The Boob Group
Breastfeeding Twins: Late Preterm

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ROBIN KAPLAN: Breastfeeding a late preterm singleton can be challenging on its own. But adding a second baby and a mom may feel like she needs to grow an extra set of arms. What are the easiest ways to navigate breastfeeding twins? And what tricks can help a mom feel confident and empowered as early as possible?

Today I’m excited to introduce JonaRose Feinberg, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in the Seattle area, the owner of Twins in Mind Consulting and the editor of www.BreastfeedingTwins.org. Today we are discussing Breastfeeding the Late Preterm Twins and this is The Boob Group, episode 49.

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ROBIN KAPLAN: Welcome to The Boob Group, Broadcasting from the Birth Education Center of San Diego. I am your host Robin Kaplan. I am also an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and owner of the San Diego Breastfeeding Center. At The Boob Group, we’re your online support group for all things related to breastfeeding.

Did you know that we have an entire panel of experts who would love to answer your breastfeeding and parenting questions? All you have to do is call our hotline at 6198664775 and leave a message on our voicemail. Your question will be answered on an upcoming episode.

Today I’m joined by two lovely panelists in the studio, ladies will you please introduce yourselves?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: Hi, I’m Shannon, and I’m 31 and I have twins who are four months old, boys.

SHELLY STEELY: Hi, I’m Shelly Steely, I’m 29. I’m a teacher. I have identical twin boys. They are 8 months on the 20th.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Awesome. Welcome to show ladies.

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ROBIN KAPLAN: So here’s a question from one of our listeners, this is from Christina Armstrong and this is what she had emailed me: “I have had a whirlwind time breastfeeding my four month old. The first two weeks I could not get a good painless latch. Finally I was able to find a painless position and by this time I was able to nurse painlessly. I had pumped and started her on bottles. Then we had to deal with her nipple confusion. She would not nurse unless it was the middle of the night in a laying down position. So I switched her to some different bottles which did not work right away. And so I would offer her the breast first then one bottle then another bottle. And she would feed on one just enough until she started fussing and I will move on to the next. It took at least a month and a half to finally rid ourselves of the bottles and now we are exclusively breastfeeding. My question is, she is a very sleepy baby, and she’s also a snacker. On a particular bottle we were using, she ate every 2 or3 hours and now she eats every hour for just a few minutes. How do I keep my baby girl awake long enough to actually finish eating? I have tried talking and rubbing her and undressing her, and we have made it so far as of right now and so, I don’t want to do anything that will sabotage our breastfeeding and so, how can I make her more efficient? Thank you so much for your help in advance.”

We’ll thank you for your question Christina. A couple of things come to mind while I was reading this email that you sent and first of all you know, four months-old are super-super distracted and so they hit this distracted stage around four to five months and then they hit it again at around eight to ten months. And it’s like right now, everything is so enticing that she just can’t focus on feeding. It was like, “Oh that’s shiny!” and she wants to turn around and find what’s shiny and making interesting things around the room.

Here are a couple of things that have worked with kids and with my kids as well as some of my clients’ kids. First of all nursing in a dark and quiet room can be really helpful. I noticed that if I started talking on the phone while my four month old was nursing that he literally would pull off stare at me, feel like “Okay, I’ll wait till you’re done”. So, it was very helpful to just kind of put everything away just spend that time with him and you know by then there’d somebody fishin and it’s not like you’re going to sit there for forty minutes and nurse your little one.

Another thing I found really helpful was actually singing repetitive songs while nursing, “twinkle twinkle little stars” was one of our favorites and it was just, when it was repetitive, it wasn’t interesting anymore and I found that it was very soothing for him. And then when out in public, you know it’s hard to find a nice, dark quiet area and to nurse in public. You can try nursing in a carrier or a wrap and see if that helps. Another thing that came to mind though is I would absolutely have your baby assessed by an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant for a tongue tie or a weakened suck. If she is falling asleep at the breast at this age, she could be working extra hard to compensate if there is a tongue tie or a jaw with a limited range of motion.

This can really be exhausting for babies, so, with either a little body work like chiropractic or craniosacral therapy, or possibly an appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to check out her tongue. This probably could remedied sooner rather than later so, definitely meeting with someone, a lactation consultant who knows what they’re talking about and having your daughter assessed can be really helpful.

