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​Over the last decade, increasing media attention has people asking, “What does a doula do exactly?” With tv shows White Collar and Season 21 of The Bachelor to celebrities Alanis Morrisette and Alicia Keys, the word “doula” is a buzz!
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A doula is often mistaken with a midwife, but more accurately referred to as a birth coach, birth assistant, childbirth educator, or pregnancy concierge. However, these are incomplete definitions. A doula is an assistant, but there are several different types of doulas; Antepartum, Birth, and Postpartum Doulas.

Antepartum doulas specifically care for families during pregnancy. They often provide guidance in navigating emotional and physical changes as they grow a little human or may physically care for the mother or birther while on bed rest. They provide considerations for deciding which new hip products on the baby block are important on your baby shower registry or help organize a nursery.
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​Birth Doulas are trained professionals able to assist childbearing families with emotional, physical, and educational support. Birth doulas fill a gap in modern obstetric care.  Though they provide many of the same services as an antepartum doula, their main focus is meeting with families prenatally to prepare for labor and delivery, and the initial breastfeeding. The cascade of interventions can lead to 1 in 3 women having a surgical cesarean birth. Studies have shown doula support can decrease unnecessary interventions and increase maternal satisfaction. Birth assistants can decrease the need for pain-relieving medications like an epidural. They are skilled in techniques for natural pain relief, such as massage and touch, counterpressure, acupressure, rebozo, aromatherapy and offer suggestions throughout labor to help a birther feel more comfortable. We help facilitate communication by considering questions you may ask and offer alternative methods to discuss with your birth team. Most importantly, birth doulas provide a complimentary care that not only brings confidence as mothers approach their birthing time, but helps new parents feel calm, capable, and a ready to take on parenthood!

Postpartum doulas work within the budding family’s home to help for the new mom, dad, parents, grandparents, siblings and newborn adjust. They may prep food, provide breastfeeding support, bottle feed your baby, attend to older siblings, or care for baby as parents recoup with a shower and much-needed sleep. Sometimes a postpartum doula may be referred to as a night nurse or night nanny when providing overnight baby care so families can feel more rested. They may help with the emotional changes the whole family experiences in the postpartum or postnatal period and guide the strengthening of bonds.

There are dozens of doula training organizations and all doulas are not created equally. Although all doulas are sincerely passionate, all doulas work differently! Some doulas are hobbyists, others balance a full-time work/doula life, while still others have built a full-time professional service. They offer different services, different packages, have different skills and experience ranges. They may have stopped their education after a 2-day online doula training, taken an in-person hands-on training and certified, or have additional hands-on complimentary education such as rebozo, Spinning Babies, or massage.

It’s important to ask questions when determining if the doula you’d like to hire may fit your expectations and is the right fit for you!

New Life Blessings offers Birth and Postpartum Doula services including overnight support for you and baby. Read more.

​Of all the thing on your to do list after having a baby, resuming sex with your partner can understandably fall pretty low on the priority list. Between your fluctuating hormones, your healing vagina, your needy baby, your fatigue, and your lack of personal lubrication, sex can feel more like a chore than the pleasurable experience it was once upon a time. So here are a few short thoughts on resuming sex after baby.

​Your first few sexual encounters after having a baby should not be an all out party. Vaginal stitching (if you have it) can take several weeks to heal, and your partner should be very gentle on you until you feel you can handle a more rigorous encounter. Cesarean scars can take a couple months to heal, so be creative about positioning so that you can be safe.

​Your hormones change the way that you experience everything, including physical sensations. If you are breastfeeding, your breasts may feel particularly tender. This may be a good thing or a bad thing – either way is normal! During birth, the pelvic floor gets stretched and slightly weakened, so penetration may feel slightly different. Differently is ok – and it can even be exciting!

​As soon as you start to feel ready, start practicing Kegels. With the pelvic floor slightly weakened from pregnancy and birth, Kegels can add tone that can make sex more comfortable and pleasurable.

​Tell your partner if something is not working for you or if it is causing you pain. What worked well for you only a few weeks ago may now be uncomfortable. Make sure you are communicating a lot during the postpartum phase as your body adjusts to a new normal.

