Mocha Milk Mamas

🤷🏼‍♀️💦

⬇️ Breasts. Bo***es. Ti***es. Ho***rs. Melons. The Twins— whatever you call yours, we want to help you love yours.

www.thebreastmilkqueen.com

Dr. Chaniece Wallace💜

Today we honor the life and legacy of this incredible Black woman, mother, wife, doctor, and so much more. Chaniece developed preeclampsia toward the end of her pregnancy which prompted a change in her care plan.

Preeclampsia is the precursor to a severe condition called eclampsia which is the onset of a seizure/coma during pregnancy. Preeclampsia is commonly signified by high blood pressure, but other symptoms can include organ malfunction/failure.

Chaniece had a severe case of preeclampsia that necessitated surgical intervention. She experienced high blood pressure, kidney malfunction, and liver rupture. She gave birth to her daughter via c-section and 2 days later tragically passed away.

We are highlighting her experience because it is one that is not unfamiliar to Black families. Black women are disproportionately more likely to experience preeclampsia and maternal mortality compared to our white counterparts.

To learn more about Dr. Chaniece Wallace and her life story head to https://www.rileykids.org/stories/blog/honoring-dr-chaniece-wallace.html #.YlAwhdNKg1I (Riley Children's Foundation Blog: Honoring Dr. Chaniece Wallace)

To learn about these conditions and how you can lower these rates head to NBDALeadershipAcademy.com to enroll in doula training with us!

📣 IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! 📣

Did you know that ALL of our childbirth and breastfeeding classes are completely free, thanks to a generous grant from a local nonprofit? Patients who are not on Medicaid may also apply for a partial class scholarship.

The next class starts THIS SATURDAY, March 26th.

Please share with any pregnant people you know!

You can apply here: https://www.roecenter.org/grants

Our class schedule can be found here and includes free prenatal and postpartum support groups as well: https://www.alabamabirthcenter.com/childbirthclasses

The duality of this truth is why many parents are initially quite frustrated with breastfeeding and also why many parents later become fierce advocates of the practice. Allowing every parent to have their own experience moment by moment can mean being a listener and coach, but it can also mean joining in with other cheerleaders as they rally others to the cause.
-Waetie Sanaa Cooper Burnette

Hey pregnant and lactating folks! We've got pumps + pumping supplies to give away! 🎉😍

To request a free pump, please go to this page and fill out the forms at the bottom (liability waiver and request form) and we will get you all set up ASAP with a double electric breast pump! https://www.alabamacohosh.org/nabpp

Please share this post so we can help out more families and get more pumps out there!

Thank you, as always, to all our amazing community parents who generously donated their preowned pumps to help out other families. Y'all are the best! If you'd like to donate a (closed system) pump, you can bring it to Tennessee Valley Lactation Support LLC's office during their business hours. We also always appreciate donations via our Amazon wish list here. https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/34O5KYB2M6MX4

Our Prenatal Support Group is back in person! We will be meeting in the community room at the Alabama Birth Center! Space is limited so please RSVP (see comments for event link). This is a free monthly peer led support group. We are so happy to be able to meet in person again and can't wait to see you there!

Meme drop thread! Let’s see the relatable memes you’ve got.

***Nothing racist, homophobic/transphobic, sexist, etc. because that stuff isn’t funny.***

So many people think that postpartum depression is just lots of crying and wanting to harm yourself or your baby. But it's so much more than that, and we do parents a disservice when all the symptoms aren't disclosed. Postpartum Depression can also look like:
🔷 Feelings of anger or irritability
🔷 Lack of interest in the baby
🔷 Appetite and sleep disturbances
🔷 Crying and sadness
🔷 Feelings of guilt, shame, or hopelessness
🔷 Loss of interest, joy, or pleasure in things you used to enjoy
🔷 Possible thoughts of harming yourself or your baby

You are not alone. You are not to blame. You can get better. If you need help, call or text HELP to 800-944-4773. You do not need a diagnosis to reach out to our HelpLine. We're here for you 💙

Inspired by Maternal Mental Health Utah

📸: Postpartum Support International - Indiana Chapter

Happy IBCLC Day!!!

🤣🤣🤣
Via Lucy Ruddle IBCLC

The quality and safety of our infant nutrition is our top priority. We’re initiating a proactive, voluntary recall of powder formulas manufactured at our Sturgis, MI plant, including Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare. We value the trust parents place in us and are doing everything we can to resolve this immediately. For more information as it becomes available, please visit: www.SimilacRecall.com.

