Ask Anne… Question: I gave my baby  several bottles of expressed breast milk when he first came home from the hospital because he was jaundiced and too sleepy to nurse well. Now, at 3 days my milk has come in and he’s not sleepy anymore, but I can’t get him to nurse.  He takes the bottle fine but cries when I …

Ask Anne Question: My baby girl is five months old and exclusively breastfed. She feeds every three hours during the day for short times (10-15 minutes), and sometimes I feed her once during the night if I can’t get her back to bed. I’d like to nurse for twelve months, but recently I noticed a drop in my production. I …

Ask Anne… Question: I’m due in two months, and I’m afraid I won’t have enough milk, because I had a hard time with my milk production when I went back to work after my first baby was born. I’m considering having my placenta encapsulated, but it’s expensive and I’m not sure we can afford it. Will ‘placenta encapsulation’ increase my …

In recent years, formula manufacturers have been aggressively marketing their products as the middle ground where all parents can  share, compromise and support each other.  Examples of this include Similac’s “Sisterhood of Motherhood” and the “I Support You” campaigns which boldly claim that their objective is to stand behind parents no matter what their feeding choices. Their premise is that …

Ask Anne… Question: I’m worried that I’m not producing enough breast milk. My friend told me that ‘lactation cookies’ would help. Will eating oatmeal cookies really increase  milk  supply? Answer: In a word, no.  Although you can Google “lactation cookies” and find tons of recipes, there isn’t any evidence based research that they do anything at all to increase your …

The article below is the first in a series of articles which will examine social media discourse of an organization whose stated purpose includes informing parents of the dangers of exclusive breastfeeding. The message within a message: Examining a Fed Is Best meme. It is a lucky happenstance when the acronym of an organization reflects its purpose, but the the …

  Babywearing as the Biological Norm My focus as a mother supporter, aka doula, is with the needs of the mother. For when we address the needs of the mother we by default address the needs of the baby.  So what is in a sling for the mother? Many years ago a history professor made an off the cuff remark …

I have always wondered why women, myself included, get such odd looks and negative comments when we say we are going to breastfeed our expected twins, triplets or more. Because once a mother and her babies get the breastfeeding “down,” it’s actually easier to breastfeed. Also, each multiple and his/her mother has as much right to the breastfeeding relationship (and …