​In the postpartum period, hormones suppress a woman’s ability to self-lubricate, particularly if you are breastfeeding. That does not need to slow you down – just use what tools are available to you and make the best of it!

​If you had stitches – either vaginally or from a cesarean, they can take several weeks to heal. Sex can still be resumed during the healing time provided you are able to be comfortable. Trying different positions during this time can be helpful.

​There is no “expected time” that a couple should resume sex. If you are comfortable a couple weeks after birth, go at it! If you are still 8 weeks (or more) after birth and still not feeling ready to resume sex, that doesn’t mean that something is wrong with you. The first several months with a new baby are incredibly challenging and if intimacy is slow to start, that is ok.

​Sex after baby can sometimes be new and confusing – sometimes even comical. Laugh through the adjustments as you and your partner figure things out!

Some women experience pain during intercourse in the postpartum period. Some of this is normal, particularly as stitches are healing, but pain should not last for several months. If you are experiencing pain during intercourse after baby, the best person to visit a woman’s physical therapist. A woman’s physical therapist is an expert at the female pelvis, its ligaments, muscles, and complications with it. A woman’s PT has the best tools to find what it is that is causing your pain and help you correct the problem.
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Do what works best for you and your partner. During the postpartum and newborn phase, be flexible and patient with yourself. In time, your sex routine will reach a balance with the rest of your new life with baby.

… We all know by now how completely unrealistic our expectations are of mothers and of newborns in today’s society. Yet grocery store tabloids continue to feature celebrities who are less than a month postpartum, and they look like they stepped off the runway. Today’s employers expect new mothers to be back at work only 6 weeks after birth. They are expected to arrive with the same focus, energy levels, and capabilities that they had before giving birth. We do all of this while completely overlooking the fact that this woman has just accomplished the greatest physical feat that a human being can possibly accomplish. Her strong, capable body has been pushed to the extreme, stretched – literally and figuratively, exhausted, and almost completely depleted of nutrients and energy in the process.

Does it even make sense to expect a woman to just bounce back from birth? Oh and remember she has 24-hours care of a very needy infant. Needless to say, it’s totally unrealistic. A woman who has recently had a baby has months of healing and readjusting to do – both emotionally and physically. More than any other time in her life, a postpartum woman needs rest and support. And what is often overlooked is that she is in desperate need of restorative nutrition.

We all know by now how completely unrealistic our expectations are of mothers and of newborns in today’s society. Yet grocery store tabloids continue to feature celebrities who are less than a month postpartum, and they look like they stepped off the runway. Today’s employers expect new mothers to be back at work only 6 weeks after birth.  They are expected to arrive with the same focus, energy levels, and capabilities that they had before giving birth. We do all of this while completely overlooking the fact that this woman has just accomplished the greatest physical feat that a human being can possibly accomplish. Her strong, capable body has been pushed to the extreme, stretched – literally and figuratively, exhausted, and almost completely depleted of nutrients and energy in the process. 

Does it even make sense to expect a woman to just bounce back from birth? Oh and remember she has 24-hour care of a very needy infant. Needless to say, it’s totally unrealistic. A woman who has recently had a baby has months of healing and readjusting to do – both emotionally and physically. More than any other time in her life, a postpartum woman needs rest and support. And what is often overlooked is that she is in desperate need of restorative nutrition.

In the Chinese culture, women are given 40 days of rest after giving birth. The literal translation of this down time means “sitting the month.” In this 40 days, postpartum women are resting, recovering, and learning to breastfeed. In the original ancient Chinese tradition, postpartum women were not allowed to even bathe or go outside for those 40 days. The woman’s aunts, sisters, grandmas, and mothers took good care of the new mom and her baby. These women would teach her how to breastfeed, they would clean her house, they would cook for her, encourage her to rest, and generally forbid her to overdo anything. They understood the necessity of recuperation.

During this 40 days, women were, and are, given only what are considered to be “hot foods” to balance her qi. We in western culture are not as familiar with this concept as it relates to health. In short, the eastern medicine school of thought relies heavily on balance between the yin and yang – the hot and the cold. Too much of one or the other causes health problems.

