Breastfeeding is not always as straightforward as some may say. And part of this is managing expectations on what to expect at the hospital in terms of breastfeeding education. On this episode I welcome Kelly Kendall, a nurse, IBCLC, a founder of the @balancedboob to discuss structural limitations of breastfeeding education in hospitals. We discuss:

• Why we can’t rely on learning everything we need to know about breastfeeding in a hospital
• Top tips for setting yourself up for success in early days of breastfeeding in the hospital
• How to best prepare if you want to breastfeed your newborn

 

Little Spoon
Little Spoon is a one stop shop for healthy, easy mealtime and snacktime for your baby, toddler and big kid, delivered right to your door. Get the BRAND NEW Lunchers – healthy meals with build it yourself lunches your kid will love, like Easy Cheesy Pizza, Chicken Dunkers or Chicken Nacho Dips. Go to littlespoon.com/pedsdoctalk and enter our code PEDSDOCTALK at checkout to get 30% OFF your first Little Spoon order.

Sign up to Kelly’s breastfeeding course Boob School and more on her website thebalancedboob.com or connect on Instagram @thebalancedboob 

00;00;01;01 – 00;00;24;09

Kelly Kendall

I just think we do a huge disservice to parents when we providers or friends just sort of say, well, they’ll just teach you in the hospital, like you’ll get help there. Because so many moms come back to me, and maybe there wasn’t a lactation consultant over the weekend or in the evening hours, or maybe the nurse that was assigned to them really wasn’t super educated on breastfeeding.

 

00;00;24;11 – 00;00;50;22

Dr. Mona

Welcome to ThePedsDocTalk Podcast, a podcast that continues to grow because of you and your reviews and a podcast where I get to welcome the most amazing guests to chat about all things infants, parenting, child health, child development, and parental mental health as well. And today’s guest is Kelly Kendall. She is a nurse and sidekick founder of The Balanced Boob, which provides support and education for breastfeeding families.

 

00;00;50;26 – 00;01;02;12

Dr. Mona

And we are chatting today about the things they don’t teach you about breastfeeding in the hospital. So thank you so much for joining me today, Kelly.

 

00;01;02;14 – 00;01;05;24

Kelly Kendall

Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here.

 

00;01;05;27 – 00;01;25;29

Dr. Mona

Well, I’m so excited to I’m also so I’m a pediatrician. Obviously I am an ABC like in for the last two years and I do around in hospitals I see newborn babies. I love being an ABC all see. But we’re talking about very openly the things that are not taught in the hospital and why we think it’s important that people who plan on breastfeeding know about these things.

 

00;01;25;29 – 00;01;30;25

Dr. Mona

So before we get started, tell us more about yourself and why you love doing what you do.

 

00;01;30;28 – 00;02;01;12

Kelly Kendall

So like many, I because what really drew me to this work were my own struggles with breastfeeding my two kids. I always knew I wanted to breastfeed, and I was one of these people that thought that kind of desire was enough. You know, I googled a few things and just thought that I would be taught in the hospital and really was completely blindsided by just how, like, hard breastfeeding a newborn can be and how emotional it can be.

 

00;02;01;15 – 00;02;13;26

Kelly Kendall

And really, that’s what fuels my passion for supporting families for the whole, you know, range of experiences that can be feeding their babies. And that’s what I love to do.

 

00;02;13;29 – 00;02;32;23

Dr. Mona

I love it, and I also have that similar story that I didn’t breastfeed my first. I had a very traumatic delivery, and a lot of my experiences was again being in a hospital. I was in an ICU, I had ABCs and lactation nurses that came in and helped. But again, it was a systematic issue where I’m physically separated.

 

00;02;32;25 – 00;02;52;01

Dr. Mona

There was like not as much time for the demos, the compassion, all of that. And I it’s not a blaming of the person, it’s a blaming of the lack of resources and lack of time. Right? I mean, there’s one eye you’ll see sometimes covering all these units. So definitely something I’m excited that we can talk about and also set people up for some tips that we’ll go over.

 

00;02;52;05 – 00;02;56;28

Dr. Mona

So what are your thoughts about hospital based breastfeeding care and education?

