This week, I’m delighted to be joined by returning guest, the fabulous Kathryn Stagg IBCLC—also a musician, parent, and qualified neurodiversity coach—to discuss ADHD and breastfeeding. Kathryn explains ADHD subtypes, why the label can be misleading, common overlap with autism and other neurodivergences, and how diagnosis often follows identification in a child. She shares about her own assessment and how diagnosis improved self-awareness and self-forgiveness, alongside mixed experiences with medication. We explore how ADHD can help breastfeeding through antenatal hyperfocus and responsiveness, but can make difficulties like triple feeding, planning, and accessing support harder due to executive function challenges and rejection sensitivity dysphoria. Kathryn shares some practical support strategies, and discusses some challenges with sensory sensitivities, breastfeeding aversion, app-related anxiety, and perimenopause effects.

My picture book on how breastfeeding journeys end, The Story of Jessie’s Milkies, is available from Amazon here - The Story of Jessie's Milkies. In the UK, you can also buy it from The Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London. Other book shops and libraries can source a copy from Ingram Spark publishing.

You can also get 10% off my books on supporting breastfeeding beyond six months and supporting the transition from breastfeeding at the Jessica Kingsley press website, by going to https://bit.ly/JKPbooks and using the code MMPE10 at checkout.

Follow me on Instagram @emmapickettibclc or find out more on my website www.emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com

Resources mentioned -

ADHD and Breastfeeding - The Breastfeeding Network https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/factsheet/adhd-and-breastfeeding/

You can follow Kathryn Stagg on her website https://kathrynstaggibclc.com/ or @‌kathrynstaggibclc on instagram

And thank you to FeedSpot for listing me as #7 in the top breastfeeding podcasts list https://podcast.feedspot.com/breastfeeding_podcasts/

This podcast is presented by Emma Pickett IBCLC, and produced by Emily Crosby Media.

This week, I’m welcoming Hannah Norris all the way from Melbourne, Australia, to talk about becoming a mother through IVF in her 40s and breastfeeding both her daughters. Hannah describes giving birth to her first baby, Twyla, in London during COVID: plans for a home birth changed, she advocated for herself when her platelets dropped, and she had a positive hospital birth despite limited access for her partner postnatally. Breastfeeding began smoothly but became difficult with engorgement, and Zoom support and education helped her push through, despite a stressful encounter with a midwife. Hannah later sought my help to gently wean Twyla around age three, ahead of long-haul travel where she used to rely on feeding. After Twyla was hospitalised with bacterial meningitis, Hannah decided to have a second child, using a remaining frozen embryo for an unmedicated transfer. She moved to Australia before the birth, but successfully negotiated a low intervention hospital birth for Maeve. SVT episodes led to a longer hospital stay, but they established breastfeeding well, and Maeve is thriving at four months.

My picture book on how breastfeeding journeys end, The Story of Jessie’s Milkies, is available from Amazon here - The Story of Jessie's Milkies. In the UK, you can also buy it from The Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London. Other book shops and libraries can source a copy from Ingram Spark publishing.

You can also get 10% off my books on supporting breastfeeding beyond six months and supporting the transition from breastfeeding at the Jessica Kingsley press website, by going to https://bit.ly/JKPbooks and using the code MMPE10 at checkout.

Follow me on Instagram @emmapickettibclc or find out more on my website www.emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com

Resources mentioned -

Cordelia Uys https://www.cordeliauys.co.uk/

This podcast is presented by Emma Pickett IBCLC, and produced by Emily Crosby Media.

This week’s guest is the inspiring Alexandra Baskerville, who is talking about breastfeeding after breast reduction surgery aged 19. Alexandra describes having very large breasts as a teen, choosing reduction surgery in 2010, and later becoming a mother at 34. Her daughter Connie’s birth was a home birth, and early feeding was complicated by Connie’s small size, slow weight gain, nipple pain, suspected tongue-tie, and the extra uncertainty of reduced milk-making capacity. An NHS lactation appointment left Alexandra feeling she had been told to stop, despite only giving small top-ups, so she sought private help from IBCLC and tongue-tie practitioner Polly Powell, who improved her pumping setup, offered support, and eventually arranged a tongue-tie procedure at around 10 weeks. Alexandra triple fed and pumped for months, and although it took longer than expected for her full supply to come in, she stopped pumping around 10 months, and is continuing breastfeeding at nearly 14 months.

My picture book on how breastfeeding journeys end, The Story of Jessie’s Milkies, is available from Amazon here - The Story of Jessie's Milkies. In the UK, you can also buy it from The Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London. Other book shops and libraries can source a copy from Ingram Spark publishing.

You can also get 10% off my books on supporting breastfeeding beyond six months and supporting the transition from breastfeeding at the Jessica Kingsley press website, by going to https://bit.ly/JKPbooks and using the code MMPE10 at checkout.

Follow me on Instagram @emmapickettibclc or find out more on my website www.emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com

Resources mentioned -

BFAR - Breastfeeding After Breast and Nipple Surgeries https://www.bfar.org/index.shtml

IBCLC Polly Powell is @‌pollythemidwife on Instagram and https://www.polly-powell.co.uk/

Plastic Surgery and Breastfeeding - Physician Guide to Breastfeeding https://physicianguidetobreastfeeding.org/surgery-and-breastfeeding/plastic-surgery/#breast-reductions

Guidance on goats’ milk formula https://infantmilkinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Cows-and-goats-milk-protein-based-infant-formula_February-2025-1.pdf

This podcast is presented by Emma Pickett IBCLC, and produced by Emily Crosby Media.