Providing compassionate assistance and evidence-based resources for breastfeeding, sleep, solids etc
10/12/2025
Summertime breastfeeding 🏖️☀️
Did you know that your milk adapts to meet your babies needs?
In hot weather, your milk composition changes to ensure your baby will get all the hydration they need. Your baby may want to feed more frequently, and you will want to drink more fluids yourself. For exclusively breastfeed babies, supplementary water is simply not necessary¹.
Older babies may enjoy breastmilk iceblocks, breastmilk ice cream², or breastmilk smoothies as well.
You may find that breastfeeding on hot days leaves you and your baby hot and sweaty. Placing a thin cotton sheet/blanket between you and baby can help absorb some sweat. A portable, rechargeable fan may also be super handy.
Get in touch with your local group or Leader for more breastfeeding support³.
08/12/2025
The holidays can be overwhelming! For māmā and bubs
08/12/2025
I often speak with parents who are worried that breastmilk goes “off” … but is that really the case? 
05/12/2025
This position can be a game-changer!
05/12/2025
Are you a health care professional working with Māmā and Pepī? Join me for this fab in-person learning opportunity coming in March 2026 💝
BMAA is delighted to announce our next educational event. Featuring keynote speaker, internationally renowned IBCLC Catherine Watson-Genna.
This event is for doctors, lactation consultants, midwives, Plunket nurses, well child providers, nurse practitioners and anyone else working directly with breastfeeding families.
Mark it in your calendars, tell your colleagues, and email us at hello@bmaa.org.nz to register your interest now. We can’t wait to welcome you!
04/12/2025
Every drop counts in building baby’s immunity 🥰
What the researchers actually did ⬇️
They followed infants who were:
🤱🏼exclusively breastfed
🤱🏼🍼 partially breastfed
🍼 formula-fed
And they analyzed their blood, specifically looking at the types and amounts of immune cells at different ages. This is next-level research because instead of just looking at illness rates, they looked at immune programming at the cellular level.
🧠 What They Found:
Breastfed infants had unique immune cell patterns compared to formula-fed infants.
These differences suggest breastmilk helps train and shape the immune system in early life.
1. Higher leukocytes (white blood cells) These are your body’s infection-fighters. Breastfed infants had higher levels early on, which may help protect against sickness.
2. Higher erythrocytes (red blood cells) Breastfed babies showed higher red blood cell counts in early infancy, meaning potentially better oxygen delivery and healthier blood profiles.
3. Differences in lymphocyte populations
Breastfed infants had different amounts of:
-T cells (adaptive immunity, long-term memory)
-B cells (antibody producers)
-NK cells (natural killer cells that destroy infected cells)
This aligns perfectly with what we know: breastmilk contains antibodies, cytokines, and immune cells that teach the infant immune system how to respond.
4. Immune development follows a different “trajectory” when infants receive human milk: Formula-fed infants had immune patterns that looked more “adult-like” earlier, which might sound good, but early maturation of the immune system may increase later risks of inflammation, allergies, and autoimmune tendencies
Breastfed infants had a more gradual and regulated immune development.
🙋🏼♀️ Why This Matters (and why it’s COOL)
✔ It’s direct biological evidence: We’ve always known breastmilk reduces infections… But this study shows why: breastmilk programs the immune system differently.
✔ It supports exclusive or partial breastfeeding: Even partially breastfed babies showed immune cell differences, meaning every drop counts.
✔ Formula is missing the live immune components: Formula can feed a baby. Breastmilk feeds AND programs the immune system.
PMC ID: PMC11686727
04/12/2025
If you missed my group this week (last one of the year … yikes!), highly recommend this virtual support group 💚💚💚
In 2008, researcher Katie Hinde was studying hundreds of primate milk samples when she noticed something surprising. Mothers weren’t producing one universal recipe. They were making different milk depending on whether they had sons or daughters.
Sons received milk richer in fat and energy.Daughters received more volume with different nutrients.