The FDA is issuing an advisory to alert consumers to avoid purchasing or using certain powdered infant formula, due to possible infant illness. More info: https://1.azdhs.gov/3LDZxQ6

It’s all fun and games
And sexy breathing exercises for birth
And romantic plans about how he’ll take the baby
While you do yoga every day

Until you’re 10 days postpartum
Still bleeding and soaked in breastmilk
Riding a roller coaster of hormones and sleep deprivation
And your lovely partner forgets to pick up a smoothie
On his way home from the grocery store

And you lose your sh✨t
Like sobbing into the bathroom sink
Like cursing his mother
Like wondering why you ever procreated with someone capable of such unimaginable selfishness

And then, when the storm has passed,
And you’ve had a snack - you realize
Two shaky, raw, sleep deprived humans
Trying to be life rafts for one another
While sinking into the depths of exhaustion and stress
Keeping the tiniest, most fragile, precious being afloat
Is hard AF

We weren’t meant to do this alone
We were not meant to be sent out to sea
In a tiny little life boat with no map

Even the most loving, stable partnership can sink
Under the weight of operating in survival mode
While finding your footing as parents

So, if you’re out there, treading water
Buried in laundry and breastmilk
Surviving on freezer pizza and three hours of sleep
Thinking mildly unkind thoughts about the person you chose to parent with
Because he can’t seem to calm the baby
Or remember your smoothies
Or grasp the depths of the earth shaking
transition you’re navigating

You’re not alone
And it will get easier
One sleepy, shaky day at a time

Words and Art by Catie Atkinson
Spirit Y Sol
www.linktr.ee/spiritysol

Our Babies to Work Program at Randolph County Health Department welcomes our 4th mom and new baby! Pauletta is now working with WIC and just returned after maternity leave. When asking Pauletta about the benefits of the program she said it was much easier coming back to work knowing that she could continue to bond with her son, Jaylon, and continue to work at the same time. The Babies to Work program supports a positive work/life balance and shows that the department practices what we encourage in our communities; supporting parent and infant bonding, parental well-being, healthy infant development, and breastfeeding.

Feed the baby … not the freezer!

So many women are under unnecessary stress because they can't express extra breastmilk to build a

Let's take a moment to unpack this: a mother is breastfeeding well. Her baby is thriving. But she feels she is failing because she isn't producing more milk than her baby requires! Breastfeeding is about supply and demand. The baby's feedback to the breast, through the removal of milk during a feed, drives milk production.

Until around the 1990s, Australian mothers generally only expressed breastmilk if their baby was sick or premature and unable to direct feed. Or her breasts were too engorged for her baby to attach. Other reasons to express were less common: separation due to work, study or social commitments etc. Electric breast pumps were only available by hire and often reserved for those with babies in special care nurseries. Hand pumps and hand expressing were sufficient for most mothers. Expressed milk might be frozen in small amounts but disposable bags were expensive and hard to get and freezer space was at a premium.

However, in the US, women had very different experiences of breastfeeding. With little to no maternity leave, poor breastfeeding support in the community and limited access to help with lactation issues, pumping was already becoming a normal part of breastfeeding for the minority of women who managed to establish it.

In many ways, the internet is to blame for the influence of US culture on breastfeeding mothers in Australia. Pumping to build a freezer stash before returning to work is necessary for women with just days or weeks at home with their baby. But Australian mothers have 18 weeks paid maternity leave, plus other benefits not available in the USA. They do not face the same urgency or many of the same barriers.

Social media has normalised extreme pumping of breastmilk to an extent that sometimes babies are completely absent from the picture. Aspirations to have the biggest and most impressive stash of expressed milk can overtake the goal of a small reserve just in case. Informal milk sharing groups regularly have posts from mothers seeking to give away tens of litres of milk to reclaim freezer space!

Having should not prevent you from having close contact with your baby. 👶🏻👶🏼👶🏽👶🏾👶

Early and exclusive breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact is critical for the baby’s health, especially for babies born early or small.

The url will go live on January 25, 2022.

Studies have shown that people are most receptive to educators and health care providers that share similar backgrounds, cultures and customs.
-
The field of lactation is no exception however the number of lactation professionals of color is significantly low. -
Nikki and Nikki Lactation Career Consultants are absolutely committed to the advancement of lactation consultants of color. -

Our big news is.... WE ARE OPENING A BIRTH CENTER!!!!!

Alabama Birth Center is North Alabama's first freestanding birth center. We are opening this center because we believe Alabama families deserve more birth options and increased access to midwifery care. We are so excited to invite all of you along on our journey of renovating the raw space, located in Huntsville, AL, that we have purchased to house our birthing suites.

Please consider donating to our GoFundMe. Every little bit counts when it comes to funding this dream! ➡️ https://www.gofundme.com/f/southernbirthequitycenter ⬅️

We are so glad you are here; please follow along on the birth center's page as we will share more in the coming days about our mission, our building, our founder, and why Alabama is so in need of birth centers!

To learn more about the Alabama Birth Center, visit our website at alabamabirthcenter.com

Today the Alabama State Board of Midwifery issued license #21 to Hope Hamilton and license #22 to Stephanie Mitchell. Congratulations! We are so happy for you and the many clients you will serve.