Belly support bands during pregnancy and foods that increase breastmilk production?

Could belly support bands, kino tape, belly wraps etc. be the hidden key to postpartum recovery? What about wearing one during your pregnancy, will that actually help prevent diastasis recti/pelvic girdle pain etc?

 In today's episode, I discuss the real deal with taping and belly bands during pregnancy.

Despite their popularity, there's a lack of evidence to suggest they prevent diastasis recti; instead, strengthening exercises prove to be the more effective method.
I talk about what they do help with, how you should use one and what you should be looking for if you're looking to buy one.

I also tackle the widespread claim that oats, brewer's yeast (and other supplements) are the answer to increased breastmilk production.

The conversation doesn't end there – we dive into the emotional whirlpool that new mothers face, especially the fear of not producing enough breast milk; a concern for a staggering 76% of mothers, according to a survey.
I examine the reliability of this statistic and the societal pressure to steer clear of formula supplementation. Here's the link to the brewer's yeast study.

I also talk about Geraldine DeRuiter's highly anticipated book "If You Can't Take the Heat,". This is one that I'm really looking forward to reading when it comes out, and when I clear the HUGE stack of books on my bedside table.

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Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions, comments or want to suggest a guest/topic

Playing us out this week "Flavor and reduction" by Cody Martin

Transcript

Peter Lap: 0:00

Hey, welcome to the healthy postnatal body podcast with your postnatal expert, Peter Lap. That as always, it would be me, because it's always always me. This week I am talking about taping during pregnancy and these support things, these belly support bands and all that sort of stuff during pregnancy. Does that

Peter Lap: 0:20

actually help prevent diastasis recti or not so much? Secondly, breastfeeding and stress, and do certain foods, such as oats, do oats in actually increase breast milk production? Is there actually any science? I know the claim is out there, but is it actually a thing? Those were some of the questions I was asked, so, without further ado, here we go. So, hey, welcome to the healthy postnatal body podcast with little old me. This is the podcast for the 21st of January 2024. And because I am a lazy piece of you know what I haven't done the editing on the interviews that I have done. So the interview next week will be a gut health one with Josh Dech, which you're going to love, not even a crazy one. Okay, if you can believe it or not, we're talking gut health, but not in an insane way, and there's so much stuff out there right now that is just completely crazy that you're going to actually quite like this. One week after that we're doing perimenopause and the week after that I've got other stuff, but for now I'm answering more of your questions, peter, at healthypostnatalbodycom. By the way, if you have any questions and you know why don't you, why don't you have any questions Anyways, this week I'm answering some more of your questions. I'm talking about pregnancy taping.

Peter Lap: 2:07

One of my clients, one of my new clients, asked this week. She saw this video on YouTube because all these things are on YouTube or TikTok or one of those things, right, and she saw this lady who was pregnant tape up her belly and with like Kino tape, kinesiology tape which you see some athletes wear for like their knees and all that sort of stuff. If you go to a physio they might tape your knee up if you have like a knee injury, just to help support it a bit. So she was asking if, is that a thing during pregnancy? Because you know it looks quite complicated. It's not easy to do. You have to make sure everything is in the right place. You have to take it off when you're washing and all that sort of stuff. And as I explained to her, listen, there is nothing whatsoever that states that Kino tape, that proves that Kino tape will help prevent diastasis vector. That is just complete hokum. That is just not true.

Peter Lap: 3:04

You can buy these. They're not belly binders, but they're like a support, a baby bump support thing. And I was asked about them quite a while ago because belly binding, postpartum belly binding, is a thing in, like India and all that sort of stuff. And you know people kept asking me does wearing a corset or a belly binder, does that help heal your diastasis recti? And I started looking into it. Of course it doesn't right I've spoken about this before but the prevention of diastasis.