Along with this vein, birth is said to deplete a woman of all of her warm qi, so naturally, it must be restored. The new mother is only to eat warm nutritious foods because they understand that her body needs to recover. We in modern western civilization tend to turn our heads away from the notion of balancing one’s qi. We even turn our noses up at the notion of using nutrition as the answer to any kind of physical ailment. However, these Chinese women benefit in tremendous ways from the nutritional support that they get for those 40 days after giving birth. We in the west can certainly learn a thing or two about the level of importance that Chinese culture places on nutrition as a cornerstone of postpartum recovery.

In addition, consumption of the placenta (a very special organ that grows with and for the baby) in some form plays a big role in postpartum recovery for the Chinese. The placenta is like a big pile of hormones, nutrients, amino acids, and proteins. The baby is not the only one that benefits from the placenta; we now know that the mom benefits as well. The placenta has helped sustain this pregnancy – something that has changed her very physiology for the last 9 months. When the placenta detaches itself from the uterus, the mother instantly loses the benefits she was gaining from this incredible organ.

To put this into perspective, it’s rather like becoming malnourished overnight. All of a sudden, a huge life-giving part of her is gone. To remedy this, consuming the placenta is a great option that helps keep a mother balanced during the transition to the postpartum period. Consuming the placenta puts all of those lost nutrients right back into her body. That’s why so many women in the western world are starting to embrace the practice of placenta encapsulation.

Placenta encapsulation is the process of steaming a placenta (sometimes with herbs), dehydrating it, grinding it, and placing it into ingestible pills. By simply taking her placenta pills, a new mom can easily and safely put all of that lost nutrition back into her body to help stabilize her nutrition and hormone levels. Encapsulation is said to reduce the incidence of postpartum depression (by giving the body what it needs to function optimally), give mom increased energy, boost her mood, and increase her milk production. 

When it comes to placenta encapsulation, there have not been enough scientific studies to confirm its benefits. This is mostly because nobody would benefit monetarily from the results of such studies. However, just because the scientific method controlled research has not been done doesn’t mean that the benefits don’t exist. 

Placenta consumption has been practiced for thousands of years in many varying cultures. The anecdotal reports from mothers who have done it are overwhelmingly positive. Many times, these anecdotal reports are enough for modern women to be comfortable with choosing placenta encapsulation.
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Women require physical restoration and rest after giving birth, and nutrition plays an undeniable part in that. Eat whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible during the postpartum period to help you bring balance to your postpartum body.
And for good measure, try to eat some of those foods warm for the first 40 days! Maybe the Chinese are on to something!

​The discussion about Pitocin use after the birth of your baby is based around Expectant vs Active Management.

Active management means actively participating in the process of birthing your placenta. Many providers routinely administer Pitocin immediately after birth via IV drip or an intramuscular shot.

After the birth of your baby, your uterus will take a brief rest and then continue to contract to help deliver your placenta. On average, this process can take up to an hour after birth. I have found some providers will not, or perhaps do not have the time to patiently wait for a woman’s body to naturally release and deliver the placenta. They will use Pitocin and sometimes additionally use cord traction (light tugging on umbilical cord) to facilitate the birth of the placenta.

Active management means actively participating in the process of birthing your placenta. Many providers routinely administer Pitocin immediately after birth via IV drip or an intramuscular shot.

After the birth of your baby, your uterus will take a brief rest and then continue to contract to help deliver your placenta. On average, this process can take up to an hour after birth. I have found some providers will not, or perhaps do not have the time to patiently wait for a woman’s body to naturally release and deliver the placenta. They will use Pitocin and sometimes additionally use cord traction (light tugging on umbilical cord) to facilitate the birth of the placenta.

However, there are times the placenta will indeed need assistance to be birthed and Pitocin is medically necessary including when bleeding is excessive or when the placenta is being retained by the uterus.

Expectant management would mean belief in your body’s ability to expel your placenta, and so, the provider anticipates you to feel cramping contractions which will release the placenta. Your provider would look for signs such as the umbilical cord becoming limp or a small amount of separation blood and would then instruct you to attempt to push your placenta out of the birth canal.

