Your Breastfeeding Questions Answered, Part One - with Dr. Gabriela Maradiaga Panayotti

We advertise breastfeeding as if it's easy, with moms and babies figuring it out as naturally as breathing air. We lie.

Sure, it does come very easily to some moms. And even those who have challenges early on can often get to a point where breastfeeding is natural and simple.

But for most women, nursing a baby presents a host of questions and challenges -- some when you're first starting out, and others popping up as time goes on.

In fact, this is a special episode because I crowdsourced questions from followers of my Facebook page, and you responded in force -- with tons of questions and stories of your nursing triumphs and challenges.

My guest in this episode is the outstanding Dr. Gabriela Maradiaga Panayotti. She is the medical director of the Duke Children's Healthy Lifestyle Clinic, a former medical director of the Duke Regional Newborn Nursery, and helps lead the Breastfeeding Task Force for Duke Children's Primary Care.

You submitted so many questions, we're going to have a Part Two to this episode soon. In this Part One, we cover tons of breastfeeding topics, including:

• What you can do before the baby comes to get a head start on successful nursing
• What to expect in the first few weeks of nursing a baby
• Signs of a good latch & how to get it
• Pain -- what's normal and what's not
• Emotional changes while nursing
• Tongue ties
• How to tell if your baby is getting enough
• Supply issues -- both undersupply and oversupply
• What to do when your baby starts sleeping through the night
• How to build up your supply if it starts to decrease
• Medications & nursing
• Transitioning back to work
• Weaning
• ...and a whole lot more!

Tag me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and let me know what you think about my conversation with Dr. Gabriela Maradiaga Panayotti -- and send in any questions you want to see in Part Two!