I knock gently on the door in the post-delivery unit, and enter to find a new mother trying to latch her baby. It’s not going well, and I can tell she’s stressed. And standing a bit off to the side is the baby’s father, looking unsure of where he fits into this picture.  As a hospital-based […]

In addition to weird aches and discomforts (sciatica, anyone?), weight gain, and puking, pregnancy can make routine decisions—what should I eat right now?—annoyingly complex. For every meal, it’s a series of questions. Does this contains any “no-nos” like soft cheese or deli meats? Is it healthy enough? Did I get at least two servings of […]

Call me naive, but I went into my first pregnancy expecting that after having my baby, the extra pounds would more or less fall off on their own. It was a huge wake up call, when a year out, I was still a steady 5 lbs above my pre-baby weight. My son was finally sleeping […]

From colostrum to coming to volume… Most expecting moms I know expended a ton of energy preparing for their baby’s arrival. They prepped for labor, studied up on their birth options, and set up their baby’s nursery. But despite all their effort, one major challenge still tended to trip them up after baby arrived: Breastfeeding. […]

My obstetrician used to tell me that if I had been born two hundred years ago, with my ability to maintain a milk supply, I would have been a wet nurse.  But I am not the rule. If anything, I am probably the exception. Many women have trouble maintaining milk supply at some point. And […]