Season 1, Episode 1: Breastfeeding

  • In the podcast episode “Baby Myths Busted: Breast Feeding,” Jackie and Simon, a husband and wife duo, share their experience of dealing with a traumatic birth when Jackie developed eclampsia at 35 weeks and five days pregnant. The couple emphasizes the challenges they faced and the lessons learned from caring for a premature baby, expressing gratitude for the experience. The discussion focuses on the challenges and benefits of breastfeeding, highlighting the importance of breastfeeding for a child’s development and long-term health. They also emphasize the impact of premature birth on respiratory development and the importance of diaphragm function in reducing stress for both the mother and the baby. The text discusses various factors for successful breastfeeding, including the need for relaxation in the jaw and cheeks, the baby’s positioning during feeding, and the potential issues related to sore nipples and a baby’s latch. The conversation also delves into the impact of breastfeeding on immunity and musculoskeletal development, emphasizing the crucial role it plays in setting up appropriate development and movement for infants. The text concludes with a mention of the next podcast topic on sleep.

  • Unveiling the Truth: Navigating Breastfeeding and Premature Birth

    In their latest podcast episode, “Baby Myths Busted: Breastfeeding,” Jackie and Simon, a resilient husband and wife duo, open up about their profound journey of dealing with a traumatic birth experience. At 35 weeks and five days pregnant, Jackie developed eclampsia, leading to the premature birth of their baby. Their candid and heartfelt conversation delves into the challenges they faced and the invaluable lessons learned while caring for a premature infant.

    One of the central themes of their discussion is the critical role of breastfeeding in their baby’s development and long-term health. With a blend of vulnerability and gratitude, they shed light on the hurdles and triumphs they encountered while emphasizing the profound impact of breastfeeding. They touch upon the significance of breastfeeding for respiratory development, diaphragm function, and the reduction of stress for both the mother and the baby.

    The couple delves into the intricacies of successful breastfeeding, highlighting the need for relaxation in the jaw and cheeks, optimal positioning during feeding, and addressing potential issues such as sore nipples and a baby’s latch. Their insights provide a wealth of knowledge for new parents and those navigating the complexities of breastfeeding, underscoring the importance of this natural and deeply bonding experience.

    Moreover, Jackie and Simon passionately discuss the profound impact of breastfeeding on immunity and musculoskeletal development, emphasizing its pivotal role in setting the stage for appropriate infant development and movement.

    As their conversation unfolds, it becomes clear that their journey is not only a personal one but also a source of inspiration and guidance for others navigating similar challenges. The episode culminates with a hint of what’s to come, teasing the next podcast topic on the all-important subject of sleep.

    This compelling episode is a testament to the strength and resilience of parents faced with unexpected challenges. It offers a wealth of insights, debunking myths and providing valuable guidance for navigating the beautiful yet complex journey of parenthood.

    Tune in to this enlightening episode and join Jackie and Simon as they share their remarkable journey and unveil the truths about breastfeeding and caring for a premature baby.

  • Show Notes: “Baby Myths Busted: Breast Feeding”

    In this episode, hosts Jackie and Simon open up about their challenging journey with a premature birth due to Jackie’s development of eclampsia at 35 weeks and five days pregnant. The couple candidly shares the difficulties they faced and the valuable insights gained from caring for a premature baby, expressing deep appreciation for the experience.

    The central theme revolves around the challenges and benefits of breastfeeding. The discussion emphasizes the vital role breastfeeding plays in a child’s development and long-term health. The impact of premature birth on respiratory development and the significance of diaphragm function in reducing stress for both mother and baby are also highlighted.

    The hosts delve into the various factors that contribute to successful breastfeeding, addressing the need for relaxation in the jaw and cheeks, proper positioning of the baby during feeding, and common issues such as sore nipples and a baby’s latch. They also explore the profound impact of breastfeeding on immunity and musculoskeletal development, underlining its crucial role in establishing appropriate development and movement for infants.

    The episode wraps up with a teaser for the next topic, which will delve into the intricate world of infant sleep.Item description

  • 00:00 - 00:27

    Hi everyone, and welcome to our podcast, Baby Myths Busted. Thank you for tuning in today.

