you had I g T undiagnosed, which made you want to get a breast augmentation and now you were already a setup for having low supply in the first place. A hundred percent.
And you know, that’s why we ask about any previous surgeries prenatally. If breast surgery comes up and. Sometimes people in their mind don’t like, think of that as a surgery. So I also ask about like any, you know, body modifications, you know, anything like that. Oh yeah, I did that. Right. You know, like liposuction or breast implants or things like that.
And, and you know, if people say, oh yeah, I had breast augmentation, then that’s a good time to say, well, can we talk a little bit about why you did that? Yeah. You know, was it just that you want a bigger breast? Was it that the whole shape and look of your breast wasn’t what you thought they should be? You know, all that kind of stuff.
Because that might give you a better clue. Clinically, if we’re looking at I G T or something else. And I will say as someone that has implants, I still have breast changes in pregnancy. Yes. So they get a lot bigger. They are very sore. Are they sore right now? They are super sore and you know, so it won’t hide the brush changes.
Mm-hmm. So that question pertains, regardless of whether or not you do or do not have implants, or do or do not have, I G T.
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So if you have I g T and you know, say it’s gone. People, we haven’t really caught it prenatally, we haven’t talked about it because I think this will help listeners out there who’ve maybe had previous babies where you had low supply or your milk didn’t come in or whatever. Mm-hmm. I want you guys to be able to reflect back on that experience and, and kind of figure out if this is something you should be talking to your provider about for your next.
So with I G T, typically we have normal colostrum production. We do usually see milk comes in. The problem is achieving enough volume to qualify as like a full supply Now. I said it was a spectrum, right? Some folks with I G T just will never reach a full supply. You know, week two we’re like, oh, baby’s not back at their birth weight.
We need to start supplementing. It doesn’t mean that they have to stop breastfeeding, but we’re just not gonna be able to physiologically like achieve enough milk to get your baby to gain weight appropriately. A lot of the time we get those failure to thrive diagnosis’s on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Often we do achieve a full supply at first, and then around like eight weeks, 12 weeks, we see that dwindling off. See, this is the one though, that makes me upset. Mm-hmm. Because if everybody had appropriate lactation care consistently, I’m not sure we would see as much of that and be able to blame it on I G T.
Yeah. And you know, it’s interesting because I think. When we’re at this other end of the spectrum, we have a couple different things happening. When we have true I G T, it might just be that hormonally we cannot sustain production of the appropriate hormones to continue milk production or you know, if at that point your baby really does need a little bit more milk and you were kind of at your cap.
Mm-hmm. But then we have folks who have a small storage capacity, which might be part of I g. We just don’t have the research there who just were weren’t able to feed their baby on the appropriate schedule or pump in the appropriate schedule to continue milk production. Yeah, but that takes like a full professional who knows you and your history pretty darn good.
To determine if it was the chicken or the egg. Yeah, for sure. And this can also change during each pregnancy, right? We have talked about a bunch of times how during pregnancy you grow more glandular tissue. So for those who do experience brush changes in pregnancy or say maybe you have a new pregnancy and it’s the first time you’ve experienced breast changes.
You’re growing more glandular tissue. So what happened last time is not necessarily going to be what happens next time. You know? And. Even if you have an endocrine disorder, even if you’ve got P C O S or a thyroid issue, which often are like comorbid with I G T, you know, they’re all related, right? Those things can change.
We can treat them with medicine, we can affect the way your body makes hormones with different dietary changes, different lifestyle changes. Right. So there are possibilities for change and also early intervention for setting your baseline for supply higher. Yes. You know, so I have a patient who has I G T plans to have a second baby.
You better believe we’re gonna be pumping immediately. Yes. And that is the next thing I wanted to talk about, right? Is what can we do to change what happens next time? I think first we need to change the way that we talk to patients about. Right. What do you, what do you usually say, Heather, if you notice this prenatally or somebody say, is telling you about their last breastfeeding experience, and you’re like, mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, I usually ask the question, have you had any breast changes in pregnancy? And usually we’re at like between 28 and 36 weeks, so we should have had some breast changes by then. And if they go, Nope, not at. And I’m like, okay. And so then we’ll do our breast exam and if I notice these things, I will say, listen, I am noticing some things about the breast shape and some things that you’re telling me that could potentially line up with not having enough milk supply due to a glandular tissue deficit.