Definitely check out our episodes on breastfeeding expectations around the fourth month as well as around the 6th, 7th and 8th month. Breastfeeding in Tight Frenula as well as Using Craniosacral therapy to improve breastfeeding. All of these episodes have great information with really good recommendations if you are dealing with something like this with your child. Hopefully that will be helpful as well. Thank you so much for sending us an email with your question Christina, we really appreciate it.

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ROBIN KAPLAN: Today on The Boob Group we’re discussing Breastfeeding the late preterm twins. Our expert JonaRose Feinberg is an International Board Certified lactation Consultant in private practice in the Seattle area. She’s also the owner of Twins in Mind Consulting and the editor of www.BreastfeedingTwins.org. Thanks so much for joining us Jona and welcome back to the show.

JONAROSE FEINBERG: Thank you for having me. It’s so fun to be here.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Awesome! Well, Jona before we get started, can you define the term late preterm please.

JONAROSE FEINBERG: Sure. A late preterm infant is a baby born 3 to 6 weeks early. So between 34 and just under 37 weeks gestational age. A lot of twins are born in this timeframe. And they often look like term in sense more than premiums, but they have a whole set of terms of invulnerability and in terms of feeding and embryo development.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Jona as I have seen in my own practice, late pre term babies are often inconsistent when it comes to breastfeeding. Can you describe some other ways that a late preterm baby acts differently than a full term 40 weeker?

JONAROSE FEINBERG: Sure. It actually depends on the gestational age of the babies, but in general, late preterm infants are sleepy, they have less stamina than full term babies and they sometimes have difficulty with latch suck and flow well. Which in practice means they need to be awakened for feeding, they need to be kept awake to commit the feeding. They sometimes have trouble maintaining their latch due to their size. Picture, very small babies and very small mouth next to lactating breasts.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Panelist, we’re your babies inconsistent while nursing? Shannon?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: Yes. Manny (Baby A), he was very-very sleepy when we first started and then my Elijah (Baby B) had horrible latching issues which led to a lot of mastitis and it was no fun.

ROBIN KAPLAN: How about you Shelly?

SHELLY STEELY: Definitely! They were, the hospital called them “lazy nursers”

ROBIN KAPLAN: Oh, that’s so mean!

SHELLY STEELY: It was! They were trying so hard but they would fall asleep and then twenty minutes later it would be barely a fault feed so you would to try and keep them awake while feeding them basically every time. Luckily their latch was good but the rest of it needed work

ROBIN KAPLAN: They need a little help staying awake.

SHELLY STEELY: Yeah

ROBIN KAPLAN: You know I think a lot of moms hear that term “lazy nursers” and it‘s so judgy because like you said, like they were doing the absolute best that they can and it’s not like a baby chooses to be tired. It just happens. Jona, is it important to assess each baby on his or her own before attempting to nurse both babies at a time? Or at the same time I should say?

JONAROSE FEINBERG: Yeah, I usually think it’s a good idea to look at the baby as if their own people. Like, look their own skills at may often develop at different rates even though their twins, they have different strengths and different challenges. So you want to take the time to focus on each baby to help them master the basics of latching and sucking. But, the beautiful thing about twins is that they can help each other out. It’s great for time management if you can feed them together when they’re ready and then the one baby that’s maybe a little bit more of an active nurser can get the milk flowing for the other twin who maybe needs a little bit more help. So, it can be a tool that can help you along when they’re ready and when you’re ready.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Perfect! Shelly, how did you nurse your twins in the beginning? Was one having an easier time than the other or were they pretty equal?

SHELLY STEELY: They were pretty equal. In the hospital, I did tandem feeding at first and then once I noticed that they were having some issues we switched to nursing one at the time so we could really focus on getting them latched and making sure they were taking in a full feeding. And then once, down the road, once that was established I went back to feeding them both at the same time.

ROBIN KAPLAN: So, Shannon, the question was, how did you breastfeed with your twins in the beginning was one having an easier time than the other? Were they pretty equal?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: They both had a lot of challenges. Equally, I would say because, like I said, Manny was so sleepy, so, it was hard to get them to stay out to get them focused on it. It would be like maybe just five minutes of him feeding and then it was like “Okay, wake up” and he would just be done. And then Elijah just would, he would just get so frustrated, he would cry because he would such a hard time latching on and I would say it was equally challenging for both of them.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Were you nursing them at the same time in the beginning or were you doing them back to back?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: I think I was doing them individually because my husband was there and he was just a help. He would have one baby, so, I tried to nurse one at that time and just kind of try to focus on whatever the issue was at that one was having.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Perfect! We have one eating in here right now actually. And Jona, when babies are breastfeeding inconsistently, how can a mom bring in and protect her milk supply the best?

