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In light of the Corona virus I would recommend for all new parents to buy yourself a weigh scale off of Amazon for 40-50 dollars. Assessing how much your baby gets at each breastfeeding session can be a difficult thing. This 40-50 dollar weigh scale will not tell you that information but you can track your baby’s weight gain regularly. This way you can weigh your baby just in a diaper every other morning and ensure that they are gaining weight. The first three months of their life they should be gaining half an ounce to one ounce per day. The second three months the gain is a little less than one half of a pound per week. Your baby’s weight should double their birth weight at six months and triple their birth weight at one year. One thing you can be sure of is the scale does not lie!!

All the literature states that a mother should not pump her breasts until the baby is 1 month of age. This is almost criminal advice in my opinion! Prolactin is the hormone responsible for making the breast milk. Oxytocin is the hormone responsible for letting the milk let down and come out of the nipple.  When the placenta comes out of the mother’s body this is the catalyst that gets the milk making components in line for making milk for the baby. Prolactin is highest in a woman’s blood right after she has her baby. This level falls a little after the first week of life only to surge up when the infant nurses or the nipples are stimulated. This level of prolactin continues to decrease over the first month and again surges highest when the nipples are stimulated as when the baby is nursing or the mother is pumping.

The prolactin surges in the beginning and during the first few weeks of life are very important! A newborn baby or a premature baby may not be the best at breastfeeding or stimulating the nipples during the first week or two of life. Many times babies are sleepy and if they are not gaining weight or their bilirubin levels are rising then it becomes a vicious cycle. My best tag line is that if your baby is sleepy or not feeding well something needs to be stimulating your nipples so that you can take advantage of this early time period to set the bar high for a healthy milk supply. When both breasts are stimulated at the same time this too causes a prolactin surge!

 

reference:  K. Wambach, B. Spencer,, Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, Sixth Edition, 2021, Jones and Bartlett Learning, LLC

There are 416,327 cases globally with 18, 572 deaths

Covid19 virus affects anyone but mostly people between the ages of 30-90 years of age

1 in 6 people become seriously ill

1 in 5 need hospital care

80% recover

Many people can have mild symptoms and be spreading the disease! People should isolate themselves if they don’t feed good or have any symproms.

People over 60 years of age that have underlying conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer or heart problems are more likely to develop a more difficult course of the disease and possible death.

Antibiotics don’t work on virus’s and they should not be given as preventative medication

SARS- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome          said to pass from a civet cat

MARS- Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome   said to pass from a dromedray camels

Although the virus’s are similar Covid19 is a new disease and we are still learning about it, how it  spreads and the severity of the illness

There is no evidence that a dog or cat or a pet can transmit or get the Covid19 virus

References for the last 3 blog posts come from: Center of Disease Control, International Lactation Consultant Association, Unicef, US Lactation Consultant Association, World Health Organization, Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.