However, it ain’t over till it’s over and we just won’t mess around. Immediately if we think that there is something going on. So if you do not see colostrum, if you cannot hand express if your baby is losing weight and like we’re at greater than 10% birth weight loss, and if we’re jaundice, like we’re just not gonna mess around, we’re gonna probably be a little bit more aggressive in the beginning.
That way we can say that we did everything we could. And I said, trust me. And I always say this, trust me, I am a minimalist. Like I will not wanna do any work that is not necessary, but we have this magical timeframe where we can make some changes. So I need you on board with it because if we start seeing these, these things, we really need to attack it.
If breastfeeding exclusively is your goal, and if at the end of it we did everything we could and we’re not able to fully support this baby with your breast milk, at least we. We did everything we could. Yeah. You know what I do? I do a lot of the same stuff, and then I also say, Hey, you know, I know we had just maybe planned this one prenatal visit for lactation, but I wanna plan a day to have some really good breastfeeding education to talk about physiology and kind of how this all works.
Because having a better understanding of that can help them make the most of their interventions if they’re needed. Mm-hmm. You know? And. I, I sometimes also recommend prenatal colostrum expression. Mm-hmm. Not necessarily because it’s gonna magically make your supply bread postpartum. One, because we often have to supplement.
Right. It’s nice to have some of that, but two, it helps you familiarize yourself with how your breasts work. Mm-hmm. You can learn to hand express, you can learn a lot of the sensations of milk ejection, things like that. And you know, in the studies we have about prenatal coru Express, That is one of the factors, just learning about your own body that can influence milk supply later.
True. So I do recommend that typically, but I set, I set really realistic expectations. I’m like, you might get nothing. You might get some, it might be nothing one day and some the next day. It’s not a big deal. It doesn’t mean anything for later, but like, let’s just think of this as experimentation, you know?
And at the very least, we might just learn like how to hand express and good for you, and then. You know, when we actually get to the birth and the postpartum, we’re watching it really close, like you said, Heather. Yeah. And sometimes it’s just one breast. Yep. Sometimes we have one breast that has I G T, but the other one is fine.
And guess what? Everyone, you can successfully feed a baby most of the time with just one working breast. Mm-hmm. And that’s basically what twins is. There’s a baby from each boob. So like we can do it, we just have to be realistic. What your body is telling us. Yeah. And how we can intervene early enough.
Exactly. And the very limited research that you, we have about this does suggest that some supplemental pumping, in addition to regular breastfeeding in the first few weeks postpartum, could help those with I G T have a fuller milk supply. You know, as we know, double pumping is associated with higher prolactin levels, release of oxytocin, et cetera, et cetera.
And. General research does tell us really strongly that once we establish an early supply in those first few weeks, we have a much better chance of maintaining that supply long term. Yeah. I think if you have a baseline susceptibility to I G T issues and then you’re board in America with very limited lactation support mm-hmm.
And family support. It’s like, come on. Yeah. Especially if you’ve had a C-section and it’s like, okay, you pretty much have like 20 things stacked against you now. Mm-hmm. So then we end up with like a whole month, no one in my family’s milk came in. Right. And you’re like, everyone in your family was unsupported and born here.
Sorry. Yeah. You know, so I think also have to mention there are risks to early pumping. Mm-hmm. If you don’t have I g T, so if you suspect I g t bring it up with your provider and ask about these interventions beforehand, please do not self-diagnose and then start pumping like a crazy person because you could get mastitis, plug ducts, all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, absolutely. This is something that I think if it’s at all possible for you to have someone to consult with you. And one of the last interventions that I usually. Especially if we’re catching like these early signs of I G T is maybe recommending some extra health screenings. And talking a little bit about health history, more in depth because things like thyroid imbalances and P C O S and other endocrine disorders are often comorbid with I G T and they make sense like P C O S is an issue with estrogen.
Guess what I g T is too. And I wanna make sure that if those are present, we’re treating them appropriately cuz they. Add to that low milk supply. Right, right. And also, You know, I kind of wonder about people that are intersex. Mm-hmm. And that would include people that have unicorn uteruses, d Delphic, uteruses, right.
One ovary. Anything that’s like doubled or singled, it means that something has been either deleted or duplicated on that chromosome. Mm-hmm. And that’s gonna affect your breast tissue as well. You know, so if you have one breast that has I G T and you have one ovary, Like the lazy ovary and the other one that’s like the super powerful one.