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    We're very excited to be sharing our knowledge and experience with you and hopefully opening

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    the floor for a different way of thinking when it comes to all things babies and childhood

    00:37 - 00:42

    development and everything else around that. We are a husband and wife duo. I'm Jackie and

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    my husband, Simon. Hello, Simon. Hello. We both come from a background or educated and have

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    experience in the allied health industry, health science, whatever you want to call it. Both of us

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    have a heavy background in athlete development, and so we've worked with developing athletes,

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    rehab return to sport and professional athletes. We have a strong interest in working with children.

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    I went more down the functional nutrition path, and Simon has now been a physio for over a decade.

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    We've also got two beautiful sons together at this point, turning seven and turning five.

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    And with our first son, Oliver, we had quite a traumatic experience. Basically, I went to a

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    routine checkup when I was 35 weeks and five days pregnant, and my blood pressure, sorry,

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    was through the roof. And that afternoon, I was admitted to hospital and pumped to the room with

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    medication to try and get my blood pressure down. Nothing really worked, and I had about three

    01:40 - 01:46

    emergency calls. And eventually, I was told that the only way to save my life was to take the baby

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    out. So I was given sleeping pills and induced the next day. The next morning, contraction started,

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    and I was on a cocktail of drugs. One of those included a magnesium sulfate drip,

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    which gave me a splitting headache and made me feel like I was going to vomit and pass out every

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    time I had a contraction. So not a nice experience. Plus the added impending fear of doom that it also

    02:12 - 02:19

    gives you mental illness. Yes, it does. That is an actual side effect of a magnesium sulfate drip,

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    the impending sense of doom. So I also had an epidural to control my blood pressure and to

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    keep stress away. However, it slowed the contractions down. So the whole process kind

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    of came to a halt then. And by this point, I'd pretty much lost the ability to talk. So I was

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    trying to communicate to you telepathically. You were trying to read my eyeball movements.

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    And eventually the contractions progressed. However, a new problem arose and we realized

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    the baby's cord was wrapped really tightly around his neck. So every time I had a contraction,

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    it resulted in the baby's heart rate dropping significantly. So in the end, my condition had

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    worsened to eclampsia, which is extremely dangerous. And the baby's heart rate had

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    dropped to 40 and wasn't coming back up. So another emergency call, all the machines got

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    turned off and I was rushed for an emergency caesarean. But thankfully the baby was ready. So

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    I was given one push and the help of forceps to get him out. And that all happened. We're all okay.

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    Spent five nights in special care. And then the next few months and so on were road to recovery

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    and figuring out how to look after a premature baby. And it was a long and arduous journey,

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    but we got so much out of it. We've learned an extortion, extreme extortionate.

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    Both are relevant in this situation.

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    Amount. And we really appreciate what we've got out of it now. Plus we have a beautiful,

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    healthy, active, sporty little seven-year-old, almost seven-year-old. And we will undoubtedly

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    go into bits and pieces of this journey we had as we progress through the podcast series. But

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    hopefully that's a brief yet descriptive enough recount of what we went through. It was very

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    traumatic. I suppose it's just the motivation as to why we wanted to do something like this. So

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    get some information out there about how to deal with said situations that arise outside of your

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    control in any of these circumstances when you're trying to look after a young child.

    04:29 - 04:35

    Yeah. And I think being in hospital, I learned that traumatic births and situations happen

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    quite commonly and it does affect the baby and how the baby behaves post birth. And there are

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    things that you can do to help. We had another son two years later with no complications,

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    natural textbook pregnancy and birth. It was a wonderful experience and I'm very thankful for it.

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    And we did do a lot of work, however, with a functional medicine GP to prevent the first

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    experience of preeclampsia going into eclampsia occurring again. But another very long story for

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    another day, I think. Today we are talking about breastfeeding. So starting at the beginning,

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    what ideally should happen when the baby's born, get a good breastfeed and then progress through

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    months and months up to a couple of years or so of good, easy, comfortable breastfeeding.

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    Sounds too good to be true. At the beginning, it is. But we are going to look today at some of the

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    most common reasons why people don't breastfeed. And we want to bust a myth to help you through

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    what can be an extremely challenging time. And we're helping you because we've been there and

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    it was extremely difficult. But it is a time in the baby's life and in the mother's life that

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    pays dividends for the rest of your life, for the rest of your child's life. And we know that there

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    are a huge amount of health benefits in terms of immunity that come from breastfeeding a baby.

