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Hey there friends. Welcome to the better postpartum podcast. I’m your host Angel Swan, crunchy mom, coffee addict and postpartum doula turned new mom, coach. This podcast is your audio guide to not just surviving but thriving during those early and newborn days. If you want to care for yourself, your household and your baby with confidence, grab your earbuds because this is the only podcast that you need. So what do you say? Should we get started with today’s episode? Let’s do this. Hey, friends, thank you so much for tuning in today. Before we get started, I just wanted to read this really sweet review submitted by app Nonya. She says a very informative podcast along with practical tips to help you get by. I wish I had heard your episode on postpartum depression 14 years ago. Great job. Hey, thank you for that review. If you have been loving this podcast and you’re learning from it, please head over to Apple podcasts. Make sure you subscribe, leave me a five star rating. And if you really love me, you’ll leave me a written review. Tell me something that you’ve learned, or a message that really stuck with you. Or just let me know what your favorite episode has been so far. Leaving that writing in review is really the best way to support the show. And it helps other new moms find this podcast too, so that they can learn from it. So thank you again for that review. Now, let’s get into today’s episode. So we’re going to continue the minimal and sustainable postpartum series. And today’s topic is breastfeeding essentials. So I’m going to go over this list. And I’ve definitely talked about some of these things before. There are other products that I have recommended in other podcast episodes that I’m not going to recommend today, just because this is like the bare bare essentials. The other things are nice to have, but you don’t need to have them. So remember the bare essentials here, the first thing is going to be nursing bras or tank tops. I know a lot of moms like the tank tops because they don’t feel quite as restrictive. As the nursing bras might, I personally never had any issues with nursing bras. So you don’t need the tank tops. But if you’re on the fence about using a cover, a nursing tank might be the way for you to go. Because you can kind of do like the two shirt method, which is basically you wear your tank top and then you have another shirt over top of that. So you lift up your over shirt, and you lift down your tank top or pull down your tank top I should say. And you’re only exposed where you’re going to be latching your baby. So it’s that I liked the t shirt method, especially for you know, when I was going places where I didn’t necessarily want to be seen. But to be honest, I also most of the time didn’t care because I had a summer baby and I was just like, it’s too hot for two shirts, and it’s too hot for a cover. So I just did what I had to do. But I know not everybody is comfortable with that. So this is where the tanks can really come in handy. But you can also just get a nursing bra. And if you still want to do the t shirt method occasionally with your nursing bra, you can do that. So you wear your nursing bra, you can get a few just regular old camisoles like little spaghetti strap tank top kind of things and use that to do the t shirt method. So you don’t need the nursing tank tops because these things you know they can be expensive. These specialized breastfeeding clothes. So I prefer to just go with a nursing bra. I think it’s a lot easier. It’s more versatile. But you definitely need the nursing bra at least if you’re going to be breastfeeding or pumping. Because you can rig your nursing bra into a pumping bra fun

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fact I can’t really tell you how to do that because it’s more of like a visual thing that you would need to learn. But it’s a thing so if you’re curious, you can just Google nursing bra to pumping bra hack and you should be able to find it. But the nursing bras are great because it gives you easy access. You know you’ve got the clip you unclip your nursing bra you can feed put it back on and they hold your nursing pads in place so you’re not leaking all over the place. But again, this is totally up to you to choose what you want. The next thing is not really an essential but I figured I’d put it in here because for some people it is essential. So this is going to be your nursing cover. It’s only if you want one you do not need to wear a cover. It is your legal right to breastfeed your baby anytime anywhere without a cover. I don’t care what anybody says to you. Some Karen comes up to you and starts making a mess about you nursing like she hasn’t All right to do that, or you know, your family or even just random, like those random strangers, no one can tell you to cover up. And if they do, just remind them that it’s your legal right to feed your baby. And they can leave you alone, right? Tell them to buzz off. I know I, I, you know who I am, I don’t, I don’t feel like I need a cover. But I understand, you know, not everyone is ready to just whip out their boobs in any situation. So if that’s you, then maybe consider a nursing cover. I really like this brand called we are ama a MMA. And you can find them on Instagram. That’s their handle we are AMA, and their nursing covers are beautiful. And I think if I were to do it again, I might actually get one of these nursing covers, not because I wanted to like cover up myself, but because when babies get to a certain age, they get really easily distracted. And Jenny was definitely a distracted nurse her and it would drive me freaking bananas. So she’d be like nursing, nursing, nursing. And