It’s like, this is your brand buddy. Like there’s nothing wrong with your body. You’re just on that spectrum of intersex. Yeah. And there’s a support group out there for that. For sure. And it’s always something that I’m looking out for a little more carefully when we have folks who’ve conceived by IVF when they’ve had infertility treatments, you know, because.
You know, all, all these hormonal issues are usually connected. Each hormone does not exist in isolation. You know it’s a system that works together and when one part of it’s thrown off, sometimes the other parts are too. Yeah. And I just wanna say for those folks that have struggled with fertility and they keep expecting their bodies to fail.
A lot of the time when I have them for prenatals, they come in and they’re like, well, my body’s failed me every other way. So I imagine it’ll probably fail in this way too. Yeah. But I just wanna see what can happen and it’s like, listen, I just want you to leave here feeling better about your body than when you came.
For sure. You know, so if, if it means understanding your body a little bit better and having three things that you could do to maybe get ahead of it, that’s fine. You know, whatever you need to do to. So just be honest with your healthcare provider about where you’re coming from. Mm-hmm. About how you feel about your body.
That’s gonna be really important. Yeah. And you know, I wanna kind of round this out by reminding you again, that like this is, this diagnosis is not the end of the line for milk production. If you wanna breastfeed your baby and you have i g t, you can still do that. It just might not look the same as everybody else.
You could use one of the at breast supplement, like an s n s, where you can use formula or donor milk, but still have baby like suckling from your body. You might be able to breastfeed part-time, bottle feed, part-time. You know, you might just be like chest feeding for comfort. Mm-hmm. Right. That is fine and great and that’s fine too.
And I think sometimes that can be a big relief to hear that when people are like, okay, so I don’t have to set up the s and s 12 times a day. I can just bottle feed and then like, you know, do some comfort sucking for. Fantastic. You can also bottle feed with your shirt off. Mm-hmm. Like mm-hmm. In breastfeeding position.
Yeah. There’s a lot of really good things that come from breastfeeding that are not breast milk. So like switching boobs halfway through and switching sides mm-hmm. Is really good for baby’s eye development cuz they’re looking at you. So if you breastfeed with your shirt off and you got that good skin to skin and you’re actually bottle feeding.
Yeah. You know, and then you switch sides and maybe. Bottle is done, but they just want a comfort suck on that side. Right. Great. You’re working on their symmetrical muscle development and their calm. And you’re calm and it’s wonderful. Yeah, and you know, I, I do wanna make sure that folks with this diagnosis who are struggling with this chronic low supply, I, I like to plan chicken.
Even if we’re not like consulting still, I’m like, what if I called you in a month? You know, and just made sure that you’re still okay with what’s happening. Mm-hmm. Made sure that you’re still okay with, like, say you’re pumping 10 times a day and you’re like, yeah, I really wanna do it. I’m super motivated.
I’m like, awesome. But you’re only getting like 30 milliliters a day. So like this might be a process of diminishing returns for you. So like, let’s check in to make sure that that is something you still wanna do. Mm-hmm. And not something you feel obligated to do. Mm-hmm. You know, or, or whatever the situation is.
Because sometimes I think a lot of clients just need permission to stop. Mm-hmm. And I’m happy to give that to you. You know, if you look at your life and you’re like, I don’t like what’s happening, I’m happy to say, Hey, you know what? You could just not breastfeed. Yeah. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Yeah. We’ve had that conversation a few times at my office where, you know, someone’s pumping eight times a day to get mm-hmm. Less than two ounces. Yeah. And I’m like, listen, there’s nothing wrong with your two ounces, but let me give you your three options. Number one, you could stop completely. Number two, you could find donor milk of any amount, and you could give that instead.
Or number three, you could keep doing what you’re. Or maybe modify it a little bit so you’re pumping less times and just being okay with what you get. But the option that I am never okay with is where mental health is affected. So if you are literally. Putting yourself in an OCD crisis by pumping eight times a day.
Mm-hmm. Because you feel guilty or because you’re trying to like, prove something to somebody imaginary about your body. We can’t be doing that. That is really unhealthy. I wanna read part of an email, I sent a client the other day who we’re dealing with this kind of like long term, very hard work for a very small amount of return.