JONAROSE FEINBERG: Well in the beginning, if the babies aren’t latching well or feeding consistently, moms should definitely be encouraged to begin pumping in the hospital and at home. You want to use a hospital grade pump, you can also use hand expression or combined pumping and hand expression especially in the early days as soon as possible after delivery. And then, typically their advise to pump about early 3 hours first before putting babies to breast and they want to pump after the nursing session usually, have different reasons to do it differently in the past, kind of a general what people do.

And then you can use the expressed breast milk to supplement the baby which is great because they need all those extra calories to really do that for important work and growing. Another thing that always really helpful is you hold the baby’s skin to skin as much as possible you can do that with the mom or the dad. But the mom it helps primarily with milk production but with either parents or anybody else in the family it’s really helped the baby to maintain their body temperature which is often an issue with these smaller babies to begin.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Can you explain that too a little bit? It is really hard for these little ones that are born early to maintain their temperature, and so, are they burning extra calories when that’ happening?

JONAROSE FEINBERG: Well, they have a lot of extra body fat that they put on a lot of weight in those last few weeks of gestational development. So, before they come out, they’re just a little bit scrawny, sometimes they say they have little chicken legs just a little bit on the small side they don’t have a lot of extra reserves of body fat. And, their systems are still really immature so they don’t have the best ability to regulate their own body temperature so they tend to just cool off more quickly than a term baby might.

So, it’s keeping them skin to skin really helps keep them cozy and keeps them regulated to their parent’s temperature. Studies have shown that a moms’ body can do a better job of regulating the baby’s temperature even in an incubator that the body to response to the babies needs. There was actually a little tip that the two breast can modify temperature differently for two different babies such as, I don’t have a leaflet on it but it’s such a great idea like your body knows that there are two babies with different needs and it just meet their needs right there

ROBIN KAPLAN: Wow. That’s amazing. The panelists are both shaking their heads when you were talking about thin little chicken babies. Were your little ones pretty small Shelly?

SHELLY STEELY: They were actually kind of big for twins. They were six pounds and six pounds 2 ounces. They had a weight drop initially and they did have the tiniest little legs. I thought they got them from my husband. But it turns out they were just kind of small and you wouldn’t know now they’re huge chunky babies.

ROBIN KAPLAN: How about you Shannon?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: Yeah! Mine were pretty good size too, there’s is six pounds ten ounces when they were born. But my Manny lost a lot of weight, he went below six pounds and he just have the skinniest little legs, arms and face. He has a tiny little face

ROBIN KAPLAN: And now they’re super chunky too!

SHANNON CEBALLOS: I know! So, they caught up, I mean, he’s still not as big as his brother but, he’s trying to get there.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Alright. Well, when we comeback, Jona will discuss how to balance breastfeeding and early supplementing. We’ll be right back.

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ROBIN KAPLAN: So we are discussing Breastfeeding the Late preterm twins with JonaRose Feinberg who is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in the Seattle area, as well as owner of Twins in Mind consulting and editor of www.BreastfeedingTwins.org. And we have two panelists in this studio as well, one with a little four month old muffin in here too, so if you here a little snorting and squawking, although he’s super happy right now.

Let’s get back into this interview. So Jona, many times pre term babies needs supplementation in the beginning whether it be moms expressed breast milk, donor milk or formula, until they become more effective breast feeders, how can a mom offer these supplementation to her twins?

ROBIN KAPLAN: Well a lot of times and a half, though they start moms to start using supplemental nursing system which is basically a little tube that we tape along the breasts so that it goes to the baby’s mouth at the nipple so that they can supplement right while they were breastfeeding. And you can use that same kind of setup for finger feeding. So, you run a little tube along the finger and then the baby sucks on the finger and gets the supplement. And that’s great for a short term solution for supplementing.

If you have two babies who are going to need supplements for a long time, probably at some point, you’re going to introduce bottles because your sanity is really important than there is a point because the tube can get to be too much. So if you’re going to supplement with bottles which typically gets introduced a few days later, maybe a week later if you still need those supplement which again depends on how big the babies are, how much they need to grow, how long they’re nursing. If you are going to do bottles, I like to suggest that we deal uncolored baby lead bottle feeding.

You don’t want to overwhelm the baby with a bottle to so you let them pick the feeding I know that they’re still learning to do that and you kind of guide them, let them to learn to control and play with themselves with the bottles so they can do the same thing with the breast so they can make that transition.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Perfect. And what is your best advice for a mom who is doing this kind of triple feeding her twins? Meaning breastfeeding, supplementing and pumping.

