 Good day and welcome to Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I'm your host for today, Jacques Kingston Compton and today we're going to talk about the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding and I'm going to have my two guests introduce themselves. Hi, I am Azilia Glass George, Head of the Dietary Department of the Millennium Heights Medical Complex. My name is Lania Japeer. I'm the nutritionist at St. hospital. So on a previous program where we also spoke about breastfeeding, I learned that I learned of something called exclusive breastfeeding. Could you tell the viewers a little bit about that and what it is? I know one of you. Miss Glass, you want to go first? Sure. So exclusive breastfeeding as the name suggests would mean only breastfeeding your baby and we normally recommend for the first six months of life. You exclusively breastfeed and then you can continue up until a year but just only breast milk for the first six months of life. Why the first six months? Is that the most? That's the most formative time for the baby so and also to you find that the baby's systems are developing and breast milk has everything that the baby needs. So you don't want to try to introduce other things beforehand because you can also cause detrimental things to the baby if you do that. Detrimental like, can you give me an example? Sure. So your baby's gastrointestinal tract, your GI tract, you can get problems with the GI tract if you start introducing things too early to the baby. So I know we tend to like to give the children early toroma or something like that but breast milk has everything that the baby needs for the first six months. Does it have to stop at six months? What's the longest amount of time could breastfeed your child or should you? You can breastfeed your child for as long as you can basically either you have milk production so as long as you have milk production you can breastfeed. So you have certain persons which go up until three years, some persons do four years but it's difficult when mothers go back to work so we realize these things so we encourage at least six months and then a year. After that then it is as you can do it but it's still recommended to continue the breastfeeding for as long as you possibly can. Okay, Ms. Ja'Pierre, how many times a day would you say that a mother should breastfeed? We recommend breastfeeding on demand so the baby will give the mother cues as to when is feeding time. How long would you say one feeding would last? Like how do you know when the baby is full? The baby would pull away from the breast and pretty much sleeps most of them but the baby is the key indicator. Is there any particular routine or diet that the mother has to adopt during the breastfeeding phase? Yes, we recommend the mother maintain a healthy balanced diet, balanced in that she eats what we say is six foot groups so she includes in her diet the legumes, food from animals, fruits, vegetables, pots and oils and her staples of course. In the right amount, sorry. In the right amount. What would be the right amount exactly? Okay, with the fruits she can include at least two servings for the day at limit one cup of 100% for juice. For the vegetables she can do three servings, either one serving being dark green leafy vegetables or orange. There's also legumes, food from animals, so your tuna, your chicken, your turkey, you can do two to three servings a day. Dairy, your low fat dairy or non-fat dairy you can do at least three servings a day. And just to add to what she's saying, to understand what a portion is or what a serving is rather. If you're looking at fruits, look at a banana, a small banana that weighs about four ounces is considered a fruit serving or if you do watermelon and you chop it up about one and a quarter cups of watermelon would be considered a fruit serving or like a small gala apple would be a fruit serving. It's good to understand the portions so that, and I know some people say, I'm not like a chef, so why do you want me to try to measure? But measuring would help to put things in perspective and also help with the calorie intake that you should reach. So it's good to know the portions. Yeah, in terms of like the legumes are half a cup of peas and beans, your lentils and so would be considered a serving that's cooked. And in terms of food from animals, you find that your lean meats and fish, a three ounce portion would be considered a serving in some groups and in other groups an ounce is considered a serving. So it's good to just know the total number of ounces that you should take in for the day. So anywhere like six ounces or so for a day would be sufficient for a breastfeeding mother. There's two things that you did touch on a little while ago that I want to kind of discuss. One of them would be the calorie intake. But before we get to that, you mentioned that you kind of touched on women, you know, having difficulty I guess being able to work and breastfeed. Is that a common problem? Yes, because normally you have about like three months out and then when you go back to work, you know, it's difficult to try to balance of feeding, pumping and you know, just ensuring that your baby gets what they need and you can get stressed out because