 

00;02;57;01 – 00;03;25;02

Kelly Kendall

So I have been a nurse for over 16 years, and most of that time has been in the hospital and the bedside supporting families, both as a postpartum nurse and then as an IDC LC. And I’ve worked with so many passionate, committed people. But like you said, it really is a system problem. So what a lot of people don’t understand is with a vaginal birth, oftentimes the hospital’s goal is to get you admitted and discharged in 24 hours.

 

00;03;25;03 – 00;03;51;17

Kelly Kendall

And there is a whole lot of stuff, you know, as a pediatrician that we’re expected to do for these babies by the time they go home, ranging from bloodwork and assessments and sometimes circumcisions and breastfeeding just kind of has to fill in the cracks a lot of times. And really, despite sometimes having really passionate classes at the bedside, it just is a time thing.

 

00;03;51;17 – 00;04;16;03

Kelly Kendall

Number one, and resources being spread really thin. Sometimes I’d have 1020 dyads that they’re supporting, so 10 to 20 baby rooms that they’re helping. And then I don’t know about you, but really our brains are not primed to absorb a ton of new information right after birth. Yeah. So I think a lot of moms are like, well, they’ll teach me.

 

00;04;16;06 – 00;04;51;25

Kelly Kendall

And there are so many times that I would be in a room helping a mom with hand expression or going over some things to be looking out for, and they cannot keep their eyes open, like literally falling asleep as I’m teaching them and I just think we do a huge disservice to parents when we providers or friends just sort of say, well, they’ll just teach you in the hospital, like you’ll get help there because so many moms come back to me, and maybe there wasn’t a lactation consultant over the weekend or in the evening hours, or maybe the nurse that was assigned to them really wasn’t super educated on breastfeeding.

 

00;04;51;25 – 00;05;07;11

Kelly Kendall

So my goal, and I know a lot of the content you provide is really, really about empowering parents to understand how their bodies work and how their baby’s bodies work so they can be in the driver’s seat for kind of making things happen.

 

00;05;07;13 – 00;05;25;26

Dr. Mona

Oh, 100% time crunch. And, you know, a lot of hospitals do love I’ll say it’s the label of like baby friendly. They want to obviously promote breastfeeding. But like you said, it doesn’t mean that just because they want to promote it, that they know what the nitty gritty is, right? And like troubleshooting. And that’s why I wanted to get the extra education like yourself.

 

00;05;25;26 – 00;05;55;20

Dr. Mona

Like I knew that even though I’m a patrician, yes, I learned it in residency, but you don’t learn it as much as you do. And I like training. And also by practicing, by doing, by and by learning what’s not working with the patient. And yes, a lot of nurses who are amazing pediatricians who are amazing, all the staff, again, reiterating that everyone is great at what they do, but when they’re not trained in it or they don’t have the time to learn the trade, right, like learn all the nitty gritty and the back and forth and that’s practice, right?

 

00;05;55;20 – 00;06;16;26

Dr. Mona

That’s why we call it practicing. And so then it becomes a like you said, oh, well, they’ll just teach me. Oh, I think there is obviously something that we have to go in before, like understanding in terms of how to set that mom’s up for the best possible outcome for their breastfeeding journey. So what are some things that you wish would be taught in the hospital in terms of breastfeeding or some maybe getting started?

 

00;06;16;26 – 00;06;22;14

Dr. Mona

For people who are in this breastfeeding journey, things that they should have or things that, you know, to kind of get that process started.

 

00;06;22;16 – 00;06;48;06

Kelly Kendall

One thing that I think is a really kind of under utilized towards becoming more popular, but really is kind of the number one thing that I think every parent should kind of go into their birth having is feeling confident in their understanding of hand expression. So hand expression is when you use your hand to remove early milk. And what the research shows is really this early frequent removal of colostrum.

 

00;06;48;06 – 00;07;11;22

Kelly Kendall

Your earliest milk is what helps set you up for your long term milk production. So what happens in those early hours after birth is important for the whole time you’re breastfeeding. And so I never want a mom to be waiting for somebody to go in and teach them this skill. I would love everybody to go into their birth having this and that does not mean that you need to be collecting colostrum.

 

00;07;11;22 – 00;07;28;29

Kelly Kendall

I think a lot of people are overwhelmed by that, which for some people that’s a great choice. And for other families, it’s like, oh my God, I cannot imagine doing one more thing right now. And that’s okay too. But what I want moms to be able to do is have something that they can use really soon after birth.

