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Hi,

I’m Dr Theresa Nesbitt, OB/GYN, editor of Babies & Breastfeeding magazine, author, and most importantly, a mother.

I can still remember how excited I felt when I was pregnant with my son Kiel. I was fresh out of college and working as a pediatric nurse while I prepared for medical school. As the eldest of 5 and a veteran babysitter my fantasies of holding my very own baby in my arms were about to become a reality.

None of my friends or relatives had breastfed their babies but I knew it was something I wanted for myself and my baby. Although I had never actually seen a newborn baby nursing I had read a lot of books about it. I mean, how hard could it be?

I thought I was ready.

But really, I wasn’t.

When the big day finally arrived nothing turned out as I had expected. Complications began when I required an emergency C-Section with Kiel at 1AM. Fortunately the procedure went successfully, but when I was finally reunited with Kiel our attempts at breastfeeding took a turn for the worse.

Hi,

I’m Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FILCA, author of 7 best-selling breastfeeding books for both parents and professionals, international keynote speaker, and most importantly, a mother.

I fell in love with breastfeeding when breastfed my 3 sons, Carl, Peter and Ben, who are now grown. I began helping breastfeeding families in 1982 as a volunteer breastfeeding counselor. I became board-certified as a lactation consultant in 1991 and since then it has been my mission and passion to help new mothers reach their breastfeeding goals.

During the more than 30 years I’ve been helping breastfeeding families, it’s been thrilling to see the rise in breastfeeding rates. In the 1980s, only about 50% of American women breastfed even once. Now nearly 80% of new mothers breastfeed.

But this picture is still far from rosy. The sad truth is that despite knowing the importance of breastfeeding to their own and their baby’s health, most women today are not meeting their breastfeeding goals.

The problem can be boiled to down to the first 2 weeks. Three recent studies shed some light on the issues. One found that more than two thirds of women intending to breastfeed exclusively for 3 months didn’t get there. Another found that the most common reasons women give up on breastfeeding are latching issues, worries about milk production and nipple pain. And the third found that during the first week of life, 92% of nursing mothers reported significant breastfeeding challenges.

This confirmed what I had seen over and over in my lactation practice. I was frustrated because I could fix problems when I saw mothers one-on-one. But inside I knew that these problems shouldn’t be happening…after all, shouldn’t breastfeeding problems be the exception rather than the rule? Otherwise, how would the human race have survived?

During the past 10 years, the answer gradually became clear. The first clue was the breast crawl. Scientists discovered that newborn human babies could crawl to the breast and feed without help (just like all other mammal newborns).

Later research discovered how the mother’s position helps or hinders baby’s inborn feeding behaviors during the early weeks. Finally, groundbreaking neurological research on how baby’s nervous system develops during the first few weeks provided more practical insights into how we can make early breastfeeding easier.

I used these discoveries as I helped breastfeeding families, and the results have been amazing. You see, all mothers bring their own unique experiences and learning to the delivery room, but their newborns are all remarkably similar. For many years, I mistakenly believed that the responsibility for breastfeeding rested squarely on mothers’ shoulders. But I came to understand that nature gives baby a toolbox of essential skills and that even a newborn can be an active breastfeeding partner. I had found the last piece of the breastfeeding puzzle. All I had to do was turn it over and put it in its place.

That’s when I met Dr. Theresa. Although our journeys looked very different, we had covered the same ground. We knew what to do, and we now knew why it worked. When we put our heads together, we figured out the “where” and the “how.” And that’s when Natural Breastfeeding was born.

Sadly, most mothers who struggle with breastfeeding think the only solution is to try harder, but that’s frustrating and exhausting. Wouldn’t it be better instead to make breastfeeding easier? Rather than tackling every issue—latching struggles, milk supply, sore nipples—individually, why not use a single innovative approach that addresses many challenges at once? That’s what Natural Breastfeeding is all about.