you rushing over to get to work and you still have to make sure that you have enough milk and pumped to feed your baby before and then you try to feed when you come back home. So it's difficult for the mother, but we encourage the mothers if you pump and then you store the milk in the freezer, then it helps as well. Oh, you actually have to store it in the freezer, not in a fridge. Right, so it depends on if you're producing a good bit of milk, then you can store the milk in the freezer and then you would just warm it up when you need to feed the baby. A label of what? Yes, you label it and you date it and whatnot so that you know how long you can utilize that milk for, but that's a good practice and it really helps mothers out if they do that because you can, if you don't pump sometimes often enough, then you find that the breast can get engorged and you're at work and it's really uncomfortable and so it's good to do that. Are there cases where mothers might have difficulty in producing milk maybe in the early stages? Yes, for some persons there may be issues with our production, but what we advise is to get your baby to lateral properly and have your baby suckled. So the more that your baby suckles, the more you produce milk and that should help you out. In addition to what she just mentioned, milk production can be hidden, be hindered with stress, the mother is not properly hydrated, the support from the dad, emotional support, so all those things would help with what she's talking about with milk production. I actually want to, we'll touch on that after we come back from the break, the emotional support from the father, but we're due for our first break, please stay with us. You're watching Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. Please stay tuned, we'll be back in a moment. We are working parents and we breastfed both babies exclusively. My first six years, I buy you to take you to the new Bonsevela. Mother's breast milk is naturally the best milk for baby. Love yourself and love your baby. Breastfeeding saves me money and it's free. Every moment I breastfeed strengthens the bond between me and my baby. I breastfed twin boys and lost all my baby fans. And we have breast milk power. I am Pastor Alvin and I support breastfeeding. For more information, call the Nutrition Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness at 468-5359. Welcome back to Issues and Answers. We're talking about the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding. Now there are two questions that I want to ask. One, our cameraman, Vibert, asked us off camera but we'll get to that in a while. You were speaking about emotional support that fathers can provide. Can you touch a little bit on that? Well, it's recommended that the father be involved in the last lap of the pregnancy. There's a consultation about lactation. He should really attend that consultation and learn about breastfeeding and lactation so that the mother, when the baby gets there, the mother can take breaks. The mother can learn more about the stressful routine she's faced with and that would allow her to be more relaxed and the milk flow would be forthcoming. Do you find it a case where a lot of fathers don't necessarily provide emotional support in your professional experience or do fathers really step up when they have to? Some fathers do verbalize that moms are built for that and so financial support probably but some of them do say that's the job. So we're trying to break that barrier. So off camera, while we were on our break, Vibert removed our cameraman and wanted to know about defrosting the baby milk or the breast milk that we were talking about earlier. What is the process of warming it up after defrosting? When the mother pumps the milk, there's a bag. It's tight. You put the milk in there. You seal it. You label. When you're ready for the milk, you take it out of the freezer. There's maybe a container of hot water. You place that bag in there and allow it to naturally defrost. We don't recommend boiling it because there's nutrients you don't want to destroy. Fat soluble. What is soluble vitamins? Now you actually mentioned the calorie intake. Could you kind of elaborate on the calorie intake and how that's important for producing breast milk? Right. So you find that when you're breastfeeding, the calorie demand on the body is more. So normally a lactating mother would need 400 to 600 more calories than a regular individual. So we encourage persons to consume the right amount of food, but from all the food groups. So you get like nutrient dense. Sometimes you find that persons would say, boy, I'm breastfeeding. So let me just go KFC and I need to eat and just eat because I have to eat more to feed my baby. But it's a case of balanced feeds. And that's why it's always good to go to your nutritionist or dietitian who can guide you because everybody is different. So the amount of calories that I may need breastfeeding may be different from what Michelle Pierre would need. So it's important to liaise with a professional to kind of guide you as to what your needs would be. And it translates. It makes it easier for you because when you have calories, you don't want to get all consumed. Why was this calorie business? So