WEBVTT - How Feeding Babies Works: The Breast 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:07.920 San Francisco, the s s K treat Yes, San Francisco, Oakland, 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:11.200 the entire Bay area and dare I say, all of 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.640 Silicon Valley. Yeah, we love you. And we're coming back 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.520 to Sketch Fest this year in January. Yeah, we're gonna 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.120 be there on Sunday, January at one pm, a very 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.560 rare afternoon show. Uh, and we will be ready to go. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.040 So you guys better be drunk from the night before 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.280 or getting drunk for that evening. Yeah, however it crosses over, 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.680 I think it'll be proof positive that uh we endorse 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:39.600 afternoon drinking. You know, yeah, you know, a couple of drinks, 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.400 maybe i'd be bloody Mary. What were we talking about. Oh, yeah, 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.800 we're promoting our show. Oh, that's right. So we're doing 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.800 that show on January. Uh. You can go to the 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.720 s F Sketch Fest website to get tickets and it's awesome. 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.640 It's a great, great comedy festival. Lots of awesome shows 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:00.040 that weekend and for the following weeks. So I I 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.279 encourage you, like to buy lots of tickets just by 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.399 our first Yeah, and hurry, hurry, because they're selling out fast. 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.560 No joke, that's not a ploy that's not as a 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:13.280 marketing ploy. They're really selling fast. We get emails every time. Guys, 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:15.960 you told me to hurry, I didn't hurry. I'm shut out. 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.280 And since this promos petered out, it ends right now. 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.000 Welcome to Stuff you should Know front House Stuff Works 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:33.680 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:38.720 Clark and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and this is 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.479 stuff you should know. Just two of us again, that's fine, yea, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:50.800 two dudes. We're nipples, right, totally useless nipples though, Uh yeah, 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.040 we did a show why do men have nipples? In 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.280 um By the way, I think we should change the 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:01.000 name of the show to two dudes, four nipples. Okay, 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.160 might be onto something. Uh, And that factored in not 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.840 much to this podcast, but it just's worth mentioning. Yeah, exactly. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.720 And you have been wanting to tackle breastfeeding as a 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.119 topic for a long time. Yeah, And as I got 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:19.400 into it, I was like, we can't just to uh 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.440 how breastfeeding works. It's just too unwheeldy. It's got to 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.000 be too party. And I realized that it would be 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.680 folly to also name it how breastfeeding works, So we're 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.800 calling it how feeding Babies Works Part one in part two. Yeah, 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.160 we may friendship up though and call the second one 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.680 part who knows? Uh Yeah, And this one is, um 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.160 you you have been reticent to do this one because 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:47.480 it is fraught with anytime you're dealing with babies and moms, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:54.840 it is fraught with differing opinions. Differing Ah, not just 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.320 among people listening and how they feel about everything, but 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:04.400 from the medical commune, any differing different recommendations. So like 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:09.119 there isn't really one set way ever, and people think 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.560 like their way is the way. Your way is not 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.320 the way. There's a straight up culture war going on 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.680 over it. Yeah, and that's an easy way to say it. 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.480 So I see why you waded into this gently and 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.320 with some trepidation. But I feel like once once we 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.240 got in there, you know, we can we can talk 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.880 about anything agreed. But I think I said some of 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.360 that is a way of just saying, hey, if we 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:34.680 get some stuff wrong, if you if you disagree with 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.760 some of the stuff, we're just throwing it out there. Yeah, 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.800 And we're also we're going to try our best not 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:45.280 to man spain because this very easily could end up 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.240 being the very definition of man spaining what two men 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.080 doing a two part show on breast belt So we 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.280 we try not to do that. So if we do, 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.320 you can hold us accountable. But yeah, we're just trying 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.440 to deliver information that we found. Yeah, I'm none of this. