What to Ask Your Hospital About Breastfeeding Before Birth If you’re planning to breastfeed, you’ve probably spent some time thinking about what you need before baby arrives. Maybe you’ve bought a pump, added nursing bras to your registry, taken a breastfeeding class, or saved approximately 400 Instagram posts about getting a good latch. That’s all fine, but there’s another piece of breastfeeding preparation that deserves your attention during pregnancy: what will actually happen at your...

3 Breastfeeding Gadgets an IBCLC Recommends Avoiding (and What to Use Instead) Walk through the breastfeeding section of any baby store—or spend five minutes watching breastfeeding videos online—and you'll find a gadget promising to make breastfeeding easier. Some are useful. Some are unnecessary. And some can create an entirely new problem while you're trying to solve the first one. As an IBCLC, I'm not anti-breastfeeding gadget. I'm anti-using a tool without understanding what it's doing or...

Baby Registry Breastfeeding Goodies If you’re pregnant and planning to breastfeed, it’s very easy to end up with a registry full of things marketed as breastfeeding “must-haves.” Bottle warmers. Nursing pillows. Milk catchers. Fifteen different kinds of bottles. Nipple shields. Silver cups. Lactation massagers. Supplements promising to boost your milk supply before you even know if you have a supply problem. As an IBCLC, my baby registry for breastfeeding would be a lot shorter. You don’t...