Current Topics in Breastfeeding

Learn positioning strategies that make early breastfeeding easier for families and helpers, the effects of skin-to-skin contact and separation on infant stability, what biology tells us about normal early feeding patterns, and ways institutions and individuals can more effectively support breastfeeding parents for better outcomes.

Learn which methods of assessing milk adequacy during the hospital stay are reliable and which are unreliable, how to gauge the need for supplements, and when supplements are needed, recommended feeding volumes and methods. This presentation also includes reasons mothers use formula supplements unnecessarily and the impact on breastfeeding self-efficacy.

Summarizes strategies that can be used with term and preterm babies transitioning from bottles, nipple shields, and other feeding methods to full breastfeeding using insights from the research and clinical practice. Includes a four-part framework for determining possible factors contributing to distress at the breast, along with strategies for targeting interventions to the cause of the feeding problem.

One of the greatest challenges of working with lactating families is those extremely dire situations in which breastfeeding is so far gone that parents seek out our help as their last resort. What makes a situation a "trainwreck?" Where do we start when faced with multiple difficulties? What strategies can help us navigate these stressful situations more effectively and compassionately? How do we best meet the needs of parents who are at the end of their rope?