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:05.560 I have no opinion on any of this. Actually, ready, okay, 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.800 So to start. Actually, one of the things that inspired 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.680 this was a really great, um, a really great article 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.600 by a woman named Angela. I'm not quite sure how 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.599 to say your last name, Garbage, maybe I'm It was 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:25.080 in The Stranger and um. She she was breastfeeding at 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.039 the time and was just fascinated by it. So she 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.520 wrote this really great article in The Stranger about breastfeeding 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.560 and um. One of the things she points out is 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.960 that when women breastfeed, they literally, she they quote literally 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:43.200 dissolved parts of ourselves, starting with the gluteal fomoral fat 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.960 a k a R. Butts and turn it into liquid 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.880 to feed our babies. In your mind was blown. Yeah, 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.479 there's just a lot of um, a lot of really 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.640 amazing stuff. When you start to look in the breastfeeding, 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.320 breast milk, what what the body is doing, it's pretty 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:05.800 mind blowing. Actually every single aspect of human reproduction. To me, 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:10.760 it is mind blowing, and not just human just period reproduction. Right. 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.880 Making a little thing inside of a body PEPs and 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.840 wee wee's cps and we's coming together to make another 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:24.400 living thing is just one of the most amazing, miraculous things. 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:29.120 It is pretty neat, just unbelievable. So with breast milk, right, um, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.719 there's different stages of of of breast milk production. There's actually, 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:36.440 I think, as far as I know, three stages of 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:41.159 what's called lacto genesis. Right. Stage one, um is the 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.960 basically the pre milk stage that happens before birth. Stage 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.760 two is what's called colostrum, which is a kind of 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.279 milk and not what you think of his breast milk. No, 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:57.240 it's it's basically and I'm going to accidentally use the 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.520 word designed a lot, but it's basically specifically designed to 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.640 feed of a baby for the first few days after 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.960 its birth. And then there's the third stage, which is 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:12.440 called milk maintenance. But the but the milk is made 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.200 this is pretty nuts. So you've got these little tiny 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.040 cell clusters called al viola, right, and that's where actual 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:24.279 milk production occurs and in these alveola, they basically they 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.200 have something called lacticites, and lacticites go into the bloodstream 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.839 and gather nutrients it needs to form the milk, right, 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.120 and depending on what is needed at any given point 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:40.279 in time, it will retrieve those nutrients and antibodies and 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.000 all that stuff and put them together and then create 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:48.279 the milk. That's pretty awesome. So the milk is literally 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:53.800 made from the woman's body. Okay, it's not delivered my 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:55.840 guy in a white hat, right, but there's no like 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.360 milk store or anything like that. At any given point 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.200 in time, the the actual components of a woman's breast 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.159 milk is different from maybe what it would be the 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:09.039 next day or later that night or a week before. Yeah, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.160 it's pretty cool. It's its own recipe on a day 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.720 to day basis. Um, which we'll talk more about that 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.040 cool stuff later too. Uh So it is uh low 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.440 and fat, but really high in proteins and carbohydrates. Well, 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:27.640 the the calostroum is Yeah, that that first yellowish um 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:33.080 thick as you call it, a thick golden liquid, which, um, 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:34.800 that's a good way to describe it. If you've ever 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:36.320 seen it. Like you know, you can just type it 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.920 in and images and that'll that'll have pictures of it 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.280 next to um breast milk, and you can it's a 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:44.880 pretty stark difference and it looks like But the whole 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.160 point is that is it's super easy to digest for 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.760 a newborn baby and gives that baby exactly what they 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:56.400 need two get going in life. Uh, including you know 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.280 that it gives them a head start, including having lacks 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:02.640 of effect to get rid of that first poop, which 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:07.000 is called the maconium um, which is as a waiting 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.000 on that first poop is a very big deal because 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.520 then you know things are moving as it should, and 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.360 then you know then it's nothing but poop. Um. And 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.880 a breastfed baby has a little bit different poop than 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.960 a formula fed baby. Um. It's a little more yellowish 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:27.720 than brown, and supposedly doesn't smell quite as bad. Um. 