Hello Candi, and welcome to Lactnet. I wish you well with your studies.

There was a discussion recently about this topic on another list I am
on and I posted the following, which I thought seemed appropriate
here as well:

<<On this topic, I found Prof Teresa De Costa's talk at the ALCA
conference last year interesting - especially the question time at
the end (as her actual presentation was rather technical!) when there
was a discussion on weight loss (or not) during lactation as 'normal'
and expected.

She pointed out that there are metabolic adjustments in the mother's
body to compensate for the increased demand for calories, so that she
*does not* lose weight. In the majority of the world's population,
mothers cannot afford to lose weight, or would be too weak to work
and sustain their babies.

Remember that the vast majority of the world's mothers do not have
the luxury of extra food during pregnancy and lactation, and many
endure the 'hungry season' where there is not enough food to go
around, even for those not needing to supply calories for 2. When you
think about it, *we* in the Western, well-fed world are the
exceptions - wanting to lose weight during lactation. It seems that
some of us do - but I wonder if this is the individual body's
response to lack of nutritional stress - that some mothers have more
of a change in their metabolism than others and some would be 'better
breeders' in other less-fortunate countries than others.

Anyway, I believe we should not use weight loss during lactation as a
'benefit' of breastfeeding, and accept that *some* mothers shed
weight at various times during lactation and some don't until after
weaning, and that all are 'normal'. I think it just creates anxiety
and sets up some for disappointment to use this as a selling point
for promoting breastfeeding.>>

Prof De Costa is from Brazil. I am not familiar with any publications
of hers, but I would expect there to be some. They may not be in
English though.

Hope this is helpful.

Joy
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Australian Breastfeeding Association counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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