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    But the success of breastfeeding has a significant impact on the musculoskeletal development of the

    06:03 - 06:09

    child. Right. Which is why we have Simon, the physiotherapist here. So we're going to talk

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    more about how breastfeeding affects a baby's development or a child's development. So I guess

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    you would see mothers come into the clinic all the time with babies who are unsettled, not feeding,

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    whatever it is. One of the complaints or reasons why parents or mothers don't breastfeed is because

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    they feel like they don't have enough milk or low supply. I've heard that a million times. Tell me,

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    what are your thoughts? There's about 2% of women who just cannot produce enough milk for their

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    child. So it's an extremely low percentage. The rest of mothers do have the capacity to do it.

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    And it's literally a supply and demand relationship. So if the baby is demanding it,

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    the mother will supply it. The problem is the demand side of it. How do you get the baby to

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    demand it enough so the supply goes up and therefore everyone is fulfilled? That's the

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    challenge. And so I suppose the first step in initiating that demand is being able to

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    get the baby to latch well. Yes. And a lot of people do have trouble with the baby latching.

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    So I know when we had Ollie, our first one, he latched fine in hospital when I was in special

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    care and I had lots of nurses around me and it was amazing. I was really well supported

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    and I got them to look at every feed I did and it was so good. And he latched well,

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    but after a while it wasn't so good. And then we had heaps of problems.

    07:36 - 07:40

    Yeah. So there's a couple of factors in that. One, that very supportive environment where you felt

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    like you were nice and relaxed, had heaps of help if needed. That's a non-stressful environment for

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    you. And so if you are stressed, the baby is going to be stressed because they take on your emotions

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    as a mother. And if they're stressed, it makes it very difficult for them to relax enough to

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    develop a good latch. I also had, because I knew that he was going to be born early, he was born

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    at 36 and one. Because the doctors were going to induce me, they knew the plan. The midwives got

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    me to start expressing milk early. So it would come in early because he was going to be little

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    and he came out really low on energy, low on blood sugar. And he did have difficulty feeding because

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    of his lack of energy. He couldn't finish a full feed. So they encouraged me to express milk. And

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    what we did was put him on the boob for as long as he could handle it. And then he would pass out

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    and then we'd sort of jiggle him around a little bit, give him bottle, which was expressed milk.

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    And because they got me started early, I had so much milk in the fridge. So they offered to take

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    a feed for me and I could sleep one night, which was really important. So that definitely would

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    have been helpful in terms of keeping my stress down. Yep. And then, so the other part of that

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    then too is when you have a premature child, usually everything is not fully developed,

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    and especially the respiratory system. And that was a big factor in our seven-year-old's birth.

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    They weren't sure if his respiratory system was going to be completely developed by the time he

    09:08 - 09:12

    came out. And that's why they're trying to delay it for as long as possible. But it just got to

    09:12 - 09:17

    the point where obviously Jackie, life was more important than his lungs. So off the top of the

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    respiratory or the breathing aspect of life comes function of your diaphragm. And so your diaphragm

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    is your main breathing muscle. It's also a major stabilizer of your spine and your rib cage,

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    but it also seals off the valve at the top of your stomach. You need that function to enable

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    you to want to be less stressed because if you're doing a shallow breath into your chest all the

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    time, that just vamps up or ramps up, I should say, your sympathetic nervous system, which is

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    a fight, fright or flight response. And then if that continues to happen, the baby continues to

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    get stressed, but it also changes the musculoskeletal and neuromuscular development of

    09:57 - 10:03

    the baby as you go through the weeks away from giving birth. So it started with a latch that was

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    good. And then over the weeks got a little bit worse because his functional ability to be able

    10:09 - 10:16

    to latch was worse. Because of his diaphragm? Because of the environment he was born into.

    10:16 - 10:23

    Oh, right. Calming. Yeah. Very well looked after. And then we took him home and it was challenging

    10:23 - 10:30

    and he started making noises and it was a first baby and we had no idea what we were doing. And

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    he was premature, so he was quite sleepy for the first few weeks too. And so yeah, the environment

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    changes. And so your baby will change with the environment if their nervous system is not robust

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    enough. And unfortunately, our boy has a lot of my nervous system in him and it's just not as

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    robust as say 60% of the population would be. And any 60 to 70% of your babies, if you're lucky,

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    will develop normally no matter what, no matter the intervention, no matter what happens because

    11:01 - 11:07

    their nervous system is robust enough. Wow. Really? And also because he had a traumatic birth,

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    he experienced that. It wasn't just me. So does that get his sympathetic nervous system firing too?

