We’re trying something a little different this week - Tara and I have created a section of the show especially for young people. If someone in your life would like to know more about periods, breast development and what else can change from the age of about 8 to 12 years, they should listen from 46:45 onwards. My guest this week, Tara Ghosh, is a certified women's health coach and period educator and runs workshops for young people about body changes and puberty. In this episode, she and I discu...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 99
If you have a baby, or are supporting parents of a baby, who has a Pavlik Harness, the chances are that you haven’t found much information about how to combine a Pavlik Harness with breastfeeding. I’m hoping this episode helps. I’m speaking to Cara from Midlothian, and Jodie from Essex, both twin mums who have breastfed babies through their treatment for hip dysplasia. They share their personal journeys: describing initial diagnoses, the harness fitting process, and their adaptations to continue...
Jun 23, 2025•54 min•Ep. 98
We often cover struggles and challenges on this podcast, but my guest this week, Shonagh Johnson, from East Lothian, is a great example of how well tandem breastfeeding can go. Although she had some nipple sensitivity, Shonagh found feeding her first daughter Freya relatively easy after a swift home birth. Despite having no expectations of how long they would feed for, she carried on throughout her pregnancy with her second daughter, Charlotte. During this pregnancy, Shonagh did experience avers...
Jun 16, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 97
Every so often a project comes along with the potential to radically change the experience of lactating parents. My guest this week, Amber, has one such project. Amber Clark is an infant feeding specialist nurse and IBCLC working in Wessex. Her work, the Early Breast Milk Improvement Project is all about improving outcomes for pumpers by fitting flanges properly and increasing pumping efficiency. In our conversation, we delve deep into the world of breast pumping and flange sizes. Amber shares h...
Jun 09, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 96
Sometimes the thing we need most is the space and time to figure it out ourselves. My guest this week, Becca from Oxfordshire, had a challenging start to breastfeeding her son, Rupert. A combination of a tongue tie, slightly inverted nipples, and troubles latching, led to severe nipple damage just days after Rupert’s birth. Becca turned to exclusive pumping to let her nipples heal, and days turned into weeks. Despite her struggles, Becca found hope and support through local breastfeeding groups ...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 95
My guest this week is Dr. Louise Goldsmith, a urologist and aspiring IBCLC from North London. Louise successfully breastfed her first daughter but was taken aback when that previous history didn’t protect her from a crisis of confidence second time around. Carrie’s feeding style was very different to Paloma’s, which surprised Louise and her husband, and they feared she was not receiving enough milk. But after a weigh-in confirmed that she had in fact gained weight since birth, things started to ...
May 26, 2025•50 min•Ep. 94
Vicky, my guest this week, is a fantastic example of successful breastfeeding at work. She is a nurse in a busy intensive care unit, who takes regular breaks to pump in a dedicated room, with the full support of her manager and colleagues. This success story is even better when you hear how she got to this place - her daughter Evie’s birth was painful and distressing, ending with a ventouse delivery. She struggled to breastfeed in the hospital, relying on expressing and syringes, and continued t...
May 19, 2025•56 min•Ep. 93
Many breastfeeding parents also choose to carry their baby in a sling or wrap as they go about their day. There are so many carriers out there to choose from that it can be an overwhelming decision. That’s where my guest today can help. Lizzy Allen is a babywearing consultant, but she's also a breastfeeding peer supporter, trained with the ABM. She runs Chester Sling Library, which offers support to families in person in Chester and in Northeast Wales and also online to families around the UK. W...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 92
Uni-boobing - feeding on just one breast - is more common than many of us think. Whether through child-preference, injury, or as a result of surgery, like my guest this week, it’s absolutely possible to exclusively breastfeed on just one breast. My guest, Coral, had duct surgery due to unexplained bleeding and a family history of breast cancer, in her twenties. Although she was told she probably could still breastfeed, it wasn’t until her son, Rowan, was born that the reality of exclusively brea...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 91
Back in 2020, Ann Owen felt like she was the only person in the UK breastfeeding a four year old. Not an unusual feeling for an extended breastfeeder, but Ann’s next step was unusual. She’s a photographer, specialising in documenting birth and post-partum journeys, so she started a project to meet and photograph other families with older nurslings. Now she travels all over the UK, meeting nurslings from 4-8 years old, with an aim of collating 100 photographs for her Milk Project. The Milk Projec...
