Breastfeeding is one of the best gifts you can give your baby. Here are five tips for making it as easy as possible:

1. Be Good to Yourself — The frequency of feeds varies as your baby grows. Early on feeding may be very frequent. Later, your baby may not need to feed as often, but no matter the frequency, it can take a lot of moms’ time and energy. While breastfeeding, be especially good to yourself and realize that during this window in time the most important thing you are doing is caring for your baby. Everything else can wait.
2. Drink Lots of Water — This helps you make the amount of milk your baby needs. Before sitting down to feed your baby, fill a large glass or stainless steel canteen with water so you can drink while your baby drinks.
3. Treat Yourself to a Nutritious Diet — I recommend continuing to take prenatal vitamins while nursing and being sure to eat healthy amounts of real food – this is great for mom and baby.  As an added bonus, the flavors mom eats come through breastmilk as a wonderful way to introduce baby to a rich variety of tastes.
4. Take Advantage of Your Hormones – Every time you nurse, hormones are generated that make you drowsy after nursing and take a nap when the baby naps. You are not being lazy. You are taking care of yourself so you can take care of your baby.
5. You’re Not Alone — If you have trouble nursing, call an expert for help. A Certified Lactation Consultant is an invaluable resource. You might also want to connect with a La Leche League volunteer or an experienced family member or friend. Getting the encouragement you need could make a world of difference.

Two weeks after giving birth to my now five and a half month old son I sent an email to all my mommy-to-be friends titled The Inconvenient Truth. The purpose of my email was to tell them everything I wished I’d been told prior to giving birth (about labor, not to scare, but to prepare them) but more importantly about the challenges of breastfeeding.  I read a recent post by a friend of mine that reminded me that I wanted to share my experience with other moms-to-be in hopes of giving them the best chance of having a great breastfeeding experience.

Firstly, there is a lot of societal pressure surrounding breastfeeding today. Moms are made to feel that if they choose not to breastfeed they are somehow not giving their child the best chance at life.  While it is well documented that breastmilk is the most nutritionally beneficial food source and specifically designed for each child, there are many reasons why breastfeeding might not be the right option for you, and your child. It is your choice whether or not to breastfeed and whatever you choose, for whatever reason, it is okay.

I had made the choice to breastfeed well before the birth of my son. I took a class (which I highly recommend), learned a few things, did some additional research but really thought I was just going to have to suffer through a few sore nipples and presto my son and I would be in breastfeeding bliss.  Well, that is not exactly what happened. While breastfeeding is natural, the majority of women have a tough time with everything from the latch to milk supply.  I had a pretty tough labor and birth experience and to this day I believe breastfeeding is more difficult. While the teacher in my class mentioned at one point you should try to stick it out for 6 weeks until giving up as did all the research I read, they really glazed over the reasoning. What I’ve outlined below is everything I wish had been told prior to starting to breastfeed so I was more prepared.

Take a Class – This is very important. The baby doesn’t naturally know how to latch and contrary to what most believe the baby doesn’t suck from the nipple. The baby “latches” with his top lip just over the nipple and the bottom lip well under the areola with the tongue pushing the milk out of the nipple and into the back of your baby’s throat.  I think its important to understand how this works so you can visualize what you are trying to teach your child to do.  Since you most likely will take the class prior to giving birth you won’t have a baby to practice with, but it gives you an idea of what is supposed to happen and a few tips and tricks.

Relax – Stress does not help produce milk and certainly does not help the baby feel comfortable enough to learn.  For the first few weeks while you both are learning and you are working to regulate your milk supply, find a comfortable chair/rocker, in a calm environment and nurse there every time.  It also helps to use a pillow to support your baby in the early days. My favorite is MyBrestFriend. I also liked to play soothing music. Baby lullabies work great too and the baby likes it.

Sleep – To produce enough milk you need enough sleep. Although it is difficult, try to block out the distractions of the world and sleep when your baby sleeps.  Forget about the laundry and chores and focus on sleep, which will give you good milk, which your baby will eat to satisfaction and then sleep longer. It’s a great cycle.

