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Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#71

Post by Dove »

I started aggressively filtering my water (Berkey black + white filters) during my last pregnancy, and I was amazed how much better I felt and how much more water I wanted to drink. I was trying very hard to drink lots of water to support the pregnancy, and found it difficult. When I started filtering it, it became really easy and I felt a lot better to boot.

I still get pretty low key dehydrated if I try to subsist on tap water. I suspect my body is balancing my need for water against something in the water it doesn't like. Fluoride is a prime suspect, but any number of other things are possibilities and I wouldn't really have any way to know. But I do often wonder if I'm far from the only one with such an issue, and most people never find it. I didn't for a long time. It is an easy guess for me that if there's something in the water that's bothering you, and you need to dramatically increase your intake to support two people, biological problems and tradeoffs might ensue. And nursing in particular does require an awful lot of water.

I ultimately started filtering all of my water, and it seems like an obvious thing to do in retrospect -- like having a firewall for your home network. It seems silly to me now that I ever assumed that any old pipe sludge that found its way into the system at any point was something I would necessarily want in my body.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#72

Post by jelliclesfarm »

klyrs wrote: post #56

My mom breastfed me in the 80s, but didn't produce enough milk. So, she had a wet nurse. This practice was mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and probably goes back even further. That women are taught that this is a biological imperative is astonishingly ignorant of human history. Humans are not solitary by nature. We evolved as a society. It should be no surprise that we have evolved to rely upon that. And, no surprise,…

I too don’t understand why wet nurses aren’t a thing in our modern times. I suspect being bipedal has been an impediment for motherhood. Most mammals raise their young together communally. Human beings did not evolve to be solitary creatures and in our times, for nuclear families. Large extended families and tribal cohesiveness is how humans survived.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#73

Post by arubania2 »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #7
LesZedCB wrote: post #2

i was expecting to find something about society-wide chronic stress, lo and behold > And chronic stress has been found to deplete the body of the energy it needs to make milk. lets just say our profit and growth driven society is not structured to nurture humans, neither grown nor newborn.

I'm surprised we're more stressed now than humans from thousands of years ago who somehow managed to produce plenty of breast-milk. They didn't have as much safety from pillaging tribes, hungry animals, they didn't have antibiotics, anesthesia or life-saving surgeries. They didn't have access to a grocery store a short drive away, or a fire department. Can all of the advancements in human QoL above be undone by turni…

> they didn't have antibiotics, anesthesia or life-saving surgeries. They didn't have access to a grocery store a short drive away, or a fire department.

They wouldn't even dream about these things, so they weren't unhappy because of it.

You can't feel like you need something if it doesn't exist (in your era at least).

Today we still don't have casual space travel, time travel, the elixir of life or the wonder drug, but it's not the lack of these things that is making us unhappy.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#74

Post by Someone1234 »

my_usernam3 wrote: post #43
abfan1127 wrote: post #6

anecdotally, my wife struggled to breastfeed our first born. The hospital lactation consultant wasn't very helpful. Ultimately, we found another who's knowledge and bedside manner was very good. I'd hypothesize the lack of generational homes leads to lack of information for new moms. Add on stress about things like jobs, careers, family expectations, and it becomes very difficult.

Spread some of that tribal knowledge, what worked for her?

Different poster: But what worked for my wife was "Medela Nipple Shield" in the appropriate size.

What I find interesting is that our first didn't eat for TWO DAYS until we got that piece of silicone. It was recommended by the lactation consultant, but the hospital didn't stock them because they had a policy against assistive devices. It took two days because the lactation consultant didn't work weekends.

The hospital's view was essentially: Breastfeeding had to "just work" or else formula. Nothing in-between. Ultimately our kid was 90% breastfed with minimum supplemental formula, we also were able to move away from the Nipple Shield within a month. But yet things like Nipple Shields get fought even by some lactation consultants and many hospitals.

You can find numerous articles pointing out why they're bad, but in my view "fed is best" and by attacking assisted devices like they do, all they're indirectly doing is hurting mothers trying to breastfeed, many of which will give up, and just use formula (since they're essentially called bad mothers either for using assisted devices OR formula, so may have well lean into it).

