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Breastfeeding

Lactation Services

For one-on-one assistance with breastfeeding, please call (559) 624-6012.
Located at 400 W. Mineral King, Visalia, CA
Mother Baby Unit, 3rd floor of the Acequia Wing

We Can Help!

  • Latch difficulties
  • Slow weight gain
  • Baby not regained birth weight at 2 weeks
  • Sore nipples
  • Decrease in milk supply
  • Severe engorgement
  • Free weight checks

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommend exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first 6 months from birth and beyond for as long as mutually desired by mother and child. But your baby benefits from any amount of breast-feeding you can do.

Benefits of Breastfeeding

For Baby​​

  • Early skin-to-skin contact and suckling may have physical and emotional benefits
  • Reduces the risk for certain allergic diseases, asthma, obesity, and type 2 diabetes
  • Improves infant's cognitive development
  • Decreases chances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, ear infections, vomiting, diarrhea, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, or certain types of spinal meningitis
  • Lowers respiratory tract infections, such as croup, bronchiolitis, or pneumonia.
  • Less likely to develop childhood acute leukemia and lymphoma than those who receive formula
  • Less likely to be obese in adolescence and adulthood
  • Less vulnerable to developing both type 1 and type 2 diabetes

For Mother

Reasons to start breastfeeding:

  • Reduces maternal bleeding after delivery
  • Supports uterus involution
  • Facilitates positive metabolic changes
  • Facilitates postpartum weight loss
  • Reduces stress
  • Delays ovulation

Reasons to continue breastfeeding:

  • Increases postpartum weight loss
  • Prolongs lactational amenorrhea
  • Decreases visceral adiposity
  • Reduces risk for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.

What are the recommendations for breastfeeding?

In the United States, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) currently recommends:

  • Infants should be fed breast milk exclusively for the first 6 months after birth. Exclusive breastfeeding means that the infant does not receive any additional foods (except vitamin D) or fluids unless medically recommended.
  • After the first 6 months and until the infant is 1 year old, the AAP recommends that the mother continue breastfeeding while gradually introducing solid foods into the infant's diet.
  • After 1 year, breastfeeding can be continued if mutually desired by the mother and her infant.

The World Health Organization currently promotes as a global public health recommendation that:

  • Infants be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months after birth to achieve optimal growth, development, and health.
  • After the first 6 months, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to 2 years of age or beyond.

Human milk provides virtually all the protein, sugar, and fat your baby needs to be healthy, and it also contains many substances that benefit your baby's immune system, including antibodies, immune factors, enzymes, and white blood cells. These substances protect your baby against a wide variety of diseases and infections not only while he is breastfeeding but in some cases long after he has weaned. Formula cannot offer this protection.

This defense against illnesses significantly decreases the chances that your breastfeeding baby will suffer from ear infections, vomiting, diarrhea, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, or certain types of spinal meningitis. Infants under the age of one who breastfed exclusively for at least four months, for instance, were less likely to be hospitalized for a lower respiratory tract infection, such as croup, bronchiolitis, or pneumonia, than were their formula-fed counterparts children who breastfeed for more than six months are less likely to develop childhood acute leukemia and lymphoma than those who receive formula.

Recent research even indicates that breastfed infants are less likely to be obese in adolescence and adulthood. They are also less vulnerable to developing both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Source: US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health


More Support: Baby Nursery Care Team

Our staff includes certified lactation counselors, childbirth educators, and nurses. Our mission is to help make breastfeeding easier by giving one-on-one and/or over-the-phone support, we also have many years of experience educating, encouraging and helping women, men and babies.

We are committed to providing the highest level of service and care available. This is accomplished with our educational classes, support groups, breastfeeding resources and services, and more.

Free Weight Checks

New parents are welcome to come in and weigh their babies anytime between 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday - Friday. Some mothers are concerned about their milk supply or want to determine if baby is on the right track with their weight gain and may find this helpful. If you have a concern about the weight of your baby a one-on-one appointment can be made with our certified lactation consultant by calling (559) 624-6012.

Please note: If you or your baby are sick with a cold, we ask that you wait until you are well to visit us. This is for everyone's protection. We want everyone to feel comfortable when they bring their babies to our facility.