Nurtured: Behind the Scenes Podcast

17/10/2024

In 1929 Ge**er began an advertising campaign to convince dieticians and pediatricians that canned baby food was just as nutritious as homemade food, and even better because it was scientifically prepared.
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As part of the campaign, doctors received free Ge**er products for patients. Ge**er also funded research touting the health benefits of their food. That research—vaguely worded and devoid of peer review—was published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, positioning it as scientific fact.
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Alongside these efforts, Ge**er stated that women who prepared their own baby food were neglecting their husbands—and babies. One 1933 ad read, “For Baby’s Sake, Stay Out of the Kitchen!”
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Alongside these efforts, Ge**er advocated for starting solids at 3 months old. And by the 1950’s—after 20 years of advertising—the average age of introducing solids fell to just 6 weeks old.💔
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Since then the medical community realized that too-early introduction of solids displaced valuable nutrition from breast milk/formula. The consensus among medical institutions today (AAP, U.S. National Institutes for Health, and World Health Organization) is that it’s best to introduce solids at 6 months old. It is at this time that most babies are developmentally ready to eat and need more iron. Conveniently, 6 months is also when babies are capable of feeding themselves.
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Baby food was invented. Mom guilt was marketed.
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There is no perfect order of introducing solids. No no need for “stages” of thickness. These were all constructs in the name of profit.
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Convenience has its place. I love a good yogurt pouch and rely on Cheerios when traveling. But the idea that real food has to be hard isn’t good for anyone. Babies don’t need banana pudding or pricey pouches—a banana is fine!
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There is a reason feeding feels complicated. Corporations spent the last century telling your grandmothers and great-grandmothers that they would be bad moms and wives if they didn’t buy pre-prepared baby food. So the next time you feel a twinge of guilt for feeding your baby YOUR way, remember that it’s not you. It’s history.

13/09/2024

We do love Bluey in our household. 🥰

let’s normalize children who need that extra comfort at night.

the hand holders to go to sleep, the midnight jump into your bed, the children that have to sleep next to you.

you are doing nothing wrong. whether your child sleeps independently or not, is not a reflection of your parenting. 🤍

08/08/2024

This! 👇👇👇

I present to you: a rant.

What does "overfeeding a baby" even mean?

Like, can the people who tell parents that they're overfeeding actually justify what this means and why it would be a problem?

Responsive feeding is normal, healthy, and good. It helps with appetite and metabolic regulation, relational health (which is the basis of good mental health later in life), sleep, pain, etc.

Breastfed babies feed AT LEAST 8-12 times a day, which is every 2-3 hours, and often will feed more often than that.

Feeding to sleep is a normal physiological process - there are hormones such as cholecystokinin that actually facilitate it, which is why it works so well.
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Breastfeeding reduces the risk of adult obesity, diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction - including those babies who gain heaps of weight breastfeeding. So it's not like someone can say that "overfeeding" a directly breastfed baby is going to lead to health issues later.

Can some babies get stomach pain if the amount of lactose they're ingesting overwhelms their natural lactase enzymes? Yes. Is this the same as "overfeeding"? No.

Answer me this: how can someone look at a chonky baby, with chubby thighs and wrist rolls, and not sigh in contentment?

04/08/2024

It's World Breastfeeding Week! TLC Theresa Lactation Consultant and I discuss the origins of ⁠World Breastfeeding Week⁠, which takes place 1-7 August each year, what it's about and why we still need this global event.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nurtureddoctors/episodes/30--Welcome-to-World-Breastfeeding-Week--with-TLC-Theresa-Lactation-Consultant-e2mpubf

21/07/2024

Slightly late to the party and slightly longer than 50 minutes 😅 : Our 50 for 50 contribution for Birth Trauma Awareness week, thanks to Birth Trauma Aotearoa.

TLC Theresa Lactation Consultant and I share our experiences and thoughts on the impacts of birth trauma and the spillover effects on the rest of our life journey as parents.

Slightly late to the party and slightly longer than 50 minutes : our 50 for 50 contribution for Birth Trauma Awareness week, thanks to Birth Trauma Aotearoa. Theresa and I share our experiences and thoughts on the impact of birth trauma. Podcast recommendations: The Midwives' Cauldron Kathleen Kenda...

07/06/2024

This message is more relevant than ever, in our current climate of inadequate health funding that continually gets eroded one way or another. Sometimes there's no more "efficiency" to be gained, we simply need more boots on the ground, not more bureaucracy telling us to do it faster.

Humans are messy and life is complicated. So many patients just want to have enough time with their doctors to be heard and to have enough time to figure out where they are and what can be done. So many doctors want to have the time to spend with their patients to listen to their stories, figure things out, and to have the time to explain properly what we think is going on and what can (or can't) be done about it.

Being trained to do the job better than what is possible under our current system is a recipe for moral injury. People being promised to expect more than what the system is actually resourced to deliver is frustrating and a travesty.

Today is day.
I, like many other have already posted today about wearing crazy socks to help bring about awareness for and more specifically 🥼🩺

As I lie here on the couch absentmindedly scrolling (yep, I do that too 🤷🏼‍♀️) I can’t help but think about the complicated relationship that many of my colleagues have with this day.