Peter Lap: 3:39

There's a whole market out there now people selling you stuff that will prevent of a girdle pain or prevent diastasis recti and and all that sort of stuff and they're all gadgets and they all cost like 100 pounds or 150 bucks or something like that. Now, none of these things actually help prevent diastasis recti. I've said this before. None of them help prevent pelvic girdle pain. It's just not a single thing that I could find on the market that can actually come even close to proving that they help with that. What they do help with because I'm not telling you not to buy one what they do help with those support things. And there's a picture on the if you look at the podcast thing on social media, there's a picture of that. I might link to it if I figure out how to do it of like a support brace, basically a baby burn for your belly. That's kind of what it is and that can help just temporarily alleviate the pressure a little bit and it helps lift the the, the bump a bit, helps lift the belly a bit and therefore might alleviate some some some of your back pain temporarily. But those things are not really things you want to wear all the time, right, if you can at all help them.

Peter Lap: 4:56

I know that there are varying degrees of back pain and discomfort when you're pregnant. Some people it's just, you know, whatever takes the pain away, go for it. But for most people strengthening up the right muscles is by far the best way to go and none of those muscles are fundamentally the core muscles during pregnancy. If you're already at the stage that that you have back pain, right, you can do some core stuff. Like I always say, always keep doing your core exercises during the pregnancy. But that is predominantly about about easing, making your postpartum recovery a little bit easier than than it is speeding that up a little bit. That is not so much about the core exercises such as, you know, wood choppers and anti rotational holds and all that sort of stuff. They are predominantly not there to help you prevent back pain during your pregnancy.

Peter Lap: 5:50

If you're already at the stage where you have pelvic girdle pain or back pain, then doing the core exercises that you find in the postpartum program won't really help them much. You can, however, still strengthen up your posture muscles and that posture muscles I mean your upper back, I mean your glutes and all that sort of stuff and maybe, maybe, by working with your alignment a little bit, because obviously everything changes when you shift your center of gravity. You know, when you're pregnant, your center of gravity shifts, which is why some of you will have heard me say this before you end up with that pregnancy model, or some women end up with that pregnancy model where you just, you know, goes as if your bum is disappearing. You end up with this pelvic tilt, which is quite pronounced, and, again, nothing wrong with that, that is just just the way it is. But what we do, what I have found, is that if you do some glute strengthening exercises and some back exercises, you can help your back out a little bit. And my dad, I'm talking about, you know again, resistance band stuff. Right, we're talking about some resistance band T's and Y's, some glute kicks, some side kicks. Get some squats in there. Squats are wonderful when you're pregnant to help ease off, ease off any discomfort. And the thing is, of course, how deep can you go and all that sort of thing. Range of motion becomes a thing.

Peter Lap: 7:17

But those support girdles, so to speak, they are not really meant to be worn for like four or five, six hours a day. That is not what they're for. They really are just there to temporarily give you some relief. And I always say, if you're getting one by one, that kind of like works, like I said, works like a baby bear, so one that straps around your shoulders right, because you need that, that strap to hold it in place. If you're just buying a band and there is no additional support coming from anywhere other than the band and it still just all sits in the middle section and the only reason it then temporarily feels better is because you've wrapped everything up so ridiculously tight, right, you're my. If you genuinely want support, then using a a belly binder like the one I have in the image is a belly support, is not really a binder, and the belly support is much more likely to help, is much better for you than than that thing is.

Peter Lap: 8:27

And then the rubber or corset or whatever it is keynote tape is, is leaves out to the physios that use it. That really is, because you have to put it in the right place and you have to know where to place it. You kind of have to really know what you're doing with keynote tape to really feel any benefit on it. Most people don't. That's fundamentally. I don't know where to put keynote tape right and I could figure it out depending on what I'm trying to do, but that'll be a lot of hassle and you know, keynote tape comes off after a while and you might want to take showers and all that sort of stuff and that means it comes off a little bit quicker and you don't want to physio appointment every week just to tape your belly when that doesn't very little good whatsoever.

