I’m a wannabe country girl who can’t give up the city so when I had the opportunity to hang out with some dairy cows on one of Organic Valley’s farms, I jumped at the chance. I’m still breastfeeding BC and while I was away from him, I was on the pump. Naturally as I hung out with the dairy cows, I realized that they had quite a few things in common with nursing moms.
6 Things Nursing Moms & Dairy Cows Have In Common
1. Electric pumps are super popular and effective for getting the most amount of milk the fastest.
I’m still haunted by the sounds of my electric double pump. With Mini, I used to pump in the bathroom and storage closet at my job. I hated it so much that I would often skip pumpings. But with abc? I had a cushy room where I could sit comfortably and listen to the sounds of the electric pump stealing my daughter’s milk. I hate the pump but man, it’s efficient. In a matter of 15 minutes I would get anywhere from 8-10oz while I browsed Facebook.
This is the area where the cows are pumped.
And wouldn’t you know that dairy cows have their own electric pumps? Gone are the days of sitting on a little stool milking them directly from their udders. When the farmers asked if we wanted to feel how the suction felt, I shuddered because I was already familiar with that feeling, ha!
2. If you don’t express regularly, your milk will dry up!
I wonder if Bessie is as concerned about this as I am…
3. Regularly nursing or producing milk will cause weight loss.
Ok, so this wasn’t really true for me up until this go round with BC but what the farmers shared about the dairy cows losing slimming down while producing milk seemed pretty on par with we humans. Except they produce waaaaaaay more milk than we do.
I’m not sure if she wanted to take a selfie or if she smelled my milk ha!
4. When you’re lactating, you need to drink way more water than usual.
That’s right, Bessie and I may have gotten into a little fight over the water available at the farm since I was super thirsty too!
5. Colostrum is incredibly important for the development of the immune system.
Now most calves aren’t kept with their moms after birth but regardless of where they go, the colostrum goes with them. Even with nursing moms, should you decide NOT to breastfeed your baby, at a bare minimum giving them the colostrum is a great start for their little bodies.
This was one of the calves on the farm. She was about 6 weeks old.
6. Nutrient dense diets positively influence the output of milk.
With abc, I used eat packages of Oreos. Yes, the entire package. And I did this under the guise that I needed the calories because I was breastfeeding. Well, the only thing that got more robust was my waistline. Now with BC, I probably get close to the same amount of fat but it comes from avocados, coconut oil and other healthy sources. This is the same with dairy cows. When given the opportunity to graze on nutrient dense grass, their milk is better–which means it’s better for us.
Grazing is so important!
Whenever I’m nursing my babes, I always feel like I’m a dairy cow–with good reason!