let's a professional put it into practical use of foods for you with the portions and whatnot. So if I'm a mother, suspend belief for a second that I could be a mother, where do I find a nutritionist? So you have nutritionists in the community, right? So at your different health centers, there are nutritionists. You have nutritionists within the hospital. So Michelle Pierre is at St. Jude's and I'm at Millennium Heights Medical Complex. And then you also have nutritionists that do private work as well. So you can always get that information once you liaise with the other nutritionists. You can always provide that information to you. Okay, as I don't, well, you could answer this question. As a nutritionist, what are the sort of, I don't understand what the sort of tests you could do to kind of decide person to person how their diet should change based on, I don't know, is it their body type or their genetics? Okay, we do an assessment of the patients. We'll take all your anthropometric measurements, your height, your weight, consider your activity level. We do do a recall, a diet recall, because not everything that I may recommend that you can tolerate. So we get to know the person individually and based on that we determine the energy requirement for that person, which is what calorie intake is. And is there a particular method you can use to improve the quality of your breast milk? Well, quality of milk equals quality of food consumed. So earlier we mentioned about the six foot groups that would help you create that quality you're looking for and the baby would receive that. Other than, let's say, the diet that you undertake, would you say exercise or any other sort of method would be utilized to improve the breast food quality? Definitely, exercise is very important. You do carry extra weight from carrying that baby, get clearance from the doctor that it's okay to be active and you can go ahead and be active at least three times a week. You can start off with walking and then you can build up on that. Now, you both sort of touched on how stress levels can affect breast milk. How can a mother reduce her stress level? Well, again, like I mentioned earlier, the father's involvement, exercise with health as well, relaxation techniques would help as well. Yes, self-care. So when you can get a break, so you, you know, give baby to daddy and then you can go and just relax. Some people just go to the beach and, you know, just get some time for yourself. Eventually, when you're able to leave the baby for a longer period of time, you can do things like go to a spa because you really need to relax because if you don't relax and the stress hormones build up, it just, it cuts your milk production. So it's really important to do the activities that you know, that you enjoy relaxing. Some people it's meditating, some people it's praying, they just need some quiet time. So you need to do that and sleep is also important as well. So I know that we're normally upfeeding the baby, but once baby sleeps, then you go to sleep so you could get, you know, the rest that you need in between. That's important. Another thing to touch on with the breast, middle, being hindered, alcohol and nicotine products, smoking can also hinder that. And caffeine too. That's right. You generally find a lot of mothers who smoke or drink caffeine like during that period. It happens. Yeah, you have some people that love coffee from before they were pregnant and you know, coffee can be addictive. So you find that when they do get pregnant, it's sometimes it's a challenge, it's a battle to just have to reduce that intake of caffeine. And one other thing that I think would be good to note for the quality of the breast milk, fish, fish is something that you have to limit the amount that you take in when you're breastfeeding because of a mercury content. So you find that there are certain fish that are high in mercury. So we normally say avoid these. So that would be things like the king mackerel. You have the shark and not the mahi mahi. Mahi mahi is moderate in mercury. The other one is the marlin. So marlin is high. So avoid marlin. The other fish you can consume it. So tuna is decent, salmon is decent, but limit it like twice a week, two or three times a week. And you limit it 12 ounces maximum for a week. But if you have people who are pescatarians, so they don't eat chicken, then for those individuals would probably suggest do maybe two or so, two or three meatless days where you would do mushrooms and include more peas and beans to offset the fact that you would cut back on the fish during that time. Other than fish, is there anything that you should try to stay away from? Because as you said, fish has a high mercury intake. What other dietary adjustments would you have to make? Yeah, that would be the main thing along with alcohol and the caffeine. Obviously alcohol. All right. So these would be the things we tell people to avoid or limit. Okay. Now we touched on it as well a little earlier, but I want to talk about this sort of other than work and I guess the other stresses of life. I want to kind of touch on what the reasons would be for a mother to stop breastfeeding early, but we'll address that when we come back from the break. And this