Peter Lap: 9:14

You know, even within sports science, for a while it was really popular with athletes to use keynote tape, even if they didn't have a have an immediate need for, just to help support, and I don't see a lot of that anymore either, because there was just nothing backing up that that would actually help with their athletic performance. We said I'm not supposed to be taping. I just don't see how, how it would ever work for you when you're pregnant, because the baby keeps growing. You keep, you keep eating, you keep living. That baby keeps growing and your belly's gonna get bigger and bigger. A little bit of tape isn't gonna help enough. It really isn't. So get a proper support if you, if you, if you need it even better would be, of course, if you can do exercises and all that, but that is not necessarily a given for everybody, right?

Peter Lap: 10:07

Then I had a question the fear of breastfeeding, right other charts with somebody this week who said that they went to the NCT anti-natal class and a COVID baby and they went to a zoom class by NCT. And so for those of you that don't know, nct is like the leading anti-natal classes provider in the UK and technically they're a charity and I have one or two issues with them. Don't give them. Overall they do an okay job, but you know they are. They're not as honest as they should be when they don't prepare women as well as they really should in an effort not to scare them. They really are the breastfeeding charity in the UK, right, and so they're pushing that pretty hard. Now, nothing, nothing wrong with that. Just know that if you're signing off for those classes, that's, that's where they're coming from.

Peter Lap: 11:00

But so, first of all, breastfeeding is brutal and difficult and I've done many interviews with lactation experts and all that sort of stuff, who are wonderful, who will admit this. Breastfeeding is not easy. Every mother knows is. It's not like the way I plug in my electric car which I have now, by the way, because I'm, you know, environmentally friendly, not just because I've got a really good deal on one but you know, I plug in the electric car and it automatically starts charging. That is not what breastfeeding is like, even though it is sold to you in that way, like movies and at these anti-natal classes and all that sort of stuff. So it's messy and it's difficult, which can come with a fair amount of stress, and we know that stress well, it kind of doesn't help with anything, right? Stress is one of those things that that we try to avoid as much as possible, especially early on post-partum.

Peter Lap: 11:55

So what she was asking about was are there any foods? Because she was told foods that she was struggling with breast milk production. She just couldn't produce enough and that is insanely common. By the way, most women, I think and I will link to this study because it'll come back in to show you what my next point is a lot of women, I think is 54 ish percent. It might. It might well be. That's pretty funny.

Peter Lap: 12:28

Vast majority of respondents, 76 percent, reported that while breastfeeding they felt as though they were not making enough milk to meet the needs of their child. Now this is and I'll go over this this study a little bit was published in Dove Press a while ago and it's not the best study in the world is this survey study. But 76 percent is a significant number. So even if you assume that new moms are being more careful and they're in bit insecure and they're like I'm not sure I'm producing enough, let's say they overreported, it'll be. At least half half of women don't, would not produce enough milk to meet the needs of the child. The majority of respondents in this way also indicated they have not supplemented the formula as a result of not making a meal, and that is that is what my problem with things like NCT is that they keep you push, okay, they keep pushing you away from formula to the extent that you're not even supplementing with it, which is terrible.

Peter Lap: 13:32

So then you fall into the how can I and this is what my was this lady had followed into how can I increase my breast milk production naturally? And it comes up with a ton of articles. Almost all of it is well, this could work, or this potentially works, or this. And there is no science behind most of this stuff or service, no study behind it is what I mean by not other than this particular survey study. So one of the things that this lady was doing. She said out outs benefits of oats for breast feeding, right, although, will help increase your breast milk production. She said, no, I just want.

Peter Lap: 14:15

Wow, I don't know how, but you know, of course oats are healthy, don't get me wrong. There are not lots of benefits to having oats, having a healthy diet and all around nutritious diet, of which oats could well be apart. And oats are full of fiber and beta-glucan and all that sort of stuff. And you know all your proteins, your vitamins, your minerals, you know the iron, zinc, manganese and calcium and all that sort of stuff. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the oats directly are responsible for an increase in breast milk production. I can't really see it. But you know, if it works for you, it works for you. I'm completely diet-agnostic, right? That's what I always say. I'm not saying you shouldn't have oats, I'm just saying that. The question I was asked oats help with increase in breast milk production. No, I just don't see that.

