Eastern Ranges Lactation

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Eastern Ranges Lactation

Eastern Ranges Lactation offers one-on-one personalised breastfeeding support and education tailored to you, your baby and lifestyle.

28/08/2026

The truth IS - breastfed baby's don't drink or NEED increasing feed volumes as they get older & bigger because the COMPOSITION of breastmilk changes and grows with them. 🙌

Total average daily intake of breastmilk consumed by an exclusively breastfeeding baby after 6-8 weeks is around 750-950mls.

It's normal for milk volumes to fluctuate as a breastfeeding journey continues, but your baby isn't drinking higher and higher volume feeds as they grow.

Once your baby is eating other foods & drinking water after 6 months of age, peak feed volumes start to decrease, not increase!
This is what naturally happens!

The idea that baby's need increasingly larger bottles is driven by recommendations on formula tins 😡 This information comes from formula companies themselves & is over inflated right from birth to sell more formula! 💰
It's also based on larger less frequent feeds which breastfed baby’s just don't do. And from the expectation that babies should be sleeping & do not need to feed overnight 🤯

Medical feed volume calculations cited a lot after birth working on mls/kg/day decrease not increase as a baby gets older.✅
From 6 months this calculation is down from to 100ml/kg/day. You do the maths?? An 8kg baby only would need 800mls of milk a day.
A 100- 120ml bottle feed would be plenty! A breast baby would never need 200mls of breastmilk in a bottle!
Some may drink if it is offered YES, but do they NEED it - NO!

So plessd don't be fooled and please don't stress mumma 🙏 You don't need to be pumping more and more milk to keep up with your growing baby!
Your clever body & constantly changing breastmilk does this for you 🙌
Your milk supply is healthy, perfect & just fine 🙏

24/08/2026

Breastfed babies absolutely need to snack!!
Small tummies need small frequent
portions ✅
Human milk is to quench thirst as well as for hunger ✅
Think how humans eat and drink?
How many times do we wet our whistle and take a slurp out of our drink bottles?
Think how toddlers eat?
Toddlers graze - this is developmentally appropriate ✅
Babies are no different!!
A baby is a not a robot or
tamagotchi programmed to eat on a schedule 🤷‍♀️
They don’t eat “full” meals at every breastfeed.
Feeds are short, quick, effective, frequent and unpredictable ✅
Appetite fluctuates, thirst fluctuates, the need for comfort fluctuates and milk production fluctuates.
Breastfeeding is organically matched to match a human. A tiny human with unpredictable needs.
Get into your flow and go with it, and be prepared to change as the flow changes. Babies are forever changing.
Breasts can never be drained or emptied, they don’t need to be 🤷‍♀️
Frequent snacks, scattered with some longer meals at the breast is what drives healthy growth and a healthy sustained milk supply.
Don’t overthink it ✅
Block out the noise ✅

19/08/2026

Anxiety is a "normal" human emotion.
Every new mum will experience anxious thoughts.
Anxiety becomes "abnormal" when worrying or scary thoughts start to dominate the majority of our thinking and influence all or most of the decisions we make. Heightened anxiety makes normal functioning feel hard and scary.
Anxiety is MORE than just worry, it's an intruder and manifests as repetitive thoughts which visit too frequently and hang around long after they have been asked to leave.
It's a state of living in "fear" and a difficultly in the ability to feel "safe"
Anxiety sabotages Joy 😔
Anxiety changes our perception of everything we can feel.
There is SO much to "feel" both physically & emotionally when breastfeeding. Heightened anxiety can manifest in physical lactational pain, it can drive behaviour causing many breast or baby concerns.

One example of this is a mother who is experiencing an intolerance for the feeling of “fullness" in her breasts.
Fear is driving this intolerance.
Her trying to “empty" her breasts is driving physical symptoms of mastitis.
The root cause of her reoccurring mastitis is ANXIETY.
I see quick fixes offered for symptom relief, without understanding or looking for the true underlying cause.

People we turn to for breastfeeding support often shy away from even contemplating anxiety is at play, due to their own personal discomfort, lack of skill & bias.
Some new mothers can mask anxiety well & still function at a high level. Some are not ready to acknowledge anxiety, some are waiting for us to help them to get help.
We need to meet people where they are at while not conjuring up incorrect physical pathology.
Humans are complex, pregnancy, birth and everything after is complex.
We are more than just physical beings. Women are transforming or evolving into a mother not just on a physical level.
So much is happening and mental health is in its most vulnerable state during this time of immense change and transformation.
The care I provide honours and acknowledges all of the parts that make us human. ❤️
Good lactation care, correct education, support and a respect for maternal mental health & how it is impacting on breastfeeding is what really helps.
Our emotional body is just as, or I would argue even more important than our physical body.
Treat and look after both 🙏

16/08/2026

Perfect day at Chelsea’s baby shower 🌸
My baby having her first baby 💕
Extra special sharing this experience with Luke’s mum Gail ❤️
This baby will be showered with love and this new mumma will be well cared for.
Not long to wait now 🙏 🐣🤱