Apr 28, 2025•51 min•Ep. 90
My guest this week, Sarah, is a great example of the power of self belief. Sarah’s twins, Louie and Robyn, were conceived through IVF during the COVID lockdowns, and had a tricky birth resulting in transfusions and a hospital stay. Throughout all this, Sarah knew that she wanted to breastfeed her twins, and advocated for herself despite busy maternity staff not providing the support they needed. She managed to establish breastfeeding with a combination of pumping and nipple shields, continuing w...
Apr 21, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 89
We’re doing something a little bit different this week, as you may have guessed from our title. I'm talking to Liz Lee-Smith, who is @thebirthhistorian on Instagram. She's an antenatal educator,a breastfeeding peer supporter, and she's a history nerd as well. And we’ll be discussing wet nursing, by looking at the lives of a handful of women through history. One note of warning, we will be talking about a story that involves baby death, and we do note that it’s coming up so that you can skip if ...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 88
There’s a common assumption that if you breastfeed, you can never be apart from your child, and you have to sacrifice career ambitions if you are going to breastfeed longer term. My guest this week is here to bust that myth, and show how you can both breastfeed and also travel for work. Jessica Greenfield is a singer-songwriter and member of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. She has continued to feed her daughter Ava, while touring with the band and balancing work. We talk about her relationsh...
Apr 07, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 87
My guest this week, Sarah Perry, is an author, lecturer and mum to two-year-old Zangi. She overcame a challenging birth, an extended hospital stay and inverted nipples, to meet her breastfeeding goals and continues to feed to this day. Sarah is also a wheelchair user and in this episode she shares some of her powerful writing about her experience of motherhood. We talk about breastfeeding with limited mobility, feeding positions in a wheelchair and other people’s reactions to mothers with disabi...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 86
The Story of Jessie’s Milkies is available from Amazon here: The Story of Jessie's Milkies Or, if you prefer not to use Amazon, ask your local book shop to order from our other publisher, Ingram Spark, and libraries can order from them too. This podcast is presented by Emma Pickett IBCLC , and produced by Emily Crosby Media .
Mar 26, 2025•4 min
Many parents who don’t meet their breastfeeding goals experience feelings of grief and even trauma that can affect their lives for years to come. This week I’m joined by the brilliant Dr Harriet Holroyd, a clinical psychologist and EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) practitioner, to discuss some approaches to resolving those feelings. We discuss some of the reasons for breastfeeding grief and trauma, and suggest some ways you can begin to find support if you or your loved one i...
Mar 25, 2025•56 min•Ep. 85
Too often I meet parents who have been told by their dentist that their toddler should stop breastfeeding because it contributes to tooth decay, so when I met this week’s guest, I knew I had to have her on the show to talk more about this issue. Dr Gillian Smith DDS is a dentist from Bray in Ireland, who specialises in treating children and patients with additional needs. Together we explore why dentists still say that breastfeeding contributes to poor oral health, what actually causes tooth dec...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 84
The advice and support that we receive in the early days of breastfeeding can have a profound impact on our journey. My guest today, Abby, had an experience with an unnamed IBCLC that really knocked her confidence, and could have had dire consequences, had she followed the incorrect advice she was given. Abby discovered that she had inverted nipples while preparing for the arrival of her son, Yardley, but she managed to find some adaptations that worked for her and initially feeding was working ...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 83
My guest this week ticks so many different boxes when it comes to breastfeeding experiences - birth trauma, tongue tie, mixed/triple feeding, tandem feeding, gentle weaning - but what we’re going to focus on in this conversation is aversion. When I asked many of you recently about your experiences of breastfeeding in pregnancy, many of you mentioned aversion. Bryony is a peer supporter from Norwich. After a traumatic birth and a very difficult start to breastfeeding, she fed her daughter Winnie,...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 82
This week, I’m pleased to be joined by Karly Proverbs, a specialist paediatric osteopath and maternal osteopath. She explains what an osteopath is, what goes into their extensive training, and what you can expect to happen during a consultation. We discuss the applications of osteopathy for breastfeeding babies and parents, including treatment of tension, torticollis, back and pelvic pain. Karly is @osteokarly on Instagram and @nourishandgrowlondon Her website is https://www.osteokarly.co.uk/ ...