Peter Lap: 15:07

And the study and I air-quilt that quite heavily which was published on Dovepress a while ago, which was I don't know when was that 2017? You know so quite a while ago is a survey study and basically they just surveyed 188 women from 27 states. It's an American study, completely questionnaire, and they kind of said, like I said, a vast majority of respondents 76% reported that while breastfeeding, they felt as though they were not making enough milk to meet the needs of their child, and the majority of respondents also indicated they did not supplement the formula. 54% and, amazingly, more than half 60% of mothers who responded mentioned they had consulted the healthcare provider about not making enough milk. So think about this you go to your healthcare provider because you're like I'm not sure I'm making enough milk and you still don't get the advice that you should be supplementing with formula. But that is the mind boggles, right? Anyways, that is my little. I promise I won't round them and I'm much more.

Peter Lap: 16:30

This survey, like I said, I don't want to call it a study because it just isn't. The survey is pretty weak. It's an internet thing and they mainly went with getting people to fill in. They had a look at what people googled for that. People are seeking information, they're searching for information, doing research, that type of thing, and they'll then say, okay, I need to take out.

Peter Lap: 17:00

Or, in this case, what this lady said was yeast, beer yeast. She has heard that beer yeast was good to increase breast milk, which you know is just not a thing. Like I said, the brewer's yeast, beer yeast that when I was 12, 13, 14 years old, I was a spotty little teenager and they used to give this beer yeast to kids and say, ah, this will clear your skin, and that doesn't work. It also it is again, if you read the wrong articles, it's a lot of. It's a galactal organ that helps increase breast milk production and all that sort of stuff. There's no evidence that I have found, of any mechanism that I have found that would actually back that up. And trust me, with the amount of money they can make of this sort of stuff, you would think that someone would have spent the money on doing it. But again, I will link to a study which also found that there's no, there's nothing. There's nothing to this claim, which is annoying, right, because you get told that oats is a galactal log and brewer's yeast is one, and you go to Holland and Barrett or whichever, or Whole Foods or whatever crappy supplement store you go to and you do your best and you buy the best oats. You buy the organic rolled oats, the extra course ones and all that sort of stuff the things that are basically inedible and you have oats for breakfast every day and you take a whole bunch of supplements with it and none of that stuff is actually proven to help.

Peter Lap: 18:44

In my humble opinion, and Peter at HealthyPostNatalBodycom, if you're an lactation consultant or a rich dietitian who specializes in this sort of stuff, in my opinion, just start supplementing with form. If you think you're not producing enough milk, don't worry about it. Like I said, 76% of women feel that way. You are not that special. To put it in a little shitty way, you're not alone in this. This is completely normal. It's completely common. Not everybody pumps out liter after liter after liter of breast milk every day. If only a quarter of women feel like they're producing enough milk, then you're not alone.

Peter Lap: 19:31

And the solution is you go to the health care provider and you say hey, is there something wrong with me? And your health care provider should. 99 out of 100, 99 times out of 100. Should say no, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with you, don't worry about it. Don't go to an NCT type person that says, well, you just have to keep trying. If you're not producing enough, you're not producing enough. This is difficult for you. It is difficult for you. If it's impossible for you, it's impossible for you. If it doesn't work for you because it causes you pain or stress and all that sort of stuff, then don't.