02/08/2026

A very early start & a big day talking to many breastfeeding mums & expecting parents Belly, Birth & Beyond Gippsland
Spreading awareness around the changes to mastitis understanding and management. Many were unaware recommendations have changed and walked away feeling more knowledgeable and reassured 🙏
Perfect timing to be volunteering my time during world breastfeeding week 🤱
Early to bed for me tonight! 🤪

25/07/2026

The best and easiest way to meet a baby’s sensory needs and build sleep pressure is to use the outdoors and nature.
A baby can never “catch a cold” from being out in the cold. 🤷‍♀️
It’s quite the opposite; over winter, babies still need lots of exposure to natural daylight and fresh air to help build healthy immune systems and to help regulate sleep.
They need natural daylight hitting their retina (eyes) to help build healthy levels of vitamin D and melatonin.
Getting out in all weathers instead of staying home to focus on “wake windows” will help a cranky, bored baby feel happier and a tired mum feel less stressed. 🙏
Spending time out walking is so beneficial for maternal physical and mental health. It may seem the best and easiest option to stay home enclosed in four walls to keep warm, but it can honestly drive you and your bored baby mad!

16/07/2026

Dr Katrina Mitchell has taught me so much For the last 6 years. She has been my mentor and sounding block 😂
She has helped me to make sense of the
"lactation nonsense" I honestly wouldn't be where I am today and still specialising in this space if it wasn't for her friendship, knowledge and support 🙏
During all the times I have felt
totally gaslit while trying to question traditional teachings, she has been there to remind me to keep going!
Her book has been over 2 years in the making. I have helped Katrina to gather incorrect advice circulating so she could turn the lactation medical nonsense into sense. 🙏
Her book will help mums to "fact check" every social media and google breastfeeding myth out there. There are some missed as we couldn't keep up with the rubbish that is continuously emerging 😕
But she had to finish!!
It's for the mums, it's the truth.
It’s written by an incredible woman, breast surgeon and breastfeeding medical physician who is passionate not only about breastfeeding but about supporting, protecting & treating maternal mental health in the process 🙏🙏🙏
No wonder we get along so well 🙌

15/07/2026

If you want to resolve mastitis symptoms quickly, ICE, ICE, ICE.
The more you ice, the quicker mastitis improves.✅
It's cold and winter here in Melbourne, but it's SO worth the cold feeling to stop mastitis in its tracks!
You can place a warm heat pack on your neck, shoulders, or tummy if it feels too chilly
The sooner you can apply ice, the
quicker systemic flu-like symptoms disappear, and the quicker your breast feels softer, less swollen, and less painful. The erythema (skin redness) may spread and appear a little redder before it gets better and disappears; it will disappear with ICE.

And please remember, NO MASSAGING 🙏 SO IMPORTANT!!
Trying to "empty" and "drain" your breast to treat mastitis will worsen symptoms.

When managed swiftly and correctly, mastitis is so easy to treat. ✅
Mastitis is a common condition associated with the function of these highly metabolic glands regulating the speed of milk production. It’s so misunderstood 😕
Reach out if you need my help 🙏

10/07/2026

Can’t wait to be a part of this wonderful community event in Gippsland. 👶🤱🤰

08/07/2026

Ni**le wounds when mastitis is presenting are an association, NOT CAUSE AND EFFECT.
Mums who are experiencing engorgement and/or hyperlactation (oversupply) are more likely to have trouble latching and ni**le wounds. It is hyperlactation and engorgement that is causing mastitis ( which is nearly always not infectious and related to large blood flow and inflammation) NOT ni**le trauma 🤷‍♀️

The theory that bacteria has suddenly entered through a break in skin on the ni**le and spread infection throughout the breast is a flawed one!
Massage causing TISSUE trauma IS a common cause of infection in the lactating breast ✅ This is definitely not a made up myth. 🫤
Dr Katrina Mitchell has taught me that the lactating breast is extremely resistant to infection when it is managed correctly. ✅
Ni**les are meant to exchange bacteria. Bacteria grows on ni**les but it is not a problem and it definitely does not cause mastitis. Ni**les are not sterile and are actually very resistant to infection.
So often I see other things like blebs, fibrin ( a normal yellow fluid secreted during wound healing) , dried milk crusts etc mistaken for infection. 🤷‍♀️

Millions of years of human biology would not have created these “infection prone” bodily organs in healthy child bearing age women 🤷‍♀️
Lactating breasts were built to be resilient & essential for the survival of a human being!
Simply, if every woman who experienced ni**le trauma developed mastitis, the rates of mastitis would be ridiculously sky high!! The fear around mastitis needs to stop 🛑
Soon we will have Katrina’s book - “Go with the flow” to help correct this myth along with so many others which plague the lactation space 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Address

P. O. Box 735
Cockatoo, VIC
3781

Telephone

+61407810034

Website

http://www.easternrangeslactation.com/

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