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Home › Articles › Breastfeeding Basics › Write Your Way to Success

Write Your Way to Success

Why and How to Keep a Breastfeeding Journal

By Teri Brown

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New motherhood is filled with challenges and uncertainty. How often should you change the baby? How often should Baby be bathed? When will Baby's umbilical cord drop off?

If you breastfeed your baby, you may have additional worries and concerns. Am I doing this right? Is Baby getting enough to eat? Do I have enough milk? One way you can minimize these concerns is by keeping a breastfeeding journal.

Laura Rees of Columbus, Ohio, found that keeping a breastfeeding journal helped. "It was very helpful because it helped me keep track of which side to start on," she says. "It also helped me monitor how much the baby was eating, since I had a good record of how many times he had eaten during the day – and night."

For Laureen Hudson of Vallejo, Calif., keeping a journal helped her keep track of a baby with food sensitivities. "My older boy is sensitive to corn, dairy, artificial colors and flavors and citric acid," she says. "I figured all this out from journaling about what I ate and how he reacted. My younger boy didn't have half the health problems the older did because of all I learned from the process."

Why Keep a Journal?
Brenda White, a register nurse and international board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) at The Washington Hospital Center and Saphia Lifestyle Beverages for pregnant women, believes that breastfeeding journals can be vital to breastfeeding success. According to White, current studies show that approximately 65 percent of new mothers choose to breastfeed their babies prior to discharge from the hospital, but that most discontinue during the first six weeks postpartum. Why such a high number?

"Studies have found that new mothers are overly concerned that their milk supply is not sufficient to meet their baby's nutritional needs and may introduce a bottle prematurely when everything is, in fact, going well," White says. "The initiation of a daily breastfeeding journal during the immediate postpartum period and after discharge will heighten your awareness and ability to assess whether breastfeeding is going well and whether you need to contact a lactation consultant or other healthcare provider." White believes the journal is also a valuable source at subsequent visits to the pediatrician, who can quickly summarize how breastfeeding is progressing by tracking your journal entries.


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