Nurtured Mumma

15/03/2023

Are there any local Adelaide or hills Mums who could help this local Mum and bub out with donated breast milk?

URGENT REQUEST….
Breastfeeding Mumma’s, can you please help? I’m Doula for a beautiful family who had their baby a few weeks ago. Babe has a tongue tie that is impacting feeding and Mumma’s breast milk supply. Mumma is tirelessly expressing around the clock and dad is beautifully supporting both mum and babe. They just need a little help from a tribe of fellow breastfeeding Mummas. Is anyone able to donate some breastmilk to this beautiful family while they have the tie released and Mumma’s milk supply increases.

If you can help, please let me know. My Doula family live in Aldgate, and I’m in Flagstaff Hill.

10/08/2022

I have come across birthing women being told they they cannot birth with their baby still in their sac and MUST have their waters broken. It is absolutely possibly to birth babies in the sac or "en caul". Amazing photo!

21/05/2022

So true! Do you relate?

Take care parents.

What comes out as anger is often sheer exhaustion and overwhelm from inadequate down time and self care.

Parenting is a full time job.

Even when you’re not with them, you’re ‘with them’, in one way or another.

The mental, physical and emotional load is mammoth.

The competing demands are huge.

Drop the guilt.

Grab any moment you can to reset, recharge and rejuvenate.

Be kind to yourself.

Focus on what’s going well.

You matter.

Your children want you to be okay more than anything else in the world.

When parents are okay, great things follow for their children.

🤍 Madhavi Nawana Parker

Infographic 🙏 via .therapist

26/02/2022

Sharing this wonderful birth story with permission. I had the honour of working with this Mumma before the birth of her second baby and after the birth or her first. Her first birth was traumatic with a host of consequences. During her second pregnancy she had varying and conflicting advice and understandable worries while dealing with the legacy of her first birth but was keen to try for a vaginal birth under specific conditions.

We went through my birth preparation programme including practical planning for both vaginal birth and c-section birth while supporting her preference for a vaginal birth, whilst also being real about pelvic floor risks and aiming for the best outcome for her AND bubs.

There are so many myths and misconceptions about what is needed to birth well, and it definitely isn't forced purple pushing like you see in the movies. Some issues CAN be avoided..

When I received this feedback today I may have gotten a little teary! This outcome is so awesome and EXACTLY why I run individualised and couple based birth preparation sessions and courses that are both informative and practical, because the information and skills gained can make the difference between struggling on the other side and spring boarding into first or subsequent time motherhood with less baggage to worth through both physically and emotionally.

Awesome births literally make a world of difference!

If you are keen for more information get in touch via wendy@energyandmotion.com.au or message me here!

04/12/2021

Great to see variety in representation! Have you considered that most medical representations are almost always of Caucasian skin and background?

https://twitter.com/Liyahsworld_xo
Illustration by https://twitter.com/ebereillustrate

What we’ve been searching for!

Thank you for the ability to repost Shades.
Black Pregnant Woman Illustration by

Diversity in medical illustration

04/08/2021

I am really keen to read this news published comprehensive update on optimal cord clamping. Let me know what you think!

To clamp the umbilical cord more than 3 minutes after birth is essential for term newborns' health and development. Today, my most elaborate work on cord clamping yet is published, a review written together with Judith Mercer , professor in Midwifery, and the author of many important papers on cord clamping for several decades.
We hope to provide an updated, balanced text on the current "knowns and unknowns" regarding the practice of cord clamping, useful for nonprofessionals as well as midwives, obstetricians and neonatologists alike.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clp.2021.05.002
Graphic courtesy Satyan Lakshminrusimha

31/08/2020

I waa just chatting to a client earlier today about the capacity to relocate at any age. Our bodies are amazing!

A grandmother in Vietnam breastfeeding her grandchild. It is a common practice in many cultures for a grandmother to relactate so that she may breastfeed her grandchild. It is truly an act of love.





UPDATE: We are getting a TON of questions about colostrum and induced lactation and relactation and how menopause affects this, etc! We will be going LIVE in 2 minutes with an IBCLC to answer any questions here!

UPDATE: A lot of people seem to be curious about how this is possible. Breastmilk production is all about supply and demand. The breasts can continue to make milk indefinitely as long as there is a demand for it. People also seem to be curious about how menopause might affect this. Pituitary glands are necessary in the production of breastmilk and menopause does not restrict the pituitary glands ability to function. So, yes, even after menopause it is still possible to produce enough milk to nourish a baby. Loving all of the conversation around this?! Aren't women's bodies just amazing? We can do so many things that we didn't even know 😉

22/08/2020

So beautiful!

