As many of my readers know, once I retired from Noe Valley Pediatrics, I started working at a startup called Oath Care. Oath was a platform that offered education and support to new families. I was so lucky to meet and get to work with an exceptional team.
Oath’s founding pediatrician, Dr Ted and I found that we loved to collaborate. We got in the habit of meeting (virtually) most weeks and diving into a topic.
Last year it became apparent that mastitis treatments were not as clear as one would hope.
The protocols had undergone significant shifts. Instead of treating it with warmth, massage and vibration, the new rules now are almost the opposite! The new strategy is to use ice, anti-inflammatories and rest. That is quite a contrast. We wanted to help get the word out.
In order to make sure that all of the Oath’s breastfeeding support team was up to date, Dr. Ted and I spent months reviewing all of the current data and putting together a resource of ‘all things breastfeeding related’, to be used in-house for our providers. As a bonus, Dr. Ted was able to wow the nursing moms in his practice at East Bay Pediatrics with all of his knowledge.
When we wrapped up the project, we didn’t think any more about it and moved right along to fresh topics.
Sadly Oath shut down in December of 2023.
On February 25, 2024, my daughter Lauren had her second son. Her first time around with nursing had been fraught with challenges including miserable mastitis more than once.
It occurred to me that the breastfeeding resource that we had created might be useful, so on the last day of February, I went into my old Oath account’s drive and shared the document with her.
Lauren is someone who likes data. She liked the format and found the info to be valuable.
The very next day, on March 1, I tried to go back in to take another look at the document and found that my Oath email was no longer in existence. I had known this would happen at some point and had transferred any important data. But it hadn’t occurred to me that I would no longer have access to documents on the drive.
It turns out that I had shared it with Lauren just in the nick of time. Since she had a copy, Ted and I didn’t lose all of our work.
With Lauren’s encouragement, Ted and I decided to go back in and shift the intended audience from providers to the moms who are trying to make breastfeeding work for them.
We have cobbled together a resource that hopefully addresses most issues that come up.
We have been lucky to be able to collaborate with Lactation guru, Nest Assured Julie Hartman and the incomparable designer Nancy Elle. Lauren has also been generous with her feedback and input (in between feeding Coby).
We think that it will be a wonderful resource and are hoping to be able to wrap it up for next week.
So why am I writing this?
Our post is already LONG and fairly comprehensive, but I would like to ask mamas who have had a good breastfeeding experience if you have a favorite tip? Tool? Pearl?
Is there something you wish you would have known? If you are willing to share your wisdom, feel free to comment or simply email me!
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