As well as juggling being a mum of five, Pinky McKay is also an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and much sought after keynote speaker at conferences for parents and health professionals all around the world.

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Pinky McKay on our podcast “Maybe to Baby Microbiome” and we always learn so much from her! Pinky is pretty amazing!

Mums everywhere have benefited from Pinky’s insightful and reassuring books, including Toddler Tactics, Sleeping Like a Baby, and 100 Ways to Calm the Crying. Her books are approved and recommended by respected organisations like the Australian Breastfeeding Association, La Leche League International, and the Australian Association of Infant Mental Health.

Pinky has a private practice in Melbourne, but she also supports clients with baby care, breastfeeding, settling, and sleep solutions through her e-newsletter, website, blog, teleseminars, workshops, and private consultations.

Her five top pieces of advice we thought were well worth sharing in our Qiara Life Club Learning series – 

1. Trust your instincts with breastfeeding and weaning - since the internet, we’ve had a situation of ‘information overload’ and it can get very confusing for parents. Pinky has been around since before ‘online’ was a thing and she noticed a real shift towards mums not trusting themselves once we had this onslaught of advice.
        “The human race would have died out if we needed men in white coats to tell us how to rear our babies!”
   
2. Natural Galactagogues may be helpful for boosting Prolactin, your ‘milk making hormone’. A healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables, quality proteins and good fats is important for overall health and nutritious breastmilk. Include natural galactagogues that can also support breastmilk and can be found in nuts, seeds (especially flax), brewers yeast, and oats.
3. The ‘size’ of your boobs has nothing to do with storage capacity. “It's not about the size of your breast, it’s the size of the milk making tissue that you've actually got in your breast.”
4. Stress and exhaustion are big risk factors that can impact successful breastfeeding including increasing the risk of mastitis. “There's so much pressure on new mums but you've got nothing to prove. You're better off taking things easy and (like in some cultures) giving yourself the 40 days of rest, gradually getting back into your world (if you can).”
5. Breastmilk microbiome is really important for breastfeeding outcomes as it supports the health and function of breast tissue. Antibiotics are a major contributor to breastmilk ‘dysbiois’ (the imbalance of breastmilk microbiome) and they can increase your risk of mastitis 25 folds!
        “Qiara is a great probiotic to use as it has actual research on the strain.” 

Be sure to check out Qiara’s interview with Pinky McKay in Episode 1 of our Podcast Series - Maybe to Baby Microbiome.