Breastfeeding During Pregnancy | Milk & Love

Transcription


Corryn: Hi everyone and thank you for joining our Google Hangout this morning, it's great to have you here. I'd like to welcome Katie James, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and midwife. Thanks for joining us Katie.

Katie James: Thanks or having me, hi Corryn.

Corryn: So this evening, or this morning, we're discussing a topic that was sent in from Christine and Christine wants to know about nursing while pregnant.

So, Katie, when you're pregnant is it okay for everybody to nurse or are there certain people that can't nurse while they're pregnant?

Katie James: Oh that's a great question and I think something that comes up often and sometimes women seem to be quite worried to talk to their health professional about this. Nearly all women can continue to breastfeed while they're pregnant if they choose to. There is a very small category where we may have some concerns. Basically if women have had many miscarriages or have had some late miscarriages or what we would call a poor obstetric history then we may have some concerns that continuing to breastfeed will actually stimulate the hormones that can cause labor and contractors.

So the hormone that helps the milk to come down or have a let down is the same hormone that creates a contraction so it makes the smooth muscle contract; it's called oxytocin and it's also known as the love hormone and that's why when we get breastfeeding sorted and we get through the first few days and weeks it becomes one of those most enjoyable amazing things to do and we get that hit of sort of love hormone every time we look at our baby and it's so marvelous.

So those are the women where we sort of have some caution and I'd recommend that you actually talk to your midwife or your obstetrician or your GP about what's best for you.

But in the majority of women absolutely fine to breastfeed and obviously we want people to continue enjoying breastfeeding for as long as possible, as long as both you and your baby are happy and the longer the better.

In terms of what's….

Corryn: …as well. When – because obviously when you're pregnant your body is, or your baby is, needing all this nutrition from you, if you're breastfeeding are there any things in particular that you should worry about or ask your doctor about when you're trying to supply for your baby and toddler?

Katie James: That's very good. Basically your nutrition needs go up when you're breastfeeding and you use, you probably need, an extra third of the daily calories. So what most women find anyway when they're breastfeeding is that they have a higher thirst and they have more of a hunger.

You probably need an extra 500 calories a day, 700 calories a day depending on your body type and so that's an extra one meal like another lunch or some snacks, a banana.

An so when you're pregnant you might find that you actually need even more and you find that you're more hungry and that's okay; listen to your body, try and eat healthy, try and have some nuts or some avocado or those healthy fats ad protein that's going to keep you going for longer and always listen to your thirst and drink to your thirst.

Most women find that when they're breastfeeding they want a glass of water anyway and that's why we don’t prescribe a certain amount of water per day and there's that myth that you need to drink enough to make more milk. That's not really how it works. Basically you make more milk by the baby feeding more. But, when you deprive yourself of nutrients or fluid you'll actually feel really quite run down and unwell and if you're pregnant as well it's the last thing you want because both of those babies are going to absorb all of your nutrients and leave you with nothing so it's just about being sensible and listening to your body.

Corryn: Yep. And I guess the other thing; being all touched out. I know when I was pregnant with my second I think I got to about the second trimester and then I just had a complete aversion to breastfeeding and that was actually when I had to wean my first because I was just feeling so touched out and I needed some of my own body back, is that common? Is there ways around it?

Katie James: It's a tricky one, it is quite common and what's happening is the baby inside you is starting to really develop in terms of movements and then you've got your other child who's feeding and cuddling and wanting that attention and so it just feels quite overwhelming for some women and other women don’t notice it at all. I think it's a tricky one and I don’t know specific reasons of actually getting around that.

Sometimes I would suggest that maybe you sit down with your partner or someone who can help you and you have more of a timeout and you're more conscious about having that time away so you make the effort to say everyday I will actually have that hour where I go for a walk, I go to the gym, I'm in the bathroom on my own. Just simple things of actually I want my own skin to be mine. And I need that time and I think we make those efforts to a certain extent when we're a new mom but we don’t always stick to them.

And so when you're starting to feel like that you might find that actually I need an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and actually I need to stick to this because I really still want to keep breastfeeding.