Eat Right and Drink Water – You burn an enormous amount of calories breastfeeding. It’s a great way to lose weight quickly when you leave the hospital. But in order to produce adequate milk you need to take in more calories than normal.  Protein is very important. It’s also important to drink LOTS OF WATER.  I estimate I drank 90 ounces a day. Breastfeeding is very dehydrating so always have a glass of water handy while you nurse.

Surround Yourself With Supportive People – The women that have the most success with breastfeeding are surrounded by supportive people. Have your spouse, significant other, caretaker or parents that already support you in your choice to breastfeed help you through the tough times. I also found it helpful to take them to any breastfeeding classes, lactation consultant appointments and breastfeeding support groups.

Many of the regulations that allow dairy products to carry the label “certified organic” revolve around farming practices. In general, organic milk should come from cows that eat only organic food and are not enhanced with hormones, antibiotics or other chemicals.

In February 2010, the USDA tightened its definition of organic milk to include stricter regulations about the pasture access. The new guidelines define organic milk as milk from a cow that grazes on pasture at least four months out of each year, with at least 30 percent of the feed coming from grazing. The old rules simply stated that animals had to have “access to pasture.” Ranchers must also have a plan to protect soil and water quality.

When breastfeeding women rely on organic milk vs. regular milk, their babies benefit from up to 36% higher levels of the heart-healthy essential fatty acid CLA (conjugated linoleic acid)¹.

Conventional milk contains an average of 2.5 pesticides, according to a USDA study of 788 milk samples in 2005.

The Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative sponsored an independent study that found that organic milk contained an average of almost 70 percent more heart-healthy Omega 3 essential fatty acids than conventional milk. Other studies have revealed higher levels of other nutrients as well, such as vitamin E and beta-carotene.

Another study showed that the incidence of eczema in young children was reduced by 36 percent when children consumed organic dairy products.

The benefits of buying organic dairy products go beyond nutrition. More than 200 million acres of farmland in the US are dedicated to growing feed for livestock. Choosing organic dairy products creates a market for farms that avoid pesticides and other farm toxins.

If you need or want to avoid dairy products, organic soy milk, yogurt and other soy products are nice alternatives that allow you to reap the benefits of milk’s best nutrients while still choosing organic.

Painful breasts are the second most common reason that women give up breastfeeding in the first two weeks. Engorged breasts can hurt! And this can happen both at the beginning and ending of the nursing season, as supply adjusts to meet demand.

This is one of the reasons that I encourage new mothers to work with lactation consultants to learn practical wisdom about breastfeeding. The lactation consultants at Stanford, where I work, recommend cool cabbage leaf compresses between nursings as part of their engorgement solution. Use green cabbage leaves. Crush them with a rolling pin if the leaves don’t fit well to the shape of your breasts. Or cut off the tops of the leaf veins – whatever gives you the best fit. The leaves can stay on for about 20 minutes, two or three times a day, perhaps with a cold compress over them. Some suggest putting them on after every feed, and leaving them on until the cabbage wilts, but others are concerned that this will reduce the milk supply.

During weaning, they can be left on continuously. One study, published in the June 1993 Birth, found that women whose engorgement was treated with cabbage leaves experienced greater relief and were more likely to continue nursing (76 percent versus 58 percent). Women who used the cabbage leaves preventatively, while their milk was first coming in, tended to report less engorgement. I wish I had known about that when my children were nursing!

A later study in the March 1995 Journal of Human Lactation, found that chilled gelpaks and chilled cabbage leaves both result in a significant drop in engorgement pain. Although both worked equally well, the majority of women studied preferred the cabbage leaves. In the September 1995 issue of the same journal, researchers reported that when women had chilled cabbage leaves on one breast and room temperature cabbage leaves on the other, the relief of engorgement was significant, and was the same on both sides; use whatever temperature is more comfortable for you. I’ve even known some women who like warm cabbage leaves.

What about the cabbage leaf extract creams you can buy? The Cochrane Systematic Review, which analyzes data from all available studies, concluded in 2001 that although cabbage leaves may help, cabbage leaf extract preparations do not – save your money!

Some remedies and solutions promoted to breastfeeding moms truly help; others are myths, or are even harmful. Experts in lactation are invaluable resources. Cabbage leaves are just one of many useful ideas you might get from your local lactation consultant.