    11:14 - 11:19

    Well, the only thing he understands about the world is that it's a stressful environment.

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    Right. And he was born into that stress. Oh, right. All right. So if your nervous

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    system is not robust enough to get over the top of that, then you will just perpetuate

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    that stressful relationship unless something's done about it. Right. And so that'll mean, yes,

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    a more anxious child and all that type of stuff, not able to sleep, not able to settle,

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    but also just in terms of not being able to then go through the different milestones as you go

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    through life because you just don't have the muscular function to be able to do that.

    11:50 - 11:56

    Right. And so coming back to milk supply, Ollie would have started off with a good milk supply

    11:56 - 12:01

    and then nervous system kind of took over. Yeah, well, both are yours.

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    Yeah, both of our nervous systems kind of took over. Very stressful situations. And so that

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    affected his ability to latch. Yeah. So latching is all about a concept of

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    developing negative pressure, similar to breathing. So when you breathe, your diaphragm descends into

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    your abdomen and it draws air in from the atmosphere. So there's negative pressure inside

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    your lungs and the positive pressure gets pulled into the negative. And so it fills up your lungs

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    as your diaphragm descends. And as you breathe out, the opposite occurs. And so similar with

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    your latch, you've got to be able to generate negative pressure to draw the milk from the breast

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    into your system as a baby so that you can swallow it. It's not about muscular strength or

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    anything like that to try and create a good latch and therefore draw the milk out and demand the

    12:51 - 12:56

    milk. You need to have the generation of the negative pressure. Now that comes from a combination

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    of activities. So you need a solid base through your diaphragm, which then connects onto your

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    deep neck flexor muscles, which set up a good base for your eight tongue muscles to control

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    your tongue position to then be able to press the nipple up to the top of your mouth to create the

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    pressure environment. And you also need that special K look of your lips. So your jaw and

    13:16 - 13:20

    your cheeks need to be in a relaxed position to be able to accept that position. And then

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    all of those factors combined then lead to the milk being demanded from the breast. And if you

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    can't get all of those elements to happen, then breastfeeding will not be as easy as you'd want

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    it to be. Yeah, right. And so milk is produced specifically for the baby. Supply, demand and

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    what it's made up of, it's an innate intelligence of the human body built for survival. So the baby

    13:47 - 13:53

    can get it, just needs to be able to access it. So what can influence, so your nervous system

    13:53 - 14:01

    comes into it. What about like positioning of the baby when you're feeding? How much does that

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    impact? Well, for probably 60 to 70% of kids, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, right. Yeah,

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    but those kids that you do struggle with feeding, you do have to be really careful with your

    14:10 - 14:16

    position. I mean, you need to have a position that the head's not tilted one way or the other.

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    They're not too reclined backwards with their neck. They're not too reclined forwards with

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    their neck. Needs to be relaxed for the mother. The mother can't be shrugging her shoulders with

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    a really hard elbow bend, anything like that, because that just disrupts the, I suppose,

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    the relaxation and the ease of which entry onto the breast should be. And so I think the easiest

    14:36 - 14:43

    way, if you're really struggling to try and get a good latch, is to try and feed your child when

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    you're laying on your side on a bed or a day bed or a sofa or whatever it is, and you have them

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    facing you towards your breast, and then you feed in that side-lying position.

    14:54 - 14:58

    Yep. So they're side-lying, they're side-lying facing you, attached to the boob, put something

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    behind them, obviously, so they're not going to fall off the couch or anything. But I did that

    15:03 - 15:09

    a huge deal with Ollie. I found both of our boys fed a lot. And of course, I was tired at times,

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    so I would position myself so I could lay, the baby could lay, get a good feed. It was a really

    15:15 - 15:21

    good feeding position, especially on one side for Ollie, but that's another issue. And I would

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    often pass out too, which was nice. I needed it. Yeah. Just being in the side-lying position,

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    it allows you to stack all of the skeletal structures nicely so that those muscles that

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    are involved in generating that demand from the breast can work to their maximal capacity.

