Michelle van der Westhuizen

11/11/2025

Wow!

A 2024 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Public Health looked at 16 studies (nearly 4,000 preterm infants) and found something powerful, babies who received any amount of breast milk had:

✨ Better cognitive development
✨ Lower rates of neurodevelopmental impairment
✨ Improved long-term outcomes into childhood

Researchers noted that the benefits were dose-dependent, meaning the more breast milk preterm babies received, the stronger the developmental gains. (Zhang et al., 2024). This reinforces what NICUs around the world have observed for years: Human milk isn’t just nutrition, it’s neuroprotective medicine for the developing brain.

11/11/2025

The best part of being a doula is...

Let us know your favorite part of being a doula in the replies! 💖

10/11/2025

Not saying anybody has to night wean at 18 months..just not suggesting before.

******NOT ABOUT INFANTS WHO NIGHT WEAN NATURALLY ON THEIR OWN*******

Night weaning before 12 months isn’t generally recommended because nighttime feeds serve more than just nutrition. They help regulate your baby’s hormones, maintain milk supply, and provide comfort and security, all essential for healthy emotional and physical development.

🌙 Here’s why night feeds still matter:
- Caloric needs: Many babies under one still rely on breast milk for a significant portion of their daily intake.
- Milk supply: Prolactin (the milk-making hormone) peaks at night, which means those nighttime sessions help sustain your supply.
- Emotional regulation: Night nursing provides comfort, reassurance, and bonding, especially during developmental leaps or teething.
- Sleep cycles: Babies wake frequently as a biological protection mechanism , it’s developmentally normal, not a “bad habit.”

While some babies may naturally drop feeds earlier, most benefit from waiting until closer to 18 months before fully night weaning. At that age, nutritional needs, emotional regulation, and attachment are more mature.

If you do begin night weaning later on, it’s best to approach it gradually and gently, with reassurance, physical closeness, and understanding that every child’s readiness is different.

🤍 Night feeds are not setbacks, they’re part of a healthy, normal rhythm of infancy.

10/11/2025

Learning sooo much from this training. Looking foward to completing and knowing so much more.

International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant.

The IBCLC is “the only internationally certified healthcare provider with expertise in breastfeeding and human lactation.”

In 2025 , there are 38,154 IBCLCs worldwide.

Current Statistics on Worldwide IBCLCs
In that report, the top 10 countries per number of Lactation Consultants:
United States 20,540,
Australia 2162,
Canada 2147,
Germany 1490,
China 910,
Japan 779,
Spain 661,
France 645,
Austria 569,
Italy 547.

Afghanistan 1 Jordan 31
Åland Islands 1 Kenya 2
Albania 2 Korea, Republic of 473
Algeria 2 Kuwait 31
American Samoa 1 Latvia 4
Andorra 2 Lebanon 9
Argentina 71 Libya 1
Armenia 1 Lithuania 12
Aruba 2 Luxembourg 18
Australia 2,162 Macao 11
Austria 547 Macedonia, Republic of 1
Bahrain 8 Malaysia 50
Bangladesh 2 Malta 6
Belarus 1 Mexico 194
Belgium 162 Moldova, Republic of 1
Bermuda 2 Mongolia 1
Bhutan 1 Montenegro 1
Bolivia, Plurinational State of 3 Namibia 1
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba 1 Nepal 1
Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 Netherlands 511
Botswana 2 New Caledonia 2
Brazil 262 New Zealand 297
Bulgaria 14 Nigeria 2
Cabo Verde 1 Northern Mariana Islands 3
Cameroon 2 Norway 11
Canada 2,147 Oman 5
Cayman Islands 3 Pakistan 8
Chile 104 Palestine, State of 4
China 910 Panama 6
Colombia 65 Paraguay 6
Costa Rica 20 Peru 73
Côte d'Ivoire 1 Philippines 28
Croatia 26 Poland 73
Curaçao 1 Portugal 99
Cyprus 10 Puerto Rico 23
Czechia 2 Qatar 25
Denmark 342 Réunion 7
Dominican Republic 9 Romania 135
Ecuador 31 Russian Federation 3
Egypt 352 Saint Martin (French part) 1
El Salvador 1 Saudi Arabia 118
Estonia 2 Senegal 1
Ethiopia 1 Serbia 2
Faroe Islands 5 Singapore 85
Finland 27 Slovakia 4
France 645 Slovenia 53
French Polynesia 4 South Africa 46
Germany 1,490 Spain 661
Ghana 2 Sudan 1
Greece 100 Sweden 38
Guadeloupe 5 Switzerland 358
Guam 4 Taiwan 238
Guatemala 11 Tanzania, United Republic of 2
Guernsey 1 Thailand 14
Haiti 2 Trinidad and Tobago 4
Honduras 1 Tunisia 4
Hong Kong 391 Turkey 6
Hungary 139 Uganda 3
Iceland 20 Ukraine 6
India 204 United Arab Emirates 236
Indonesia 81 United Kingdom 901
Ireland 474 United States 20,540
Isle of Man 1 Uruguay 7
Israel 199 Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of 1
Italy 547 Viet Nam 3
Jamaica 5 Virgin Islands, U.S. 2
Japan 779 Zimbabwe 1