 

00;07;28;29 – 00;07;51;26

Kelly Kendall

So if their beauty isn’t interested in latching right away or isn’t able to latch effectively right away, they have a tool. Because, I mean, you know this with breastfeeding, there are two humans involved, so a mom can be ready and willing and wanting things to rock and roll, and their baby just might not be ready yet, depending on what happened with their birth or, you know, a multitude of factors.

 

00;07;51;28 – 00;08;06;28

Kelly Kendall

So really having this tool where you’re set up, okay, I know what to do with my babies. Not interested in that golden hour. I know what I can do with, you know, it’s been three hours and my baby isn’t wanting to feed that. You have a tool that you can pull from to support your milk supply.

 

00;08;07;01 – 00;08;10;16

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I think you have a little. Yes, we all do have my.

 

00;08;10;23 – 00;08;13;06

Kelly Kendall

Yeah I have many model breast.

 

00;08;13;06 – 00;08;28;12

Dr. Mona

Yes. There we go. Yeah. So yeah, the reason why I wanted to shoot video for this podcast is that I think the visual will be really helpful, and I’ll be putting this up hopefully on my YouTube channel so that people can kind of see, hey, what does this mean? Is there a proper way of doing this? But we’re going to talk about hand expression and expression.

 

00;08;28;14 – 00;08;51;29

Kelly Kendall

One of the first things that you want to do is start with actually some massage. So we’re trying to increase your oxytocin levels which is stimulated with human touch. So right after you’ve done skin to skin with your baby, or you’re doing skin to skin with your baby, it’s a great time to practice after birth. Or if you’re practicing before just making sure that you’re doing a little bit of massage to kind of try to raise those oxytocin levels.

 

00;08;52;01 – 00;09;14;23

Kelly Kendall

And the next thing is you want to kind of align your fingers up over your Ariela, and you want to focus on pushing back against the chest wall and then compressing your fingers together, holding that for a second, because oftentimes it’ll take a second for that thick milk to move down the Dax. Then you release your fingers and you literally just get in a rhythm.

 

00;09;14;23 – 00;09;37;13

Kelly Kendall

You’re basically trying to milk yourself and you can alternate. You don’t need to just sit and do that for 20 minutes. Do that a few times, alternate, do some massage, move to the other breast, and really want to empower moms to kind of experiment. So another reason to learn hand expression before is what works for my anatomy and my body is going to be different than what works for your body.

 

00;09;37;15 – 00;09;57;21

Kelly Kendall

So if you, you know, been practicing a little bit, you may know, you know what, this session works much better for me. This new position or when I use two hands, I get much more milk. Or if I add an extra finger up here, it really helps me. So practicing and kind of experimenting to find what works for your body is really helpful.

 

00;09;57;24 – 00;10;18;12

Dr. Mona

And I would love to talk about expectation in terms of what they should see coming out, because you mentioned that already, that of course, that first day, first two hours, you’re not going to expect that nice high not to come out. But what are our expectations? And I love talking about this because I do feel like when I talk to families, especially in those early five days, the mind thinks, oh, it’s going to be all this.

 

00;10;18;12 – 00;10;32;28

Dr. Mona

What I see online, like people just filling up bags if they’re pumping or so yeah, what is kind of showing that this is kind of working. The hand expression is kind of going in the right direction. Is that something that we quantify with amount of milk? How do we know that it’s kind of going where we need to go.

 

00;10;33;00 – 00;10;55;24

Kelly Kendall

So with everything with the human body, right. There’s a big range of what’s normal. So some moms will see milk before if they’re practicing in those last days or week of pregnancy. And some moms won’t see anything. And it is not an indication of a future low milk supply. When you have a placenta, you have a lot of hormones that are telling your body, okay, not yet.

 

00;10;55;24 – 00;11;20;19

Kelly Kendall

Like don’t have your milk come in yet. Yeah. And depending on your own anatomy and your own biology, you may be more sensitive to those hormones. And your breasts just really may not let down that colostrum until that placenta is delivered. And that’s where you may see more easily flowing milk. And like you said, we don’t immediately give birth and have a white, copious amount of milk coming out.