Peter Lap: 20:06

Your job and I've said this before your job as a mother is to make sure, in an ideal world, your child is well fed with good nutrients, which you can find in formula, and just keep him alive. You know you'll be fine, your baby will be fine. If you supplement the formula, yeah, there is no reason to worry about it. Would it be better if it was all natural? Yeah, maybe, sure, I'll go with that. But if you can't provide that, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. And for people to keep pushing this BS idea that there is just really annoys me, because I see a lot of women post-partum. You can imagine most of my clients are post-partum, so they're at a breastfeeding stage and they're all worried about this stuff and they're buying broovers' yeast. Yeah, it does nothing for you, I'm afraid there's just nothing to back that up. So stay out of hole in the barret, stay out of whole food and whatever supplement.

Peter Lap: 21:09

Companies are selling your stuff, and I've seen online personal trainers also selling breastfeeding supplements and all that sort of stuff. I have yet to see one that actually has a scientific study that's even remotely robust backup that the claim that it increases breast milk production. What you do see a lot is articles like the one on Very Well Family, which is you know, god help me. There's one of those websites that rates very highly on Google and it actually doesn't rate very highly on actual information. So what to say?

Peter Lap: 21:51

Can eating oatmeal help you make more breast milk? And this is from 2020, so it's still very high. Also, one of the most popular foods that breastfeeding moms eat to make more breast milk and support lactation. And that link to a study which I will also link to, because that study is just a survey. So that is how they back that stuff up. The benefits of eating oats when breastfeeding include the following Beta-glucan is found in oats. Beta-glucan is a type of fiber that's thought to raise the levels of thought to raise thought to raise the levels of the breastfeeding hormone prolactin. Higher prolactin levels can have a positive effect on breast milk production.

Peter Lap: 22:39

Can have a positive effect and they link to a study that actually talks about cholesterol lowering. It's an article that makes me want to. Oats are full of nutrition. They're really good, the excellent source of soluble fiber. Plus, they contain B vitamins to help increase energy, elevate mood. Of course it increases energy. It's food. That's what food tends to do Elevate mood and fight of exhaustion, anxiety, stress and depression. Yeah, listen, you need your B vitamins. They're important vitamins, but if you're relying on the B vitamins to help you with postpartum depression, you've got another thing. Come and sister. I mean, that's just not a thing. And then again, oats contain saponins. Saponins are a substance that may have a positive effect on the hormones related to breast milk production.

Peter Lap: 23:44

Note that none of these things, none of these claims, actually say yes, this helps. This is supplement in on to stock. This is well-manned and well-womanned. We try the leading for people listening outside the UK, the leading supplement multivitamin sales people in the UK, well-womans and all that sort of stuff, and they have a whole range of well kids and well men and well pregnant and well over 65 and all that sort of stuff, and they pretend to tinker with the ingredients in an effort to make sure that you buy more of their very expensive stuff, right? All the claims are always can help with, can help or helps with the normal functioning of an immune system. Yeah, so the normal functioning can help if used. They don't even claim that it helps. It could help, it has been shown that it could, but that is nothing. But that is a sentence that means absolutely evil and it drives me nuts, because you guys are spending an awful lot of your money on this sort of stuff and you're trying to do the right thing.

Peter Lap: 25:00

Now I'm not saying again. I'm not saying don't eat oats in the morning. If you like oats, you eat oats. Right, there are excellent nutritional source. They're really good for you. Oh, it's a bit of fiber. There's loads of vitamins and minerals in them. That's awesome. Helps you poop nice, right, that all helps. But for the love of God, don't buy it thinking that it increases breast milk production. When there is no evidence of this and you know, then you feel guilty when it doesn't help. If you think it helps for you, then it helps. But it's much more likely because you add milk or whatever to the oats and you find that you start eating a little bit healthier and a little bit more higher in nutrients. But, like I said, there is no direct link between brewers, yeast or oat milk or oats or any of that sort of stuff. Oat milk even Right, because oat milk is really popular. There's nothing that says that that it actually works, right? That is the podcast for that.

