Check out this hiking adventure from Erin Lotz at Outdoor Baby where two moms forget a very important item on their Grand Canyon trip. Here’s a little bit of the intro:
We planned to hike to the river, spend a night, hike along the river, spend another night, and then hike all the way back. I think that was the itinerary. I was to procure three items that would be shared and were considered critical (as opposed to our shared pots and tent which were less critical). I was to bring a breast pump in order for us to “pump and dump” and therefore continue lactating for our breastfed one-year-olds. I was also to bring a coffee press mug for Kristine. Since she would be pumping and dumping, she could indulge in coffee on this trip — something she was looking forward to nearly as much as the hike itself. Finally, I was to bring one of the two dinners. Now remember, packing was somewhat haphazard.
On June 11, 2009, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (NY) and Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) introduced the Breastfeeding Promotion Act in both houses of Congress, to provide a unified national policy to keep mothers, their children, and their communities healthy. This is the first time the bill has been introduced in the Senate.
The Breastfeeding Promotion Act (H.R. 2819, S. 1244) includes five provisions:
Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding women from being fired or discriminated against in the workplace.
Provides tax incentives for businesses that establish private lactation areas in the workplace, or provide breastfeeding equipment or consultation services to their employees.
Provides for a performance standard to ensure breast pumps are safe and effective.
Allows breastfeeding equipment and consultation services to be tax deductible for families (amends Internal Revenue Code definition of “medical care”).
Protects the privacy of breastfeeding mothers by ensuring they have break time and a private place to pump (applies to employers with 50 or more employees, see text of legislation for details).
Something to think about and write to your representatives about. It’s exciting to see breastfeeding become a visible, national health care issue. Having said that, I still think that what breastfeeding mothers and babies really need is good maternity leave policy. Protecting mothers’ ability to pump milk for their babies is a great start but not a true replacement for time together during those first months of life.
I thought you might enjoy this short video clip about the benefits of bedsharing to breastfeeding babies. It’s a really short clip and doesn’t talk about guidelines for safe bedsharing. For more about safety, check out Dr. James McKenna’s website.
Here’s a link to a free, on-line presentation by one of the world’s experts on this topic: Karleen Gribble. I found it informative without being at all dry. Here is what she says about the presentation:
I recently gave a presentation at the Gold09 conference on infant feeding in emergencies and what individuals and organisations can do to prepare to make a difference for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, the theme for which is “Breastfeeding: a vital emergency response.” Denise Fisher of Health-e-Learning kindly agreed to place this presentation online free for anyone to view so that more mums and babies in the most difficult of circumstances can benefit from WBW. I know that some have struggled to think about how they can make this theme relevent for their community, this presentation gives a heap of ideas of different things you can do. Details are below. Please pass the details about the talk onto anyone who you might think would be interested through your networks- it is just as applicable to “ordinary mums” as health professionals. The more awareness there is of how to help mums and babies in emergencies the more there will be who will genuinely be helped and the fewer harmed- so sadly many babies die because of well meaning but inappropriate aid.
Karleen Gribble
Australia
If you would like to give people direct access to the recordings without having to go through SummitZero, we’re perfectly happy for that too. You can distribute these direct links as you wish.
Here are the opening paragraphs from a 1998 article in the Harvard Gazette:
America’s “let them cry” attitude toward children may lead to more fears and tears among adults, according to two Harvard Medical School researchers.
Instead of letting infants cry, American parents should keep their babies close, console them when they cry, and bring them to bed with them, where they’ll feel safe, according to Michael L. Commons and Patrice M. Miller, researchers at the Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry.
The pair examined childrearing practices here and in other cultures and say the widespread American practice of putting babies in separate beds — even separate rooms — and not responding quickly to their cries may lead to incidents of post-traumatic stress and panic disorders when these children reach adulthood.
Breastfeeding advocates have known for a long time that responding to babies’ cries supports successful breastfeeding. Because babies do the work in breastfeeding (mothers just create access and a supportive environment), breastfeeding relies on responsiveness to what babies communicate.