 

00;11;20;21 – 00;11;49;13

Kelly Kendall

Our milk slowly transitions from colostrum to what’s called transitional milk, which is around day three to day five, and then it becomes more mature over a period of time. So really what we’re looking for when we’re practicing hand expression after birth, hard drops, two teaspoons is really kind of what the range that we would expect. And it varies a lot in consistency and in color.

 

00;11;49;13 – 00;12;13;17

Kelly Kendall

Some moms will have bright yellow colostrum. Some moms will have very clear or almost milky colostrum. Some moms I didn’t seen it be slightly green colored like there is a huge range of what is normal. So I would say, you know, as long as you’re starting to see drops and if you’re not, I would say what I would focus on more is changing up your technique.

 

00;12;13;17 – 00;12;42;28

Kelly Kendall

Cause again, like everybody’s body is a little bit different and using some form of heat or massage to help as well, and trying to increase those oxytocin levels. So breastfeeding really relies on which is hard because you’re trying a new thing or like don’t look stressed out. And but you know, we really need to try to be relaxed because when we’re stressed and trying something, when we are feeling really tense, it’s difficult for our body to let those hormones flow that we need.

 

00;12;43;00 – 00;13;03;22

Dr. Mona

Absolutely. Which is why I love talking to about this, because I feel and why I also became an advocacy, because I know the impact stress and pressure has on your production. And we know this. But even talking about these conversations about how much. Right. But just say a mother wants to breastfeed and they only see those little drops and they’re going into panic mode that, oh my gosh, I’m not producing enough.

 

00;13;03;22 – 00;13;20;13

Dr. Mona

Oh my gosh, I’m going to have to now do formula them. If they were so adamant about breastfeeding they feel guilt. They feel like oh my gosh. And so that all cycles into impacting the breast milk production. And so I love that you said that because this is so much about saying we’re going to do this, we obviously will troubleshoot as we go.

 

00;13;20;18 – 00;13;39;17

Dr. Mona

This is a great tool about hand expression, because I think it’s obviously if we have hands and it’s very just something you can do even before someone comes to help you. Is there anything else? Obviously, I’m sure there is. But anything else besides hand expression that you’d want to go over in terms of skills or in those first, let’s say six hours, of trying to establish breastfeeding.

 

00;13;39;20 – 00;14;21;17

Kelly Kendall

Yeah. So, you know, two quick things. Again, the importance of skin to skin. So skin to skin I think has you know, people have heard of it before. It’s like a kind of thought is this like cuddly bonding thing. And it is, but it’s incredibly impactful for just stabilizing your baby’s transition to life outside of the womb. So really prioritizing on this continuous skin to skin, if you are awake and alert, having your baby on your chest, chest, in your diaper, sternum to sternum with you is incredibly helpful for again, helping them transition, supporting their blood glucose levels and helping them feed more frequently.

 

00;14;21;17 – 00;14;43;24

Kelly Kendall

So again, skin to skin. Amazing. The other thing that’s really kind of changed in my practice in the last couple of years is teaching more natural breastfeeding techniques or more reclined breastfeeding. There’s lots of different names for it. And what I have found is we know babies are reflexive eaters, right? They aren’t thinking about breastfeeding in the same way you or I are.

 

00;14;43;24 – 00;15;13;02

Kelly Kendall

They’re responding to where they are in space and sensing the mother’s body and using their reflexes to get to the breast and feed. And what I have found really works well for newborns is, is the mom is able doing a more baby latching technique where the mom is really reclined and baby is been able to use their natural reflexes, and they tend to open more wide, and they really can do a pretty fabulous job when we give them gravity to assist.

 

00;15;13;04 – 00;15;24;10

Kelly Kendall

And a lot of moms think like, oh, I can’t do that with my baby until they’re much older and have more have, you know, but actually using these early reclined breastfeeding techniques actually make newborn feeding easier.

 

00;15;24;12 – 00;15;38;17

Dr. Mona

Oh, I love it. I think this is so great and so well, thank you for demonstrating the hand expression and talking about positions. And this is all stuff that I think, again, parents who know they want to breastfeed but are expecting to see it in the hospital may not get this sort of conversation. So I think it’s so important.

 

00;15;38;22 – 00;15;41;26

Dr. Mona

Is there anything else that you wish that they would be taught?

