Speaker 1: Welcome to Katie's Crib, a production of Shonda Land Audio
Speaker 1: in partnership with I Heart Radio. There are videos online
Speaker 1: of like had a hand express right, because I remember
Speaker 1: being like, what am I doing? Am I a cow?
Speaker 1: A lot of us just squeeze, So it's not squeezing.
Speaker 1: You're gonna squeeze all day. You're going to get a
Speaker 1: much out. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Katie's Crib.
Speaker 1: I want to be one of the first, if you
Speaker 1: haven't heard yet, to say Happy National Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
Speaker 1: That's right, folks, it is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, and
Speaker 1: at the end of the month it is Black Breastfeeding
Speaker 1: Awareness Week. You guys know from listening to Katie's Crib
Speaker 1: that breastfeeding was literally one of the hardest, most challenging,
Speaker 1: craziest wild rides around motherhood that I've ever had, and
Speaker 1: so I love doing episodes about it. And here to
Speaker 1: honor National Breastfeeding Awareness Month and Black Breastfeeding Awareness Week,
Speaker 1: we have Crystal do Haney. She is freaking awesome. She's
Speaker 1: an educator on all breastfeeding issues. She has a registered nurse,
Speaker 1: she's an International Board certified lactation counselor. She's a breastfeeding
Speaker 1: mommy of two and she's got another baby on the way. Guys.
Speaker 1: She's the founder of Milky Mama, which is an awesome company.
Speaker 1: It makes delicious lactation treats designed to promote breast milk production.
Speaker 1: I eat them on the regular. They are freaking delicious,
Speaker 1: and her company is incredible. It's dedicated to educating, supporting,
Speaker 1: and empowering parents to have the best breastfeeding journey possible.
Speaker 1: She's here and she's awesome. Please welcome to Katie's crib.
Speaker 1: Crystal du Hainey. Could you be cooler? Stop? You make
Speaker 1: cookies and delicious treats that help us breastfeed our children,
Speaker 1: and you put your money where your mouth is, and
Speaker 1: you literally provide true help and social justice in an
Speaker 1: area that is highly lacking in terms of black lactation
Speaker 1: consultants and and helping black women to breastfeed. This is
Speaker 1: all incredible. And when does your child do October? So
Speaker 1: I'm doing October about six months along. So if you
Speaker 1: hear me like burping or making weird noises, please don't
Speaker 1: mind me. I'm just six months pregnant at the time
Speaker 1: of this recording. We will not judge you that you
Speaker 1: should ever feel that you found a safe space to burp,
Speaker 1: to complain about your acid reflux, you're swelling ankles, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: It is here. Tell me about your personal breastfeeding journey
Speaker 1: with your first two and how it pushed you to
Speaker 1: create milky Mama. Okay, that's a tough story. So with
Speaker 1: my son, he's nine, by the way, when I was
Speaker 1: pregnant with him, I was a nurse on the floor
Speaker 1: and I felt like I knew as much as I
Speaker 1: could as a health care professional, and I my doctor
Speaker 1: just would say, hey, you know, breastfeeding is good, but
Speaker 1: that was really it. I didn't have any classes. Everyone
Speaker 1: that I saw on like in the brochures, was like
Speaker 1: smiling gloriously with this baby that was just latched perfectly,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, it's gonna be easy. I
Speaker 1: can do that. It's natural, right, So outcomes the baby.
Speaker 1: Then the nurses are like, here's your baby, feature baby,
Speaker 1: you know, keep this thing alive, and I'm just like, okay,
Speaker 1: no pressure, sure, no problem, I do this all the time, right,
Speaker 1: So latched the baby on super painful. But everywhere else
Speaker 1: that I had read or had heard. You know, it
Speaker 1: was like, oh, it hurts in the beginning, but it's okay.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, you know problem we went home,
Speaker 1: you know, screaming baby, nipples falling off. Basically I get it.
Speaker 1: And none of my family, you know, it is maybe
Speaker 1: not an unknown fact, but a lot of black families
Speaker 1: in America don't breastfeater, don't have generations of breastfeaters to
Speaker 1: get knowledge from. So no one in my family had
Speaker 1: breastfed before, so asking my family wasn't an option and
Speaker 1: you're good no. So when I went to my provider,
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I'm really struggling, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't feel like this is normal. What can I do?
Speaker 1: And he said, just give formula. And before I go
Speaker 1: into that even further, there's nothing wrong with formula. Like
Speaker 1: I said, no one in my family breastfed. I wasn't breastfed.
