Lo’s Lactation Lab

Historically humans lived in collective societies, where women would get together and breastfeed their children together in a supportive group. These days, we have become more individualized and don’t receive the same type of support we used to. Having a solid support system around you is crucial to a successful breastfeeding journey, even if your immediate circle is supportive as they can be, but...

What happens when cultures collide when breastfeeding? Being a mother whose working hard to breastfeed while simultaneously being inundated with the opinions of others can be detrimental to the entire breastfeeding process. Along with breastfeeding support not being as readily available as it should, with doctors and nurses in the hospital not having the right lactation knowledge to help in those...

Our last episode highlighted how giving birth in a birthing center allowed for better success in breastfeeding due to a more relaxed atmosphere and more individualized support being readily available. Homebirth or giving birth in a birthing center isn’t always an option for everyone, so it’s important to set yourself up for a successful breastfeeding journey when drawing up your birthing plan. The...

The impact a professional lactation specialist can make in your breastfeeding experience is quite profound, especially as a new mother. There are so many new aspects to giving birth to your first child, but the main concern is usually breastfeeding. Having a professional help in these instances can be the difference between feeding your baby for 6 months or for an entire year. In today’s episode,...

Giving birth can bring about many anxieties, but one of the biggest worries a mother faces is if there will be a sufficient amount of breastmilk for your baby. This fear is totally understandable. It is an important part of your baby’s development and there is also a lot of misinformation around it. In fact, there is a medical term for this, ‘insufficient milk supply perception’. If you are worrie...

Vicki was a NICU Nurse helping people learn to breastfeed for 5 years before she had her own breastfeeding experience. She thought with all of her knowledge of breastfeeding and milk supply that it would go easily for her. Her heart broke when that was not the case and she struggled with low milk supply. She was doing everything right, feeding on demand, pumping to increase supply, and her milk on...

Have you ever been in toe curling pain while feeding your baby from your body? Did you seek out help for the pain only to be told “the latch looks fine.” So many people feeding babies from their bodies have encountered toe curling pain while feeding. This can lead to doubts in your ability to trust yourself, and a long road of ignoring your own pain signals, or a feeling of failing once you decide...

Jess is a mental health counselor who focused perinatal mental health for women trying to conceive even before she herself had children. Hear what happens when she herself struggled to breastfeed her first and ended up exclusively pumping for three months, until one day, her baby was able to latch. It was a friend and fellow counselor who told her the symptoms she was experiencing were beyond typi...

Criselda is a first generation Mexican American, one of five daughters born to her mother who moved to the United States from Mexico. Because she worked in the service industry as a waiter in a high end restaurants and knew how grueling that work could be on pregnant moms and families in general, it took her many years to decide to have kids. Once she delivered her two boys she faced separate chal...

We know that the support fathers and/or the non-birthing parents give during the early postpartum period matters. We know that fathers experience postpartum stress and anxiety too. So, I would like to take a minute to celebrate the fathers who have already been celebrated on the podcast. If you would like to have a song written for a loved one, go to www.songfinch.com To join The Milk Making Minut...

Olivia's baby Lennon was born a couple of weeks early weighing just 5 pounds. She felt very supported at the hospital, and left feeling confident about breastfeeding. That was, until she went to a prescheduled follow appointment with the lactation consultant on day 6 and discovered her baby had dropped half a pound since birth. They made a plan to exclusively pump both to monitor Lennon's intake a...

Desi is a mom of two children ages 12 and 8. She Gave birth at two different hospitals due to changing access to care after deciding to stay home with her first baby and losing her employer provided insurance. Breastfeeding went relatively smoothly the first time around. She hired a doula, found her care to be fantastic at her hospital birth, and her baby took to nursing easily. It took her by sur...

Lo's sister Amy is on the podcast, and it was a delight to have one hour to chat with her about breastfeeding! She has 6 children, three of whom she birthed and breastfed. She had a really tough first experience, that was made even more challenging because she took custody of her three older children when her first biological baby was 4 weeks old and she wasn't even in the swing of things with bre...

Kerry had very little breastfeeding exposure before having her first baby. She was pressured into a C-section where her baby was immediately put into an isolette. She was given very little support initially and she was given incorrect information. On her final day she was able to get breastfeeding support from an IBCLC which made all the difference. Kerry was breastfeeding when her oldest was a ye...

Gretchen is a busy working mom of three who was determined to breastfeed not only because she knew it was best for her kids, but also, as she put it, because she wanted the ease to be able to "move around with my breasts and a diaper in my back pocket. And a change of clothes in the other and call it a day." Gretchen also knew she ONLY wanted to breastfeed her kids for about a year, once teeth wer...

Laura really didn’t know what to expect when she had her first baby. She had one friend who was willing to share breastfeeding details with her, but other than that did not know many other people who were very open about their breastfeeding journeys. She was adopted and so giving birth and breastfeeding brought a host of new new feelings she didn’t expect before becoming a mother. Breastfeeding di...

Sarah has four kids ages ranging in age from 14 to 8 months. She had difficult births with most of her babies, but always assumed breastfeeding would be the way she fed her babies. She was concerned it would be difficult because her nipples are typically very sensitive, and she thought she would endure a lot of pain. but it turns out breastfeeding was a completely different sensation for her and s...

Melissa (she/her) was a yoga instructor and took hypnobirth classes and read all the books after becoming pregnant in her late 30s for the first time. Earlier in her life she had breast reduction surgery which she knew could impact her ability to feed human milk to biological children, but didn't expect to ever give birth to her own children, so wasn't worried about it at the time. After two birth...

Elle (she/her) always assumed she would breastfeed her children when she had them and that it be an intuitive experience. The daughter of someone who gave birth to all her children at home and seemed to effortlessly feed them all at the breast, Elle assumed that would be her story too. She was thrown for a loop when her first child was born early and required an extensive NICU  and further hospita...

Danielle (she/her), mom of three kids, assumed she would breastfeed and dealt with the disappointment of needing to change the plan not once, but twice. Looking back she can see that she wasn't given the right supports at crucial moments and that she did not know enough to ask for them. When her second was born she tried hard to both care for her oldest and pump to provide milk for her baby who wa...

Sarah struggled with miscarriages before giving birth to her children which meant that while planning to feed her babies she really just thought about the immediate future, making it difficult to do any long term planning. Having planned for unmedicated childbirth, she received very little support once she went into labor, beyond being asked if she was "ready for the epidural". But when it came to...

Kasondra (she/her) has delivered four babies which is why this episode is so long! She adapted her goals based on what worked for her, and what was best for her mental health at the time. She also experienced miscarriages and loss, which played into her decisions about feeding her babies. Having grown up with breastfeeding as the norm, she expected breastfeeding to just happen for her. Luckily, th...

Sara (she/her) was a medical professional who gave birth to a baby via emergency c-section in her late 30s. She knew the importance of having a village of support on breastfeeding outcomes, despite not having much of a village herself. She trusted herself as she faced every decision a long the way, adjusted her expectations when needed, but also stuck to her guns when needed. Listen to an empoweri...

Kelly, mom of two kids set goals for herself and met them by pushing through with little to no support. She went back to work when her first baby was just one month old, while not even fully healed from giving birth. She's an example of hard work and grit, and an example of a system needing to do better by all families birthing babies and caring for them in the early months. Yet, her story is ulti...

Danielle had few expectations about feeding her babies, but had seen her mother feed her brother when she was a teenager. She learned along the way, paved the way for others, and years later, feels good about what she did for her babies. She had a goal to try breastfeeding, knowing it could be challenging while working full time. She had her children 22 months apart and learned so much from diving...