Too Skinny: A Personal Tale of Postpartum Weight Loss

When I had to safety pin the waist of my pre-baby yoga pants, I had an inkling that something was not right.

Before I became pregnant with Robinson, I weighed about 125 pounds.  Several months after his arrival, by my current estimation, I weighed about 95 pounds.

Yikes.

Postpartum weight loss is an issue that I think many women, including myself, are completely unaware of.  When it comes to postpartum weight, what do we usually hear from our fellow moms?  “Man, I wish I could get rid of this baby weight!”  “Things are going really well!  Except I still have to lose a few pounds to get back to my pre-birth weight…” “I can’t wait to get back into my yoga pants!” 🙂

The most common “issue” I hear about is needing or wanting to lose MORE weight. I didn’t – and still don’t – hear of women losing TOO MUCH weight. And true, being underweight after birth is probably a less common problem than being a few pounds overweight.  Nonetheless, it’s a problem that women need to be aware of, as my cautionary story will reveal.

(These two pictures are of me at my skinniest. The Ergo carrier (in addition to my clothes) even fit me strangely! I also believe I lost more hair than is considered normal.)

For me, there were several factors that contributed to my major weight loss.  The main one is Ignorance.  I’ll repeat what I said above: I didn’t know it was possible to lose too much weight in the months after birth because I never heard anyone talking about it (not even in my doula training). I saw my tummy getting littler and thought, “All right! This is happening more quickly than I expected!”  Little did I know I was losing calories quickly without taking in many calories. Here are the other three factors that contributed to my being underweight:

1. Breastfeeding – Breastfeeding helps melt off the pounds in record time. “Depending on how much milk you produce, breastfeeding can burn up about 500 calories per day. What’s more, it stimulates the release of hormones that help shrink your uterus (and your post-baby belly)” (Source: WhattoExpect.com). I was breastfeeding at all hours of the day (and night), sometimes several times in one hour! That’s gonna burn a lot of calories.
2. Walking – What does a stay-at-home-mom do with a baby born in Spring?  Take walks of course! :). We walked for miles each week, and I didn’t realize how many calories I was burning in this simple activity.
3. Not eating – Imagine that!  Your body needs fuel to keep on keepin’ on. As I was trying to take care of my newborn, I was not caring for myself. This is a no-brainier in theory, and everyone warns you about it during pregnancy (“Be sure to take care of yourself!”). But in reality, finding a moment when you are not breastfeeding or napping, to fix yourself something to eat, is easier said than done.

 

So here are my tips for maintaining a healthy weight in the months following your baby’s birth:

1. EAT!  Make sure you have meals and snacks on hand. Preferably, make and freeze some before the Birth Day. I would suggest not only healthy snacks, but one-handed snacks packed with a lot of healthy calories, that you can eat while breastfeeding.  When I had one-handed snacks available, it often made the difference between eating and not eating that day.
2. Use a scale and a mirror. Little did I know that my decor would have a significant effect on my body weight.  Had I had a full length (or even half length) mirror to look at, I think I would have seen just how skinny I was getting and would have taken proactive measures to get back on track sooner.  The same goes for a bathroom scale:  If I had one sitting out, I might have used it (even just once a week), and again, would have noticed my weight dropping to an unhealthy level.
3. Pay attention. Start by knowing that this can be a problem for some women (and now you know! :)). Watch the way your clothes fit, watch the way your body changes, and listen to others reactions…  What I mean by this last point is if someone who cares about you comments on the fact that you’re “looking rather thin”, you don’t necessarily need to take it as gospel, but it may be worth checking the other factors we’ve talked about here to determine whether you truly have lost too much weight.  I tell my doula clients’ husbands to keep an eye on their wives to make sure they are eating etc.,  but the drawback is that your husband sees you every day and may not notice the gradual change in your body the way someone outside your household might.

Update: Many of you have read this post and asked whether my thyroid levels were out of whack.  Since having a baby messes with your hormones in a major way, many women have hyper- or  hypo-thyroidism following birth.  For me, this was not the issue, but it’s certainly a good idea to get yours checked!   Also, many of you have kindly asked whether I am now at a healthy weight, and the answer is yes!  Still a little slim, but I would say healthy :).  There is hope!  You will get to a healthy weight with patience and perseverance.