JONAROSE FEINBERG: You know, there’s no like piece and perfect advice for this. You just have to hang in there like its in-passing, it can be overwhelming, it will not last forever. I guess that’s my biggest piece of advice. Just remember it won’t last forever. If you can get the support, if you can bring in some extra people to help manage everything else that you can just focus on feeding the baby.

Another thing I always say is set yourself some small goals. Don’t set a big goal in six months or a year just think like “I’m going to get through this night” if you’re having a really hard night or “I’m going to get through the first two weeks and then we’ll see and were going to work till six weeks and then we’ll see what we’re doing”. So you can congratulate yourself in every step of success that you can go.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Cool. Ladies, did you have to triple feed and if for yes, for how long and how did you do it? Shelly?

SHELLY STEELY: Yes. In the beginning it looked like they were ok just nursing in the hospital, we tried a syringe a little bit for Sawyer because he seemed he’s a little bit lighter. We took them home though and their weight was ok but when we brought them back for their first check up, they had dropped again. So, we had to do, my doctor called the triple feeding for both Greyson and Sawyer. It’s hard. The first thing they did was they checked to see, they gave me a pump to see if I had milk and then how much the boys are transferring they’re only taking about an ounce if that not even they’re feeding

ROBIN KAPLAN: At what age were they doing this?

SHELLY STEELY: And this was like a week.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Okay.

SHELLY STEELY: They might have been seven or ten days-old. A little less than an ounce. And then I pumped and got seven ounces and they were like “Okay, so no problem here, let’s try that”. So we did the bottle feeding. My husband was back at work so, when he was home during the day, he would help out, my mom was home at night. She would come while he was at work and it was just its exhausting so, I would nurse one baby for about twenty minutes.

Massaging, doing compresses, trying to keep the baby awake and pass the baby to my mom or my husband. They would feed a bottle. I would nurse the other baby, feed the bottle, burp both of them, pump and then the whole process took honestly an hour and a half and they would eat 3 hours like on the dot. So by the time they were done feeding and asleep, I got maybe forty minutes.

But I hoped I was in a group online with another two moms who would had to do supplementing their twins, and theirs were already done and they were only a couple of weeks ahead so I knew that there was kind of an end in sight. And for me I just figured six weeks was my initial, you know I can do anything for six weeks, we’ll see how it goes and by six weeks, that was just like they were already getting better, they were so much bigger, it was like, a hold up from world.

ROBIN KAPLAN: How long did you have to supplement for?

SHELLY STEELY: It was probably, I want to say full six weeks, maybe five or six weeks by then and it was really gradual. We just noticed, we actually kind of accidentally overfed them for a while because I was so used to worrying about their weight gain, that I would try to make them finish everything I pumped, and they will happily but then they were spitting up everywhere. We took them in for the weight check and the doctor was like “Oh you can probably stop on those bottles now there”. They gained really-really quickly and they’re huge now and they’re 21 and almost 22 pounds.

ROBIN KAPLAN: How about you Shannon? Were you doing triple feedings in the beginning?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: Yes! I was and yes it’s very tiring. We had our issues with Elijah right away with his latching. And you know at the hospital they showed us how to finger tube feed them and luckily, I mean, I was really lucky that my partner was there to boost the feedings and he would finger tube one while I nurse the other. And then we got home, I had kind of got Elijah to latch and then we got home, and he didn’t latch at all and then I remember calling you Robin like in tears like “He won’t eat, I don’t know what to do” and you basically said the same thing, just get the finger tube feeding going on.

My husband would finger tube feed Elijah and then I would put them both to the breast at the same time, even if I didn’t get him to latch on and just so I could kind of have him used to being there and I’d still try I mean I was stubborn. I know he probably got frustrated but I would be like “Common! You can do it! You can do it!” And then about five weeks, in to five weeks, we just realized that he was latching on more.

He still had issues but he was latching on more so he said you know what let’s cut out the finger tube feeding because we knew they were getting in enough because Robin you were coming over and weighing them so they’re both, they’re not getting too much, they’re both eating enough, so let’s cut out the finger tube feeding and see if we can just focus on him latching on. He still has some issues until almost ten weeks when we got his tongue clipped but we just made a decision “Okay I think were done with this” and the pumping and doing this, I’m like “I’m so tired!"

