I could say that Alba Padró is a lactation consultant, IBCLC and co-author with María Berruezo of the LactApp breastfeeding app.
Also that it has nourished with truthful information a space that for decades has been mistreated, fed with myths and false beliefs: the space occupied by the practice of breastfeeding.
In 2017, he published
We are the milk
(Grijalbo), a complete and rigorous guide with updated information, resources, real cases and images designed to accompany women who wish to breastfeed.
But Alba Padró must also mention that she has been practicing valuable activism in favor of mothers and babies for decades, an activism that transcends far beyond ideologies or particular models.
You always find Alba ready to help on the other side of the screen.
Now publish
Weaning.
End of a stage
,
a book –with the same publisher and a very practical format, similar to the previous one– in which he compiles the types of weaning that can occur and how to approach them.
It does so from the experience accumulated over almost two decades accompanying mothers at some point during their lactations.
Because all mothers and their sons and daughters go through weaning sooner or later, and it is convenient to be accompanied in a process that is not always easy.
Of course, he already warns that there is no magic formula because it depends a lot on the age of the baby and the way of wanting to wean, which translates into the need for “individualized information adapted to the needs of the mother and the baby. ”.
And patience, of course.
More information
How to wean a baby without dying trying
10 Questions and Answers About Tandem Breastfeeding
QUESTION:
In the book you collect all the types of weaning that can occur, at any age, and a lot of experiences, resources and ideas to do it.
As in almost everything, there is no magic formula that works for all weaning or for all mothers ... Is it that difficult?
ANSWER:
Indeed, there is no magic formula.
In fact, if there were, he would not have written the book.
I thought there was no need to write a weaning book until I started exploring and listening to mothers and realized that I could not give the same information to a baby who wanted to wean a two-year-old as a one-year-old. two days.
It is the same information for both mothers in the case of other aspects of breastfeeding, such as an obstruction.
However, in the case of weaning, things get complicated.
The age of the baby and the way of wanting to wean makes it necessary to give individualized information adapted to the needs of the mother and the baby.
Q.
What are the main reasons for weaning?
R.
The reasons for weaning are very diverse.
Some are related to pain or the sensation of lack of milk, but there are also very different personal reasons.
I would say that one of the main reasons is related to going back to work.
Sometimes we do not know how to manage a return to work without weaning, when in reality not everything is black or white, there is also a wide range of grays.
Another reason is exhaustion by mothers with older children who have been breastfeeding for years.
There are women who have been breastfeeding for two, three, four years and when they go through stages in which their son or daughter is more demanding, they do not know how to manage this process.
P.
Reasons that "lead us to wean" and "want to wean" do not always go hand in hand.
Although you point out that natural weaning occurs between the ages of 2 and 7, and that the decision should only be made by the protagonists, many women feel pressured.
Is there still a certain push to wean early or without the mother or baby feeling the need to do so?
A.
The pressure of weaning is enormous.
It is very present.
There is
a stage in which breastfeeding is seen as a
nice thing, as something that is praised, but when the baby will be older, and reaches a
certain volume, people start to question what the mother does with questions of the type
What not too old to breastfeed?
So old and still breastfeeding?
And this comes from both health professionals and the family.
If the breastfeeding woman is not very confident about what she is doing, and what she wants to do, she may be forced to wean early.
Sometimes it is also weaned due to not having adequate resources.
If they tell me that I have to go back to work and no one tells me how I can do it, it is possible that I will be led to a weaning that I do not want.
The same thing happens with medications, the lack of information on the compatibility between medications and breastfeeding leads to recommending weaning - when in reality, the vast majority of times it is not necessary to reach this point.
And the same when difficulties arise in the evolution of babies or in the course of breastfeeding itself, that the first recommendation is usually weaning.
Q.
Today we find rigorous manuals around many aspects of breastfeeding, but there is little specific information around weaning.
And this, despite being an issue that many women will go through at one point or another during their breastfeeding.
What do you think it is due to?
R.
Indeed, there is hardly any information on weaning.
In fact, the first thing I did when I started writing the book was to find out what other authors had said about weaning and I found that there were a page or two on this topic in the books on breastfeeding.
This is clearly insufficient, now I know.
Why is there no information?
On the one hand, I think there is a general idea that weaning is something easy.
And yes, it is likely that in the case of very small babies it can be more or less simple, but as that baby grows things get complicated.
On the other hand, the idea is present that when a person is classified as "pro" lactation, they are not asked about weaning because it is considered that they will not provide information on this matter.
This is a mistake because just as we are at the beginning of lactation, or when problems arise, we must be at the end of lactation.
Regardless of when that end is, no matter how old the baby is, to better accompany that weaning.
Q.
Is it easier to start breastfeeding successfully or to wean?
A.
Very good question.
I think it can be difficult to start breastfeeding successfully.
It will depend on many factors, and some factors you can control but many others will not depend on you.
And again, weaning is going to be more or less difficult depending on the information, the support and where you are.