Mm-hmm. This was like, you know, my sign off for the email. I want you to know that I believe in you, and I am happy to work on this as long as you want to, and I want you to know that if you decide on a different course, that’s okay too. Your health, including your mental health, is very important regardless of what you feed your baby.
Being present and caring for them is the most critical thing I can help. Troubleshoot both sides of this breastfeeding, weaning bottle feeding, whatever. So please know that I’m here for you regardless. Love that you kept the door open. You let them know that we are formula feeding specialists as well.
You know, it’s not like it’s over between us if you decide not to breastfeed, cuz a lot of clients I think, are worried that they’re gonna disappoint me. I, I agree and I try so. To like obliterate that. Yeah. That worry at our first interaction by, by saying like, what’s your goal? And it’s my job to try and help you reach your goal.
I don’t care what your goal is, that’s on you. You know? Mm-hmm. Like if your goal is like, you wanna feed one bottle of breast milk and formula feed the rest, great. Mm-hmm. If your goal is to wean, awesome. Let’s do it. Like, yeah. I mean, the thing. And this is gonna be controversial, but technically through insurance, as long as you’re pumping once a day, you’re lactating.
Yeah. And you can be my client, you know, and I’m happy to type that in the chart because if you still need help with bottle feeding, with managing how much milk to put in bottles for daycare, It, you know, starting solids with bottle. I mean, that’s all very complicated. Who else is gonna talk about that?
Yeah. And I think combo feeding is the most complicated to fall a hundred percent. So if you are even remotely breastfeeding or lactating in any way, you are a client. Mm-hmm. And you should call Yep. And make your appointment cuz you deserve it. Well, my friends, I hope you feel maybe a little bit more hopeful about your I G T diagnosis, or maybe you feel like now you have information that you wanna explore more that can kind of help validate experiences that you’ve had and help you make a better plan for the future.
If you guys have questions, don’t forget, you can always email us. Let’s take a little break and then come back with an award. Yes, ma.
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It is the only thing I use to transport my breast milk to and from work while I’m working. It’s got a sleek and beautiful design. Lots of great colors, high quality materials and manufacturing. Ceres Chill also has other products that you might wanna check out too. My personal favorite is the Milkstache.
They have a great nipple shield that actually changes colors and it’s not clear like all the other ones. And you know how we feel about that. If you want to have your very own Ceres Chiller, please go to the link in our show notes and use code MILKMINUTE15 at checkout. That’s MILKMINUTE15 for 15% off your Ceres chill products. Enjoy.
All right. Welcome back. I’m so excited to give another award this week. You guys know, we love to celebrate you. It’s the best. It’s my favorite segment. Absolutely. This week’s award goes to a patron, Sarah K. And she messaged us to tell us that her sister had a bachelorette weekend in New Orleans and Sarah was able to go enjoy herself and then go back home and her baby within five minutes of getting home signed for milk and they went right back to nursing.
That’s awesome. What a relief. Absolutely. She was super worried that they were gonna have to wean, you know? They built a really strong nursing relationship for the past 19. But she was able to leave for a few days, come back and it was like nothing happened. Wow. And I know that’s the dream. Absolutely.
And it’s like so scary the first time you really spent significant time away from your breastfed baby. And I’m so happy you had a good weekend, Sarah, and you had so much fun. You deserve it. I hope you didn’t have well, maybe I did. Hope you have giant boobs walking around New Orleans. I dunno. Whatever you want.
Oh goodness. Well we’re gonna give you an award this. We’re gonna give you the Vacation Victory Award. Oh, that’s cute. Congratulations. And if you guys want to submit, nominate yourself or somebody else for an award, you can email it to us. You can message it to us, and we would love to celebrate you.
And our email is Milk Minute podcast@gmail.com. Absolutely. Well thank you guys so much for listening to another. The way we change this big system that is not set up for lactating parents is by educating ourselves our loved ones, and. You know, sometimes our providers, if you guys love the show and you wanna support us, you can subscribe to Beyond the Boob.
That would be super helpful. Or you can just tell your friends about us. Yeah, you got some pregnant friends out there that feel a little lackluster about their prenatals. Tell ’em to go over to Beyond the Boob because we’re doing deep dive prenatal visits with me following my pregnancy week by week, and we would love to see you over there.
All right, friends. Until next week. Goodbye. Goodbye.
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