then all of a sudden, she sees something and pulls off the off the breast. And I am just spraying everywhere, like a firehose. And I think if I had a cover in that situation, it would have helped so much because she wouldn’t have anything to whip around and look at she would just be focused on the task at hand. So I do think that nursing covers can be really helpful, even if you’re comfortable nursing without one. Now, okay, the next thing that you really, really need is some nursing pads, specifically, reusable bamboo nursing pads, they are washable, they’re super absorbent, and they’re leak proof because they have that bamboo layer, which soaks the milk, it soaks it up. And then it has a layer of waterproof fabric, so you’re not going to be leaking through them. They’re so convenient. And it saves you so much money, because just think if you’re buying it’s like diapers, it’s the same reason why like cloth diapers. If you’re buying a bunch of disposable nursing pads, like how a lot first of all, how long do you plan on breastfeeding, and, and then go from there, I think of how many nursing pads you would have to buy over the course of your entire breastfeeding journey. I know some moms don’t leak, like once your milk regulates some moms don’t leak. So that’s usually around like 12 weeks is when you see that happen. But then a lot of other moms leak consistently the entire time that they’re breastfeeding, and I’m one of those people, I had to wear a nursing bra, I had to wear my bamboo nursing pads, because I would just leak. And I didn’t want to be ruining my clothes because milk stains are really hard to get out. It’s so frustrating. Maybe I’ll have to do an episode and figure out the best way to remove milk stains and tell you about it because I didn’t master it when I was breastfeeding. So maybe I’ll have to find somebody who knows what they’re doing with removing the stains and tell you about it. But anyways, back back to the topic. The bamboo nursing pads are so great, I think that you should get them, they usually come in a pack of about 14. And just as as always, I will be putting links to any product that I mentioned in the episode description. So you can grab my recommended products for yourself. And they’re all on Amazon. So it’s really easy, you get that quick Prime shipping. But yeah, I typically would buy I really think you only need one pack of the nursing pads. So like 14

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I would have to switch them out. I’d wear I think two sets per day. So I was washing, like probably every three days. But you really should be washing them kind of frequently because I don’t know I just don’t think it’s a good idea to leave like soaked breast milk like in your clothes for that long. I would wash them frequently, just personally. Okay. The next thing that I recommend is hot and cold therapy packs to go on your breasts. So these are great for a couple of reasons. So for the heat, we use the heat to treat clogs, to have a faster let down while nursing or while pumping because you know some babies get frustrated when you’re let down takes a while to come. They get mad and then they’ll start yelling at the breast because they want the milk now and it’s not quite flowing just yet, so you can use it in that situation. You can also use it when you’re pumping to kind of speed up your pump, so you don’t have to be plugged to your pump for as long. So that’s one way that you can use them. And then you can also keep them in the freezer so I generally keep them in the freezer. And then if I need to heat them up, I can heat them up. But that way, they’re always cold when I need them. So when you’re using them out of the freezer, that is to help treat like angry and gorged breasts. So if you are if you’re weaning, it’s great to have them if you are a new mom and your milk is still regulating and you get in gorged frequently because your body’s like way over producing milk. There’s trying to figure out what what your baby needs you might have in gorge meant. So that’s a really great time to use the cold therapy packs. The next thing that you should have is nipple cream, I recommend to use an organic nipple cream if you can. I really like Earth mama, that brand is great. Just be sure that whatever nipple cream you get is edible so that it’s safe for your baby to ingest. Because I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have time for wiping off all the nipple cream each time I go to feed or pump, it’s just too much work. So just make sure like if it’s if you are going to use the nipple cream, make sure it’s able to be ingested. So you don’t have to be wiping off when you when you pump or when you nurse your baby could just latch right on or you can pump immediately. And the nipple cream is so important because it happens to all of us your nipples get cracked, they might get chapped. It’s also really great to use for lubricating won’t when you’re pumping. So you use the nipple cream to actually lubricate the inside of your flanges. And then you hook yourself up to your pump. And it’s it just makes a whole thing a lot more pleasant, because I personally did not enjoy pumping. But when you use the the nipple cream as like a lubricate inside your flanges, it’s just more comfortable. And when you’re more comfortable, when you’re pumping, you’re going to pump more milk, you have to be comfortable in order to get an output when you’re pumping. So if you are someone who’s been maybe struggling to pump milk, and you’re not sure what’s happening, try and make it more comfortable. First, you need to make sure you have the right flange size and second loop, try lubricating your flanges. And also maybe look at a picture of your baby or