I am bottle feeding my baby with donated breastmilk due to being on chemotherapy. I love feeding her AS CLOSE TO I would if I was breastfeeding her, for her benefit and for mine. On demand, following her cues that tell me when she’s hungry and when she’s full. Snuggled in close, as she drifts off to sleep. In the early days there were lots of skin to skin feeds and we still get that in here and there in the tub. Her favourite spot to feed is being worn in a baby carrier, or tucked in my arm in bed or in the hammock with me. It’s a loving and intimate experience, done primarily by me by choice. Exclusively by me by choice for the first few months (especially earlier on when I was hopeful for chemo to be temporary and to keep my own supply and when I really needed the hormonal boost of the experience while I adjusted physiologically and emotionally to quitting breastfeeding), now also a bit more by her dad (and the rare occasion one of a few trusted and close and intimate helpers when and only when it feels instinctually/intuitively/emotionally right to do that, all in their own time). There’s no “replacing” breastfeeding and all it’s layered benefits and I still would trade almost anything if I could be breastfeeding my little baby. And, I also love that we’ve found a way to preserve some similar components of it where we can while I also protect her from the meds in my body. There are lots of ways to feed babies and different circumstances sometimes lead to different kinds of creativity to find what feels like the healthiest (physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally) for our families given our personal contexts. This is mine. Thank you to all of my friends, colleagues, and clients and other connected peeps who have given us the gift and privilege of doing this with donated human milk. If you need or want donated human milk for your own baby, or have some you want to donate to your community check out Human Milk 4 Human Babies Global Network in your area on Facebook and BC Women's Hospital also has a milk donation program for babies in need (your local hospital may, too!). Also, I love that you can see my surgery scar in this image ❤️ 📸 Kristie Robin Photography

08/08/2020

Impressive photo and useful info!

When I was nursing my first little one, we had a black Chevy Nova and there was a hole lot of milk spray on the dashboard. It was clear that milk didn’t just come out from one single hole. You may have noticed this, too.⁠
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But years ago, midwives at The Farm in Tennessee, enrolled in nursing school, were told by an OB that it does come out of just one hole. Amongst them, several were breastfeeding, so they showed him – it’s a spray.⁠
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It's easy to be convinced that the person in the white coat knows more about how your body works than you do. But you know your body better than anyone else. You are the expert, you are the authority.⁠
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What I love about this story is that it reminds us that it’s the experienced women - the mothers and grandmothers who have done this before - that can often teach us the most. If our own bodies are the library; each other's are the university.⁠
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If you are a pregnant or new mama I encourage you to reach out to the experienced mamas, the grandmothers, and aunts, the healers, the wise women and sages in your circle. The women who have walked this path ahead of you - sometimes three, four, five times - so that they can tell you where it gets steep, where the pitfalls are, where to stop, rest, replenish. You don't have to carve your own trail when there are hundreds and thousands of footsteps to follow.⁠ I’m here for you, too.
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And what if your milk isn’t coming out in a spray right bod - because you’re struggling to produce enough? It’s so emotionally wrenching to be worrying about your baby’s weight while trying to establish feeding your baby and can be filled with so much anxiety and dread! Often I’m asked about herbs. These are my top 3 from my own wise woman basket:⁠
🌿 Fenugreek ⁠
🌿 Silymarin, an extract from from Milk Thistle ⁠
🌿 Moringa ⁠
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And please continue to turn to the wise women for support. Happy , mamas 🧡
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07/07/2020

An update on compairsons on baby weight at birth following early induction vs waiting for spontaneous labour via Sara Wickham

Re-sharing because we’ve been chatting about induction of labour (among many other topics) in ‘Gathering in the Knowledge’ this week. This is still such a key issue for so many women that it’s the one sentence from my updated “Inducing Labour: making informed decisions" book which has received more attention than any other!
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Many women are told that their labour needs to be induced because their baby is suspected to be big. Many report back afterwards that their baby wasn't big at all, and some regret agreeing to induction. And the evidence for this? Well, the Cochrane review showed that the difference in the weight of babies born after early induction or ‘watchful waiting’ is really rather small. The average difference is 178g which, as I wrote in the book, is about the weight of the average hamster or a medium-sized pear.
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So here's my hamster, as a reminder of the importance of getting lots of good information before making any birth-related decision, no matter whether that's about induction of labour, whether or not to listen to someone else’s guess (and that’s all it is, even when technology is used) about the possible size of your baby or who's going to look after the hamster on the big day.
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If you'd like to know more, you can find out about my book at www.sarawickham.com/iol and that page also has a link to loads more resources about inducing labour.
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04/07/2020

Vernix is so amazing! How did it look after your birth?

Something to think about doing right after birth is to have them leave the vernix on your baby and not wipe off your baby’s HANDS!! The scent of your amniotic fluid in the days leading up to birth takes on the scent/taste of your ar**la, babies then lick their hands to find their way to your breast during the golden hour/breast crawl. It’s a magical process that needs no intervention. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO CLEAN YOUR BABY IMMEDIATELY AFTER BIRTH. Words by lactation specialist .hedley 📷


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