Speaker 1: I care not, Okay, I think, yes you did. And
Speaker 1: also we have to put out there. I keep finding
Speaker 1: moms who are breastfeeding even a little bit, and they
Speaker 1: supplement with formula. I try to always explain to them
Speaker 1: just because you're giving formula too does not negate the
Speaker 1: benefits of breastfeeding people are like, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm a failure because I'm giving formula. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: you're not. It's all great. One teaspoon of breastmolk has
Speaker 1: like millions of germ fighting sales. So even if you're
Speaker 1: giving maybe a drop a teaspoon, any amount of breastmolk
Speaker 1: is beneficial. And we have to stop this this culture
Speaker 1: of it's either this or that. It's not all or nothing. However,
Speaker 1: you feed your baby really is nobody's sucking business, right,
Speaker 1: it's your kid. Do what you feel as best, because
Speaker 1: a happy healthy mom is a happy healthy baby. I've
Speaker 1: seen so many parents that are struggling to breastfeed and
Speaker 1: it's really really affecting their mental health. And then you
Speaker 1: throw in postpartum hormones, postpartum anxiety, postpartum depression, all of
Speaker 1: this stuff which is not healthy. So I wouldn't much
Speaker 1: rather you'd be healthy and happy and and your baby
Speaker 1: be healthy and happy than you to stay up every
Speaker 1: two hours pumping all night because you have this you know,
Speaker 1: dispurge of being judged because you have to breastfeed. Your
Speaker 1: baby will be fine. You will be fine. And I
Speaker 1: think that we have to stop that and support each
Speaker 1: other no matter what. And like you said, it's so
Speaker 1: not an all or nothing situation. Like someone in my
Speaker 1: life right now had a baby was born with torda callis,
Speaker 1: which means just like you know, she her head is
Speaker 1: super tilted to one side because of how she was
Speaker 1: in utero for a long time. And the mom is
Speaker 1: pumping and it's like, I'm not a breastfeeding mother and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes you are, and she's like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 1: The baby is not on my breast, and I said,
Speaker 1: listen to me. You're giving your baby breast milk in
Speaker 1: a bottle. Also, you're cuddling with your baby and she's sucking.
Speaker 1: She's suckling at the boob once in a while, Like yes,
Speaker 1: she's also having a lot of bottles too. And the
Speaker 1: mom was convinced to identify herself and was having such
Speaker 1: anxiety and I'm like, wow, like this ship runs so deep.
Speaker 1: You guys, like the anxiety and it's irrational because your
Speaker 1: hormonal and irrational and trying to make sense of something
Speaker 1: that there's no way for you to be good at it.
Speaker 1: You never practiced, You never practice like you never do
Speaker 1: it until you do it, it's really hard. Pumping is
Speaker 1: breastfeeding too, By the way, can we just all agree
Speaker 1: you do not have to latch her baby onto breastfeeds.
Speaker 1: So you've heard it here first from Crystal do Haitima.
Speaker 1: Pumping is also breastfeeding, yes, But the point is that
Speaker 1: I wanted to breastfeed and it was my goal. And
Speaker 1: to just dismiss that, whether it was for racial reasons
Speaker 1: or just because breastfeeding wasn't promoted nine years ago as
Speaker 1: much as it is now, maybe who knows. But I
Speaker 1: felt so defeated. Um, but to being the strong woman
Speaker 1: that I am, I went home and said, no, I'm
Speaker 1: going to do this, and so I investigated and researched
Speaker 1: my way to breastfeeding my son for over two years
Speaker 1: while also dealing with postpart and depression as well. So
Speaker 1: when I got pretty with my daughter, um, I was like,
Speaker 1: there has to be a better way. This cannot be motherhood, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you see these pictures and everybody smiling. There
Speaker 1: has to be something and something missing. And so I
Speaker 1: began researching ways to promote my own milk production for
Speaker 1: my own selfish reasons, because I wanted to have a
Speaker 1: better journey and I became a certified le Teaian consultant,
Speaker 1: and I began talking to other parents and realized that
Speaker 1: so many others had the same struggles that I did,
Speaker 1: across all races, across all countries. This is just an
Speaker 1: ongoing the issue. And so I developed this delicious cookie
Speaker 1: recipe to help promote my milk production because I like sweets,
Speaker 1: because I was pregnant with a little girl. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's old wise hill, but oh honey, no,
Speaker 1: I felt it too. Obviously, there's not breast milk in
Speaker 1: these lactation cookies. I mean, good lord, So, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: no breastmolk. You'd like to save that for the babies.
Speaker 1: Could you imagine if we have this like farm of
Speaker 1: Moms hotel in our cookies. Yeah, none of that's going on.