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.800 That's what they say. I've seen that it actually smells 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:36.760 a bit like buttermilk. I don't know, altogether unpleasant and um. 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.960 Because the breast milk is well absorbed. Babies who are 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:44.320 breastfed are very rarely constipated too. Yes, so you got 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.199 that's the colostrum, and after several days, the colostrum um 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.360 goes away and is replaced instead by what's called mature 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.920 breast milk. The good stuff, the yeah, the stuff you 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.920 think of when you think of breast milk. So um. 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.280 It's about three to five percent fat and is chock 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:08.520 full of minerals and vitamins UM, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.560 vitamins A, C, and E long chain fatty acids uh 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:18.120 that are both omega three's and omega six is UM. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.160 And then you also have lactose. It's the principal carbohydrate, 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.679 right and um. Liketose is important because it's just a huge, 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:31.400 wonderful energy source. Um. And it also has the proteins 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:37.120 in it are a specific kind of protein their way proteins, right, So, 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.200 in in cow's milk or in um livestock milk, the 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.160 proteins usually casein, which isn't as easy to digest. In 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.640 breast milk, the protein is way, which is extremely easy 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:54.040 to digest for human babies. And then even more interesting, chuck, 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:58.040 there's something called oglio sacc rides. Yeah, this is amazing. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.960 These are sugars uh, like a hundred and fifty or 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.640 more and they are only in human milk. Yeah, that's 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.280 pretty astounding, right, So you're thinking, well, it's neat they're 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.360 they're nutrients that are only found in human milk, which 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.880 is for human babies. Makes sense with The weirder thing though, 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.480 is that these oglio sacarides can't be digested by the baby. 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.880 They're not actually for the baby. They're actually nutrients for 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.520 the gut flora in the baby's guts, in the baby's 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.319 stomach to help it digest food. Even better, so it's 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.680 actually food for the microbiome of the baby in the 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.600 breast milk. It's amazing, man, I just keep wanting to 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.600 drop this mind. I think you're saying oglio sacarides. What 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.199 was it? What is it? Oh? Yeah, that's all right, 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.439 I misplaced the g That's okay, that happens, um. So 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:51.000 I know one of the big things too, that that 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.280 um has been amazed amazing you for a while because 0:10:55.320 --> 0:11:02.000 you've dropped this fact a lot lately, is that the 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.959 the human body. Uh, we know how the human body 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.040 fights off immunity, but something really unique happens when a 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.000 mother's breastfeeding a baby is it's a bit of a 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:15.040 two way street. There's a vacuum created um when the 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.160 baby is breastfeeding on the nipple, and if a baby 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:27.160 needs uh some sort of immune immunity response boost, then 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.840 the baby's saliva will actually enter back into the woman 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.800 through the nipple and Mommy, all of a sudden her 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.960 body says, oh, you're telling me that you need this 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.160 to fight off some sort of sickness perhaps, so now 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.080 my body will produce that and then render it back 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.760 to you in the breast. Unbelievable. Yeah, it's pretty pretty amazing. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.640 There's like receptors in the memory gland that analyze the 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:55.679 saliva for pathogens and then produce antibodies as a result. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.559 That's crazy awesome. Yeah, So the breast smoke is chock 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.920 full of nutrients. It's chuck full of um proteins and 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.040 fats and all this great stuff, as well as antibodies. 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.760 So the baby being breastfed has um this uh, this 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:16.440 established um microbiome, thanks in large part to what the 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.120 mom's breast milk is giving it. Yeah, and like you said, 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.319 like her despite all the things in the breast milk, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.520 a woman's body can also say, oh, you need this 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.920 to let me whip some of that up, right, because 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.080 I deliver that to you as well. Yeah, it's it's 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.760 pretty cool um and even cooler. Well, I don't know 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.200 if it's even cooler, right, I'm gonna keep saying that. 