When we had our second, he was a larger baby, and while we did need the shield, he only needed it for a week total. The different lactation consultant recommended "trying without" every time we met her even when it was self-evident it was ineffective.

TL;DR: Breastfeeding information, advice, and assistance is shit-tier in the US and is very hit-or-miss.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#75

Post by tbonesteaks »

Dove wrote: post #71

I started aggressively filtering my water (Berkey black + white filters) during my last pregnancy, and I was amazed how much better I felt and how much more water I wanted to drink. I was trying very hard to drink lots of water to support the pregnancy, and found it difficult. When I started filtering it, it became really easy and I felt a lot better to boot. I still get pretty low key dehydrated if I try to subsist…

Berkey for the win! It has been so useful for my family. During and after pregnancies. If you can get one, I highly recommend it.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#76

Post by TchoBeer »

colpabar wrote: post #53
moeris wrote: post #33

Most of the comments here are implying that there is some environmental change which has caused breastfeeding to become harder or less efficient. The article doesn't seem to say that, though. I didn't see any implication that breastfeeding was better back in prehistory. It's possible that it's always been hard. Being in a social group large enough that there are other mothers would solve the issue, largely.

It's against the rules to imply this but most of the comments here are written by people who don't read the articles.

Most HN comments sections are like this, where the title is more a nucleation site for a discussion than commenting on the actual article.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#77

Post by Dowwie »

colpabar wrote: post #53
moeris wrote: post #33

Most of the comments here are implying that there is some environmental change which has caused breastfeeding to become harder or less efficient. The article doesn't seem to say that, though. I didn't see any implication that breastfeeding was better back in prehistory. It's possible that it's always been hard. Being in a social group large enough that there are other mothers would solve the issue, largely.

It's against the rules to imply this but most of the comments here are written by people who don't read the articles.

We don't talk about that here, you know this.

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#78

Post by tbonesteaks »

ye-olde-sysrq wrote: post #67
falcolas wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget the isolation; western civilization all but requires two income earners to have a "median" life. There's remarkably little time or money to raise a child. Median individual income: $40,000, poverty level for "replacement" families (two adults, two children): $30,000.

worth noting that 2 children is below replacement rate, so someone needs to be having 3 kids too. which is becoming increasingly uncommon especially because of how many things change between 2 and 3 kids. (Notably: 2 carseats fit in ~any vehicle. 3 fit in very few vehicles unless you rush the oldest into a booster seat.)

just want to say that we have had four kids over 6 years in one of the most expensive states in the us, and went from $30k to over $100k in that time frame. It is a huge jump in salary and feel very blessed regardless of the hard work, but just know most of the time was spent below the top end. If you are emotionally stable enough to have a good marriage (and therefore have kids), go for it! You will afford it, and life couldn’t get better!

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#79

Post by boringg »

Dove wrote: post #71

I started aggressively filtering my water (Berkey black + white filters) during my last pregnancy, and I was amazed how much better I felt and how much more water I wanted to drink. I was trying very hard to drink lots of water to support the pregnancy, and found it difficult. When I started filtering it, it became really easy and I felt a lot better to boot. I still get pretty low key dehydrated if I try to subsist…

Can you attach those filters to a faucet or are you required to have a separate device where you put the water?

Re: Many women struggle to breastfeed. Scientists are starting to ask why

#80

Post by red-iron-pine »

colpabar wrote: post #53
moeris wrote: post #33

Most of the comments here are implying that there is some environmental change which has caused breastfeeding to become harder or less efficient. The article doesn't seem to say that, though. I didn't see any implication that breastfeeding was better back in prehistory. It's possible that it's always been hard. Being in a social group large enough that there are other mothers would solve the issue, largely.

It's against the rules to imply this but most of the comments here are written by people who don't read the articles.

On a work computer. Can't always access the articles.

Plus I'm looking to see if it is worth the risk -- a lot of articles are clickbate.

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