Speaker 1: But we have just nice healthy ingredients like oats, oats
Speaker 1: um and brushes which has lots of vitamin B in
Speaker 1: there to help promote lactation, flaxy, lots of whole grains,
Speaker 1: just lots of healthy ingredients that have been time tested
Speaker 1: per generations across the world to help promote lactation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys will hear if any of you women listening
Speaker 1: who are pregnant or have little ones or are thinking
Speaker 1: about getting pregnant again and taking a different stab at breastfeeding.
Speaker 1: You start to hear all of these things about oats
Speaker 1: and flax seed and nuts and really big like healthy
Speaker 1: fat complex carbs. And I remember trying to get my
Speaker 1: milk production up with my son and I was just like, Oh,
Speaker 1: someone told me like a really yeasty beer. And I'm
Speaker 1: like sending my husband to like a like a specialty
Speaker 1: beer place to get me something. It's like totally insane. Um,
Speaker 1: But you do all the work for us so that
Speaker 1: we don't have to go around scrounging for all like
Speaker 1: flax seed oils, so that it's literally like all baked
Speaker 1: into these delicious treats. Yeah, can you give us an
Speaker 1: example just so that our mouths are watering like minar
Speaker 1: right now? Like, what are some of the cookies and
Speaker 1: treats that are offered? So we have old milk chocolate chip,
Speaker 1: We have peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate chip, salted caramel.
Speaker 1: We also have an emergency brownie, which is our signature product.
Speaker 1: It's the Bob. I love that. Yes, we also have
Speaker 1: a lactation brownie, which is similar to our emergency brownie,
Speaker 1: but not as potent, So if you're not having like
Speaker 1: an emergency, you don't need an emergency brownie. We also
Speaker 1: have herbal supplements for those of you that don't really
Speaker 1: cook some browny of all day, I completely understand. So
Speaker 1: we have herbal supplements that are fat free UM, and
Speaker 1: they're just concentrated herbs that you can put under your
Speaker 1: tongue or in a liquid or something or one of
Speaker 1: our delicious drink mixes. We have milky Melon, which is
Speaker 1: my absolute favorite. It's like a lactation cool aid almost.
Speaker 1: Then we have Lactaian lemonade Lemonate sorry, let moonate, I
Speaker 1: love it. We have Pump and Punch, which is they're
Speaker 1: all just like drink powders that you can pour. And
Speaker 1: then they have smoothie mixes UM for those of you
Speaker 1: that wants have been on the go so you start
Speaker 1: making this stuff on yourself. And was your issue? I
Speaker 1: know you had said with your son that it was
Speaker 1: really painful. Was that because of something specifically or and
Speaker 1: also was supply an issue for you both? It was
Speaker 1: lack of education, lack of support and all of that
Speaker 1: combined turns into a decreasing or lower milk supply. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: because guys, listening stress is a big, big issue with apply. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of things that you just
Speaker 1: you don't know and no one tells you. So that
Speaker 1: was one of the biggest reasons that I started my company.
Speaker 1: Is not just the cookies. Yeah, they're delicious and they're effective.
Speaker 1: But what was so important for me is to help
Speaker 1: educate and support breastfeeding parents, pumping parents, supplementing parents, no
Speaker 1: matter what, so that we could all have this beautiful, empowering,
Speaker 1: confident journey. Because I remember that being a parent, a
Speaker 1: new parent, I just felt so like not confident. So
Speaker 1: it was just my mission to just really help educate
Speaker 1: people so that they would know, Hey, this is what
Speaker 1: it's supposed to happen, this is normal. This is not
Speaker 1: so confident in your choice. If you decide, hey, you
Speaker 1: know what, I breastfed for one week and I'm good,
Speaker 1: I'm done, I don't want to do it anymore, I
Speaker 1: will support you. And if you breastfeed for ten years,
Speaker 1: I will support you. Um. I think that that is
Speaker 1: what's so so important. It's just education. Um. If I
Speaker 1: would have had the education for my health care provider
Speaker 1: every prenatal appointment instead of saying here is and may
Speaker 1: defeed it. I think I would have been much more
Speaker 1: prepared and had a better outcome. I'm you're really just
Speaker 1: filling my heart right now, because it's not cool. Guys.
