Nursing IS Normal – in the courtroom

Kudos to the mother, the lawyers, and the judge that treated nursing as something normal:

WAUKESHA - A mom from Milwaukee was pleading guilty to a crime in a Waukesha County courtroom when her baby became fussy and hungry, so she proceeded to give her baby a breast-fed meal while giving her guilty plea.

Read the rest of the story by Jay Sorgi at this website.

NYT article about disaster aid…

Disasters happen regularly — and Haiti’s earthquake is just the most recent, visible, very sad reminder of this fact. We all want to help when disasters happen but unfortunately (as every new mother knows!) the wrong kinds of help can be way worse than no help at all. Maybe we’re starting to learn what the right kinds of disaster aid are, though. This New York Times article summarizes resources about the right kinds of aid and includes this comment about infant feeding during disasters:

Ms. Shaikh gets particularly worked up about misguided donations of baby formula. “A woman who is breast-feeding is given a can of formula when clean water to mix it is unavailable and her baby needs the support of her immune system more than ever,” Ms. Shaikh said “Baby formula,” she said firmly, “does nothing for babies in the middle of a disaster and can even be fatal.”

Breastfeeding Friendly Day Care

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has created a resource kit, “Ten Steps to Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care Centers Resource Kit”. It can be downloaded for free from the DHS website. It is attractive and seems easy to read. It has a brief summary of how a daycare provider can support breastfeeding for mothers that leave their babies with the provider. There is also information about making a daycare a breastfeeding-friendly employer. There are also references for reading more — including my favorite: a list of breastfeeding-friendly books to read to young children. If this isn’t enough, daycare providers can get CEU’s (continuing education units) from the Wisconsin Department of Families and Children after studying this resource kit.

No – the state is not paying me to advertise this. I just think it looks like a really great resource provided by our government. Isn’t that cool?

Eating well

When we’re thinking about feeding babies the very best food – mother’s milk – we should also think about feeding the rest of the family well. One of my very favorite cookbook authors is Deborah Madison. She writes super tasty recipes for nutritious local foods. She also has written a book about eating alone — something that lots of new mothers are doing during the day if they’re at home with their babies. Here’s the video trailer (is that what you’d call it?) for the book. It’s shows a baby that I’d be willing to bet is breastfeeding!

Emergency Aid

The recent earthquake in Haiti is providing vivid reminders that babies are particularly vulnerable when disasters strike. Well-meaning organizations sometimes send formula to feed babies — not realizing that artificial feeding can be very dangerous for babies when there is not clean water or refrigeration. If you’re wondering where you can send your aid dollars and know that they will be used appropriately to maintain breastfeeding for babies at disaster areas, you can check out the Emergency Nutrition Network.

While there really isn’t a practical safe way to send donated mothers’ milk to disaster areas like Haiti, it is always helpful to donate milk to milk banks in the USA. There are always babies that need the milk. For more information about donating your milk in Wisconsin, visit the Mothers Milk Association of Wisconsin website.

First Foods

According to an article in Pediatric News, it sounds like current research (and a soon to appear statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition) supports offering meat, fruits, and vegetables as nutritious first foods.

There is no good reason not to introduce meats, vegetables, and fruits as the first complementary foods, according to Dr. Frank R. Greer, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’s Committee on Nutrition.

Introducing these foods early and often promotes healthy eating habits and preferences for these naturally nutrient-rich foods, said Dr. Greer, who is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Just a note — for decades La Leche League has been recommending whole foods (not processed rice cereal) at around the middle of the first year of life when babies are showing signs that they’re ready. It looks like the time-tested recommendation from experienced mothers is holding up well.

Bottles

Going back to work while their babies are little is the reality for most mothers that I see. And while it is possible to feed a baby by cup or spoon or finger, most care providers really prefer to feed babies with bottles. So I’ve been trying to learn more about what kinds of bottles and bottle feeding methods best support breastfeeding. There isn’t a lot of good information out there. This new website, BreastandBottlefeeding.com, (and their book) is a start in the right direction. I found the book interesting and think it could be helpful to mothers that are trying to find the way to use bottles to maintain their breastfeeding relationship while they need to be away from their babies. I was disappointed at the lack of research-based information and references, though. It’s a thoughtful book but not heavily evidence-based — though that may not be the fault of the authors but just due to a lack of comprehensive research on this topic.

Can you find the breastfeeding picture?

The New York Times photojournalism blog has a readers’ photos display on families. Lots of love in these pictures and at least one breastfeeding photo. Can you spot it?

Wishing you all a very good new year — Adria

Worth the wait…

My second baby was born on the day I reached 42 weeks of pregnancy. After a really rough time breastfeeding my first baby when he was born by induction, I was determined to let baby #2 come on his own schedule (as long as he was staying healthy inside!). It was worth the wait. He was born ready to breastfeed and everything went much more smoothly.

Of course this is just one story, one experience, but it wasn’t unique to me. Babies that come before they’re all the way ready – even just a week or two early — are much more likely to have breastfeeding problems. Breastfeeding depends on active participation from the baby. It’s a lot of work for mothers to keep breastfeeding going while they wait for their near-term preemies to mature enough to feed effectively. These little babies also more likely to have other problems. This new release from the CDC, Recent Trends in Infant Mortality in the United States, says that premature births play a significant role in US infant mortality.

Delivering babies just because the calendar says they should be ready makes for a tough transition to life on the outside. As lousy as those last weeks of pregnancy can be, it’s really worth waiting until babies are ready to be born.

Go Madison!

Madison made the national news in a New York Times article about infant mortality. Apparently Madison has had a dramatic decline in infant mortality among African American babies — to the point where their mortality rate is comparable to white babies.

“This kind of dramatic elimination of the black-white gap in a short period has never been seen,” Dr. Philip M. Farrell, professor of pediatrics and former dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said of the progress in Dane County.

The article says this is unusual and credits community cohesiveness, our public health department, Access Community Health, and ABC for Health.

Dr. Schlenker, the county health director, credits heightened outreach to young women by health workers and private groups. “I think it’s a community effect,” he said. “Pregnant women need to feel safe, cared for and valued. I believe that when they don’t, that contributes to premature birth and fetal loss in the sixth or seventh month.”

I know many of the health care providers that take care of mothers and babies in public health and at Access and they are impressive people. I’m so glad that they’re getting some of the recognition that they deserve!