After the placenta is birthed, it is your uterus’ job to contract and involute – retracting itself to a more pre-baby size. After long labors, it is possible for the uterus to become tired and go on strike! A shot of Pitocin would help your placenta find the motivation to contract, slowing bleeding more quickly.
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Pitocin for labor isn’t always great, but Pitocin after isn’t quite the same. Not every woman will need Pitocin after birth and even if it is the policy of a hospital or provider, it is your right to choose to decline now and still accept at delivery if medically necessary.

This is not another post about the heated debate between circumcision vs keeping your boy intact. Yes – breathe that sigh of relief. As a doula, I encourage you to do your due diligence and research circumcision thoroughly before making any decision. In fact, I recommend that for all major parenting decisions. But this post is not intended to sway you in one direction or the other.

This is a simple basic care guide for your newborn’s parts, whether they are circumcised boys, intact boys, and I’ll even cover genital care for baby girls.

At birth, newborn genitals are swollen from all the raging hormones of pregnancy and labor, but they quickly rectified in a few weeks.

The uncircumcised penis. It is a myth that the baby’s foreskin requires a lot of extra attention and work. A basic rule of thumb is that an intact penis should be cleaned like a finger. No retraction or additional cleaning is required. In fact, one of the primary things you need to understand about caring for an intact foreskin is that you SHOULD NOT retract it at all. Your boy will retract it when he is ready and this will happen naturally anytime between toddlerhood and puberty. In the meantime, the foreskin protects the glans as well as cleans it. Problems begin to arise with intact boys when the foreskin is prematurely retracted. For further information on intact care, check out Dr. Momma’s Care for Intact Penis Post. http://www.drmomma.org/2009/06/how-to-care-for-intact-penis-protect.html

Circumcised boys. There are a few basic care things that you can do for your boy as his penis is healing, whether he was circumcised at the hospital or by a mohel in a separate location. On average, it takes 7-10 days for the penis to heal. During that time, careful and deliberate steps should be taken to ensure that it heals properly. Following circumcision, the area will be very sore and caregivers should handle it gently. Wash it gently with warm water and a mild soap so that it can be kept clean of bacteria. Do not use baby wipes. Some doctors recommend keeping a dressing on it, while others say that is unnecessary. Consult your baby’s pediatrician for advice on dressing the wound. Protecting it with petroleum jelly or A & D ointment is also sometimes recommended. Again, check with your baby’s provider. Once it is healed, no further cleaning steps are necessary.
Baby girls. Baby girls need to be cleaned thoroughly as much as little boys do. Make sure your hands are clean and use your fingers to separate the baby’s vaginal lips. Use a clean cloth or alcohol-free wipe to clean her from front to back. Make sure that you get both sides of the labia. Often in the first few diaper changes, you may notice white cottage cheese looking substance in or around the labia. This is Vernix; a skin protectant your baby had while submerged in water for the last 37-42ish weeks. It is normal. There is no need to remove it.
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Whatever you decide to do in terms of circumcision for your boy is entirely up to you. Knowing how to care for your baby’s genitals is a crucial and often overlooked necessity for baby care.

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After months and months of swelling, aches, and pains in pregnancy, finally holding your baby in your arms is a god sent. However, during this first period of parenthood, sleep longer than a wink is nearly impossible. So how do parents get out of this terrible sleep cycle, or at least improve the quality of the little sleep they do have? New parents can try out these five tips and they’ll be counting sheep before they know it!

Diet and Exercise
“Diet and exercise” seems to be the cure-all recommended by doctors no matter the ache or pain, but these two health components can have a big impact on the quality and quantity of new parent’s sleep routines. New parents should ensure they’re getting enough nutrients and macro-nutrients like protein and carbohydrates. Parents should also get these nutrients from healthy food like lean meats and vegetables, not all greasy fast food and sugary soft drinks. Keep an eye out for caffeine late in the afternoon, as drinking things like teas, sodas, and coffee will wreak havoc on sleep schedules.

Try exercises that help you de-stress, such as yoga, swimming, or running. Not only do these activities help destress and release pent up energy, exercise has a distinct correlation with sleep. So even if you’d never be caught dead at the gym, thirty minutes of exercise in exchange for a restful night of sleep is a great trade off.

