Lots of breastfeeding questions that I hear are really questions about normal baby behavior. In our culture many parents don’t get to spend much time with babies until they have their own — and then they only spend lots of time with their own baby. It can be very reassuring to know what is normal. The blog, Secrets of Baby Behavior, tries to share research-based information with parents. I like this blog a lot.

Another resource is a new program called text4baby. Mothers can sign up for this program and get free texts to their cell phone about pregnancy and baby’s first year. The texts are timed to match baby’s age and if baby is born early, mothers can update their account. The program is sponsored by the US government and several private companies. My main concern with this resource is that it may be oversimplified and make some parents less comfortable with parenting. Anyone out there using this already? What has your experience been?

The bad news is that babies get exposed to pesticides and other harmful chemicals during pregnancy and through their mothers’ milk. The good news is that all the research we have shows that mothers’ milk is best for babies despite this exposure. But I suspect most mothers would be happy to minimize that exposure if they could. The Environmental Working Group has a tool you can use to do that: The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides. You can look at their lists of most and least contaminated fruits and veggies and adjust what you buy. If you can’t afford to buy all your food organic, you can focus on the produce that is most likely to be heavily contaminated.

Governor Doyle just signed a new law that protects mothers and babies that are breastfeeding in public. Breastfeeding in public has always been legal in Wisconsin but in the past mothers didn’t have protection from harassment. Now they do – and protection with a penalty for the person that tells them to stop.  The law says:

Right to breast-feed. A mother may breast-feed her child in any public or private location where the mother and child are otherwise authorized to be. In such a location, no person may prohibit a mother from breast-feeding her child, direct a mother to move to another location to breast-feed her child, direct a mother to cover her child or breast while breast-feeding, or otherwise restrict a mother from breast-feeding.

A person who interferes with that right is subject to a forfeiture not to exceed $200 under the general penalty provision under current law.

I want to thank Anne Altshuler, a local LLL leader and IBCLC that has kept me up-to-date on the bill’s progress. She describes the story of the bill and the people that worked so hard to make it reality:

The real heroes in this story are: the mothers who contacted their State Senator, Fred Risser, when they encountered problems in meeting their babies’ needs to be fed; Senator Risser, who took their concerns seriously and sought to find a remedy; Senator Risser’s aide, Sarah Briganti, who researched the subject and crafted the wording of a proposed bill; Representative Sheldon Wasserman who took up the cause in the State Assembly in the 2007 session; Representative Sandy Pasch, who stepped in to guide the bill through the State Assembly with strengthened language; her legislative aide, Fred Ludwig, who kept the breastfeeding community advised of upcoming hearings and votes; all those State Senators and Representatives who signed on as cosponsors; the many mothers, fathers and children who traveled from all around the state, sometimes repeatedly, to share their stories and testify in support of the bill, including La Leche League mothers and children from Appleton and Neenah, and Rock County; Katie Prown, a midwife with political expertise, who worked tirelessly to rally support, including establishing a yahoo group, “Wisconsin Breastfeeding,” to track and share the bill’s progress; La Leche League leader Laurel Franzcek, who kept others alerted to the bill’s progress and actions that needed to be taken in support, even when her family relocated to India in January; Dr. Anne Eglash, who kept her cool during hostile questioning by opponents of the bill while she gave expert testimony; Dr. Jenny Thomas, who also testified in support of the bill, driving a van load of mothers and babies from Racine to one of the public hearings; lactation consultants like Jenny Johnson who took the time to drive down from Green Bay to give persuasive testimony in support of the bill; Madison nutritionist Doris Franklin who also spoke very persuasively in support of this legislation; Luke Rollins, Director of State Advocacy for the Wisconsin Heart Association, who shared his knowledge of the workings of the legislative process to keep members of the WI Partnership for Physical Activity and Nutrition (of which the Wisconsin Breastfeeding Coalition is a subcommittee) appraised of the bill’s progress; Alison Dodge and Lea Wolf of Happy Bambino who rallied the families in their network to support the bill; Kate Pederson, WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator, with her expert testimony and email information to breastfeeding supporters around the state; and all those who took the time to make phone calls, send emails, and write letters to their state senators and representatives explaining why the bill was needed and urging support for it.

There are all kinds of things for sale to put on sore nipples. Most breastfeeding helpers agree that usually the best way to help sore nipples is to get good latch and treat any problems like infection or vasospasm. Many women that I talk with, though, say that ointments feel good to them. So it’s useful to know which ointments are probably harmless and which could be hazardous. The Environmental Working Group has a cosmetic safety data base, Skin Deep, where you can search for products by name and get information about their ingredients.

Did you know that Madison has it’s own breastfeeding promotion organization called the Madison Breastfeeding Promotion Network (MBPN)? This group has been working for years to make breastfeeding easier for women in Madison. They organize an annual free breastfeeding education event for health care providers. Now they’ve got a website, http://www.publichealthmdc.com/MBPN/,  so that they’re easier to find. It’s attractive and links to the Public Health website.

Many package inserts say “Do not take this while pregnant or breastfeeding.” despite the fact that there is good evidence that a lot of medications are generally compatible with breastfeeding. So where can women go to learn about how taking a particular medicine could affect their milk supply or their baby? Here’s a few options:

LactMed is online, provided by the U.S. Library of Medicine (so free to users). It is easy to search for any medication and the results include research references.

Dr. Tom Hale’s Breastfeeding and Medications Forum online archives are open for guests to read. I’ve found information here on some topics (like safety with old dental fillings) that I couldn’t find other places.

American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on The Transfer of Drugs and Other Chemicals into Human Milk is available online. Other resources often list the AAP’s recommendation on the compatibility of a medication and breastfeeding.

Medications and Mother’s Milk by Thomas Hale is a relatively inexpensive, frequently updated, research-based reference book. I always have a copy with me when I’m working.

Nonprescription Drugs for the Breastfeeding Mother by Frank Nice is another inexpensive reference book.

Finally a resource that isn’t available yet but hopefully will be available soon, is a national call center called the InfantRisk Center. It will be directed by Dr. Tom Hale.

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.

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.”

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?

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!