Speaker 1: None of us are living in villages anymore where we're
Speaker 1: surrounded by breastfeeding women. And I similarly to you, even
Speaker 1: though I'm in a white family, my mother didn't breastfeed either,
Speaker 1: and neither did my mother in law, and I didn't
Speaker 1: have anyone to talk to personally who could literally like
Speaker 1: show me, like put your boob like this in the
Speaker 1: baby's mouth. Aside from the five minute lactation consultant visit
Speaker 1: that I had in the hospital when the baby was
Speaker 1: two minutes old, and I was so stressed out and hormonal. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what they said. And thank god,
Speaker 1: it's so unfair, which is what I want to get
Speaker 1: into with you, that I paid a ridiculous amount of
Speaker 1: money for a top Los Angeles lactation consultants, Linda Hannah,
Speaker 1: who's incredible and has come on this podcast to come
Speaker 1: and do home visits with both of my children. Because
Speaker 1: even when three years had gone by with my daughter,
Speaker 1: I didn't remember how to do it. I didn't remember. Also,
Speaker 1: she's a different mouth, she's a different latch, I'm a
Speaker 1: different person. But the whole time I was thinking, my god,
Speaker 1: if you don't have the funds for this, or you
Speaker 1: don't live in a major city where this information was
Speaker 1: given to me, that there's electation consultant that would come
Speaker 1: and visit my house and you don't have that the
Speaker 1: finances or whatever it is that's holding you back, you
Speaker 1: are fucked, Like what are you supposed to do? Get formula?
Speaker 1: But then that's the whole other thing is that formula
Speaker 1: is so expensive, like it all is expensive, and it's
Speaker 1: so taxing, and it's just I mean, we could talk
Speaker 1: for hours about just the shitty postpartum care that we
Speaker 1: as women have and parents have in the United States,
Speaker 1: but that's again who another issue here. Yeah, but what
Speaker 1: you're doing is you're really making a stand to change it.
Speaker 1: You are, You're making a major stand to change it.
Speaker 1: There's so many breastfeeding tips, which is why I think
Speaker 1: what I did wrong is that people are so obsessed
Speaker 1: with the baby coming that they spend a lot of
Speaker 1: their pregnancy, prepping the baby room and what stroll are
Speaker 1: we going to get and as our registry done for
Speaker 1: our thing and all that, and everyone just leaves breastfeeding
Speaker 1: to I'll just figure it out when I get there.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's not that you need to
Speaker 1: stress yourself out by taking eight thousand breastfeeding classes. It's
Speaker 1: not that. It's that I do think I would have
Speaker 1: benefited from in my pregnancy, honestly, like following Milky MoMA
Speaker 1: on Instagram and just every day looking at some breastfeeding words,
Speaker 1: some tips, some like you know, so that when I
Speaker 1: got there myself, it wasn't also dealing with ship that
Speaker 1: I had never heard of and was like a foreign subject.
Speaker 1: Like I just think it would be helpful to like
Speaker 1: familiarize yourself with the word filange or production or colostrum
Speaker 1: or how to hand express, take your own boob, push
Speaker 1: on it practice. I agree, And we actually offer a
Speaker 1: breastfeed course called Breastfeeding one oh one. It's online, um
Speaker 1: and it covers everything that you need to know from
Speaker 1: pregnancy and like the first couple of weeks of giving birth,
Speaker 1: because I wish, like I said that my doctor every
Speaker 1: appointment said hey, here's this new breastfeeding topic for this appointment.
Speaker 1: Read this so that way it's not such a shock
Speaker 1: after So yeah, I educate yourself prior to giving birth,
Speaker 1: because there is a saying that breastfeeding is natural. But again,
Speaker 1: like that was years ago. It doesn't come natch, It
Speaker 1: does not come naturally. It doesn't like you know, like
Speaker 1: it is a skill, and not only is it a
Speaker 1: skill for you, but it's a skill for your baby.
Speaker 1: Like your baby might know how to suck. All babies
Speaker 1: are born knowing how to suck, but they are not.
Speaker 1: They don't know how to lad, they don't know how
Speaker 1: the food gets down there. I mean, it's like you're
Speaker 1: both learning together. You're both learning together how to do it.
Speaker 1: What breastfeeding Let's say the baby is like a week old.
Speaker 1: What are you any breastfeeding tips? You know what? Mine?
Speaker 1: Nolise is Finalalactation Consultant. Yes, I have so many. Okay,
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. This is like newborn, not really
Speaker 1: a week old, but this is a new born. This
Speaker 1: is how to get your breastfeeding journey off to a
Speaker 1: good start from the beginning, because that's like usually when
Speaker 1: we like function up is in the beginning, it's like
Speaker 1: that is one percent when I was already fucked like bad.
Speaker 1: So in the beginning, babies out right of your vagina
Speaker 1: or your surrogate or your belly is a c section.
Speaker 1: However baby's born. What you're gonna do is you want
Speaker 1: to latch, maybe on it as soon as possible if
Speaker 1: you can. If you can't, then that's okay. Then you
Speaker 1: want to start hand expressing right away. A lot of
Speaker 1: parents say, if if I can't latch, I'm gonna pump.