    15:39 - 15:42

    Yeah. Okay. That is just the easiest way to do it.

    15:42 - 15:47

    Yeah. And honestly, sitting up, if I was really tired, there was a fear that I would fall asleep

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    and drop the baby. So laying down felt like a more comfortable and reassuring position

    15:54 - 16:02

    for me a lot of the time. Now, what about sore nipples? I had sore nipples. Oh, it's really

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    painful. They're really sensitive. So that's common. People would stop breastfeeding because

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    of sore nipples. Yeah. Well, if you think about it like this,

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    if you haven't had, for lack of a better word, friction in an area, and you haven't had that,

    16:15 - 16:19

    I suppose, the roughness of the coarseness of the tongue or anything being rubbed up on a particular

    16:19 - 16:24

    part of your skin, and then you're just doing that onto probably the one of the most sensitive parts

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    of your skin, and you're doing it over and over and over again for 10, 15 minutes, multiple times

    16:29 - 16:33

    a day, yeah, of course it's going to get sore initially. Yeah. Yeah. All right. But if you've

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    got a nice relaxed latch, over time, your nipples will adjust probably over 10 to 14 days, and

    16:38 - 16:42

    things get a lot easier after that, if all the positioning stuff is great.

    16:42 - 16:47

    Yeah. Okay. So your baby might be feeding well, and you might feel like they've got a good latch,

    16:48 - 16:54

    but they might be, I don't know, clicking or something? Our youngest son, he clicked a little

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    bit. Is that gaping, catching air? The clicking is the tongue releasing from the top of the,

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    or the roof of the mouth, where the nipple should be being compressed.

    17:06 - 17:09

    So does that mean the nipple's not quite in the right position?

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    It means that the tongue can't hold the nipple in the right position.

    17:14 - 17:15

    Right. It doesn't have enough

    17:16 - 17:21

    ability to maintain the pressure required. And how does that get resolved? Can it?

    17:22 - 17:28

    So it depends. Depends what's generating the clicking. So I suppose in the modern day,

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    there's a lot of chat around oral restrictions, so more commonly known as tongue ties or lip ties

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    or cheek ties or whatever. They can have an impact on how easy it is for the tongue to reach

    17:39 - 17:46

    the roof of the mouth. And often, if someone's got quite a significant tie in one of those realms,

    17:46 - 17:51

    you will hear that clicking sound. But also, an oral restriction might be completely absent,

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    and they just don't have good control of the deep neck flexors. Therefore, those eight muscles that

    17:54 - 17:58

    control the tongue, and you still get the clicking. So you've just got to be able to

    17:58 - 18:03

    figure out which elements are impacting that. Right. So how do we figure it out?

    18:03 - 18:07

    Well, you just need to find a good lactation consultant first.

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    Okay.

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    Because they are the ones who are specifically trained in all things breastfeeding.

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    Yeah.

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    And a good one will be able to direct you to the right professional to

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    seek advice from.

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    Yeah.

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    If they deem it necessary.

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    Yeah.

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    To then steer you in the direction if this is a problem for you.

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    And I guess like any profession, there's good ones, there's not so good ones. So don't lose

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    hope if you don't fix the situation immediately. Keep looking, keep questioning, keep trying.

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    For the numerous reasons as to why breastfeeding is great, you just got to be super persistent.

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    You just got to do everything possible in your mind, in your ability to seek out information.

    18:49 - 18:49

    Yeah.

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    To do what you can to make breastfeeding happen, because it is so important.

    18:53 - 18:57

    Yeah. So important. I mean, on the immunity side of things,

    18:57 - 19:01

    the baby gets its immunity from its parents, mainly the mother.

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    Starts from conception, gets a lot of the immunity through the placenta.

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    But if the baby has a vaginal birth, it gets a lot of the immunity or the majority of the

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    immunity from coming through the vaginal canal from all the bacteria in there.

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    But breastfeeding a baby will provide the baby with all the antibodies that you've got and will

    19:25 - 19:30

    boost the immune system for as long as you breastfeed for. So if you stop breastfeeding,

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    you stop providing that immunity. And so the earlier you stop,

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    the earlier your baby has to fend for itself. And they say breastfeed for at least six months.