video of your baby while you pump look at your baby while you’re pumping. Think about them. And put a sock over the bottle while you’re pumping. So you can’t even look at how much you’re getting out. Pro tip. I wasn’t even thinking about giving you guys these pumping tips. But they’re just comments. So here we are. So then that brings us to the next essential which is a breast pump. Even if you plan on exclusively nursing, I think you should you should have a pump. You never know when you’re going to have an extended stay away from your baby. And pumping is a lot faster and it’s just more efficient and effective than hand expressing your milk. Even if you’re not going to be away from your baby, you might have times where you’re just super engorged and you need to pump to get some relief. You know, baby’s not hungry. But man your boobs are angry, you got a pump. That’s why I always think it’s worthwhile to have one. You should always always always have an electric pump available for you when you need it. My favorite pumps are

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let’s see. I like the spectra I think specters great Nadella is also great. Just check with your insurance to see what you can get for free. Or what you know what kind of discount you can get. Because all all insurance should, should, right? In a perfect world. All the Elvis would be free. But you should receive at least some kind of discount for a breast pump. So you don’t ever have to pay completely out of pocket for one. You could also go on Facebook into like a local mom group and ask for you know, ask for a pump like Hey, is anybody getting rid of a breast pump? I need one and a lot of times people will give it to you for free. So if you’re someone whose insurance does not fully cover a pump, but you really want to get one and you can’t necessarily afford one, there are so many moms who are willing to just donate one to you. Just be upfront listen, you know you make Post, hey, I really need a pump and I cannot afford to pay for one out up front. Can somebody help me out? Can someone donate a pump, and they will. I actually had several pumps donated to me, because I was looking for like the right one. And eventually I settled on the spectris, too. And it worked well, it’s just kind of bulky. So it’s like not my favorite pump, however, it works well. Okay, the next thing that you need is silicone breast milk storage trays with some silicone bags to put in the freezer. So these breast milk storage trays, that they’re just awesome. Okay, I don’t know if you’ve seen them before. This is different, right? Because most people would say, to get milk storage baggies and use that, you know, I don’t like to be wasteful. So this is a way to store your milk without creating extra waste. So you get the silicone storage tray. And you take whatever you express milk you have you poured into the trays and the trays, it’s like an ice cube, but it’s actually in the shape of like a long stick. That way you can remove the stick and actually take that frozen stick of milk and put it straight into a bottle. Because if you think about it, if you tried to do this in a regular old ice cube tray, the cubes are too big to fit into a bottle. But these are perfect size, you can just slip them right into a bottle and heat it up that way. So what you do is you freeze your milk in these trays. And then you take a silicone bag, and you put the milk, the frozen milk cubes, like into the bag, and you just label the bag with the date of the first batch of collected milk. So like, let’s say you collected this on the 10th. Right? And then maybe you have a couple other milk trays that collected on the 11th and the 12th. You label the bag for the 10th. That way, you’re not like you’re not having older milk in there without realizing it. Like if you were to label it for a couple of days after I hope that makes sense. It’s kind of hard to explain right now. So the next thing that you need is going to be a haka. i Okay, if you’re nursing, then you should absolutely have a haka. Because a haka is a way for you to collect milk passively while you’re nursing. You don’t have to hook up to an electric pump. So it’s called the haka is H A Ka, it is a silicone breast pump or labeled as such, you really it does, it is not meant to replace an electric pump, let me just say that. So it doesn’t have this the kind of suction that an electric pump would it’s really used for, you know, you attach it to one breast and then you nurse on the other breast. And what this does is it provides a gentle suction to draw out milk that you’re already going to be leaking. But the suction gives you a little bit more bang for your buck, right? It’s better than just leaking. It’s actually kind of express It’s expressing the milk for you by giving you that gentle suction. So if they can hold like up to five ounces of milk. And it’s it’s just awesome. Like after you’re done nursing, you’ve removed the haka, and you go put your your milk in your silicone storage trays, and you freeze it and you’re good to go. I built up an entire stash of milk using a haka. I will say I wasn’t over producer but

