About Possums Breastfeeding & Lactation

I hope that you and your baby don’t ever run into breastfeeding problems, and that breastfeeding is easy and full of joy!

However, breastfeeding problems do often come up. Many are minor and resolve quickly, with a little bit of help. But it can be hard for others to understand just how desperate you might feel if you’re facing serious breastfeeding problems. The worry – and the pain – can be beyond belief.

Then there’s all the conflicting advice you receive – only because people care about you and want to help. How stressful conflicting advice can be, though! It’s hard to know what or who to turn to when you’re wanting to do what’s best for your little one.

Caring for a tiny person can be such a wonderful time for you and your family, full of enjoyment and delight – and it can also be outrightly miserable. Our aim with the Possums programs is to help you grow the joy, as well as help you work out what to do when the going is tough, in a way that aligns with the very latest science.

In Possums Breastfeeding & Lactation we share with you new ways, step by step, to make breastfeeding as easy and as enjoyable as possible for you, your baby, and your family, in a living program which is constantly updated as the research emerges, and which takes you into the information with as much or little detail as you need at any moment in time.

We offer effective help for the whole range of challenges which can arise when you are lactating, including:

• Getting started with your newborn
• Fit and hold
• Nipple pain and damage
• Breast inflammation
• Milk supply concerns – whether you have a supply which is higher or lower than your baby’s caloric needs
• The baby who fusses a lot with breastfeeds – whether coming on to the breast, during feeds, or after feeds
• Tongue-tie and restricted oral connective tissues
• When and what kind of bodywork therapy might be helpful
• Other medical conditions which may affect lactation
• More besides.

Lactation remains a devastating health system blind spot (or devastating if you hope to breastfeed and can’t, anyway!)

Women tell researchers there are two main reasons why they need to start their baby on commercial milk formula – often at a time when everyone’s feeling stressed and distressed.

Reason 1. The breastfeeding woman is in pain, most commonly due to

• Excruciating nipple inflammation, sometimes accompanied by cracks, ulcers, swelling, pus or bleeding, but also sometimes because of
• Debilitating or recurrent inflammation of her breast tissue, often referred to as mastitis.

Reason 2. Her baby is unable to come on to the breast easily, or fusses a lot at the breast, back arching and pulling off repeatedly in distress. That is, baby is dialled up at the breast.

Then there are two other reasons for starting formula commonly reported by mothers.

Reason 3. The breastfeeding woman isn’t producing enough milk, which causes her baby to dial up with hunger.

Reason 4. Baby isn’t gaining enough weight.

For some women, underlying conditions get in the way and make it impossible to meet their baby’s caloric needs exclusively from their breasts. For others, one of these four upsetting reasons gets in the way.

The three main causes of breastfeeding problems are often not identified

Three crucial breastfeeding problems, which cascade into a variety of other problems including low supply and baby weight gain concerns, are commonly not identified in our health care systems. These are:

1. Nipple and breast tissue drag during breastfeeding
2. Not frequent enough removal of milk from the breasts
3. Baby has a conditioned dialling up.

It’s not just that these problems often aren’t identified. Instead, when these breastfeeding problems come up, you or your baby might be given a diagnosis or explanation which requires medications, supplements, surgery, aids, bodywork therapy, or exercises – despite a lack of reliable evidence to support these interventions. Possums aims to offer you other, more effective ways to deal with breastfeeding problems. To learn more go to: https://possums.org/