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:40.400 But there's when when UM a woman nurses, there's basically 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.400 two stages of the actual nursing. The first stuff to 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.920 come out is called four milk. It's kind of Finnish 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.400 and bluish and it's mostly water and it's meant to 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:55.040 look like for the baby's thirst had for hydration, right, 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.439 because a baby can subsist for the first four to 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.920 six months of his life solely on breast milk, doesn't 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.560 even need water, it's getting it from that fur milk. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:05.360 And then the stuff that comes out after the four 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.120 milk UM is called hind milk, and that's the creamier 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.400 stuff that's higher and fat, and that's what fills the 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.200 baby up. Yeah. And so if if all this talk 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.280 of immunity of building and UH and stuff like that 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:22.680 makes you think that a breastfed baby might potentially be 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.720 UM less susceptible to illness than a formula fed baby, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:31.960 some studies show that that is possible. UM every situation 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.040 is different, of course. Uh. You you can have breastfed 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.280 babies that get sick a lot. You can have formula 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.800 fed babies that never gets sick. There is no like 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.640 across the board thing. But the World Health Organization and 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:48.199 the American Academy of Pediatrics both recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.200 at least six months because they do think it can 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:56.040 lead to fewer illnesses, fewer hospitalizations, or at least milder illnesses. Right. 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.120 And it's not just those two, the the UM, government 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:04.360 of the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, India, Japan, all of 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:09.600 them recommend that women breastfeed exclusively for six months. Right um. 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:16.040 But as Angela Garbas pointed out though this those health outcomes, 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:20.200 those positive health outcomes, they're relatives. Right. So, if your 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.280 baby is born in the West, in a developed nation 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.880 UM with state of the art technology, and is born 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:31.920 a relatively healthy baby, the the benefits from breastfeeding are 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.560 going to be much less than if you compare that 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.440 baby to a baby that's born in a developing nation 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:43.240 where the water um, the water available is um impure, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:48.280 a lot of disease perhaps um and uh and and 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.760 the country is generally poverty stricken, that baby will benefit 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:57.000 tremendously more from breastfeeding, uh than would the kid born 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:03.040 in the modern, developed, richer country. Yeah. Absolutely, um. And 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.600 also we'll see, we're gonna get into it for sure. 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.680 We we can't avoid it. But there's there's a lot 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:13.720 of conflicting studies on breastfeeding and health outcomes and the 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.080 benefits of it. But we'll wait into that later. Yes, 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.120 with our kevlar vest. Uh. So let's talk a little 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:25.280 bit more about some of them, the benefits of breastfeeding. Um. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.120 One of them is, if you just want to look 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:33.320 strictly at numbers, Um, if a woman's body produces something 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.360 for free that you would normally have to purchase in 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.760 a store, in the form of formula, then it's just 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:43.440 gonna be flat out cheaper. Um. This four number in 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.800 here is way low. Oh really, Yeah, it says in 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.000 the US, families can save an average of four dollars 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:54.280 a year even with the cost of a breast pump. Um. Yeah, 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.200 that's gotta be low because because you spend I think 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:02.320 the average cost of formula for a year is closer 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:08.360 tous um. And then subtract, of course for the breast 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.960 pump and stuff. But let's just say you'll save some money, right. 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:14.880 You'll also save having to get up and go to 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:20.680 the kitchen to make some formula or um, having to 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:25.480 uh wash out bottles, sterilized bottles, stuff like that. Yeah, 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:30.280 although I think most women probably do pump and dump 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:35.720 in bottles yeah these days. Yeah, so um yeah, saving money, 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:40.280 maybe saving a little inconvenience, that's one positive. Yeah. The 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.320 funny thing is that this little section this that comes 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.960 from the house stuff Works article on breastfeeding, it makes 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.640 it sound like breastfeeding is just so easy and convenient, 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.440 you know, like there's definite to it. Stop complaining. Yeah, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.320 so we should talk a little bit about these two 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:01.880 hormones that are super super important uh to breastfeeding and 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.360 period in life. Yeah, because these are definite benefits of breastfeeding. