The Breastfeeding Medicine Podcast

We cover new research on the role of C-Section in the establishment of gut flora, and its effect on long term health of the infant; the risks and use of SSRI antidepressants in pregnant and nursing women; breastmilk levels of vitamin D in nursing women who are supplemented with vitamin D; and a recent review of the use of antipsychotic medications in nursing women and what we know about their effects on nursing babies.

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative is an international accreditation given to those hospitals who make prescribed changes that provide optimal promotion and protection of breastfeeding for moms and babies.

The articles we’ve chosen from the summit include topics on 1) Causes and implications of low breastfeeding rates in the Mississippi Delta, 2) An innovative program for on-site childcare at Nevada’s state health division for babies under 6 months old, 3) Using social media to support and promote breastfeeding, 4) The American Academy of Pediatrics new 2012 policy statement on breastfeeding and use of human milk, and 5) US Federal Gov’t progress on fulfilling the Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Breastfeeding Support.

This somewhat longer podcast reviews 10 breastfeeding medicine research articles published in 2012, on a variety of topics including weight gain and bottle feeding, comparison of prescription galactogogues, outcome of CMV exposed premature infants, effects of breastfeeding on the maternal brain, and more!

Listen to our podcast if you’d like to know: how breastmilk protects against necrotizing enterocolitis, what do pathologists find when nipple blebs are biopsied, what are the best methods of birth control for nursing moms, why does formula break the cycle of breastmilk jaundice, and who gets breastmilk jaundice anyway?

The dysphoric milk ejection reflex is an infrequently described phenomenon, when women notice emotional changes linked to their milk let-down reflex. We review symptoms and a theory of causality. We also report on new, stronger evidence that frenotomy is associated with improved breast pain.

There appears to be an association between when bottles are introduced and the development of pyloric stenosis; Epidural analgesia is controversial in its effects on breastfeeding success during hospitalization.

Babies who are born via C-Section may have higher weights at birth compared to infants who are born via vaginal birth. We discuss how to evaluate and manage these babies

We discuss the United States Affordable Health Care Act and its coverage of Women’s Health Services including breastfeeding services; the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine protocol on recommendations regarding when breastfeeding babies should become NPO before sedation; the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine protocol on allergic proctocolitis in breastfeeding babies- what is this, how to diagnose it, and what to do about it.

Although major health organizations recommend that women of average contamination risk should breastfeed, and that formula fed infants have poorer health, many families do express concern about contaminants in breastmilk, and wonder if they should breastfeed. This podcast addresses strategies to evaluate and counsel families on exposure to environmental contamination and plans to breastfeed.