    19:40 - 19:48

    That's because firstly, it's the only source of nutrients, but your gut is so permeable for

    19:48 - 19:53

    the first four to six months of life. So anything else you put into the baby's

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    mouth, anything that the baby takes up can be ingested and it can be treated as a toxin.

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    And it's really unhealthy for the baby, has very negative implications on their immune system.

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    It's worth noting, though, that although Australian Breastfeeding Foundation and

    20:10 - 20:16

    World Health Organization say breastfeed for at least six months, it is so important to breastfeed

    20:16 - 20:22

    for longer if you can. Up to two years, they say they get nutrient, like the majority of

    20:22 - 20:28

    the nutrient requirements from breastfeeding. It's also so beneficial if the baby is sick or

    20:28 - 20:34

    if the mother is sick, you develop antibodies against the infection that you've got or against

    20:34 - 20:39

    the infection that the baby's got. And it again continues to boost the immune system.

    20:39 - 20:45

    So the longer we can provide our baby with our immunity for or the immunity that we're

    20:45 - 20:49

    helping grow in their system, the better. The better off they're going to be for the

    20:49 - 20:53

    rest of their lives. So super important from that side of things.

    20:53 - 20:57

    Well, yeah, just the first 12 to 18 months of your baby's life.

    20:57 - 21:01

    ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ The most crucial parts of their life.Dictionary

    21:01 - 21:04

    Immunity.Dictionary If you get that, as close to right as you

    21:04 - 21:07

    can get it, your child is going to be set up for life.

    21:07 - 21:08

    Dictionary Yep.

    21:08 - 21:11

    Dictionary And it just takes a lot of effort to make

    21:11 - 21:12

    that happen.Dictionary

    21:12 - 21:13

    It does.

    21:13 - 21:14

    And it's extremely challenging.

    21:14 - 21:21

    And there's a lot of talk amongst new mothers about what my baby's doing and how much they're

    21:21 - 21:23

    sleeping and how much they're feeding and how easy it is.

    21:23 - 21:27

    But you don't have to listen to anyone or take it seriously because it is a challenge.

    21:27 - 21:31

    It's meant to be, but it's to set your child up for the rest of their life.

    21:31 - 21:36

    So immunity wise, musculoskeletal development wise, psychological health wise.

    21:36 - 21:39

    Dictionary Well, for a musculoskeletal, feeding is the

    21:39 - 21:42

    first purposeful movement you do as a baby.

    21:42 - 21:45

    All the other movements in the first six weeks of your life, they're there about.

    21:45 - 21:49

    So just innate reflexes that you do.

    21:49 - 21:50

    It's not a conscious effort.

    21:50 - 21:55

    So if you can coordinate a good latch and then a good feed, that sets up your brain

    21:55 - 21:58

    to be able to develop good patterns for learning any behavior.

    21:58 - 22:04

    So be that a movement behavior or an academic behavior or a social behavior, it gets the

    22:04 - 22:10

    deeper parts of the brain and more areas of brain active if you can get that as well as

    22:10 - 22:11

    you can get it.

    22:11 - 22:12

    Dictionary Yeah.

    22:12 - 22:18

    So you're going to be able to produce enough milk unless you're in that very rare 2% of

    22:18 - 22:22

    the population that cannot produce the right amount of milk.

    22:22 - 22:24

    You're going to be able to do that.

    22:24 - 22:30

    The problem would be your baby's ability to latch, whether that's from like a nervous

    22:30 - 22:36

    system thing, the development of or lack of developmental position of the diaphragm and

    22:36 - 22:37

    22:37 - 22:41

    Neurological conditions or anything that impacts the baby's natural ability just to be able

    22:41 - 22:42

    to exist.

    22:42 - 22:43

    Yeah.

    22:43 - 22:44

    Tongue ties, lip ties.

    22:44 - 22:45

    It's going to have a big impact.

    22:45 - 22:46

    Yeah.

    22:46 - 22:47

    Absolutely.

    22:47 - 22:50

    And it is difficult in some circumstances, it's not possible.

    22:50 - 22:53

    And that's why we have formula there as a backup because it's still got some nutrients

    22:53 - 22:55

    in there to allow your baby to develop.

    22:55 - 22:56

    Yeah.

    22:56 - 22:57

    Absolutely.

    22:57 - 23:02

    But if you have a desire, you need to try and do everything possible you can to breastfeed

    23:02 - 23:03

    your child.