Take Parental Leave
It can be hard to swing a full sleep schedule when one parent has to go back to work right away. Consider asking your workplace about parental leave so the baby work can be more evenly divided among parents. As Spiggle Law puts it, partners often feel uneasy asking for paternal leave because they worry that their employer might wonder why they need to take time off since they’re not the one who gave birth. Stand firm and ask anyway — getting parental leave means more sleep for both partners, and the new mama will be happier, too. 

Take turns
Sleep is essential to healing and operating at your full capacity. It’s no surprise that newborn babies wake frequently during the night. For some new parents, alternating parent duties for a few nights can help provide the deep sleep necessary to sustain a full day. As a doula, I’ve helped parents devise sleep plans for parents, newborn and even new siblings. There are so many options including but not limited to the guest room for a night, co-sleeping, co-bedding, a “daddy doodies” and “mommy boobies” team and more!

Try Different Techniques to Calm Your Baby
There’s no one miracle fix all for quieting crying babies that will apply to everyone. It’s necessary to try out as any different techniques as you can to find which one works the best for your child. According to Sleep Baby Love, what works on your child one week may change the next week due to “mental leaps” — also known as “wonder weeks.” A calm, quiet baby means restful sleep for parents, so this one is naturally top priority. There are several key items that support calm babies. Expert Dr. Harvey Karp who wrote the helpful book, “The Happiest Baby on the Block” describes 5 S’s – a comfortable combo to mimic the womb! He’s even invented the NOO Smart Sleeper for a good night’s rest.

Ask an Expert
If you’ve cut out caffeine, hit the gym, and are soothing your baby constantly, and you still can’t get a good night of sleep, consider the help of a Postpartum Doula or night nurse. A doula will handle the nightly task of caring for your baby so you can get the deep rest you desperately need. Ask your doctor about it as there might be something else at play other than just tired new parents and a wonky sleep schedule, such as anxiety or postpartum depression.

As you prepare to welcome a newborn into your life, we can help make the transition easier. Sign up for one of our classes today!

It’s a topic that we tend to overlook when preparing for a baby, because we think it will never happen to us. Or we decide we will cross that bridge when we get there if we get there. It’s a rather depressing and confusing thing to think about when you haven’t experienced it. Amidst all the splendor of dreamy baby preparations, we try not to think about it.

While you can’t completely prepare for every detail about postpartum life and caring for a newborn, some basic understanding of postpartum depression can go a long way toward preventing and handling it.

In this post, I hope to provide you with some basic information, and I hope to provide encouragement if you are struggling. Sometimes, a little affirmation to remind you that you are normal and not isolated in your struggle goes a long way.

What causes postpartum depression? There has been a fair amount of research done on it, and yet we still have so much to learn. Furthermore, the way each woman experiences postpartum depression will be unique. We know that the cause can be physical, mental/emotional, or both. Physically, a woman is recovering from birth, her hormones are readjusting to a new normal, she is likely not getting enough nutrition if she doesn’t have enough help at home, and if she’s breastfeeding, her lactation hormones are regulating. She is also likely to sleep deprived. Emotionally, a woman can simply feel overwhelmed by the demanding and arduous task of caring for a new tiny person, particularly if her partner has returned to work, if she has returned to work, if there isn’t enough support in the home for her, if she is isolated for much of the day, and if circumstances in her life are causing stress.

Symptoms of postpartum depression are pretty simple to observe and it is classified something that can be self-diagnosed. It goes past the baby blues, which generally only last a short time after birth. Postpartum depression is more extreme and it lasts longer. Symptoms can present in a number of different ways, different times and for different reasons in women.