ROBIN KAPLAN: So right until about ten weeks and then you kind of figured it out after that.

SHELLY STEELY: Well no, I would say it was about five weeks where we cut out the finger tube feeding and then you know about ten weeks everything was just normal. Smooth sailing.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Jona, when one or both babies are having difficulties breastfeeding, how can a mom juggle without feeling like she needs to grow an extra set of arms or needs a ton of extra help at home?

JONAROSE FEINBERG: I think you just dig the basket that you have, I mean, obviously it’s great if you can get help around the house. I love it when I hear that people had their mom and their husband taking shifts so that they were giving full support I think that’s great. And if you have that, that’s excellent and if not then you get creative right so maybe you feed the baby one at the time even though that’s exhausting, maybe that’s the best way to do it for that little window of time.

You feed one and then you hand that baby off or you prop them up on the pillow next to you so you can still feed them. Some people, if it’s going to be for the longer transition to getting those babies to breast and if they’re using bottles to supplement sometimes they’ll alternate babies at the feeding. They’ll, if the baby gets this feeding and the other baby is getting the bottle they kind of work on that switch, If that turns out to be the most useful there and can manage it, that’s totally fine.

The conclusion though is to just stick with it. You’re not going to need to juggle forever, although, I don’t know, they’re twins. You’re kind of in to juggle forever anyway but, it will be a totally different juggling match and it won’t feel so much like your juggling something scary, it’ll be just like a drop in the bucket, that doesn’t sound really encouraging. But I swear its fun parenting twins. I have them too, and they’re six now and wonderful but it’s still a little bit like juggling, I don’t know I guess you just get used to it.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Set you up for success later on. That’s for sure. Ladies did you feel like you needed to grow an extra set of arms during this early stage of breastfeeding and what tips do you have for moms who are going through this stage right now? Shelly?

SHELLY STEELY: I still need an extra set of arms. It was really rough. I only sleep like how could, how am I ever get through this because you don’t sleep and you don’t ever have enough arms and just because they’re both done eating doesn’t mean that they want to go to sleep yet necessarily or ever. But, yeah, you just have to, it was like one day at the time trying to get through it and I think you’re right stubborn.

I was like I’m going to do this, it’s not the easy route but it’s what I want to do, I’m committed to it and just kind of reminding myself of that was huge. And especially once they got to be a little bit bigger, my mom, she’s a teacher so she went back to work in September and then it was just me with my husband at work and you just kind of have to one day at the time, ok it’s one person two babies, what can I do?

I learned to tandem feed pretty quickly using a pillow. And then most of your days you’re carrying both babies from room to room all day and that’s just how it is, you sleep when they sleep which works when they’re little but not so much when they’re older. The only advice is that it doesn’t last forever. Eventually you will get some sleep. I mean no guarantees on that but I think you’ll adjust to it and the older they get the better they get at kind of everything and the easier it is to have a handle on it.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Absolutely! How about you Shannon?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: I definitely recommend tandem feeding because for me personally breastfeeding them one at a time was just, it was just too much. But I think that you learn to accept things, you were like “Okay, I see that there’s dirty clothes over there and you know what I just “I’m not going to get to it today and that’s okay. It is okay” because my babies are fed and that’s good that’s what’s important that’s what I did today. I took a shower yesterday and my babies are fed and that’s my job right now, my job is to feed them and if I don’t get the dishes and if I don’t do the laundry that is okay. I feel like it’s just really, it’s acceptance and just kind of understanding or letting yourself know it’s okay is just do what you can do right now and that’s all that matters.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Perfect! Jona, how will a mom know when her baby or babies are ready to wean off of a supplement and just goes straight to breast?

JONAROSE FEINBERG: Your panelists touched on it a little bit. Obviously everyone should consult their own health care provider. They make sure that their babies are growing well. I always suggest working with a lactation consultant to do those feeding weights so that you can see how much the babies are really transferring at the breast, it’s always a really nice way to sort of know and get that reinforcement when things are going well.

You have to make sure that they’re latching comfortably, that they’re actively transferring the milk, that they seems satisfied when they’re done and then sometimes people find that they need to switch off how they’re doing the supplementing to make the transition easier some moms just are able to cut back less and less and less on the supplements that they’re doing after feeding, some moms find that they want to switch and probably do the supplementing first and then finish off with the breast and these babies can nurse as much as they want and then as you feel that you’re doing better and better at the breast you can offer less and less of the supplement beforehand because they can still nurse on the other side. That sounds like an extra bonding, the end of your feeding it was like happy blissful babies and not “Ok I’m going to hook myself up because I’m going to pump now” which to get to that point so hold out for it. That’s great!

