Some women, especially with diabetes, are recommended to express milk while still pregnant and to save it for their newborn. But it’s not for everyone.
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The bacteria in a mother’s breast milk are important because it helps develop a baby’s gut. Research shows this bacteria are different depending on where mothers live and what they eat.
The particular makeup of a newborn’s gut microbes is important as it has been shown to affect their risk of developing certain diseases later in childhood and adulthood.
Breastfeeding mothers often receive a variety of well-intentioned advice about what and what not to eat during this period. But what does the science say?
Modern women are expected to juggle work, homelife and motherhood, mostly by themselves.
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South Africa, despite its bold commitments to improve breastfeeding, does not have national data to monitor breastfeeding rates to ensure that its policies are being effective.
Breastfeeding norms vary around the world.
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What are we really talking about when we criticize women who breastfeed in public?
Modern debates around breastfeeding would be eerily familiar to someone from the 18th or 19th century.
The Fashionable Mamma, James Gillroy, 1796. The British Museum.
Regular controversies over breastfeeding might seem like a quirk of contemporary life. But 18th and 19th century clothing reveal that women have been handling the issue of visibility and practicality for centuries.
What are the hormones that cause cravings during pregnancy?
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Multiple hormones produced by the mother, placenta and the foetus drive and coordinate the amazing biological changes and development of the baby that occur with conception, foetal growth and birth.
I don’t want to change public attitudes. I just want to feed my baby.
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Health Economics, Wellbeing and Society, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University