 

00;15;41;28 – 00;16;11;08

Kelly Kendall

I think just that these space, that breastfeeding can work a lot of different ways, and permission to inhibit and change goals throughout your breastfeeding journey. I really think we do moms a big disservice when we make it all or nothing. Yeah, and we kind of are like, okay, pump ten times a day or quit breastfeeding altogether. And there’s so much nuance and so much space that we can find for moms.

 

00;16;11;08 – 00;16;46;22

Kelly Kendall

And another thing that I am so passionate about is just really having helping moms to find a lot of self-compassion for themselves, because I think when we’re learning something new, especially in motherhood, it’s really easy to just be super, super hard on ourselves and practicing really, like deep self-compassion for wherever we are in our breastfeeding journeys. Our feeding journeys is one of the like honestly a cornerstone of reaching you know, or feeling good while you’re feeding your baby?

 

00;16;46;22 – 00;17;10;12

Kelly Kendall

I think that that breastfeeding or however you feed your baby, whether you formula feed or you breastfeed, it really is about connection and finding that self-compassion for yourself. The same way you’re full of compassion for that new baby who’s just figuring it out. You’re pretty new with this and just figuring it out too, so trying to help families find that for themselves and really foster it is hugely important.

 

00;17;10;12 – 00;17;25;20

Dr. Mona

As well as an advocacy and myself. I love that you are also like that because we in the field, I mean, this is in every field, not just like if it was like I see a pediatrician and there can be extremes, right? Like, well, you have to do it all this and if you don’t do it, then you’re not succeeding.

 

00;17;25;20 – 00;17;46;15

Dr. Mona

And that is so stressful. And so not only is a mother who wants to breastfeed being met with, well, you can’t do this. And like you said, the pumping and this and oh my gosh, that stress. It’s so important to have a lactation consultant or pediatrician or someone knowledgeable in the space who supports you and your journey knowing that, like you said earlier, Kelly, like it takes two people, right?

 

00;17;46;15 – 00;18;07;25

Dr. Mona

It’s the baby. And it’s not just you want to do it, excuse me. And it’s going to happen. It’s okay. Well, what position does that baby need to be in? Maybe looking at the shape of the jaw. You know, of the mouth. Like, what is it going to be best for both of you all and really normalizing again that even though you know the comment that breastfeeding is natural, right.

 

00;18;07;26 – 00;18;25;10

Dr. Mona

It’s so natural, but something that’s natural doesn’t mean that it has to be easy as you’ve experienced, and you obviously are talking to so many mothers who are struggling with that concept of like, I’ve seen people just they popped the baby on and then they literally started latching right away. Although that’s a beautiful thing and that’s great. But I want to normalize that.

 

00;18;25;10 – 00;18;35;26

Dr. Mona

That’s not just because it’s not happening for you. Does it mean it can’t happen? Does it mean it can look a little bit different? And I think that’s so hard and so important that we just kind of normalize that. And you did beautifully. So thank.

 

00;18;35;26 – 00;19;04;03

Kelly Kendall

You. Thank you. Yeah I mean that really is something that I am again like so passionate about is how do we find space. And you know, hold the wide lens of what breastfeeding can look like because it really can look so many different ways for so many different families and change throughout the breastfeeding journey. And really, we want to have a little bit of a loose grip on exactly what we define success.

 

00;19;04;04 – 00;19;25;09

Kelly Kendall

As I talk a lot with the people in my program, boob school and on my page, like, how does that breastfeeding goals that really feel good? So instead of being like, I am not going to use any formula or I want to exclusively breastfeed for six months, how can we center things on, you know, I want feeding to be something that connects me and my baby.

 

00;19;25;09 – 00;19;50;19

Kelly Kendall

I want to be compassionate towards myself through our challenges and really like centering that as opposed to these really strict goals that we may not have that much control over. Right? Like we our bodies are, you know, for your experience. And I know from my own health journeys like our bodies are magical limited thing, right. And we can’t control everything.

 

00;19;50;22 – 00;19;55;17

Kelly Kendall

And just recognizing that and not making ourselves bad or wrong because of it.

 

00;19;55;19 – 00;20;14;04

Dr. Mona

Oh, absolutely. And you know, we talked about the hand expression we talked about in terms of, skin to skin. If a person wants to breastfeed, what should they bring to the hospital with them? Obviously, we’ll talk about what you want people to do to prepare themselves. But is there anything that they should bring? Hand palms, regular problems like what should be in their hospital bag.