Speaker 1: But when you a colostrum super duper thick, sometimes the
Speaker 1: pump can't remove it. We get discouraging, we're not producing anything.
Speaker 1: We stop pumping and then goes down the drain. If
Speaker 1: your baby is latching, what you want to do is
Speaker 1: you want to hand express colostrum. After every feeding. You're
Speaker 1: gonna feed that to your baby in either a medicine
Speaker 1: cup or on a spoon. What that does is it
Speaker 1: make sure your baby gets all that extra milk so
Speaker 1: that they get their weight up, so that they get
Speaker 1: their poops and their peas up, so that you're not
Speaker 1: like freaking out at their at their pediatrician appointment when
Speaker 1: they lose weight and you're sending extra signals to your
Speaker 1: supply and your body early on take it off to
Speaker 1: a good start, so you're moving extra milk. So if
Speaker 1: you do that for the first week and you do
Speaker 1: it well, then it's just already starting off on the
Speaker 1: right foot. I have never heard of this, and this
Speaker 1: is genius, Like why did I not even think about
Speaker 1: hand expressing after a feed to keep asking my body
Speaker 1: to keep like making it for supply. And then also
Speaker 1: you can just collect it in a little medicine cup
Speaker 1: and then put it in like a medicine dropper or
Speaker 1: freeze it or whatever you want to do, Like you
Speaker 1: don't have to feed it to baby right away if
Speaker 1: baby is doing well at the breast, which a lot
Speaker 1: of us don't know either. We're just like I think
Speaker 1: babies eating. I have no idea, um, so to tell
Speaker 1: you want to look at diaper output for the first week,
Speaker 1: they should have one wet diaper for every day. So
Speaker 1: if babies one day old, they should have at least
Speaker 1: one p diaper two days old, at least two by
Speaker 1: about day four, depending on your type of labor that
Speaker 1: you have, they should have yellow, seedy poop and not
Speaker 1: that dark green you know maconium poop tar. Guys, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's tar. It's literal tar. It's so gross. So if
Speaker 1: all of that is happening in the first week, all
Speaker 1: as well. Um, So you don't have to give that
Speaker 1: that colossum if you don't want to, and you can
Speaker 1: store it for you know, it's like liquid gold. You
Speaker 1: can put it on anything or give it another date.
Speaker 1: But do that in the first week. It doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be every feeding because being a new parent is exhausting,
Speaker 1: but as after as many feedings as possible, and that
Speaker 1: will get you off on the right start. That is genius.
Speaker 1: And like there are videos online of like had a
Speaker 1: hand express right because I remember being like what am
Speaker 1: I doing? Am I a cow? It's definitely a skill.
Speaker 1: A lot of us just squeeze um and it's not
Speaker 1: a squeezing. It's like a copy and then you're pressing
Speaker 1: back and then compressing and releasing, so it's not squeezing.
Speaker 1: You're gonna squeeze all day. You can get a much out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't just if you're listening to this podcast, Joe, don't
Speaker 1: like squeezing away. That's not what it is. You can
Speaker 1: like go on the milky Mama Instagram and you can
Speaker 1: see how to self express a video on that or
Speaker 1: YouTube to Also to note, if you're someone that's like
Speaker 1: crushing these milky mamma delicious cookies, just because you stop
Speaker 1: taking the cookies does not decrease your milk supply. Correct No,
Speaker 1: and also disclaimer. Um again, support is so important to me.
Speaker 1: So if you are not nursing or not pumping and
Speaker 1: just you know, chilling at home watching TV and you
Speaker 1: eat cookies, your milk supplies walking to increase, like you
Speaker 1: still have to do the underlying things that are necessary
Speaker 1: to increase and promote your milk production. So they are magic.
Speaker 1: They just help support lactician in a healthy way so
Speaker 1: that you can use all of the education that hopefully
Speaker 1: you'll get from us to to help have a healthy
Speaker 1: and happy breastfeeding journey. But as long as you are
Speaker 1: maintaining your milk removal sessions either my pumping or nursing
Speaker 1: or hay and expressing or however you do it, your
Speaker 1: supply should be maintained. Also, people who are listening who
Speaker 1: are in the throes of an early baby, breastfeeding is
Speaker 1: so fucking hard. Your baby is learning how to do it.