And for other women it becomes overwhelming and I think as women, as a group of women, we're very good at putting guilt on ourselves for feeling this way or feeling that we don’t want to do this anymore and it's all my fault. It's just nature and that's okay. And I think we have to say to ourselves I've done a really good job here, I'm continuing to breastfeed and look at it in a positive way.

I've provided all these nutrients all the way through and don’t feel too stressed out about it. You might find that you pick back up with the breastfeeding in a couple of weeks when you've had time off and that's possible as well. You might find that you wean so that baby, your child, is breastfeeding maybe just at night or maybe just an early one in the morning and so we work on weaning rather than sensation of breastfeeding but I think it's going to be an individual thing for each person. That one is tough, it's really tough.

Corryn: So true with so many things with breastfeeding it's so different for every mother.

Katie James: That's why my jobs interesting.

Corryn: So then, when the baby arrives all of the sudden you have colostrum instead of milk, is that okay for the toddler, are there any things that you need to be worrying about? Should you be prioritizing feeding the baby first, what happens then?

Katie James: Yeah, so the bodies so amazing and it still blows my mind now that you can have mature breast milk all the way through pregnancy and then a few days, a few weeks before you go and give birth, we believe, that the milk turns back to the colostrum phase so it remains as small in quantity as when you first had colostrum with your first child or first pregnancy.

But it changes in consistency and it increases in those antibodies again; huge amounts of antibodies for this new baby and it's very high in sugar so remember that sticky sort of feeling of colostrum and lower in the fat and the protein; the whole consistency changes.

So the most important points are that when the baby arrives, the baby comes first in terms of – it's designed to have all of those antibodies and needs to have them and that is a baby's first immunization. So we would recommend that you always feed your newborn first and then you feed your older child secondary.

The other thing we might find is that sometimes the older child actually doesn’t like the taste of the colostrum because colostrum is more salty and so sometimes they will actually self wean at that point and they might come back a few days later and taste it and still go, ah, I don’t like it! And then they might come back a week later and go, actually I quite like it and others have forgotten about it.

So, again, a variance in personality, your milk, the age of your child, babies feeding but it can be really quite helpful that you've had a toddler and you're bringing in your milk quite quickly as well once the babies born.

Corryn: Yeah, I guess it's – especially for the older child. It's not necessary anymore for them to have, I guess, consistency with their feeding so they can not breastfeed for periods of time and then come back to it again. I think that's a really important point as well whereas the baby obviously needs it all the time.

Katie James: It's harder if there's a really small gap and say you've got a baby whose maybe nine months to 12 months and then you're having a new baby because they're still just starting on that period of becoming a bit more reliant on solids but a baby – a child over one, one and a half, two, yes, you're right, they can go long periods and they might only be having one to four feeds every 24 hours.

So that makes it easier. We're not talking about sort of eight to 12 feeds everyday for both children on the majority.

Corryn: And I guess then if you did have a younger older child could you introduce a bottle of formula or something through the day if you needed a bit more of a break and supplement a bit as well?

Katie James: Yeah, absolutely. From 12 months they can have full fat cows milk but then they are going to need a substitute if you have stopped breastfeeding or you're not expressing.

And what you might find if you've never introduced a bottle is that some babies can be quite fussy particularly after six months and so then we'd be recommending trying to cup and cup feeding can be a bit more acceptable and so that's – there's lots of suggestions about getting babies onto cups or bottles and maybe we can talk about that at another session and give some tips out as well.

Corryn: Sounds great! That's wonderful, I think we're just about out of time now so we're going to wrap up and we might have another chat about tandem nursing in another session as well because I think that's quite an interesting topic too.

But thank you for all of your wonderful information Katie, it's always lovely talking to you.

Katie James: Thanks Corryn, pleasure.

Corryn: And thank you also to Christine for sending in the topic. If you have any topics that you'd like to have us talk about please do send them in, we love hearing from you and please join us next week when we discuss tandem nursing.

In the meantime you can find more great breastfeeding information on our website at www.milkandlove.com.au. Thank you very much for watching.