I’ve known about how great birth doulas can be for years (a birth doula is one of the best ways to help get breastfeeding off to a good start). I don’t know how I would have made it through the birth of my fourth baby without my doula. But I never realized all the great stuff that postpartum doulas offer until my friend Heidi sent me a link to her new website. It makes me wonder if I could still count as postpartum (? — maybe not). I wish I could have had the “two week meal helper” after my babies were born.
In any case, if you’re looking for a birth doula or a postpartum doula, we’ve got lots of really great women doing this work in the Madison area. You can read more at the Doulas of South Central Wisconsin. If you’re having a hard time choosing someone, you can check out Happy Bambino’s Speed Doula event.
It’s fun to make food that the whole family can share — including your older baby that’s learning to enjoy solid foods. My family loves this meal and it’s really easy to adapt for sharing with a baby. If your baby is very young, you can just share some of the mashed sweet potatoes. If your baby is older she might like the beans, spinach, or little pieces of tortilla. Enjoy! (Adapted from a recipe in “Simply In Season” by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert)
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas
Ingredients (all amounts are per person):
sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced, 1/2-1
whole wheat tortillas, 1-2
cooked black beans, 1/2-3/4 c
small amount of olive oil
pinch of cumin
butter
thinly sliced mild cheddar cheese
Directions:
Steam the sweet potatoes until soft. While potatoes are steaming, heat the cumin in oil in a small pan. Add the beans and heat through. Salt/pepper to taste. Melt a little butter in a skillet on medium heat. Put the tortilla on the butter, cover with sliced cheese. Cover half the tortilla with a layer of beans and a layer of sweet potato slices. When the cheese has melted enough to stick, fold the other half of the tortilla over the sweet potatoes. Flip the quesadilla and cook until the cheese is melted and the tortilla crisp. This is also really yummy with sliced red peppers or some wilted spinach inside the quesadilla.
We’re still learning about the specifics of nutrition — like how much of what each person really needs at any particular time. So nutrition recommendations change over time. Dr. Tom Hale in his Medications and More newsletter (June 2008) talks about new research that questions earlier recommendations that little babies need iron supplements. He talks about a study that found 10-year-olds that were fed formula high in iron as babies scored 11 points lower on an IQ test than their low-iron formula peers. He concludes:
All this data suggests, as we all know, that human milk continues to be the most perfect nutrition for a human infant. Everything we may have formerly deemed ‘deficient’ (such as iron) now seems to be just perfect. So do we need to supplement breastfed infants with oral iron? the answer is probably yes, but only premature infants who may not have the hepatic stores of iron. Do we need to supplement term infants? Probably not, unless they have documented iron deficiency anemia.
Are you ready to celebrate breastfeeding? August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week. As WABA (World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action) describes this year’s theme:
World Breastfeeding Week 2008 Mother Support : Going for the Gold
Breastfeeding results from a reproductive health continuum for the mother to the child with no beginning or end, from generation to generation. When a practice is disrupted, it must be restored. However, restoration of the breastfeeding culture demands more resources and mobilization.
In conjunction with the Olympics next August, WBW 2008 calls for greater support for mothers in achieving the gold standard of infant feeding: breastfeeding exclusively for six months, and providing appropriate complementary foods with continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond.
As every country sends its best athletes to compete at these global games, it is important to remind ourselves that, in a similar fashion, a healthy young athlete can only emerge from a healthy start on life. There is no question that optimal infant and young child feeding is essential for optimal growth and development.
Supporting Mother = Supporting Her to Provide the Golden Start For Every Child !
My favorite part of the website was getting to see the results of the video and photo contests. It is so cool to see breastfeeding around the world — we share so much with mothers and babies everywhere.
The Mothers Milk Association of Wisconsin just put out their June newsletter. MMAW is working toward making human donor milk available to more families in Wisconsin that need it. Dr. Jill Mallory notes in the newsletter:
In the vast history of the human race there have been lactating communities, not just lactating mothers.If a baby was born healthy, milk would be there, somewhere, whether from family or tribe.Now in our modern society, we have broken off from our tribal roots and separated ourselves into single-family units, yet our need to nourish our babies and keep them healthy continues to be a community need.Milk donors are ready and able here in Wisconsin to fill this role of contemporary “wet nurse.”With the benefits of modern lab testing and pasteurization processes, we are able to safely link the donor with the baby in need.