Speaker 1: You're learning how to do it, so each session is
Speaker 1: like an hour, your nipples are falling off, you're doing
Speaker 1: it all the time. Whatever happens happens, of course, but
Speaker 1: also just know, like it's seven months old baby, I
Speaker 1: only breastfeed like four times a day and it takes
Speaker 1: me maybe seven to ten minutes tops. That's awesome. I
Speaker 1: hate just are people my seven month olds because they
Speaker 1: were just like my son would like he didn't sleep
Speaker 1: through the night, and he would still, which is a
Speaker 1: whole another thing, like your babies will sleep through the
Speaker 1: night when they sleep through the night, Like your baby
Speaker 1: doesn't have to sleep through the night a two weeks older.
Speaker 1: It's completely normal. Yes, but my baby didn't sleep through
Speaker 1: the night, and then he was teething and so he
Speaker 1: would wake up throughout the night to nurse. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't always great, but I wanted to do it and
Speaker 1: it was fun and there were moments that I loved.
Speaker 1: And you know, being a mom is sucking hard in general, right,
Speaker 1: So even when he was older and teething and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, it would take he would breastfeed for a
Speaker 1: long time. Not for a long time, it was just
Speaker 1: frequently he would like cluster feed and then he would
Speaker 1: wake up that night and all of that stuff. It
Speaker 1: was tough. Yeah, See, I haven't gotten She's seven months
Speaker 1: and she has not started teething yet, and I know
Speaker 1: it's coming, and I'm terrified. As soon as you get
Speaker 1: into a groove is when everything gets messed up. So
Speaker 1: like we're in such a groove right now, and cut two.
Speaker 1: If I was doing this podcast with you, Crystal next
Speaker 1: week and I'm like, she's stir feeding. We're up all night.
Speaker 1: I have all of this stuff packed, like I'm going
Speaker 1: and I'm going to shoot a movie and like my purse.
Speaker 1: Like I always get so panicked when I go back
Speaker 1: to work because I feed a lot at the breast
Speaker 1: and then when I go to work, it's like a
Speaker 1: big shift in my body to have to rely so
Speaker 1: heavily on the pump. And also just as soon as
Speaker 1: you go back to where things get crazy, where like
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm not drinking enough water and
Speaker 1: I'm not getting as much sleep and all of these things,
Speaker 1: and you're staring at the bottles while you're pumping exactly,
Speaker 1: and you're and you're stressed, and the bottles while pumping,
Speaker 1: so everything just gets wonky um, and so I always
Speaker 1: throw your products in my purses as just like, oh,
Speaker 1: remember this is your other full time job on top
Speaker 1: of being a mother, on top of being an actor.
Speaker 1: So like, let's try to keep up milk supply and
Speaker 1: keep our slorgan take up and our water and our
Speaker 1: herbs and our stress levels down. And when I pump,
Speaker 1: I like look at videos of my daughter and I
Speaker 1: meditate and I breathe. I love that cover the bottles.
Speaker 1: Don't look at them because you don't want it to
Speaker 1: become like a counting game of like I only made
Speaker 1: this so many ounces on this boob and this many
Speaker 1: ounces on that boob and all of those things. And
Speaker 1: make sure your flanges are the right size too at
Speaker 1: that in there. Oh that's the biggest thing, guys. We
Speaker 1: never talked about this, and this is also not taught
Speaker 1: from lactation consultants, but the filange, which is the pump
Speaker 1: part that fits over your nipple, and it's sort of
Speaker 1: like the shape of a cone has to be the
Speaker 1: right size for your nipple, not only because then it's
Speaker 1: not painful, but I mean it helps get the milk
Speaker 1: out correct correct, And one can be a different size
Speaker 1: than the other because our breasts or sisters are not twins.
Speaker 1: So you gotta really got to measure I mean things
Speaker 1: that we did not know and no one would tell you.
Speaker 1: As mothers, we can be super self critical and overstretch
Speaker 1: ourselves as we know this to be perfect. So I'm
Speaker 1: curious that I'm going back to work and you're an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: How do you handle running a business being the mother
Speaker 1: of two with a third on the way. How's your
Speaker 1: mom guilt? How do you feel about being a working
Speaker 1: milky mama? My mom guilt is present all the time.