I don't think breastfeeding in general is easy and I think the term "success" is a word that we should talk about and discuss what we mean by breastfeeding success.
Q.
What do we do to stop producing milk?
Are the famous pills to cut milk effective?
A.
Milk cutting pills are not effective, or are very ineffective.
They are given in the immediate postpartum period to avoid the increase in milk, of lactogenesis II, but many times the subsequent stimulus, once the women arrive home, is much more powerful than a simple drug.
These women think that they are not going to have milk and suddenly they find their breasts congested, with a lot of pain, and sometimes the information given to them to reduce that milk production is not entirely accurate.
What do we do to stop producing milk?
Well, it is essential to make a gradual decrease in milk production: the less I take out, the less I produce.
We must gradually assess when we need to express milk and space those extractions so that the body receives the
input
of "I have to make less milk."
Q.
On the road to breastfeeding, many women decide to wean at some point on their own initiative.
"Feeling like weaning and feeling like the time has come may not coincide with the baby's decision," you point out in the book.
From what moment is weaning the hardest and why?
A.
When a mother decides to wean she is likely to encounter frontal opposition from her baby.
Breastfeeding is a matter of two and when there are different positions there is a train crash.
At what point is it most difficult?
As babies grow or are in a growth spurt.
These times of growth spurts - which usually occur at eight months, one year and two years - are especially difficult because the mother ends up exhausted and may wish to wean, but doing so becomes a source of conflict.
Q.
Although the strategy of not offering, not denying is the most widespread, you say it is the least useful, why?
R.
Because I think it is the least explained.
When a baby is older you do not offer the breast, he asks you, you do not have to remind him.
The important thing here is to avoid denying the breast because anything that is a "no" will increase the demand and need for the baby.
But this does not imply doing nothing, but we are going to reduce the time on the chest.
We are going to mark the time, five, ten, fifteen minutes, whatever each one feels she needs, and we will gradually reduce it.
The baby is calm because he knows that when he asks for the breast we give it to him, but we will reduce that time.
Once you accept this game of reducing time, we will start with other techniques: distraction and postponement, which will allow us to make you wait a bit.
I always say that the first day it may last 30 seconds, but little by little it will allow us to space the shot more.
There comes a time when in some of these postponement moments the takes are forgotten and are skipped, but both processes (non-denial and distraction and postponement) require that they be well explained and go hand in hand.
Q.
Who do you go to when you want to wean and you can't?
R.
To anyone related to breastfeeding who has a certain sensitivity to the subject.
It can be a lactation consultant, an IBCLC, a midwife.
Sometimes you don't see strategies yourself, you don't see exits, but once you have the information in hand, you can make decisions about what you want to do or how you want to do it.
It is still very common that it counted before the pill to cut the milk.
This pill is prescribed with the idea that if there is no milk the baby will not ask, when we already know that what we have to do is to decrease the baby's interest in the breast.
P.
Emotionally it is a long (and often distressing) journey for both the mother and the baby or child.
Is respectful directed weaning really possible?
A.
The concept of “respectful” weaning gives me a bit of grief and I will explain why.
We have invented this term.
It was born a few years ago as a result of the anthropologist Katherine Dettwyler saying that anthropologically babies are weaned between 2 and a half years and 7 years. From that idea arose the entire lactivism movement that advocated a poorly called prolonged breastfeeding.
At that time it began to be said that weaning was only respectful if the children's needs were taken into account, which is why they led mothers to very long lactations.
If we look at the statistics we see that mothers wean much earlier.
Those mothers who wean earlier do not respect their children?
Don't they want their children?
We are implying this.
A mother loves her child, and she wants the best, and if she is forced to wean she will do it in the best possible way.
There are strategies - I tell them in the book - that seem disrespectful, but when you listen to hundreds of women, thousands, who want to wean and who tell you about their situations, you understand.
I am nobody to judge if a mother decides to wean by putting something spicy on her nipple.
What I will do is accompany her in the weaning process, tell her what will happen, how she can explain it to her son or daughter, at what age not to do this.
Give you all the information so you can do it.
The needs of mothers cannot be ignored and put above those of babies.
Q.
Finally, as in a love relationship, it seems difficult when one of the two does not want to leave.
What recommendation, idea, advice, would you give to a mother who is in that situation of wanting to stop breastfeeding, but is finding it difficult?
R.
Many times it is not knowing how to do it or having a lot of information but not applied to your specific needs.
I think that is why the book was needed, because it details very well what strategies we can use according to age.
For example, there are stories about weaning, and they are a good resource, but you cannot expect a one-year-old to give up the breast after reading a story about weaning.
These resources are very useful but at another age.
Each stage has its own strategy and I believe that what we lack –and this is what this book comes to supply– is that precise information, which will accompany you, according to the age of your baby.
Also that part of emotional discharge, of feeling free to do it whenever you want.
It is quite complicated many times to breastfeed so as not to find the resources or the people to help you when you want to wean.
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