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.000 It's it's just not you can't argue with it. Yeah, 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:15.560 we're talking about oxytocin and prolactin and um. Prolactin. Prolactin 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.680 tells the milk hey make more milk, tells the glands 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.320 that it basically makes that production happen. Oxytocin is what 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.640 gets the breast milk to your baby. Milk let down 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:28.639 is what it's called. Yeah, which is kind of a 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.360 let down. Sounds like something bad, it does. I don't 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:34.680 know how they called it that, but yes, let down 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.320 is good in this case. But as long as you're feeding, breastfeeding, 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.600 or you're pumping, then your body is going to continue 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.800 to release that prolactin and it's just sort of a 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:48.600 feedback loop, right exactly. And and there's there's this neat 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:54.880 kind of um. It's all hormonal, right, prolactin, oxytocin, the hormones, 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.560 but there's this neat like hormonal balance where when your 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.920 breast gets full, milk productions throws down and then when 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.440 your breast empties, milk production speeds back up. It's pretty cool. 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:09.520 It is so Oxytocin specifically is really amazing. Uh. That 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.359 is a chemical messenger and it releases um released from 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.440 the brain and a lot of it. I mean, it's 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.520 not just something that happens with women. Oxytocin. We all 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:23.119 have it. Yeah, it's a social, promoting, promoting hormone exactly. 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.200 And skin on skin contact is where things is where 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:30.560 things get really interesting, right. It actually triggers the release 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:35.359 of oxytocin. Right, and there's if there's one thing that 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:41.520 a new mother's brain is primed to um to experience 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.960 its floods of oxytocin. And there they actually believe that 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.000 this is the the basis for the the incredible mother 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:56.280 infant bond that occurs. It's this huge surge of oxytocin 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:02.000 that takes place during labor after birth and is sustained 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.760 through skin to skin contact including breastfeeding. Yes, uh, and 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.840 this happens. This is another pretty amazing fact. In those 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:15.320 early stages of that that flood of oxytocin, nerve junctions 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.000 and parts of the mother's brain actually reorganized and it 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:22.840 becomes like, uh, maternal instinct becomes hardwired at that point, right, Exactly, 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:28.280 like the oxytocin receptors start to um to spread all 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:32.000 over the place in vast numbers. Right. And so when 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:36.240 the when the um these maternal behaviors, I guess you'd 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:37.840 call it if you want to talk about a woman 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:44.200 like you're a biologist, right, Um, the the oxytocin is released, 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.919 and so the the pattern is reinforced and it's like 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:53.120 you said, like the brain is structurally reorganizing into motherhood. Yes, 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:57.560 it's pretty astounding. Yeah, and they recommend, Like I've said 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:03.560 that after everything we've said, Um, let's say you don't breastfeed. 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.880 Let's say you uh aren't able to breastfeed, let's say 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:10.600 you have adopted your child. But there's all sorts of 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.600 scenarios maybe where you don't breastfeed. They still recommend that 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.760 skin on skin contact as soon as possible and as 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.520 much as possible. Um, and not just for mom. Um, 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.560 Dad's get in on that action. Uh. There's nothing better 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.240 than than laying chest to chest with a newborn baby. 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.880 And that skin on skin contact works the same way 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.639 with men. It's just not quite as a robust release 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.840 of oxytocin, right, But that there have been plenty of 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:45.240 studies that have shown that children who um don't have 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:49.399 that skin to skin contact, don't develop um as securely 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.320 in their brains, don't necessarily develop as robustly or at 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.240 least socially um as kids who do have the skin 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.720 to skin contact. A lot of people take that to 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.800 mean that breastfeeding is what's responsible for that. That's not 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:06.119 the case. Breastfeeding allows for that skin to skin contact, 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.560 so it does allow for that oxytocin release and the 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.399 child to develop more securely. But you, like you were saying, 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.560 you can also get the same thing from holding the 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.359 baby skin to skin without even breastfeeding. Yeah, and the 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:24.280 and the When this insecurity and underdevelopment occurs, it appears 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:30.600 to be from neglect, maternal and paternal neglect rather than um. 