    23:03 - 23:10

    And so the ability or difficulty in latching, does it the same, does that also affect breast

    23:10 - 23:13

    engorgement, mastitis, block ducts, things like that?

    23:13 - 23:14

    They're all the same thing.

    23:14 - 23:15

    Yeah.

    23:15 - 23:16

    Okay.

    23:16 - 23:22

    So if the milk is not coming out of the breast and it builds up, there's your engorgement,

    23:22 - 23:23

    there's your mastitis.

    23:23 - 23:24

    Yeah.

    23:24 - 23:25

    Yeah.

    23:25 - 23:28

    Especially if you then get hit on the breast and when they are engorged, that'll create

    23:28 - 23:33

    like a trauma and then that'll get inflamed and therefore you get your mastitis, that's

    23:33 - 23:34

    one typical way.

    23:34 - 23:35

    Yeah.

    23:35 - 23:41

    Well, that happened to me twice because our eldest liked to jump on me a bit and hit me

    23:41 - 23:45

    in the breast a couple of times and I ended up with mastitis.

    23:45 - 23:52

    Very painful, horrible experience, but you painfully massaged the block duct away for

    23:53 - 23:54

    me.

    23:54 - 23:55

    Well, yeah.

    23:55 - 23:56

    And that is probably the best way to do it.

    23:56 - 24:00

    It's really painful, but it does clear it pretty quickly because you are just trying

    24:00 - 24:04

    to allow that milk to escape whatever blockage is there.

    24:04 - 24:05

    Yeah.

    24:05 - 24:08

    So really, the latch.

    24:08 - 24:14

    That is, if you can get that right, it's going to make you feel like you can breastfeed successfully

    24:14 - 24:15

    with your child.

    24:15 - 24:19

    If it's a stress-based thing, it's all about creating the right environment.

    24:19 - 24:26

    So whatever you need, darkness, music, get your phone away, stare into your baby's eyes,

    24:26 - 24:31

    relax, do whatever you need to do to relax, lay on your side, whatever it is, create the

    24:31 - 24:35

    environment to allow you to relax and then the baby should relax.

    24:35 - 24:36

    That is your prerequisite.

    24:36 - 24:39

    Without relaxation, you do not get successful breastfeeding.

    24:39 - 24:40

    Yeah.

    24:40 - 24:42

    Been there, done that.

    24:42 - 24:46

    If you get the relaxation part, then you just need to make sure that what you're doing position-wise

    24:46 - 24:51

    for your child is correct or as correct as it can be.

    24:51 - 24:54

    And if you're doing all those things and you feel like you're still not getting anywhere,

    24:54 - 24:59

    that's when you may want to contact a lactation consultant to see where things may be going

    24:59 - 25:00

    wrong.

    25:00 - 25:01

    Yeah.

    25:01 - 25:05

    And if they pick up a few things and they refer you to somewhere else and to there,

    25:05 - 25:09

    then you just put all those pieces together and then you come up with a way to make all

    25:09 - 25:13

    of that happen so you can still try to breastfeed your child.

    25:13 - 25:16

    And so what about bottle feeding?

    25:16 - 25:22

    When I expressed milk and our eldest had a bottle, which was lovely because you got

    25:22 - 25:25

    to give it to him, is that similar?

    25:25 - 25:29

    They say that there's teats you can get for the bottles and they mimic a nipple.

    25:29 - 25:30

    Can they?

    25:30 - 25:31

    Well, there's so many teats you can get.

    25:31 - 25:37

    You can get teats that force like a good latching position with the lips, you can get softer

    25:37 - 25:40

    ones, you can get harder ones, you can get increased flow ones, you can get decreased

    25:40 - 25:41

    flow ones.

    25:41 - 25:42

    Yeah, yeah.

    25:42 - 25:47

    There's so many varieties out there, but nothing compares to the nipple.

    25:47 - 25:52

    Just like we can't just completely, when we replace a joint, for example, we can't actually

    25:52 - 25:55

    mimic the joint action as this doesn't work.

    25:55 - 25:59

    So no bottle will replace the nipple.

    25:59 - 26:02

    You can only just mimic the action.

    26:02 - 26:07

    As long as you're able to still breastfeed, you'll still get the action.

