(Our Lady of La Leche - public domain) Five Spanish ships landed in what is now Florida in 1565. Devotion to Our Lady of La Leche - Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery - began soon afterwards in the early 1600s and a shrine was constructed in her honor. Today, people from all over the world travel to this shrine to ask Our Lady of La Leche’s intercession for fertility, for a healthy birth, and for a good milk supply and good breastfeeding relationship. If you are interested in this devotion, email me at catholicbreastfeeding@yahoo.com for a complimentary Our Lady of La Leche gi ..read more

(C-reactive protein: see article below)    Variation in maternal lactation practices associated with changes in diurnal maternal inflammation Very novel study looking at feeding practices and their impact on maternal immune responses. They found that women who did not feed their baby directly at the breast at all and women who always fed at the breast had opposing C-reactive protein secretion patterns. This protein increases when there is inflammation in the body. Direct breastfeeding frequency of late preterm and term infants in the neonatal intensive care unit and availability o ..read more

(Public domain) Excerpt from Getting Started with Breastfeeding: For Catholic Mothers There are a lot of authors that suggest overnight and weekend getaways as necessary for a healthy marriage. If you practice ecological breastfeeding, however, these trips may not be a good idea. When your child weans, maybe a trip like this might be a possibility. What to do in the meantime? My husband and I have a 1-2 hour weekly date night. If I have a nursling or a clingy toddler, she comes with us. Otherwise the youngest stays home with her brothers (our oldest son is a teenager). Before our oldest ..read more

(U.S. Breastfeeding Committee) Sometimes health concerns, not having sufficient breast tissue, and other circumstances beyond a mom’s control can make it impossible for her to exclusively breastfeed her baby. If you, dear mom, find yourself in this situation, know that you are a good mom! I bet you nurse your baby around the clock, triple feed, drink nursing mother tea, and obsess about every ounce of breast milk you pump and every ounce of weight your baby gains. You may have seen one or more lactation consultants to no avail. You are probably doing more than the average mom to feed your b ..read more

I don’t know if you are familiar with Dr. William and Martha Sears. They are the parents of eight children and grandparents of many grandchildren. William is a pediatrician and Martha is a nurse and lactation consultant. They are also Catholic. I looked on Dr. William and Martha Sears’s website and found a great list of ideas for celebrating moms on Mother’s Day. You might find a few ideas that your family can gift to you this Mother’s Day. I also found a wonderful quote from Dr. Sears about moms: “I believe the highest degree is not “M.D.” or “Ph.D.” - it’s MOM.” To hear more about Ma ..read more

(Madonna Litta - public domain) Today’s Mass readings were all about love: God the Father’s love for us, Jesus’s gift of dying on the cross to expiate our sins, and how we should love one another. Mothering and breastfeeding are ways we love our child(ren). Spending lots of time together and breastfeeding are your baby’s love languages (ways he experiences God’s love and your love). Did you know that? One way to combine both of these is ecological breastfeeding.  Ecological breastfeeding is a style of mothering and breastfeeding that encourages a copious milk supply and also space babie ..read more

I received the above “junk mail” postcard many years ago from some company wanting to sell me something. I decided to keep it to use as a decoration for my CNML table when I go to in person conferences or ministry fairs. Kinda pretty for junk mail, don’t you think? Lately a lot of online writers (aka bloggers) have switched over to Substack and require membership fees to read of some of their posts. I do understand why they have done this! They feel their writing is valuable and helps a lot of people and maybe they are even trying to help support their families with their online writing. Som ..read more

(Public domain) Recently there has been a discussion about infant sleep training on the CNML Facebook group, so I thought it would be helpful to provide a post on the topic. First, what is cry it out infant sleep training? It involves purposely letting baby cry it out at night in order to condition baby to sleep for longer and longer periods of time. The goal is to encourage babies to learn to self soothe and be able to get back to sleep without the assistance of a parent. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine has a new protocol published in 2023 that addresses this topic: Physiologic Infant ..read more

Our online meeting this month was on the topic of following your baby’s natural instincts to help get started with and continue breastfeeding. Christelle Hagen led the meeting and did a wonderful job as usual! I just wanted to touch on just a few key points that she presented. As always our meetings involve so much more than just breastfeeding information! Moms share their personal stories and provide support to each other! Also, questions during the meetings are always welcome! We are made in the image of God. Your baby was designed by the Creator with special instincts or reflexes to help ..read more

(public domain) We just recently celebrated the feast of St. Joseph on March 19. I always remembered the date of his feast day, because I attended St. Joseph Catholic School for elementary school and my school honored him each year. St. Joseph is only mentioned a few times in Scripture: Matthew 1:16-24; 2:13. Luke 1:27. 2:4-43. 3:23. 4:22. John 1:45; 6:42. He is silent in Scripture; there are no quotes from him. However, St. Joseph was a virtuous, holy man and an excellent husband to Mary and foster father to Jesus. Even though during that time period in history the husbands probably di ..read more