I get it, when management put out a box of donuts 🍩 and say “happy crazy socks for docs day!” Yet don’t pay any attention to safe working hours, wellbeing focussed leadership or creating a compassionate workplace culture… this day falls short of the mark.

But that doesn’t make it redundant.

Personally, I choose to see this day for what its intention has always been.
Connecting through vulnerability.
Highlighting our humanity.
And most importantly, the profound desire to change the way our profession treats our own.

Dr Geoff Toogood started out of his own experience of what it means to feel alone and to struggle with mental ill health in medicine.

I know that struggle too.
I know what it feels like to feel so suffocated by the thought that I was meant to help others… I wasn’t meant to need help myself.
I know what it feels like to not know how or where to turn to for help because I didn’t want to burden a colleague.
I know what it’s like to hold a deep fear that if I were to reach out for help, it could mean judgement, criticism or even the end of my medical career.
I know what it’s like to feel alone in Medicine.

So here I am with no socks now, figuratively laid bare.
Telling you that this day is not just about the socks. It’s not just about the morning teas. It’s not just about the hashtag or social media posts.
It’s about the doctors like me, who are just as human as you are. Who are not immune from life’s struggles. Who give tirelessly, and sometimes don’t know how or when to stop giving. Who every now and then need a reminder to give to ourselves too.

It’s about not feeling so alone.

So if you’re a doctor like me- this day, and every day, you are not alone.

Emily x

03/06/2024

Just binged this short free webinar series - highly recommend!
The deadline is 10/6 (hence me binging over the long weekend lol 😅)

Topics / speakers:
- Trauma and breastfeeding - Kathleen Kendall-Tackett
- Understanding the biology of lactation: Challenging old paradigms to improve breastfeeding outcomes - Wendy Ingman
- Nursing strikes: Child development, child temperament and breastfeeding - Jan Tedder

March 6th - June 6th 2024

18/05/2024

05/05/2024

🤍💙🤍💙🤍💙🤍

International Bereaved Mother's Day is Sunday May 5th.
A special day to honour and celebrate mums who hold their child/children in their hearts rather than their arms ❤️

29/04/2024

This 👇👇👇

27/04/2024

Feeling really inspired and hopeful listening to the story of Dr Robyn Powell, founder of Breastfeeding for Doctors . The connections to La Leche League. 💚 There are no words. 🤩🥰😍

27/04/2024

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17/04/2024

So I did a thing..... It was a frankly terrifying experience as these stories usually feeds into the awful narrative of the big bad establishment pressuring women to breastfeed, making their lives a misery.

It is so important to hear these women and take their concerns and experiences seriously because they tell us where things need to improve. I applaud Dianna for bravely telling her story while trying very hard to stay balanced in spite of the trauma she experienced.

What I've seen is that every story that doesn't call out the real issues unfortunately continue to contribute to the problem. Those who should be responsible continue to get away with lip service. Those who are trying to advocate for change are silenced by the waves upon waves of breastfeeding trauma and grief whenever they even date to mention that they support breastfeeding. Because there is A LOT of raw, unprocessed, unrecognised trauma and grief everywhere you look.

The system continue to traumatise families. And the trauma continues to keep things the way they are. There are books published in the 70s describing pretty much the exact same issues we are still dealing with. It is enough to make you scream.

So I'm screaming into my podcast. And I've invited Dr Beth to join me. Watch this space.....

19/03/2024

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Right now, this is my job. Looking after my baby - feeding, cuddling, talking, learning and following his cues.

I’m a person who likes to be doing, and moving. Who struggles a lot with sitting still and just ‘being’. But it’s pretty hard to do stuff with a baby who wants near-constant physical touch and attention.

I didn’t change my expectations of myself after I had my first baby, and so my expectations of my baby was that she needed to do certain things to enable me to do the things; eventually this contributed to be developing PND, or what I feel was a sort of burn out.

This time around with #3, the reminder that ALL I need to be doing is caring for his needs (and my own basic needs of food, water, movement, hygiene etc) has been so helpful. There are no other “should’s”. Everything else is a bonus.

17/03/2024

I love this episode! Tautoko the part about the need for medical professionals to recognise that lactation and breastfeeding is the normal function of the breast, and should be a part of the standard of care. 💪💪💪

02/03/2024

My favourite kind of multitasking on a rainy Sunday. Watching a great online breastfeeding conference + folding mount washmore + mandatory toddler visits finding freshly folded stuff that she wants to wear. And yes, I'm aware it's the last day to watch it all! 😂

30/12/2023

New episode with Summer Warmth - Breastfeed in Comfort 😊🌞

Tune in for more about motherhood and life with babies. Let us know what topics you'd like to hear more about!

Sarah and I go on another rant about breastfeeding books. Excellent new book: Breastfeeding Twins and Triplets by Kathryn Stagg, IBCLC. Old book but still true: Beyond the Breast-Bottle Controversy by Penny van Esterik Find Sarah at ⁠Summer Warmth⁠ Find us at ⁠⁠⁠Nurtured: Mother Baby Clini...

15/11/2023

I love Meditative Story. I find that they make quite good bed time stories. To create a sense of calm and safety for going to sleep.

Meditative Story combines vivid stories with meditation prompts — all surrounded by cinematic music. Think of it as an alternative way into a mindfulness practice.