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the haka just came in clutch like I hated using my electric pump. I did use it sometimes when I was working, but other than that, I was using that haka. That thing was the bomb. I filled up an entire like mini freezer with milk from my haka. It was fantastic. Okay, the next thing that you need is bottles, right? Because to go along with the pump, like how are you going to get that milk to your baby, so you need bottles, and you need bottles that have the right size nipple, and you need new nipple. So this is one thing like if you do get bottles secondhand, which I recommend you do, you should not use a nipple second hand. Same thing with a pacifier you really shouldn’t. And the reason being is silicone, which is what the nipples are made of silicone breaks down over time. And so it’s actually recommended that with regular use of your bottles, you should be replacing the nipples every three months. It actually breaks down that quickly. So if you are getting a bottle secondhand, just make sure you get yourself some new fresh nibbles for the bottles. If you’re feeding a newborn, if you’re doing this from from birth, you should be using a preemie size nipple or a newborn size nipple. The flow is very important, especially if you want to nurse so if you’re nursing your baby and bottle feeding your baby, you need to make sure that the flow of the nipple is super super slow so that they have to work for it when they’re using a bottle. Because if the flow of the nipple is too fast, and they’re getting the milk too easily, then that’s when we see baby babies develop a bottle preference. And that can be just devastating. You do not want to have that happen if your goal is to be nursing your baby. Alright, the next thing you need is some burp cloths. This could probably go with like accessories, but I don’t know you use burp cloths while you’re feeding your baby. So I just figured I’d put it in with this list. I really like to use prefold cloth diapers as my bird cloth. So I like the brand. Oh so cozy. And again, I’ll link everything for you in the episode description so you can get everything that I’m talking about all the things that I use and recommend. But these the bird class that are just cloth diapers are the most absorbent, like I’ve used all kinds of burp cloths right because I have clients who they don’t know that a cloth diapers best burp cloth. So they’ll have you know, things that are actually marketed as a burp cloth and they just are not absorbent, like it’s just a little piece of fabric. I don’t like them. But the cloth diapers on the other hand, these prefolds are the balm they’re super absorbent because they’re cloth diapers. So if your baby spits up a whole lot, it’s not a big deal, because you can handle it when you are using the prefolds as your burp cloths. Okay, the very last thing that you need is lactation support, you need support. I don’t care if you’ve done this before, this isn’t your first rodeo, or you think that you read all the breastfeeding books, you took all the classes, I really don’t care, you need support. You can use support as like a support group or a lactation consultant or both. I like both. So you can join like a local chapter of your lovely J League Group. If you go on their website, I will link it for you, you should be able to find a local group. I’m not sure if they started back up yet since COVID happened. If not, you know, there are plenty of groups on Facebook that you can join. I will say just be careful if you’re going on Facebook, some of these groups are not moderated by lactation professionals. And misinformation can be spread. So like when in doubt I really just I prefer lactation consultant. But lol he league is great if you can get in one of those groups.

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You can also if you’re looking for a lactation consultant, there’s a great website is the United States lactation consultant associate Association. And I’ll link that for you as well. And they have a directory so you just type in your zip code, and it’ll bring up a bunch of lactation consultants that are in your area. So that is all of the absolutely essential things that you should have for breastfeeding. And if you like all the tips that I give on this podcast, and you want to work with me, so that you can find balance in your new motherhood journey, you can get your baby on a predictable schedule, prioritize yourself care get help with breastfeeding, get help with infant sleep, stop feeling overwhelmed by the never ending list of things that you have to do as a mom, I want you to go to Angel swan.com. Okay, you can either go to Angel swan.com/back to you and join my group coaching program. Or if you want one on one support, which is best if you need that help with while really just taking a deep dive or that breastfeeding support the sleep support. That’s better for one on one you can go to Angel swan.com/work with me and I would be happy to help you all those links are in the episode description for you, as well. And as always, do not forget you can hang out with me on Instagram, see what I’m up to come say hi. I’ll say hi, I’ll tell you babies Q go to Instagram. Look me up at Angel dot swan. You can grab all my free resources on my website, Angel swan.com. And of course, don’t forget to go on Apple podcasts and rate review and subscribe. Thank you so much for listening. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye bye. Thank you so much for listening to the better postpartum podcast. Here’s what I want you to do next. If you loved what you heard today, would you do me a giant favor and leave me a written five star review? Those little love notes that you leave are the perfect way to thank me for putting out these episodes just for you. Seriously, it would mean the world to me. Next, take a screenshot of the episode you’re listening to right now and share it on your Instagram stories and make sure you tag me at Angel dot swan. That’s s w o n so that more moms can find this podcast and hopefully get the advice and encouragement they need to truly thrive with their babies. And don’t forget to come back every single week for more nuggets of wisdom and truth bombs about the early motherhood journey. I’ll talk to you next time. Bye bye