Skin-to-skin contact with your baby triggers the release of oxytocin, preparing you physically and emotionally for a breastfeed.

I ran a breastfeeding drop in for several years and encouraged mothers to use #babyledattachment . Almost without exception, as a mother prepared to position their baby against their bared chest, they would pop a brief kiss on top of their head. I also see this instinctive response when women hold babies in this position as they place them into a baby carrier. It is so automatic and so quick, I doubt they are even aware they are doing it. I have caught myself doing it with my grandchildren in the early days too.

Oxytocin is such an integral part of our body systems yet many people have little understanding of what it does.

I sometimes describe it as the hormone of pleasure and pain! It is the power behind childbirth yet also has an enormous role in bonding and love.

But it is is importance in lactation we often first hear of it by name. Oxytocin is the hormone which releases milk from the breast. Mothers usually know this as the let-down reflex but it is sometimes referred to as the milk-ejection reflex.

Toddlers in the second year wake in the night for many reasons. Sleep disruption due major developmental milestones is typical as significant mobility, dental and cognitive stages collide.

Expectations of night time parenting demands decreasing in the second half-year have nothing to do with evidence-based research. While babies begin to develop their own circadian rhythm from around 12 weeks, this does not mean they will begin to wake less.

So many women are under unnecessary stress because they can't express extra breastmilk to build a #freezerstash

Let's take a moment to unpack this: a mother is breastfeeding well. Her baby is thriving. But she feels she is failing because she isn't producing more milk than her baby requires! Breastfeeding is about supply and demand. The baby's feedback to the breast, through the removal of milk during a feed, drives milk production.

Until around the 1990s, Australian mothers generally only expressed breastmilk if their baby was sick or premature and unable to direct feed. Or her breasts were too engorged for her baby to attach. Other reasons to express were less common: separation due to work, study or social commitments etc. Electric breast pumps were only available by hire and often reserved for those with babies in special care nurseries. Hand pumps and hand expressing were sufficient for most mothers. Expressed milk might be frozen in small amounts but disposable bags were expensive and hard to get and freezer space was at a premium.

Ah, it's that time of day!

That time when your baby latches on to the boob around sunset and only come off the swap sides ... again. Quick nappy change and ... back on the boob. Into the baby carrier and ... boob. More boob while you prep Dinner, more while you eat dinner. Boob in front of the TV ... boob in bed while you scroll on your phone. Asleep! Ninja roll out from beside them to dash to the loo and ... okay, more boob!

And this is entirely normal!

Is it lots of feeds or one never-ending one? Does it matter?

"For more than a decade, May 19th has been celebrated annually as the international World Human Milk Donation Day. Originating in Brazil in 2004 as a national event, the day was created to promote the importance of donating human milk to non-profit human milk banks.

May 19th is now marked by milk banks and milk bank supporters globally - and with over 750 human milk banks in 66 countries - there are very many donors to thank! It is estimated more than 800,000 at-risk infants receive donor human milk each year, which suggests well over 1 million liters of milk are donated annually in support of optimal infant nutrition and breastfeeding."

Informal milk sharing is more common here in Australia, where there are still very few milk banks and access to most is limited to premature or sick infants.

We're not supposed to talk about it, especially to people about to become parents for the first time.

The reality of breastfeeding.

We don't want to put them off the whole idea. And if we discuss it with family and friends, they either want to help you "fix" it, convince you to stop it or - possibly worst of all - say you only have yourself to blame, "you wanted to breastfeed" or you are creating a rod for your own back "giving in all the time".

Reality check: babies spend more time on the breast than they do off it. And this is not only normal but it's optimal!

Breastfeeding and Babywearing:

It just makes sense to keep babies close to the breast. We know that human infants, like all primates, feed frequently. Despite what we are (mis)led to believe, it is not normal for breastfed babies to spend long hours sleeping away from their mother. Indeed, books and so-called "baby whisperers" have greatly undermined mothers confidence in the past decades.

Schedules, routines and charts suggesting feed times spaced neatly round the clock are not evidence-based. They are simply cut and pasted across generations since the first doctor intruded into the maternal space and tried to organise everything!

Breastfeeding.

How did the very foundation of life become such a triggering topic in the modern world?

Humans are mammals. The females of our species, like every other mammal, conceive, gestate, birth and lactate: it is a continuum.

For more than thirty years, supporting women to establish and maintain #breastfeeding so they can reach their goals has been central to my life. In 1984, I needed the wisdom and understanding of those who had breastfed to assist me in learning the skills of this natural process. Later, when my second and third babies came along, they brought their own challenges to overcome, building my knowledge base further.

Don't be fooled by the measurements on baby bottles or recommended quantities on formula cans: they have nothing to do with breastfed babies!

Each baby takes exactly what they need, when they need it, from the breast. When reserch was finally done on breastmilk intake over 24 hours, the results surprised everyone!

Surely all babies would be much the same?

Surely the daily volume would steadily increase over the first six months?

Surely every feed would be roughly the same?

Nope. Nope. Nope!

Who knew? Nature knew!

Growth spurts.

Appetite increases.

Fussy periods.

All new mothers know there are times when babies are extra unsettled due to development. When mothers come together to talk, they find their babies go through these stages at similar ages. “It’s just a phase” is commonly said to reassure them, by experienced mothers, doctors and nurses.

Breastfeeding is one of our five core beliefs.

But what do we mean by breastfeeding?

Breastfeeding is natural and we all agree it the preferred way to feed babies. But establishing breastfeed isn’t always easy – most mothers find meeting their breastfeeding goals takes patience, determination and lots of support.

It's gone from something which tended to happen unplanned to a very intentional plan. I see this as a combination of personal goals around meeting the WHO recommendation for two years and beyond, with pressure to have children within a defined period around career/study and other lifestyle issues.

Like everyone, babies need additional hydration when temperatures start to rise. But there’s no need to reach for a bottle of boiled water. Breastmilk is wonderfully adaptive to the changing needs of babies and toddlers and is all that they need to quench thirst, as well as satisfy hunger.