The pattern was consistent. It wasn’t random. It revealed something science had been overlooking.
Milk isn’t static. It isn’t passive. It responds. It adapts. It communicates.
Hinde’s later work showed even more. When babies get sick, their mother’s milk changes within hours, increasing immune cells and specific antibodies. When babies nurse, tiny amounts of their saliva flow back into the breast, carrying information about their health. The parent’s body responds with exactly what the baby needs.
Human milk works the same way. It shifts with growth spurts, illness, stress, and time of day. It supports immunity, development, and regulation.
It is a two-way conversation between parent and baby.
At La Leche League Canada, this is the relationship we support every day. Not simply feeding your baby, but connecting, communicating, and responding to your baby.
Breastfeeding is complex and remarkable! You deserve real support!
LLLC offers that support for free, across Canada, through trained Leaders who listen, understand, and walk with you.
Learn more or connect with a Leader at www.lllc.ca
29/11/2025
You are enough!
29/11/2025
Breastmilk nourishes your toddler’s brain and microbiome 💝
Breast milk is still doing BIG things after 12 months….
Most people think breast milk “loses its benefits” after a year… But research says the opposite.
A 2025 (Kenney et al., 2025) study found that the core sugars in human milk (HMOs) continue actively supporting your toddler’s gut health and brain development well into the second year of life.
HMOs don’t just feed your baby.
They feed the good bacteria in their gut, the ones linked to:
And here’s the fascinating part:
Even after age one, HMOs are still shaping the gut microbiome in ways formula simply cannot replicate.
They continue guiding your child’s immune and neural pathways during one of the most rapid periods of brain growth.
So no…
Breast milk doesn’t “turn to water.”
It transforms with your baby, and keeps delivering biological instructions their body knows exactly what to do with.
If you’re breastfeeding into toddlerhood, this research is one more reminder:
Your milk is still powerful.
Still active.
Still biologically designed for your child.
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For those living in pandemic quarantine, it isn’t very hard to imagine -- being surrounded with people, but unable to access any support. That’s how I started out my mothering journey. Even though I lived in Europe’s largest city, I felt like I was alone on an island. I couldn’t speak the local language. I didn’t know where to turn. This experience 20 years ago launched my passion for supporting mothers and babies.
First, I reached out and found support for myself. Then, I started getting calls from other isolated mothers who just wanted to talk. Before long, I was going to lactation conferences (for fun, while on vacation!) and building a lending library. In 2002, I founded the Moscow Mommy Milk Meetup, a weekly get-together for mothers in my city. Several years later, this group transformed into Russia’s first La Leche League group, led by Katya Lokshina, a friend, a fellow breastfeeding enthusiast, and Russia’s first LLL Leader.
After more than a decade of calling Russia home, my family moved to Minsk. There, I started a similar mother support group, which blossomed into the first LLL group in Belarus, led by Olya Prominski, the first LLL Leader in that country. Just before our next relocation to Kyiv, I passed the exam to become the first IBCLC in that corner of the world. Since then, I have maintained close contact with the network of lactation professionals in the former Soviet Union. These women are doing incredible work under complex conditions. They continue to inspire me!
In 2011, we exchanged globe-trotting for the peaceful beauty of Aotearoa, and are happily settled into our new lives as proud Kiwis. In Auckland, I’ve worked as a parent educator and a lactation consultant. This included time in private practice, as well as several years in a busy breastfeeding clinic, working with a doctor who specializes in Breastfeeding Medicine. In short, I’ve seen it all with regards to the challenges faced by parents.
Fun fact about me: I speak Russian fluently. My multi-cultural background gives me a unique perspective on mothering around the world and how to dig down to the essence of mothering.
Having provided long-distance consulting for two decades to mothers in remote areas, my best tip for our crazy lock-down lifestyle is to try to think “What Would Great Grandma Do?” Throughout human history, women have been caring for babies in all kinds of unexpected circumstances. We can do it, too!