1985 - IBLCE
“The International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) was founded in March 1985 using a $40,000 loan from La Leche League International as start-up funding. IBLCE’s founding was in response to the need for standards in the emerging profession of lactation consulting.” (IBLCE website)

IBLCE awarded its first credential in 1985. IBLCE is a certification organization for International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) with the following mission:

To administer the IBCLC certification exam

To award the credential to those who pass the exam

To protect the public health, safety, and welfare through disciplinary procedures for Lactation Consultants of Southern- & Africa

# IBCLE

10/11/2025

Did you know

A back-to-back position is where your baby has his head down, but the back of his head and his back is against your spine. By the time labour starts, at least one baby in 10 is in this back-to-back or posterior position . Most back-to-back babies are born vaginally.
Was your baby back to back/posterior?
📷 Instagram.com/theobgynmom

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10/11/2025

The International Association of Infant Massage was officially founded in 1981 to promote infant massage globally as a tool for well-being, relationship-building, and respect. Founded by Vimala McClure, the association quickly grew as professionals and families recognized touch as a universal language.
IAIM has developed into an international network of instructors, trainers, and parents, offering a program that respects cultural differences while maintaining a shared core of values: love, listening, and support.
Today, IAIM is present in over 100 countries and remains dedicated to providing families with tools to strengthen their bonds and create more empathetic, inclusive communities.

10/11/2025

Book your place in the upcoming class starting 19 January and make the best decisions that align with your goals.

10/11/2025

Three more spots🥰 Book your spot for the Baby massage class starting this friday.

09/11/2025

This is what postpartum looks like.

It's not the matching robe and swaddle blanket pictures that you may see, that's for sure.

It's painful.
It's uncomfortable and we struggle to figure out what this new body is.
It's exhausting–trying to heal and care for a newborn.
It’s stretched, flabby skin and/or stitches across her tummy.
It’s being ripped apart, somehow surviving, and being put back together again . . . and then having a baby attached to your breast immediately after.

And you know what? There is no “bouncing back” after it.

Sure, my figure might get a little slimmer but my hips will always be wider now. My body has gone through intense physical and mental changes. The scars are there. There is no coming back from that.

I’ve endured the pains of labor to become a mama (three times now), and my body will forever be changed.

And that’s okay . . .

My body has gone through it all, but it’s given birth to three precious babies.

📸 + words by https://www.instagram.com/courtneydevichauthor/

09/11/2025

How comforting

When you breastfeed, your body releases oxytocin the same hormone that helps you fall in love, calm down, and bond deeply. It’s the reason your shoulders drop, your heart slows, and sometimes you tear up mid-feed for no reason at all. It’s your body’s way of saying you’re safe, your baby’s safe, and this moment matters.
That surge of warmth and peace isn’t “just hormones.” It’s nature’s built-in reminder that connection is powerful medicine. 🤱💗

08/11/2025

(*IAIM branding)

As a certified and trained IAIM Baby massage instructor I can assure you that moving with the natural reflexes of your baby is part of this program. Groups limited to help babies regulate/stay regulated and to encourage learning for our moms.

08/11/2025

Lets bolster the confidence of our moms needing validation🥰 They are indeed the experts for their own baby.

Being a new parent was a completely overwhelming experience for me.
❤️‍🩹Emotionally/ psychologically
❤️‍🩹Physically
❤️‍🩹Sensory
It was SO much to take.
Too much in many ways.
With so many rapid fire changes in and out of my body.
So much that was new and beyond my control.
I was in complete disarray.

I also had no idea I was autistic, I just thought I wasn’t able to handle being a parent.

💡What I really needed was constant reassurance, encouragement and back up.
Constant and sustained.

Because not only was I in Autistic overwhelm, I was also parenting one heck of a little sparkler baby! This was a marathon, not a sprint.
It was a baptism of fire and extraordinarily hard for me to find any kind of confidence in what I was doing.

I desperately needed external validation to bolster my fragile internal, instinctive nurturing responses to my intense baby’s needs.
I needed that support like I needed air.

✨So please, if you have the very great privilege of being a trusted supporter of a person who is new to parenting do EVERYTHING you can to build them up.
Notice them.
Notice their incredible work.
Their dedication and devotion.
Admire their baby in their entirety and don’t narrow the criteria for them being a ‘good baby’ dependent on how long and easily they sleep alone.

YOU can make a MASSIVE difference to their experience through your encouragement, enthusiasm and support to help keep her nurturing and to make that valuable nurturing as sustainable as possible.

Let’s rally and get on with it.
❤️‍🩹Nurture the nurturers, community-care in action ❤️‍🩹
Carly✨