Pregnancy & Breastfeeding- Expectations Vs. Reality

Hello Everyone!

My name is Hannah Cowan and I’m SO happy to have you here.

For those that may not know, I am a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who grew up in small town in the White Mountains of North Eastern Arizona. As a senior in high school, I knew I wanted to do something in the health field because I really enjoyed my biology and human anatomy classes and wanted to help people. I had heard stories from my sister who is a nurse and knew I did NOT want to do what she did! Haha!

She helped me look through different health field degrees offered at Arizona State University (ASU) and dietetics jumped out to me right away! I researched it and it sounded like the perfect fit for me. I printed off the course calendar and started chipping away at it!

Prior to my time at ASU I attended school at Eastern Arizona College.  During my first semester there I took Human Nutrition and absolutely fell in love with the subject and learning about the role it plays in our health and wellness.

While learning specifically about nutrition through the lifecycle, I was especially amazed at how much our bodies do throughout pregnancy and afterwards to feed our sweet babes. This was of interest to me because I was around kids and babies a lot growing up being the 9th of 10 children.

I wrote one of my very first research papers in college on the benefits of breastfeeding and I knew this was a subject that I was seriously passionate about.

Since having a child of my own in March 2021 I’ve been able to see first-hand how important it is that mothers and babies get support. The hours, days and weeks following birth are so crucial for mom and baby to adjust and figure out this new life.

Breastfeeding may be a natural thing, but it is new for both you and the baby- and each baby is different! Even if you were able to easily breastfeed the first time, it could be totally different the next!

I’ve noticed there seems to be limited support postpartum for moms. It is such a crucial time for recovering from birth in addition to caring for and feeding an infant that is solely dependent on being cared for.

Most doctors have limited knowledge in nutrition and breastfeeding so I am here to help educate and be a support for moms and their babies.

Pregnancy & Breastfeeding- Expectations

Before I experienced pregnancy or breastfeeding, I had an idea in my head of how it would be.

I had seen my sisters go through it before, so I figured it would be the same for me.

I didn’t really expect to have morning sickness, since none of my sisters had that problem. I mostly worried about how many more stretch marks I would get and the pain of child birth.

I thought that breastfeeding would be my super power that would be so easy and would calm my crying baby instantly.

I was really excited to be able to provide my baby everything she needed with just my body, especially antibodies during any sickness she might have.

The facts about how breastmilk provides and is tailored perfectly to each baby was one of the most amazing things to me.

Pregnancy & Breastfeeding- Reality

When pregnancy began for me, I ended up having quite a bit of morning (or all day) sickness.

It was difficult to find things that sounded good to eat, but I did my best and found simple ways to keep me going.

When you are in that fog of not feeling well, it’s hard to get out of it and push yourself to nourish adequately through food.

A mother’s diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding has a direct impact on the child’s health by influencing their gut microbiome and the way DNA is expressed. Yes, nutrition affects us down to the cellular level! Pretty cool!

After the first trimester, it was much easier for me to eat more, and I was drawn to simple and comforting meals.

Throughout my pregnancy I continued to read about breastfeeding and look at emerging research in the field so that I would be prepared for any possible problem that could arise.

In the final weeks of my pregnancy I learned to hand express and started collecting my colostrum (or liquid gold) and froze it to have in case she got sick in the future.

Colostrum is the very first milk that you produce. It is super concentrated and packed with antibodies and nutrients. Research also shows that hand expressing before or shortly after birth can help improve and establish your milk supply.

This was the beginning of my breastfeeding journey.

My Breastfeeding Journey

When my sweet girl was born, there were no complications, so we were able to do skin to skin and nurse within the first 30-60 minutes after birth.

A nurse helped me with positioning and latching and she sucked pretty well, but struggled staying latched.

The nurse used a suction tool to bring my nipples out which was not fun at all (ouch!!!).

I ended up needing to use a nipple shield to help her eat without causing me too much pain for the first week or two. My awesome nurse even ran to the store to get one for me in my size!

Positioning and latching your baby is so new and challenging for both of you and even with all of the knowledge I had and research I had done, I still needed help, which is okay. It’s hard to see outside your own situation and spot little things that need to be fixed.

I’m sure many of you felt the same, and ultimately this was why I decided to reach out to a lactation consult (IBCLC). I knew I was experiencing a few of the red flags that warrant reaching out for help. Some of the ones I experienced were:

·      Pain

·      Vasospasm & blanching

·      Compressed/Lipstick shaped

·      Clicking Sound (taking in a lot of air)

·      Gassy Baby (caused from taking in so much air)

I had a base of knowledge about breastfeeding, but needed someone to help me tweak our latch and positioning.

Below is a great little visual of how to get a good latch!

 Getting Help- It’s Worth It!

When she was one week old, I knew that I needed more support and reached out to a lactation consultant.

She was such a help to me and showed me how to adjust some things to improve our nursing journey. She showed me some tricks to get a deeper latch and helped me sit back and get comfortable instead of hunching over while nursing.

There have still been a few bumps in the road, with a lip and tongue tie causing some ongoing issues, but I have reached out and gotten support when I needed it.

I discovered that my breastfeeding super powers may not stop her when she’s crying or upset, but they have been amazing in so many other ways.

We have had countless hours of bonding time and nursing to sleep. I know that I have been able to provide her with antibodies to strengthen her immune system when she or I have been sick.

I also love cultivating her intuitive eating through breastfeeding. I do my job of offering her milk and she gets to decide when and how much she wants to eat to feed her growing body.

My baby girl is now 8 months old, has almost 8 teeth and we are still going strong and working on eating solids!

Final Thoughts: Support is Best

What my pregnancy and nursing journey has shown me is that there is so much information out there, but so little personalized support for mothers who need more help and have questions about their situation. Nutrition is so individualized, so what may work for one person, won’t work for another.

You may hit some bumps in the road that make it difficult to nourish yourself or make it feel like breastfeeding is impossible. You may be told to supplement or switch to formula and don’t know where to start or what is possible.

Maybe you don’t know what to eat yourself or how to cook and you’re just scraping by surviving on whatever is around.

I truly believe that support is best when it comes to feeding ourselves and our babies.

I am here to help provide personalized care and support for you with whatever you are struggling with.

Services

Prenatal/Postnatal

• Nourishing yourself before and after giving birth.

• Diet overview/assessment

• Health goals overview

Infant & Toddler Nutrition

• Newborn-1 year nutrition

• Breastfeeding/Formula Nutrition Questions

• Introducing Solids:

  • Baby Led Weaning

  • Purees

Introducing Allergenic Foods

• Toddler nutrition: 1-2 years old

• Picky eating

• Support through introducing foods and challenges

Breastfeeding Nutrition

• General Breastfeeding Education

• Benefits of Breastmilk

• Diet and Milk Supply

-Hannah  

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