Thank you for listening to my saga 🙂  I would love to hear about your own experiences in managing your weight in the postpartum period. And please share this article with your friends, particularly those who are having or just had a baby. Let’s keep our friends healthy and strong!

 

MILK Documentary

“Through an intimate and artistic lens, Milk brings a universal perspective on the politics, commercialization and controversies surrounding birth and infant feeding over the canvas of stunningly beautiful visuals and poignant voices from around the globe. Inspiring, informative, provocative and sensitive, Milk celebrates bringing a new life into this world with a strong call to action and reflection.” Www.milkhood.com

<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/119580864″>Milk trailer</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user640158″>Noemi Weis</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Please visit: http://bit.ly/1jMNNgk#.Vi_SVhMrnQE.mailto  to reserve a ticket for the showing in Broomfield, Colorado. Ticket sales close Monday, November 9, so buy ’em up now!  If there aren’t enough tickets sold, the movie won’t be shown.

Hope to see you there! 🙂

It’s World Breastfeeding Awareness Week!

To all those mamas out there who have breastfed their babies or who made the effort to do so, and to the loving family members who supported these strong moms… BRAVO!

In some parts of our country, breastfeeding in private and public settings is still a touchy issue. Let’s encourage the moms around us to give their baby the most natural food we humans can provide for them – breast milk. I won’t go into the myriad reasons why breastfeeding is the “brest” 😉 choice for those who are able to breastfeed. But I will leave you with some sweet images of moms with their babies.

Www.rachaelgracephotography.com

Ricky Mujita “Multitasking”

Www.plussizebirth.com

Www.theleakyboob.com

Life in Motion photography

For more fun images, visit the “Nursing is Normal” board on Pinterest. Or this collection: Celebrity Moms Breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding Attire from Everyday Clothes

Here are some of my favorite outfit ideas for breastfeeding. Assembled out of everyday clothes – no special breastfeeding tops necessary. And you can achieve modesty here without using a nursing cover.  Photos courtesy of Heather Fairley Photography.

1. The Two-T-shirt-Trick:  One T-shirt over a stretchy shirt or tank top. You’ll lift up the top shirt, and pull down the undershirt (pink in this photo) to access the breast. In these photos, I am wearing a black nursing bra.

2. The Scarf:  Scarves are such a fashion statement these days – and you can use if for breastfeeding purposes too! The scarf I am using here is a regular style, but you could also use an infinity scarf. In summer, I would use a lightweight scarf on top, and a stretchy tank underneath (again, the photos here show a black nursing bra). In winter, use a heavy scarf on top and a v-neck long sleeve or sweater that you can pull down.

Below, this scarf covers a tube top (in this case a strapless maxi dress) instead of a shirt. On the right side of this photo, I am showing the nursing bra clip.  If you choose to use nursing bras, it is simple to unclip the bra with one hand, to access the breast.

3. The Draped Cardigan:  Wear a stretchy top or tank underneath, and a draped cardigan (the kind with long sides) over it. When you breastfeed, simply drape one side of the cardigan over your shoulder to cover the breast.

4. The V-neck:  This style is not as modest as the others, so it’s best used if you are not especially concerned about coverage.  Simply wear a loose blouse that you can pull down along with the stretchy tank or camisole (here you see the black nursing bra underneath the white tank).

5. The Breastfeeding Top:  This is the one official breastfeeding top I own. It has built-in openings to expose the breast while keeping your top covered.

Most mamas choose to purchase nursing bras.  But if you prefer, or if you’re in a pinch, you can use a normal bra.  Here is an example of how you could fold down a normal bra cup to breastfeed, instead of pulling down the whole bra, which would diminish the bra’s life.

In most of the photos above I am wearing a Target, Mossimo tank top. These are affordable, come in many different colors, and are the perfect blend of stretch and cotton, allowing you to pull them down easily to breastfeed.

I hope this was helpful to you! Feel free to comment below if you have any other breastfeeding outfit ideas you would like to share.