Speaker 1: I really have to like sent her myself and realize
Speaker 1: that I just like I tell everyone else, like I'm
Speaker 1: doing the best that I can. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that being a business owner because I know that not
Speaker 1: only is this business what feeds my family. I mean
Speaker 1: my husband works too, hands a great job, but I
Speaker 1: also have employees. Um, I have a team and it
Speaker 1: provides for their families too. So when I'm working and
Speaker 1: my kids want me to play and I can't, it's
Speaker 1: such a hard struggle with you know, am I a
Speaker 1: bad mom? While I'm to provide from them that I'm
Speaker 1: sure just any working well and that has to go
Speaker 1: to work, you know, has to struggle with So I
Speaker 1: just have to keep things under her perspective and and
Speaker 1: no when to be present and no when to shut
Speaker 1: it off, and no one work will be there tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and just try to balance and not beat myself up
Speaker 1: and just give myself grace. I think that's one thing
Speaker 1: that I've learned. And she just give myself grace. My
Speaker 1: daughter taught me that. She said, well, me, just just
Speaker 1: say sorry to yourself, don't you know She's just She's
Speaker 1: just said's so sweet. Yeah, she's amazing. So she taught
Speaker 1: me to just forgive myself and to not hold things,
Speaker 1: you know, hold myself accountable for so many things because
Speaker 1: it really adds to pressure and can cause depression and
Speaker 1: anxiety and lots of things that I don't like to
Speaker 1: deal with. So give yourself grace. Guys, you told me
Speaker 1: why you created Milky Mama, and I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about how Milky Mama provides education and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. What are some of the things that Milky
Speaker 1: Mama is doing current me? So, currently we have my
Speaker 1: entire team except our shipping department. And so if you
Speaker 1: call email smoke signal D m however, you're going to
Speaker 1: talk to a lactation consultant free, you charge, like we
Speaker 1: don't charge you to call us and talk to us
Speaker 1: and ask questions. I do alive almost every Monday since
Speaker 1: I've been pregnant. You know, day, it's life, But I
Speaker 1: try to do a live every Monday where I am
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Facebook live demonstrating how to latch with
Speaker 1: my fake boob and my fake baby. We have an
Speaker 1: eight number, it's eight seven seven eight eight milky super cute,
Speaker 1: and you can call us Monday through Friday and ask
Speaker 1: for ask for lactation consultant and will answer your questions.
Speaker 1: And then if you go to our Instagram page, if
Speaker 1: you don't catch me live, my previous lives are safe,
Speaker 1: so you can just scroll through our our type of
Speaker 1: videos and watch flatching or you know, get answers to
Speaker 1: common questions. So I try to do that every single Monday,
Speaker 1: whenever possible. We also have a really robust email marketing system.
Speaker 1: Or every month, if you say, hey, I am nursing
Speaker 1: or I am pumping and my baby is two months old,
Speaker 1: every single month you'll get a new email with tips
Speaker 1: for breastfeeding a two month old or breastfeeding a three
Speaker 1: month old as you progress in your journey, and you
Speaker 1: also get this really cute certificate that meant that would
Speaker 1: have meant so much to me, or it just says, hey,
Speaker 1: you are amazing no matter how much milk you produce.
Speaker 1: Congratulations for making it to three months or two months
Speaker 1: or however long. Oh I just got goose bumps. I
Speaker 1: just got to goose bumps. I think that's really important.
Speaker 1: I would have loved that too. And I try to
Speaker 1: give that to my friends who are breastfeeding, you know
Speaker 1: who are like, oh shit, I you know, I'm giving
Speaker 1: formula too, And I say, you're doing uh may zing.
Speaker 1: Besides all the classes, um that are free and all
Speaker 1: of these ways to help our mama's tell me about
Speaker 1: the Milky Mama's Scholarship Fund. Oh yeah, so last year, um,
Speaker 1: we launched a scholarship fund. Um. When I became a
Speaker 1: lactatian consultant and i'd be CEO sed International Board certain
Speaker 1: Lactation Consultant, I realized that there weren't very many, like
Speaker 1: there's a group on Facebook of black lactation consultants, but
Speaker 1: they earned a lot of us in there. And I
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out what are the numbers, and
Speaker 1: I found out that less than one percent of lactation
Speaker 1: consultants are black, which is kind of sad because representation
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, you know. And when you pair that with
Speaker 1: the fact that Black women have the lowest rate and
Speaker 1: breastfeeding when it comes to any other race, and Black
Speaker 1: infants are dying at multiple, you know, rates higher than
Speaker 1: any other race, you kind of start to think that
Speaker 1: everything is connected. And then you also think about all
Speaker 1: the generational and trauma and slavery and all of that
Speaker 1: other stuff that just creates this big giant ball of crap. Right,
Speaker 1: So I realized that something had to change, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of not only raise representation by being
Speaker 1: a black woman showing hey, I breastfed and I you know,
Speaker 1: I support you, um, but also allowing others that wanted
Speaker 1: to support other women and wanted to help women learn
Speaker 1: how to rescue as well, um that are women of color,
Speaker 1: to achieve their dreams. So we started the Milky MoMA
Speaker 1: Scholarship Foundation, where last year we ordered thirty applicants with
Speaker 1: certification to become alloctation consultant or if they had already
Speaker 1: completed the ninety hour course we paid for their example
Speaker 1: to become an International Board certified Victation consultant. I have
Speaker 1: goose bumps. Again, doesn't happen to me much these days,
Speaker 1: but because I'm so tired of two children. But oh
Speaker 1: my god, that is just really important, awesome work that
Speaker 1: you guys are doing to make change and to keep
Speaker 1: on the topic of race and you being a black
Speaker 1: woman entrepreneur starting this business yourself, which by the way,
Speaker 1: the community reaches over five hundred thousand Milky Mamas worldwide,
Speaker 1: which is incredible, and congratulations on this, but you run
Speaker 1: this business by yourself. In an Essence magazine, you noted
Speaker 1: that in the beginning you actually framed from being the
Speaker 1: face of the company because you were afraid that if
Speaker 1: people knew you were black, you wouldn't get sales. So
Speaker 1: what changed that for you? A day Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I never did lives. I would never show
Speaker 1: who I was um. And so one day I got
Speaker 1: off work. A lot of people were asking questions and
Speaker 1: doing like and I couldn't keep up with answering them all.