 

00;20;14;07 – 00;20;34;11

Kelly Kendall

So I think I’m a pretty minimalist person. Like one thing that I think is just a great all around breastfeeding tool is still Bret’s huge fan of silver pads. There are silver nipple covers, and they’re a great tool to bring to the hospital with you because they can prevent sore nipples and they’re a perfect little vehicle to hand express into and then help feed your babies.

 

00;20;34;11 – 00;20;58;15

Kelly Kendall

So that’s one thing that’s dual purpose. You can use it throughout the course of breastfeeding that I just think is a wonderful tool. Another thing is getting to know your nipples. So measuring your nipples before birth. So I’ve seen a lot of places for them to say like, oh, wait till after you deliver. But I’m going to be honest with you, a lot of lactation consultant in the hospital aren’t trained specifically for flange sizing.

 

00;20;58;21 – 00;21;22;10

Kelly Kendall

That’s not part of the IBC healthy exam, and they often miss size. Moms. I know before I got trained in it, I didn’t know and I, in my own experience, suffer with a very ill fitting flange. And the reason this can be troublesome is if you need to pump early on so you’re separated from your baby. The hospital will provide a pump for you, but they may not have your right phalange size.

 

00;21;22;10 – 00;21;39;07

Kelly Kendall

So if you know your nipple is a 13 millimeter flange, they likely may not have that for you in the hospital. So you can go ahead and buy an insert and bring it with you to the hospital. So if you need to do some additional pumping, we know that you’re going to have something that fits you correctly.

 

00;21;39;09 – 00;21;48;15

Dr. Mona

That happened to me, and that’s why I stopped pumping. And I think, yeah, this is great. Using the model breasts that you have, are you measuring from the diameter of the Ariela. Yeah.

 

00;21;48;22 – 00;21;59;23

Kelly Kendall

So you’re not measuring the diameter of the area? Yeah. That’s another thing that I think moms use an aerial is like, oh, my baby’s whole mouth should be covering your area. Well, sometimes areolas are humongous, and that is not.

 

00;21;59;25 – 00;22;02;11

Dr. Mona

Necessary at your pregnancy because of the hormones.

 

00;22;02;11 – 00;22;25;17

Kelly Kendall

Exactly. Yeah. What we’re measuring when we’re measuring for our flange is the diameter of the actual nipple valve. And you can measure from one side to the other. There’s lots of measuring tools out there. You can use a digital calipers or like seven bucks on Amazon and can really take the guesswork out of it. And then typically a flange is going to be about 2 to 3mm larger.

 

00;22;25;17 – 00;22;50;07

Kelly Kendall

So I’m guessing this is about probably 11mm. This is a tiny in a bulb. And so this mom probably needs about a 13 millimeter flange. Now the standard flange that’s going to come in your pump or in the pump that’s provided for you in the hospital is going to be 24mm now. Yeah. It’s cute. And so that’s going to be pulling a lot of this Ariela in there.

 

00;22;50;07 – 00;23;02;05

Kelly Kendall

And it can be really uncomfortable for moms. It can cause nipple trauma and damage. And it’s not as effective for removing milk. So having a well-fitting flange is key.

 

00;23;02;08 – 00;23;21;01

Dr. Mona

I love it. This is again I have never heard this in any. Well, maybe there’s some educator out there in the hospital, but not no one’s coming to me having this information be taught to them in a hospital. And again, going back to it, it’s not the person in the hospital stall is that I’m sure they know it or they just don’t have the time or they didn’t come to you because of understaffing.

 

00;23;21;01 – 00;23;36;24

Dr. Mona

So this is so important and I love this. This is great. What should an expecting mom who wants to breastfeed do to best prepare herself? Obviously we’re talking about things that are happening in the hospital, but kind of knowing that, you know what, I like to breastfeed. I do in a couple months. Where should they begin?

 

00;23;36;26 – 00;23;59;12

Kelly Kendall

I think taking a breastfeeding class is a wonderful first step. And, you know, I think a few things finding somebody that you like and trust for getting educated by and being able to return to that education. So a lot of times I taught a breastfeeding class in the hospital for many years and parents would be like, that was great, but I feel like I forgot everything when it actually happened.