Some general signs to watch for:

• Overall discontent and inability to feel pleasure
• Sleeplessness, insomnia or excessive sleeping
• Desire to hurt yourself or the baby
• Inability to concentrate
• Unexplained crying or irritability
• Mood swings
• Lack of interest
• Panic attacks

Women are more likely to experience PPD if they have:

• A history of depression or postpartum depression
• Bipolar disorder
• Had a cesarean
• Breastfeeding problems
• Stress
• Financial issues
• Not enough support at home after baby is born

Why do doulas care so much about postpartum depression?
After birth, it’s a standard 6 weeks until a woman sees her provider again for follow up postpartum care. A lot can happen in a couple of days, let alone 6 weeks. Do women routinely see ANY professional during that time? Home birth midwives see their clients several times between birth and 6 weeks, but other providers do not and only 3% of births in the US are attended by home birth midwives and only about 1% in Massachusetts. The other 97% nationwide and 99% statewide are sent home from the hospital a day or two after birth with their new baby and no support or regular contact with a professional for the first 6 weeks of the infant’s life.

What is one of the well-known causes of postpartum depression? Lack of support.
The doula is in the unique position of being a perceptive eye in a sensitive time where there is very little support for women. She can see the mother in her own home, in her element. During that time, the birth doula who attended the mother’s birth will visit with the mother for a postpartum visit, ask her how she is doing, and see if she notices any concerning signs. Most birth doulas tend to stay in touch with their clients long after the birth and they can be a resource, emotional support, and source of encouragement for the new mother.

A postpartum doula can, theoretically, help women prevent or curb postpartum depression. We know that postpartum depression can be caused by breastfeeding problems, stress, lack of support and other emotional stressors, and we know that the postpartum doula helps with all of these. Her job is to take care of the mom and baby so they can figure out life together after the birth. The mother does not need to stress about meals, housework or lack of sleep since the doula helps the mother make sure she has all of those needs are being addressed to the best of her ability. A woman’s stress level goes way down when a postpartum doula is present.

If you are experiencing Postpartum Depression, it’s so important to talk to your care provider. There are a number of ways that it can be handled, and your provider is going to know you and your needs best. There are pharmaceutical medications available as well as nutritional supplements that can help.

Finally, if you are one that is struggling with postpartum depression, hang in there. There is a help and there are available resources to get you through this understandably rocky time. You are no less of a mother because you are struggling with postpartum depression. And with 3 million known sufferers, you are absolutely not alone.
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For more information, check out http://www.postpartum.net

Breast is Best. Yes yes. We have all heard the witty catch phrase. But what does it actually mean? Why is breastfeeding so important? Breast is Best for what?
In this post, we are going to discuss the benefits of breastfeeding for mom and baby, as well as discuss the advantages that the Golden Hour immediately after birth can offer. Finally, we will discuss the importance of having adequate support for the breastfeeding relationship.

The importance of breastfeeding for the baby can not be understated. Breastfeeding is so much more than simply a method of delivery for physical sustenance. Breast milk is, quite literally, a miracle food that is impossible to be duplicated in any artificial setting. Each mother’s milk is completely unique and is specially formulated for her baby.

First, breast milk contains antibodies from the mother’s body. When a mother touches her baby, kisses her baby, or nurses her baby, her body is exposed to the same bacteria and viruses that her baby has been exposed to. Her body, in turn, produces antibodies to those potential threats to the baby and delivers them to him through her milk. Antibodies are living cells that cannot be duplicated.

Breast milk is ever changing. At the beginning of the feeding, the milk (called fore milk) is more water to quench the baby’s thirst. As the feeding progresses, the milk thickens and satisfies a baby’s hunger. By the end of the feeding, the milk (called hind milk) is thick, sweet, and creamy.

Furthermore, as a baby grows, the composition of the breast milk changes for the baby’s growing needs. Milk made for a newborn is not the same as milk made for a 6-month-old. A mother’s body knows exactly what her baby needs and responds accordingly, minute to minute and month to month.

Many mothers say that one of the greatest advantages to breastfeeding is having a convenient and built in ability to calm their baby. Breastfeeding is a great way to immediately calm a baby who is overwhelmed by the world as they transition into it.
In addition, breastfed babies have fewer ear infections, less incidence of pneumonia, less risk of asthma, lower risk of SIDS, stronger bones, and lower risk of cancer.

Babies aren’t the only ones that benefit from breastfeeding. Mothers benefit tremendously as well.