Breastfeeding – The Tip of the Iceburg (tehe ☺️)

There are so many opinions out there about one of the most natural, seemingly innate activities known to mankind… breastfeeding. It can be really frustrating for new moms to know what to believe in terms of what breastfeeding should look like. Part of the reason we have so many breastfeeding issues in our culture is because our minds interfere with an instinctual process. This blog post could be 100 times the length that it is, but we will save some subject matter for another day 🙂  Here, I try to simplify the major philosophies of breastfeeding for you, so that you can consider them and then make your own best choice.

Let’s start with some agreed-upon basics:

1. Before there were clocks, there were babies. And human babies’ biological makeup, genes, and therefore general behavior, haven’t changed too much over hundreds of years.

2. If babies are created with reflexes as newborns that are supposed to indicate hunger, chances are, we should be paying attention to those cues:

– mouth opening like a baby bird,

– rooting toward what he thinks is a nipple,

– especially active limbs

– sucking on fist

– fussing or crying (usually a late sign)

Now that we’ve gotten past the general facts, let’s look at a couple different philosophies on breastfeeding.

Please note, I personally believe that a combination of philosophies might be ideal for your family.  My own baby, for instance, got to an age where he seemed to need more structure in his day, and planned breastfeeding times helped provide that. Or perhaps you are going back to work, and your nanny needs specific times to feed your baby so that she can watch the other five kids she’s caring for at the same time, etc….

In Baby-led feeding, mama generally follows baby’s cues and feeds him when he is showing the hunger signs.

The following books outline well the biological makeup of human babies and their mamas’ breasts, and FROM THERE, give guidelines for how breastfeeding works best.

“Breastfeeding Made Simple” is exactly what it sounds like, which is why I like it 🙂  In addition to what I mentioned previously, Mohrbacher and Kendall-Tackett’s book gives practical knowledge, like positions to try, and what to do if you have cracked nipples, etc.

“The Happiest Baby on the Block” by Dr. Harvey Karp is a great overall newborn guide. He takes us back to how parents have been interacting with babies for thousands of years, and explains biologically why this works.

I would recommend both of these books to new parents. The “Happiest Baby on the Block” also has a well-known DVD version. The book includes some reasoning, history, and cultural comparisons that the DVD does not.

Now, a very different philisophy on breastfeeding is based on the book “On Becoming Baby Wise” by Gary Ezzo, which was popular in the 90s and is still around in certain circles today. I would describe this as parent-led feeding: mom and dad decide when the baby should eat, by the clock.

Hm… You may be thinking, “That seems a little contradictory to what was said earlier about babies over the last centuries…. Furthermore, I think if someone told me I wasn’t hungry when I was trying to grab a sandwich, that person might just get a black eye!”  😉

An important observation I’ve made is that most (certainly not all) of the mamas who follow Baby Wise while their babies are newborns end up having supply issues. Your breasts are not made to go by the clock at that early stage. Your baby is growing and will need more and more milk as he gets bigger, so he is designed to breastfeed often (and during growth spurts, that might be every 30 minutes!) so that your supply can keep up with his growth.

(Sidenote, since this may be the only time I discuss Baby Wise by name — if you are one who often touts the Baby Wise book, you may be interested in looking into Gary Ezzo’s checkered history.)

But perhaps you choose to combine philosophies as baby gets a bit older. Another example of this: baby is 6 months old and still breastfeeding through the night, so the parents decide to gradually wean baby off of nighttime feelings so everyone can get more rest. Part of the Baby Wise philosophy is helping baby establish a routine, which is an important part of growing up.

I hope this has been helpful, albeit brief. Please let me know if you have thoughts or questions!

The “Breast Crawl”

One of the coolest phenomenons I’ve witnessed in life: the “Breast Crawl”. A baby finds his mother’s nipple and begins to attempt feeding about a half hour after being born.

The video below sites the research of Lennart Richard, MD, and Margaret Alade, RN, BSC, MS, published in 1990. It shows several scenarios comparing whether moms were medicated during labor and whether the baby was taken to be cleaned first, and the affect these differences had on the baby’s ability to crawl to the breast.

My Perspective

Although this research indicates that baby’s whose mothers were medicated during labor struggle to find the breast, some of my own clients who chose to be medicated did have babies who were able to find the breast right after birth. So if you choose or chose to have medication, don’t beat yourself up over this factor!  Yes, it’s a very cool experience, and I hope that you and baby can share this memory. But eventually, I believe that a healthy and happy breastfeeding relationship can be established even if mom and baby were not able to do the breast crawl to its fullest.

