CAPPA Lactation Educator Training part 1

I am spending the weekend at a Lactation Education Training through CAPPA. I am down in Oceanside in a hotel enjoying the quiet and taking the time to update my blog.  For 3 days I am learning about breastfeeding.  My first day was great.  The instructor is very engaging and we are doing a lot of interactive things and I have learned a lot already.

My favorite thing is that we are not nesters.  Some mammals leave their babies places, go off and find food and then come back.  These are animals that tend to need big muscles, think dogs, deer, cows.  So their breastmilk has a LOT of protein and fat to build muscles.  Deer will leave their babies 5-15 hours at a time, but one momma deer stays behind to wet nurse any baby deer that gets hungry.  Dogs will leave for up to 4 hours.

We are primates and are meant to have our babies on us and feed them frequently.  Our main thing we are growing when we are babies is our brains.  So our breastmilk is high in lactose, which helps build up brain matter.  We don’t have as much fat and protein so our babies need to eat more often.   Hence we shouldn’t be nesters, leaving our babies in a “nest” (swing, car seat, crib) we should be carrying our babies more.

Earlier in the week I was talking to my big boys about my upcoming weekend and breastfeeding.  They wondered why they use cow milk for formula.  My oldest son wanted to know why they don’t use chimpanzee milk to make baby formula as we are more similar to them than cows.  I thought it was a great idea, but then we talked about how hard it would be to milk Chimps and they are too smart to put up with being milked for human use!  Again, brains versus muscle.

I love being a doula and CBE and I am excited to have more information to share with my students and clients.