Immediately postpartum, and in the days and weeks to come, breastfeeding helps reduce maternal bleeding. Oxytocin, the hormone that causes contractions in labor, is released when the baby breastfeeds. Oxytocin is what causes the uterus to involute, or shrink, back to it’s pre pregnancy size. As it involutes and contracts, the mother’s postpartum bleeding is reduced.
Oxytocin is also the love hormone and it facilitates bonding. Since it is released every time a mother nurses her baby, it is nature’s way of promoting bonding.

Breastfeeding suppresses the hormones that regulate menstruation and ovulation. In turn, fertility is temporarily suspended. This also means that the mother gets a break from having her monthly period. It is important to note that the length of time between birth and the first postpartum cycle is different for each mother and it is not a 100% effective form of birth control. It is a nice perk, however, to know that during the postpartum phase, fertility is not always 100%.

Women who breastfeed their babies lose the baby weight faster and easier. Fat stores that are gained in pregnancy are now being used for the baby. It takes 500 calories a day to breastfeed a baby! That’s a nice little bonus!

Women who breastfeed have a lower risk of breast cancer, and the exact cause for this is unknown. Furthermore, the longer a woman breastfeeds, the lower her risk of breast cancer.

Breastfeeding is inexpensive. Formula costs are astronomical. Enough said.
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For as many benefits as breastfeeding offers, it’s a wonder why more women do not breastfeed, or why they do not continue breastfeeding after only days or weeks. There are several things a woman can do to optimize her chances of breastfeeding being successful, and ultimately it comes down to respecting the Golden Hour after birth and having support.

More professionals today are becoming educated about what is being called The Golden Hour. This is the first hour after the baby is born and it is a very sensitive time for both mother and baby. Mother just birthed her baby (a Herculean feat), and the baby is experiencing life outside the womb for the first time.

During the Golden Hour, immediately after birth, the baby is placed skin to skin on mother’s chest. Skin to skin is the foundation of the Golden Hour. During labor and immediately after birth, a mother’s nipples produce a pheromone that smells, to the baby, like the uterine fluid they just came from. This smell is familiar and it makes the baby drawn to the nipple to nurse, even without additional positioning help from the mother or support persons. Even when a baby is not being moved around by others, they can, amazingly, find the nipple all on their own to nurse.

Skin to skin facilitates bonding for both mom and baby, and evidence shows that if a baby nurses within the first hour of life, breastfeeding is more likely to be successful.
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Meanwhile, while resting on the mother’s chest, the baby is being warmed to the perfect temperature. There is no technology in the world that can match a woman’s body as a baby warmer. A woman’s body can cool for an over warm baby and it can warm up for a baby who is cold.​

Finally, a woman who wants to breastfeed her baby needs support. Breastfeeding is natural but not initially easy. Both mother and baby need to learn how to breastfeed and the learning process can sometimes be a challenging one. Support for a breastfeeding mother can come from many places.

In the early postpartum phase, nurses and lactation counselors can help mothers get a good start with breastfeeding by making sure they respect the Golden Hour. Once the baby nurses, they can make sure that the baby has a good latch. They can encourage mothers to breastfeed as often as possible to ensure a good supply is being built and they can affirm a mother in her early breastfeeding journey. A birth doula is a tremendous help for early breastfeeding in the immediate postpartum period as well, as they can help with the initial latch as well.

A mother’s partner at home can be one of the best forms of support. The partner can make sure a breastfeeding mother has enough water, is well rested, is well nourished, and is not overwhelmed by the demands around her. They can encourage the mother to continue even if there are difficulties or challenges in breastfeeding. Emotional encouragement can go a long way for a breastfeeding mother and its importance should not be undervalued.

As breastfeeding mothers continue nursing in the weeks and months postpartum, most benefit tremendously from support groups like their local La Leche League group. Lactation consultants are usually on staff at the hospitals and they can be consulted anytime a breastfeeding mother needs professional assistance.

Many hospitals have breastfeeding support groups available. Any Attachment Parenting or Babywearing group is likely to provide breastfeeding mothers with peer support.
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Breastfeeding is worth it. It is worth it for mothers and babies for reasons we continue to discover. Setting up a support system for breastfeeding goes a long way toward success.