is our final break. So after this will be our final segment. You're watching issues and answers. Please stay tuned. We'll be back in a moment. Breast milk is the gold standard that cannot be emulated. It is the perfect food for your baby. Breast milk provides antibodies and protective factors which may fight against COVID-19 should your baby be exposed. Breastfeeding reduces the risk for premenopausal, breast and ovarian cancers. Breastfeeding is the most natural way to feed your baby. Breast milk provides all the nutrients your baby needs for the first six months of life. It requires patience. However, your baby deserves the best and it's worth the effort. Breastfeeding a baby up to 12 months improves jawbone development, thereby reducing misalignment of the teeth. Breast milk is baby's first immunization. It protects against viruses, bacteria and also prevents some chronic diseases. If your child becomes sick with any illness, including COVID-19, it is very important that you continue breastfeeding. A woman with COVID-19 should be supported to breastfeed her baby safely, hold her newborn skin to skin and share a room with her baby. After giving your baby only breast milk for the first six months of life, you can now slowly start introducing solid foods at the right textures. These include period vegetables, fruits, peas and healthy cereals. For more information, call the Nutrition Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness at 468-5359. Welcome back to Issues and Answers. We're talking about the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding. Now, before we went on break, I wanted to talk about reasons outside of work that a woman would start breastfeeding earlier than the recommended six months. Either one of you can address it. What about you, Ms. Shapier? There are some mothers, unfortunately, they have cancer and maybe going through chemotherapy, we don't recommend breastfeeding through that time or the mother's HIV positive. We don't recommend breastfeeding, so that can be one of the reasons some mothers might stop breastfeeding earlier than recommended. Yeah, do you find that there are other medical conditions that might actually affect production and no matter how much a mother tries, the baby sucks and so if it's really, really difficult, then we may have no other choice but to find another option. But we still always try to encourage the breastfeeding as the main option. Okay, now another question that was brought to my attention again by our cameraman, who I suspect wants to be up here. If for whatever reason the mother is not around or she can't produce milk, what are the options? Well, there's something called wet nursing. I've seen it with families, like siblings would help the other sibling. It's not so common outside of the home, the hospital. I don't know too in-depth with that, but it do exist and persons providing the mother is healthy. That's another option for you. So if you have two sisters or cousins, let's say that breastfeeding at the same time. And I think worldwide you have some milk banks and so where that exists in the US, they do that. So you have mothers who, especially mothers who produce a lot of milk, so then they would freeze their milk, bag it and they send it over. It's tested and whatnot and then it's an option for persons who choose that route. We don't really do it here, but that's another option that is done internationally. Other than that, the other option that we use is formula. So you just, you know, get the baby there. The baby is replaced with a formula. But over, go on. I thought you were finishing at that point. So okay, we don't do it here, but overseas, how does it work exactly? Your mother just goes to the milk bank and she just produces the milk for the institution. Does she get paid for that or? Some, yes, some persons they get paid. Some people get paid, some people don't eat. So okay. Well, we're coming very close to the end of the program. Is there anything else that you want to add before we go off there? I think that I'd probably just encourage mothers to exclusively breastfeed and that yes, it's going to be challenging, but it's also very rewarding. So don't give up despite the challenges and especially if you're a working mother, that's the right choice to make. Once you have no other issues, that's affecting, you know, the process. And just be brave, be strong. And then there are a lot of mothers out there that are there to support you. Anything else you want to add, Ms. Chippin? And just to reiterate to the point that because not because you're working, you stop breastfeeding, you have the option of pumping. And the more you pump, the more breast milk will be delivered. So you have the option of freezing, the babysitter, whoever the caretaker is can have access to that milk whenever the baby needs it. You don't have to stop. Okay, I want to thank you very much for coming on the program. I hope you can come on again for any other topic that's related to breastfeeding. You're watching Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I am Jacques Henson Compton. Please stay tuned to other programs from the only National Television Network and look for our content on our Facebook page and our YouTube channel. Thank you.