ROBIN KAPLAN: Great. And ladies you did kind of touch on this when you kind of knew that your babies no longer needed supplementation. Was that weaning process off the supplementation gradual or like, Shelly you’d mention you went to the doctor and they were like “Hey! You overfeed me today”

SHELLY STEELY: At that time it seemed like it took forever but it really was, I mean I want to say, I was with my husband for five days, so, it was maybe only five weeks of doing that I mean only. It did feel forever but it was all of a sudden we kept track of everything I mean, we had a binder for the first month of their life. Everything they did like carefully transcribed them. We started noticing that they would take less from the bottles that we offered afterwards and one day it was like they took a bottle after every feeding, and then the next day it was like they just kind of refused most of them and then the third day, they didn’t want anything to do with it.

It was a little frustrating because in the beginning they were saying, you know offer them a bottle at the last feeding, see if they’ll stay asleep a little longer but my baby, if they’re not hungry they won’t take it anymore. Once they decided they were done with the bottles they were just done with the bottles and we actually, when I went back to work a few weeks later I had trouble re introducing it because they have gotten so used to not having it so I guess that’s kind of.

SHANNON CEBALLOS: It’s the blessing and the curse right there

SHELLY STEELY: Yeah.

ROBIN KAPLAN: How about you Shannon?

SHANNON CEBALLOS: We actually, Elijah would get so frustrated, he would get hungry and he would get frustrated he want to eat right away. So for us to work better to give him a little bit of the supplementation before I put him on the breast and once he started latching on better, then we were just giving last supplementation and give him like cutting down the ounces so we can just put him right into the breast and just less and less until I realized “Ok you know, we can just cut this out, he got this now” He got it.

ROBIN KAPLAN: And they all four of these kiddos are breastfeeding beautifully now so all are true testament to how hard you ladies work. Oh my goodness. Well thank you so much Jona and to our panelist for your insight into Breastfeeding the late preterm twins. We look forward to the next part in these series where Jona will discuss tips for Scheduling and Positioning Twins When They’re Breastfeeding and for our Boob Group club members our conversation will continue after the end of the show as Jona will share her top three tips for getting support while breastfeeding twins and for more information on our Boob Group Club please visit our website at www.TheBoobGroup.com

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ROBIN KAPLAN: Before we end today’s episode here’s Amber McCann with the tip for the best online breastfeeding resources.

AMBER MCKEAN: Hello Boob Group listeners, I am Amber McCann, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and the owner of Nourish Breastfeeding Support. I’m here to answer some of your most common questions when it comes to finding quality breastfeeding resources online. Such as, Google hasn’t cutting it, where can I find some face to face support? Even though I distinctly remember “The day internet came to town at my college”, I would consider myself a digital native.

I tend to check my email before I even get out of bed and my online life sometimes gets in the way in real life. Even before my first child was born, I went straight to the internet for information and support. But, as wonderful as the help was, it simply couldn’t replace sitting face to face with another breastfeeding mother who would tell me, “You can do this!” But, finding that kind of support can be confusing.

I needed quick and easy access to schedules and locations for such meetings. Enter Breastfeeding USA, they are a new and growing mother to mother support organization that recognizes that you the breastfeeding mother are online and also need in person support to help you along and engage you on Facebook and twitter. Check them out at www.BreastfeedingUSA.org and click on the find the breastfeeding counselor button. Thank you for listening, I’m Amber McCann and I’d love for you to check out my website at www.nourishbreastfeeding.com.

For more information about my business and a little bit about where to get connected with great online breastfeeding support or you can join me on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com\nourishbreastfeeding. And if you have a great online breastfeeding resource you like us to know about please send me an email to amber@nourishbreastfeeding.com or share it on The Boob Group Facebook page. Be sure to listen to The Boob Group each week for more fantastic conversations about breastfeeding and how to find great breastfeeding support.

ROBIN KAPLAN: Thank you so much to our expert panelist and all of our listeners and make sure to check out our sister shows Preggie Pals, for all of your pregnancy needs and Parent Savers, our show for parents who have 0 to 3 year-olds. Coming up next week, we have Annie, Cherry and Jennifer back on the show to talk about what life has been like during their babies ten-month in our series Breastfeeding Expectations. Thanks for listening to The Boob Group, your judgment for your breastfeeding resource.

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This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

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