    26:07 - 26:11

    They should not still get, they should not get confused between bottle and breast.

    26:12 - 26:16

    If they have the mechanics, they should never be confused.

    26:16 - 26:17

    Right.

    26:17 - 26:22

    But yes, it was great for me to try and take the burden off Jackie when she was so tired

    26:22 - 26:24

    in those early days so I could feed during the night.

    26:24 - 26:27

    Yes, really good from that perspective.

    26:27 - 26:30

    Not ideal from a musculoskeletal perspective, but then you've got to weigh up your pros

    26:30 - 26:35

    and cons here and your risk versus reward, whichever way you want to look at it.

    26:35 - 26:40

    Sometimes the best way to get the best result is just to take some load off the mother for

    26:40 - 26:42

    a half an hour, get a full night's sleep.

    26:42 - 26:47

    So then the next day you get full relaxation, you can get on top of it and do everything

    26:47 - 26:49

    else besides breastfeeding.

    26:49 - 26:55

    Because it is exhausting and having limited sleep as a mother is really taxing and I was

    26:55 - 27:00

    quite unwell for weeks trying to recover from my eclampsia.

    27:00 - 27:05

    So it was very beneficial and it gave you the bonding experience with Ollie.

    27:05 - 27:07

    As a young child though, I hated the pump.

    27:07 - 27:14

    I didn't want to go near it so I did all the feeding, which was a lot, but yes, the

    27:14 - 27:16

    dreaded noise of the pump.

    27:16 - 27:17

    Yeah.

    27:17 - 27:18

    So, okay.

    27:18 - 27:21

    Anything else you want to tell us about breastfeeding before we wrap up?

    27:21 - 27:25

    Just try and get a relaxed environment and a good latch and do whatever you can to make

    27:25 - 27:31

    those two things happen and then 90% of your problems with breastfeeding will go away.

    27:31 - 27:36

    And I suppose one thing I wanted to mention was if you want to see if you've got a good

    27:36 - 27:37

    latch or not.

    27:37 - 27:42

    Yeah, you look down at the baby on the nipple, but stand up and look in the mirror as well

    27:42 - 27:45

    or put a mirror in front of your chair that you're breastfeeding in or whatever and have

    27:45 - 27:48

    a look and see if the baby's spine is aligned.

    27:48 - 27:51

    Because Ollie's, when I was breastfeeding, I didn't realize it wasn't.

    27:51 - 27:56

    He had a bit of a kinky in his neck and he was a bit twisted and it was different on

    27:56 - 27:57

    the other side.

    27:57 - 28:01

    And as soon as I was shown how to fix that up, massive difference.

    28:02 - 28:03

    So, huge impact on the latch.

    28:03 - 28:06

    Well, nowadays we've got iPhones and stuff, so maybe get someone to take a photo for you.

    28:06 - 28:07

    Yeah, that's true.

    28:07 - 28:08

    And you'll be able to see that.

    28:08 - 28:09

    That's true.

    28:09 - 28:15

    All right, so hopefully that's covered off a bit of the confusing information out there

    28:15 - 28:17

    about breastfeeding.

    28:17 - 28:21

    It is hugely, hugely, hugely important for so many reasons.

    28:21 - 28:28

    From a musculoskeletal perspective, really sets them up for appropriate development.

    28:28 - 28:30

    The ability to learn how to move.

    28:30 - 28:31

    Yeah, yeah.

    28:31 - 28:36

    So, I think probably something that's not so known and so therefore a bit unrelated.

    28:36 - 28:40

    But it's just one of those things you don't think about when you're breastfeeding, that

    28:40 - 28:44

    it's actually impacting how well they can develop from a musculoskeletal or neuromuscular

    28:44 - 28:46

    or just general movement perspective.

    28:46 - 28:48

    It actually has a large impact.

    28:48 - 28:49

    Yeah.

    28:49 - 28:52

    Underrated is what I was going for.

    28:52 - 28:53

    Underrated.

    28:53 - 28:57

    All right, well, thank you everyone for listening to today's podcast.

    28:57 - 28:59

    We will catch you next time.

    28:59 - 29:01

    We're going to talk about sleep.

    29:01 - 29:03

    See you next time.

    29:03 - 29:04

    Thank you.

    29:04 - 29:09

    Feeling more than fine.

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Season 1, Episode 2: Sleep