 

00;23;59;12 – 00;24;33;07

Kelly Kendall

So that’s one of the reasons that I was inspired to start food school, because I wanted to give parents the education. And then where do you go at 2 a.m.? I wanted them to be able to return about education and have support. So I think it’s kind of three things prenatal education, access to it afterwards. And that was partum support where you can go and ask questions instead of just like googling and going down like deep dark mommy blog rabbit holes on at two in the morning, you know, where can you go for trusted troubleshooting and support?

 

00;24;33;07 – 00;24;40;23

Kelly Kendall

And that’s really is what I see being a foundation for people feeling good and feeling confident through their rescuing journey.

 

00;24;40;25 – 00;24;59;14

Dr. Mona

And I think that’s so important because like you mentioned already, because it’s such a personalized, nuanced thing, because everyone’s breasts are different, everyone’s milk production can be different. The baby’s different. Like having that person on your team to understand, you know, I love parents getting support from other moms, like, you know, obviously in mom groups, but they can’t see.

 

00;24;59;21 – 00;24;59;28

Kelly Kendall

Your.

 

00;24;59;28 – 00;25;19;15

Dr. Mona

Breast. They can’t do that one on one with you or even just understand that experience like you hold right with a being a Navy Seal, seeing a nurse like, hey, here’s what may work for you. Let’s troubleshoot when so much of breastfeeding, I believe also is that troubleshooting aspect. And it’s not always a one size fits all. As we know it’s the little sizes as well, no pun intended there.

 

00;25;19;15 – 00;25;30;24

Dr. Mona

But yeah, I think this is so great Kelly a great conversation. I love that we were able to get some visuals as well. Yeah. Go do your final message for everyone listening today or watching this video.

 

00;25;30;27 – 00;25;54;18

Kelly Kendall

My final message would be really be that, you know, knowledge really is power. You know, the more educated and the more foundation that you have going into your breastfeeding journey, the more confident you will be to navigate it and pivot and change and adjust throughout the journey. Like you said, it’s so much of troubleshooting. You know, breastfeeding a newborn is different than breastfeeding.

 

00;25;54;18 – 00;26;08;01

Kelly Kendall

A distracted four month old. Yeah, changes a lot over the course of your feeding journey. And so setting yourself up for that is, you know, incredibly impactful and helpful for families.

 

00;26;08;04 – 00;26;25;24

Dr. Mona

Yes. And you’ve already mentioned your platform balance group and obviously what you’re trying to accomplish, which I love. And I know I already connected with you before we recorded this, but I love your balanced approach, which is why I’m happy to have you on. I love I books who share that sort of. I want to support your breastfeeding and feeding journey.

 

00;26;25;27 – 00;26;30;12

Dr. Mona

So thank you so much. So where can people find you to stay connected and also for all your resources?

 

00;26;30;14 – 00;26;38;01

Kelly Kendall

Yeah. So I am at the balance group on Instagram. And then you can go over to my website which is WW dot announced. You.com.

 

00;26;38;04 – 00;26;48;09

Dr. Mona

Perfect. And I will be adding all of these to the show notes or the caption for our video here today. And thank you so much for joining me today, Kelly, to chat about all this important information.

 

00;26;48;11 – 00;26;50;06

Kelly Kendall

It was wonderful to talk to you. Thanks again.

 

00;26;50;06 – 00;27;07;03

Dr. Mona

Yes, and I’m sure I’ll have you on again. I love having this education free and accessible on my platforms. You know, in terms of little tidbits here and there. And then obviously for that more impactful things, utilizing your resources I think is so, so vital. And following her on Instagram and again, thank you for joining us.

 

00;27;07;06 – 00;27;08;25

Kelly Kendall

You’re welcome. And thanks to you for having me.

 

00;27;09;02 – 00;27;29;26

Dr. Mona

Yes. And for everyone listening or watching today. If you love this episode, make sure you leave a review wherever you’re able to leave a review and ratings. Call out Kelly for her amazing information. How it helps you because I’m sure it will. And also, if you are watching this on YouTube, make sure you comment in the caption how much you love this conversation and I’ll be talking to another guest next time.

 

00;27;29;26 – 00;27;45;18

Dr. Mona

Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode. As always, please leave a review. Share this episode with a friend. Share it on your social media. Make sure to follow me at PedsDocTalk on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel, PedsDocTalk TV. We’ll talk to you soon.