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.240 The fact that the breastfeeding is so great at it 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.280 the breastfeeding forces that essentially. Does that make sense? Yeah, okay, 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:43.160 so there's even more on oxytocin, right, the the oxytocin 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.040 prevents I saw a study that showed that mothers who 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:50.720 breastfeed had about half the levels of stress hormone release 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:55.640 as um mothers who didn't breastfeed. Um, it allows for 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:00.359 imprinting odor imprinting, yeah, for baby and mom. Right, so 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:05.159 I recognize your smell. Right. The baby um became accustomed 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.720 to the smell of its amniotic fluid in the womb 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.879 thanks to oxytocin. Well, the mother's breast smells similar to 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:18.680 the smell of the amniotic fluid, so the baby is 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:23.040 able to um find the mother's nipple after being born 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:26.280 just from that smell. Right. All of this is fostered 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:31.800 from oxytocin, and it's it's um hardwired through oxytocin as well. 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:34.639 But our understanding of oxytocin and how it does it 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:41.120 is we basically you can replace oxytocin with saternal magic. Right, 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.040 there's like we just don't understand how it's doing all this. 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.440 We just know that it does thanks to rodent studies. Yeah, 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.600 that sounded funny, but it's true. Yeah. Um, and it 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:56.600 also reduces the your baby's stress hormone responses. So they've 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:00.000 done studies where they found it in um. Like let's say, 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:02.920 and I'm a continent of Africa where mothers tend to 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:05.760 carry their babies a lot more than like here in 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:08.959 the United States. Maybe that there the babies tend to 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:12.240 cry less and are able to soothe self soothe more, 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:16.880 and are just more suitable period because they're just simply 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:21.399 um held more. Yeah. Well, there's also supposedly studies of 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.760 i think children in Eastern Europe who are raised from 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:31.879 infancy and orphanages that were had had tremendous like social maladaptations, 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:35.040 and they traced it back to not having been held 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:38.880 as children. Like that's huge, it's huge. And apparently skin 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:44.160 skin on skin holding is the solution to that. Yeah, 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:46.000 we amly. I call it ski wee skin to win. 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:49.240 That came from our friend. We didn't make it up 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:52.560 except he was talking about like Friday night in the 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:57.960 hot tub. You guys just adapted it. Yeah, exactly, one 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:00.240 of the other amazing things. And then, um, we'll probably 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:03.320 take a break after this. But finishing up on oxytocin. 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:05.760 I feel like we could almost do a whole podcast 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.480 on oxytocin. Yeah, we really should. The wonder hormone. Um, 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:13.080 but with that high level, that big rush of oxytocin, 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:17.320 Mom's priority has actually become altered. And the brain says, 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:21.000 you know what, you don't have to uh groom yourself 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:23.320 and and try and make yourself look a certain way 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:26.600 to obtain a mate anymore. Now your priority is feeding 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:30.360 this little babe. And so it literally kind of switches 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:33.720 that off in the brain. So Mom's like, great, I 0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:36.440 don't have to, like now I groom my child. I 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:39.639 don't have to worry about myself as much. Why is 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:44.920 my hair so long? I'm gonna chop this off stupid necklace? Yeah, 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:47.200 pretty much. And it's I don't know, it's kind of 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:50.719 funny when you think about it. But uh, it's almost 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:53.800 like the body saying, take a break from that stuff, 0:24:54.280 --> 0:24:57.920 focus on babe for a little while, and uh maybe 0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:00.760 later on once the oxytocin goes down, once you want 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:04.920 another baby maybe. So uh. And prolactin is similar in 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:07.440 a lot of ways. We don't want to sell that short, 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:10.320 but um, it's in the maid in the pituitary gland 0:25:10.359 --> 0:25:15.160 in the brain helps people sleep, helps maintain reproductive organs, 0:25:15.480 --> 0:25:19.440 your immune system, and it's what prepares the mommy's breast 0:25:19.440 --> 0:25:24.360 to make breast milk. It also, um, while the mom 0:25:24.480 --> 0:25:29.480 is nursing, it is released and it has this kind 0:25:29.520 --> 0:25:32.680 of relaxing effect so that mom's just happy to sit 0:25:32.720 --> 0:25:36.520 there and breastfeed, not after like worry about getting up 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:39.560 and doing something else. She's just content doing that. Yeah, 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:42.760 it's all it's all of this is design to keep 0:25:42.840 --> 0:25:46.080