Feb 25, 2025•55 min•Ep. 81
Trigger warning - In addition to maternal mental health and a discussion of postpartum psychosis, this episode deals with anorexia and disordered eating, which some listeners may find triggering. I’m honoured that my guest this week, Holly Crawley, is willing to share her story with us. Holly is a mother of three, who was diagnosed with anorexia in her teens, and suffered postpartum psychosis with her first child. After the birth of her third child, Imogen, Holly suffered relapses of both condit...
Feb 18, 2025•50 min•Ep. 80
Most of us who breastfeed, or work with breastfeeding parents, are on the look out for the symptoms of postnatal depression, but we aren’t always fully informed when it comes to a condition known as D-MER. This week I’m joined by two guests with personal experience of D-MER, experiencing waves of sadness and emptiness that only coincided with breastfeeding or the letdown reflex. Mum of three, Jen Hall, joins me to talk about her experience with D-MER in the UK, which was improved greatly by the ...
Feb 11, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 79
This week I’m delighted to be joined by American IBCLC Jacob Engelsman, whose new book, ‘Lactation for the Rest of Us’, is out now. Jacob and I talk about inducing lactation, for birthing parents and non-birthing parents, the drugs and supplements that are used to aid milk supply in different parts of the world, the mental health aspects of breastfeeding for queer, non-binary and trans people, and alternative ways to feed your baby. This episode is intended for members of the LGBTQ community, an...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 78
Thrush in a breastfeeding dyad has commonly been diagnosed as a response to pain, but my guest today is a part of an important global conversation asking us to look at the evidence more closely. I’m delighted to be joined by Dr Naomi Dow, GP and IBCLC to talk about her work to better understand what is going on, and reduce the over-diagnosis of nipple and breast thrush. In this episode we discuss the causes of nipple and breast pain, wounds and discolouration, including dermatitis, poor wound ma...
Jan 28, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 77
For part two of our Q&A session all about dads and partners, I’m once again joined by the brilliant Scott Mair. In this part, we answer questions on natural term breastfeeding, dealing with comments from family members, where to go for advice, and sex and intimacy after birth. I’m grateful to Scott for joining me in some honest and open, and not always easy, conversations. Find out more from Scott on Instagram @fatherhood__solutions_ My latest book, ‘ Supporting the Transition from Breastfe...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 76
For this special Q&A session all about dads and partners, I’m delighted to be joined by Scott Mair. Scott is an ex-military dad of seven children, and one grandchild, who specialises in fathers’ mental health and inclusion. Who better to answer your questions about how dads can support breastfeeding, how non-feeding partners can form a bond with their babies, and how to overcome embarrassment about breastfeeding in public? This episode is part one and we continue talking next week with a foc...
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 75
Another candidate for the breastfeeding hall of fame, my guest this week is Metasha who has fed her seven children over 20 years! Unlike many of my guests, Metasha’s story isn’t one of enormous challenges and struggles. Her attitude to breastfeeding and parenting has been to go with the flow, and to respond to her family’s needs, although she does admit that she sometimes lost herself in that process. Nearing the end of her breastfeeding journey with her youngest child, she is now beginning to f...
Jan 07, 2025•56 min•Ep. 74
For too many people, the first time they think about breastfeeding is when they are pregnant with their first child. If we are to change this, and normalise breastfeeding in our societies, we need to start with how we talk to children about breasts and babies. That’s why I’m delighted to be joined this week by Emma Rosen, a breastfeeding counsellor and secondary school teacher, to talk about what schools in the UK are doing now, and what we would like to see change in the curriculum. Emma Rosen ...
Dec 31, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 73
Back in episode 21, we explored breastfeeding and diabetes with Lucy Lowe IBCLC, and I’m delighted to be joined this week by Beth, to talk about her personal experience of breastfeeding her two sons, Sage and Jago, with her type 1 diabetes. We talk about how Beth’s long-term health condition affected her pregnancies, births and breastfeeding. We also cover prematurity, VBAC, aversion and weaning during Beth’s story. Beth Hawkins is a doula and holistic wellness practitioner. You can find her at ...
Dec 24, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 72
Trigger warning - Listeners who would prefer not to hear discussion of maternal suicide should skip from 44:48-46:00 minutes. This episode contains some conversational swearing. Francesca’s inspirational story is one of determination, positivity and courage. Led by attachment parenting philosophy, she tandem fed her twins, while also bringing up her 3 year old daughter, escaping a coercive relationship, and building her own business. Our conversation touches on PCOS, coercive control, breastfeed...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 71