I was happy to see that there is research on this topic relating to mental health (not just feeding choices). I’m sad that the research is over a decade old and still not widely publicized. Maybe it’s just hard to go against cultural beliefs.
I still need to track down the actual studies that this article is based on. I’m looking forward to reading them. I’m hoping that they are good quality research — and I hope even more that there have been follow-up studies in the last 11 years.
Hand expression is a really useful skill for any breastfeeding mother to know. It’s great in the early days when babies can have a hard time latching on engorged breast. It’s handy when baby is older if you need a little bit of milk to leave for a bottle or if the pump you use at work is broken or if you’re engorged for some reason.
Just like most things about nursing, different mothers have success hand expressing in different ways. I’ve tried to find the perfect how-to video but I think I’ll have to settle for several pretty good videos. I’ve put links on my Library page to the online hand expression videos that I’ve found. Here’s a link to the latest addition:
The majority of breastfeeding mothers that I see in the Madison area end up wanting a breastpump — mostly because they’re heading back to work while their babies are still small. Many of the pumps that are available are expensive — and some are expensive, uncomfortable, and ineffective. In the Madison area the only really good pump brand mothers can find easily is Medela. Medela makes very nice pumps and accessories (and supports excellent basic breastfeeding research) but their products aren’t perfect for every woman. Mothers use Medela’s Pump In Style all the time (and generally like it a lot) but it’s pricey – so many people buy used ones despite safety concerns. It would be nice to have more quality options. Competition among pump brands can only be good for mothers!
I’m feeling optimistic about two companies and hoping they’re readily available to Madison mothers soon:
One is the Pumpin’ Pal breastshields. Some mothers have a hard time finding a Medela shield that feels right. Pumpin’ Pal shields are a different shape that seem to accomodate a wide range of nipple sizes. They can be used with Medela pumps.
The other is a new pump manufacturer: Hygeia. The really cool thing that they’re offering is a double electric pump (the EnJoye) that is in the price range of a Pump In Style but is safe for multiple users and has a motor that is guaranteed for three years. Also, a mother can return one of their pumps if it doesn’t work for her — not just if it is mechanically defective. Unfortunately I don’t have hands-on experience with these pumps yet so I can’t be enthusiastic without reservations. But, like I said, I’m feeling hopeful that this will give mothers more options.
Larger ladies can have a harder time with pregnancy and breastfeeding. Despite intending to breastfeed, women with higher body mass index (BMI) wean earlier as a group. There seem to be more obstacles to breastfeeding for these mamas. To help them, here’s a website devoted to plus-size women and their babies: Kmom’s Plus-Size Pregnancy Index. The section on breastfeeding has some good information. I wish there were more pictures along with the articles because it would do even more to promote a healthy, helpful, respectful attitude towards larger women. (But I understand how hard it is to get good pictures! As a non-photographer myself, I have a hard time finding photos for my blog.)
Check out this Colbert Report with Michael Pollan, the author of In Defense of Food. (I’m sorry that I’m not techno savvy enough to embed this video.) The cool thing is this: Pollan says, “We have been trying to synthesize breast milk for 150 years, and we still don’t know how to do it. And babies on formula don’t do as well as babies on breastmilk, and we don’t know why.” Another interesting thing that Pollan says in his book applies to formula as well as lots of other things that we eat. He describes complex processed foods as “edible foodlike substances”. Whole food is what research shows is good for our bodies and eating whole food starts at birth with breastfeeding.
There are very few times in our lives where we experience that feeling of falling in love. It’s that happier-than-anything feeling that someone else is perfect for us. It may be romance, it may be that new best friend, it may be that little baby that we’ve brought into our family. Part of this perfect feeling is the hugging and touching — being totally there for this new relationship. With a new baby putting him or her to the breast can complete the feelings of falling in love.
In the sheltered simplicity of the first days after a baby is born, one sees again the magical closed circle, the miraculous sense of two people existing only for each other, the tranquil sky reflected on the face of the mother nursing her child.