As a young physician, I see the future of infant nutrition in human milk banking.There are always instances when supplementation of the newborn may be necessary, while awaiting readiness of the mother to nurse her own baby.The evidence regarding the safety and improved outcomes seen with donor human milk, especially in premature babies, is solid.I look forward to being able to write a prescription for human milk and to the assurance that my premature patients will receive the best nature has to offer during their stays in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.I await the day when premature babies will follow-up with me for well child visits free from infection and having spent less days hospitalized because of optimal feeding.
How old is too old for nursing? Every family has a different answer to this question. The World Health Organization encourages mothers to nurse their babies for two years or more. But in the midwestern USA it’s not typical to nurse beyond a few months. This public information video from Puerto Rico shows how normal and nice it is to breastfeed an older baby:
A friend is expecting her first baby. She’s just started taking a breastfeeding class. She reported that she’s learning a lot but she felt a little silly pretending to breastfeed a doll.
My 8-year-old daughter is happy to pretend to mother her dolls. She nurses her doll — along with rocking, changing, and dressing him. After she and I watched a babywearing video, she spent hours figuring out how to wear her baby doll in different carriers. She sits in on La Leche League meetings. I’m guessing that if she ever does have her own babies that breastfeeding will feel pretty natural to her.
I think learning to mother a breastfed baby must be a little like learning a language: it’s easier and more natural when you’re a child.
Today I was reminded of Diane’s motherhood-magnet analogy as I talked with a very tired mother that was hoping her little breastfed baby would sleep through the night. Diane pointed out that if you hold magnets either far apart or touching, it’s easy — there is no tension. If you hold them very close but not touching, they’re always trying to move somewhere else (try this with a couple magnets yourself!).
Mothering a breastfed baby with attachment parenting is like letting magnets touch: when mothers stay close to their babies, hold them, and co-sleep they have an easy time responding to their babies’ cues and breastfeeding goes smoothly. Mothering a bottlefed baby with our culture’s rules is like keeping magnets far apart: formula-feeding works fine when babies sleep in the other room and eat on schedule. Trying to breastfeed while mothering with our culture’s rules is like holding magnets close without touching: there is constant tension and frustration. Lots of breastfeeding problems happen when mothers expect their babies to eat on a schedule and sleep through the night.
Breastfeeding mothers can be caught in the middle. Their babies are trying tell them when they need to eat and for how long. Their families, friends, doctors, co-workers, and the media are giving them a list of rules for what their babies “should” be needing. These mother’s lives are under tension a lot of the time — a sad thing since mothering a little baby is plenty of work even without having to juggle conflicting expectations…
There’s no getting around it — birth affects breastfeeding. If you want to know more about birth in the United States you can check out a new documentary film from executive producer Rikki Lake and director Abbey Epstein, The Business of Being Born. Here are the details:
WHEN: First Showing - 29 February 2008 at 6pm
Second Showing - 2 March 2008, afternoon
(time to be confirmed)
WHERE: The Majestic Theater, on King Street, 1 block
off the Capitol Square
WHO: The film will be followed by a panel and audience
discussion. The panel will include an obstetrician/cultural anthropologist, a family practice physician, 3 certified nurse midwives, and 1 certified professional midwife, all representing local positions/practices in hospital, birth center, and home birth.
The audience - YOU - will be the “other panel.” In the spirit of midwifery, we will promote active audience engagement and dialogue, particularly as regards consumer issues and experiences.
Tickets will be widely available at suggested donation only - $5/advance and $10/day of show. Happy Bambino and the Madison Birth Center both have information about getting advance tickets.
The screenings are sponsored by Community Nurse Midwives, Happy Bambino, Madison Birth Center, WI Guild of Midwives, and WI American College of Nurse Midwives. (Thanks to Hannah Bernard - Donals All Four Trimesters Doula Service for sharing this information with me.)
I’m planning to go. Hope to see you there! - Adria
