Reduce your Risk of many Reproductive Cancers, Onset of Type 2 Diabetes and High Blood Pressure
Breastfeeding is A Choice
Feeding Your Baby is Personal Choice
Evidence-Based Information & Emotional Sensitivity
How you feed your baby is one of the most personal decisions you’ll make, and it deserves real support. As a doula, I share information about breastfeeding because of its documented benefits for both mother and baby — but every family’s path looks different. Training tells us that a fed and happy baby is more likely to have a mother who can recover and feel well herself.
Breastfeeding is linked to lower rates of postpartum mood disorders, certain reproductive cancers, hyperlipidemia, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes. Breast milk also helps shape your baby’s gut bacteria, some of which stays with them long-term. Sharing this isn’t about judging anyone’s choices — it’s simply information so you can make the decision that’s right for you.
If breastfeeding is part of your plan, it helps to prepare ahead: check what your insurance covers for lactation support, connect with a provider before baby arrives, and consider choosing a pediatrician with a lactation consultant on staff.
The early weeks tend to be the most demanding — things usually get easier as your baby grows and feeding routines settle in. Surround yourself with people who are encouraging and well-informed, and don’t let outside opinions (positive or negative) overshadow what works best for you and your family.
Advanced Preparation Makes A Difference In Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is New Skill Learned by Two People Who Just Met
Preparing to breastfeed looks different for everyone, but going in with intention makes success far more likely. Success can simply mean: having support lined up for the early weeks, understanding how newborns typically feed, and getting your family or partner on board with your goals. It also helps to share your feelings of excitement with people who can rally around you in recovery.
Taking a class to learn breastfeeding skills will give you an understanding of what is typical so you can focus on how to help your baby feed comfortably. Find an IBCLC (highly specialized lactation professional) or a CLC (lactation consultant with skills to support 80% of breastfeeding clients) while you are pregnant, so you know who to call when you are home.
A quick reassurance about supply: Store shelves are full of 4-, 6-, and 8-ounce bottles, but a newborn’s stomach starts out about the size of a cherry — they only need about an ounce, often less, in those first hours. Colostrum, the thick, golden first milk, is perfectly suited to that tiny amount. Your body is designed to match what your baby actually needs, and if you hand express or pump after week 37 (with your provider’s consent), you will see it for youself.
Set up your support system. Keeping baby close makes feeding cues easier to spot. Because you’ll be tired, it helps to line up support ahead of time — family, friends, or a postpartum doula or night nurse who can bring baby to you for feeds and handle the rest (burping, swaddling, rocking) so you can rest in between.
Preparing your space, your mindset, and your support system for breastfeeding — even for just a few weeks — can benefit your mental health, cholesterol, blood sugar, and bone density.
Resolving Negative Associations with Breastfeeding
Identifying the Root of Negative Feelings & Finding Support
Misconceptions form in all kinds of ways — through incomplete explanations, personal experience, cultural beliefs, or simply trying to make sense of something unfamiliar. Everyone carries a few, and that’s completely normal.
If cultural beliefs have left you with mixed or negative feelings about breastfeeding, spending time around other mothers who’ve chosen this path can help those feelings shift naturally. The more we see breastfeeding among family, friends, and in everyday life, the more normal and familiar it becomes.
If your feelings are rooted in something deeper — like past trauma — support is available through professionals who can help you explore and understand those experiences at your own pace. Whatever the source of your feelings, you deserve space to explore what feels right for you and your baby, without pressure or judgment.
The Golden Hour & Surgical Birth
A Pivot in Birth Plans Can Accommodate Your Baby's Needs
The American Academy of Pediatrics holds a position on The Golden Hour, the period of transition when the newborn baby is adapting to life outside immediately following birth, should be respected when a baby is born healthy, full-term and not in need of immediate intervention. The recommendation that providers delay standard interventions until after the first breastfeed, increases skin-to-skin time, when hormones and bonding should take priority over measurements and assessments that are typically done away from the mother.
Whether you have a vaginal or surgical birth, you can insist that your healthy baby be given skin-to-skin right away. Since you can have your partner present with either birth, these initial moments of bonding offer your newborn comfort, and your family some invaluable bonding time. For evidence on skin-to-skin (which positively supports breastfeeding) in the OR, Evidenced Based Birth is a good resource.
We know that the more time we spend keeping babies with their mothers, breastfeeding success is more likely. Once you are transferred, be persistent in asking for lactation support and continue to do that during your stay.