Peter Lap: 26:01

I want to give a little shout out to one of my favorite people on the internet, and this is another book that I'm gonna have to read. I have got a ton of these bloody things Geraldine de Ruiter, de Ruiter I'm gonna say de Ruiter simply because that is the original Dutch name De Ruiter, right, and you should probably pronounce it Geraldine de Ruiter, right, as they do. She has a book coming out called If you Can't Take the Heat, and that this is one of those books. That is, I think, because I had a look and it'll be out. It's out for pre-sale now, which is, if you remember one of the other guests that I had on a while ago, pre-sale really, really matters to offers, pre-sale volumes, and it's up for pre-sale now.

Peter Lap: 26:55

I think my delivery was scheduled for when I looked in the UK. You can order it on Amazon. It comes out on the 12th of March. My delivery was like 2nd of April or something like that. For the hard copy it's like 22 quid, 28 dollars, 20 pounds.

Peter Lap: 27:12

And you know, geraldine has like a James Beard Award and all that sort of stuff. Now I could pretend that I know what the James Beard Award was, but you know I don't. But she's a funny lady and you know she's what I call. You know what everybody calls. She's like what was the book called Jesus Beacon messing this up?

Peter Lap: 27:43

Well, some of the blurb on the back with charming humor, geraldine the writer, the writer the writer welcomes us into her personal history and just connects with herself. That's from Houthi feminism author Mickey Kendall. And you know it's, it's yeah, it's interesting. And it says here in the you can't take the heat. The writer, the writer shares stories about her shockingly through, painfully funny and sometimes just painful adventures in gastronomy. Well, where in has she found he got a good one? Her debilitating anxiety by emergency meal, playing for the apocalypse. You know, that's going to be fun. It's a fresh look at food and feminism. One of the colony world sharpest voices. Is what the blurb says on the pendulum penguin random house website.

Peter Lap: 28:30

And I, you know, like I said, if you're going to buy a book this year and you do what I do. I've got a ton of books that I have to read, a disgustingly high number of books, and everybody who knows me knows that I'm not not a huge, a huge reader. Because I'm five or six. My bedside table looks impressive. If you see my bedside table, you think God, this dude is crushing it. Right, the fall of Jim Ben Foo. What I have here, excuse me, there's a rummage around Pandora's Jar, women in the Greek Mists by Natalie Haynes. Dr Jen Gunter has a new book, blood Busting Mists, about Nosturation, which will also be a read.

Peter Lap: 29:18

So you know I have to read these things in 2024. Because, as I always say, I'm just a middle-aged white guy, right, and some have to think I used to think I'm not necessarily true. So you know I read this stuff. But I know that. You know Geraldine's book will definitely be worth, worth the money. Tales of food, feminism and fury, right, the Friettes, that's what I call them. I'm sure they'll be a great read. So definitely if you're looking to buy someone a book this year for as a present, because you know you give lousy birthday gifts it's all like that and you're the person that gives books, in the same way that I always know people that give me books, knowing that have a pile of books high, or they give me alcohol, knowing that I don't really drink. If you're one of those people, buy Geraldine's book, we should. We should be supporting those offers, not always the Andy McNabs of this one. So give them a shout, right. Give them a shot, even a shot, right. We're 30 minutes in and I'm waffling. I spent, let's be honest, I spent the last minutes, last five minutes, talking up a book that I haven't read yet but that you should buy, and I'm not getting the cut of this. Right. I'm not getting the cut, but it'll be like I said. This is one of those books.

Peter Lap: 30:40

Peter at HealthyPostNatalBodycom, if you have any questions at all, you just want to send a little comment. Do me a favor, do me a favor, go on to Apple, click the little five star thing. Don't probably give me two or three stars. I don't want two or three stars. Four maybe, apparently. That makes it look more genuine. We can't all be given five stars. Say something nice about the podcast if you want to do me a favor. Of course, healthypostnatalbodycom is free for three months and after that it's cheapest chips for five months. For life. For life, no additional sales, just one program that helps with your post-mortem recovery. Here's a new bit of music. That's the podcast for today. You take care of yourself. Bye now. You, you, you you.