Speaker 1: And I was like, you know, it would be easier
Speaker 1: if I just went on live. And I just kind
Speaker 1: of struggled with myself and I said, you know what, effort,
Speaker 1: Let's just do it. And so I went on Facebook
Speaker 1: Live and showed my face and just said, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: Crystal on the Owner, and just act like I was
Speaker 1: as confident as I could be, even though I was
Speaker 1: terrified inside. And they loved it, and they wanted me
Speaker 1: to come back every week and nothing changed. And I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, every now and again we get some crazy
Speaker 1: around Black Breastfeeding Week, which is the last week in August.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, you know, I've been really
Speaker 1: embraced by the breastfeeding community, which has has been really
Speaker 1: you know, I opening and really inspiring to let me
Speaker 1: know that hopefully, you know, the world is changing and
Speaker 1: that women of color and black business owners can not
Speaker 1: be afraid to show that they're a black owned business
Speaker 1: and it really shouldn't have to be a thing that
Speaker 1: we're a black owned business and we're just a business owner.
Speaker 1: What are your dreams for Milky Mama in the future,
Speaker 1: Oh wow? Um. I hope that we continue to reach
Speaker 1: parents all over the world. I hope that through our
Speaker 1: company that parents everywhere that choose to breastfeed or choose
Speaker 1: not to breastfeed or whatever. Just figdn a place of
Speaker 1: support where they can come and just get non judgmental,
Speaker 1: unbiased support for their feeding journey and their parenting journey.
Speaker 1: And I hope that we develop new products we already
Speaker 1: are kind of like the cheesecake factory actation products. What
Speaker 1: advice do you have for other parents who might have
Speaker 1: a great entrepreneurial idea like yours to change the world?
Speaker 1: You know, go for it. There are lots of tea
Speaker 1: and cookie companies in the world, right but walk down
Speaker 1: the bread out there hundred different types of breads. But
Speaker 1: that didn't stop the next bread company from starting their company.
Speaker 1: If your product or service solves a problem, people need it.
Speaker 1: You know, we need more problem solving things in the world.
Speaker 1: So go for it. And I support you, Crystal. I
Speaker 1: just think you're so wonderful. Thank you. I think your
Speaker 1: whole business Milky Mama is so inspiring. I think how
Speaker 1: hard you work and the incredible efforts you're making to
Speaker 1: try and fix the horrible disparity in lactation consultants and
Speaker 1: all of that is just huge. Between the fund and
Speaker 1: all of your access to education surrounding breastfeeding is awesome.
Speaker 1: Thank you and thank you so much for coming on
Speaker 1: Katie's Crib. And I encourage everyone to follow Milky Mama
Speaker 1: on Instagram to crush those drinks and smoothies and cookies
Speaker 1: and really use Milky Mama as your source to help
Speaker 1: yourself and help your friends on your breastfeeding and feeding journey.
Speaker 1: All of it um and Happy Breastfeeding Awareness Month. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the month it is Black Breastfeeding
Speaker 1: Awareness Week, and there's also many other weeks. There's Latin Um,
Speaker 1: there's Hispanic, there's need of American, there's Asian, and there's
Speaker 1: so many drop the month and will be highlighting every
Speaker 1: single one UM this month, So stay tuned, stay tuned everybody.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to Katie's Crib. Please share, like, subscribe,
Speaker 1: tell your friends, and also I want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: I'm always reachable at Katie's Crib at Shonda land dot com.
Speaker 1: Bye guys. Katie's Crib is a production of Shonda Land
Speaker 1: Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: Story the story story story You can never know, never
Speaker 1: until you try. You the you can need to right