As a doula, I encourage all moms I attend to try this!  Often the medical staff is eager to help baby breastfeed ASAP, and, while well-intentioned, this may miss this opportunity to let baby explore and find the breast for himself. So when baby is hanging out on mom’s tummy, skin-to-skin, right after she is born (a standard practice now at hospitals – yay! 👼), I encourage moms to put baby near the nipple and let her find it herself! Then later we work on getting a good latch, breastfeeding positions, etc.

Enjoy!

For more information about the Breast Crawl, please read: http://www.breastcrawl.org/science.shtml

Our Newborn Necessities – Keeping it Simple!

There are so many “must-have” lists for the newborn stage and every one of them is different!  Here are the items that Paul and I have  used most often in the two months Robinson has been in the world…

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Changing area –  Now that it’s finished, I love our changing room!  And am so thankful my husband worked hard to make it look and feel nice. (This was one of those projects that started with “We’ll just add a little here and a little there… No big deal”, and ended with “What the heck – let’s just gut the entire thing!”.  Needless to say, despite our best efforts to finish on time, Robinson was sans-changing room for the first couple weeks of his life 🙂 )

Anyway, I would encourage you to set up a changing room that you really enjoy, because you will be spending a lot of time in there.  😉  This is just a closet in which we stuck a small changing table and painted it a nice color. The mirror is a simple, lovely touch that makes it a pleasant place to be.

This is where Robinson’s clothes, cloth diapers, and little health gadgets (nasal aspirator, nail clippers, etc.) are stowed. We do not have a separate baby room for Robinson. SHOCKER, I know!  Am I even American?!  We figured, he was going to sleep with or very near us (so doesn’t need a crib), and really doesn’t need much besides diapers and some clothes for the first few months.  So smaller space for baby = less temptation to fill it with STUFF.

Microfiber antibacterial cloths – These are a wonderful way to clean sticky fingers or give a sponge bath. Our Norwex baby cloths are antibacterial (silver infused) so no need to use soap – just water. The microfiber cleans really well too. I leave one of these near the changing table for impromptu cleanings, and one in our diaper bag (which is not on this list because we actually don’t use it more than maybe once per week right now).

Wrap carrier – It doesn’t matter which kind you buy, we have LIVED in our wrap these last months – we nap in it, walk in it, clean the house in it (when he’s sleeping)… Wrap carriers, whether it’s a stretchy t-shirt material (Moby or Boba) or a woven wrap, are great for the newborn period. They keep the little guy snuggled up like he was in the womb.  After carefully weighing our options, we selected a convertible car seat suitable for infants which stays in the car, instead of an infant seat or “baby bucket”. So when we drive somewhere, I put my wrap carrier on, then when we get to our destination, I put Robinson right in the carrier.  One main reason we decided on a convertible car seat was so I would “wear” him as much as possible and eliminate the temptation to leave him sitting on his own more often than he ought to.

Bouncy seat – Robinson hangs out in this simple seat (which can vibrate to soothe baby) when we need to set him down when we are, for example, eating dinner or showering. It’s light enough to move from room to room in the house without a problem,  and we have even tossed it in the car to bring to a restaurant or someplace where it would be hard for one of us to wear him (remember, we don’t have a baby bucket car seat; this is our solution when we need to set him down instead of wearing him).

Swaddles – We have used both the velcro swaddlers that really keep baby wrapped up tight, and large blankets of various materials (muslin, t-shirt, waffle knit…). We have liked both types (though the velcro does wear out eventually), and have swaddled Robinson every night since he was born.

 “Breastfeeding Made Simple” by Nancy Mohrbacher and Kathleen Kendall-Tackett –  I read this book for my certification as a birth doula and found it simple and practical. It serves as a wonderful voice of reason amidst the erroneous breastfeeding advice or stories that new moms hear.  I recommend this to all of my clients, and loan it out to them when they are close to their baby’s due date.

 

That’s it!  Of course we use diapers and clothes every day, and there are a few other items we use occasionally, but really not much else…  In the words of my midwife, “All baby needs is a breast and a smile.”  🙂

What items would YOU recommend to new moms? Answer in the comments below!