The Attached Mother

Nestle isn’t exactly a well loved company by many people who are concerned with breastfeeding or infant nutrition. They have a pretty nasty reputation, so far in that a Nestle boycott has been held by many people. So it makes me a bit proud to see some professionals standing up to Nestle as they once again try to hurt breastfeeding women in the name of profits. Using their usual tactics, wine and dine hospitals and their staff to get prominent placement and product pushing, they elbow past any information or support breastfeeding women might have gotten. Instead cans of formula, bottles, products with their name plastered all over it, and pamphlets telling women exactly how to wean and switch to formula are passed out like candy on Halloween.

Two breastfeeding experts have resigned from Burnaby General Hospital over a dispute involving infant formula giant Nestlé.

Renee Hefti-Graham and Linda Good both quit last week.

The issue began with an invitation circulated through the hospital’s e-mail system to a Nestlé-sponsored “wine-and-dine” event to be held June 12.

Both women were adamantly opposed to the event.

And it was criticized by Health Minister George Abbott and the hospital’s executive director, Arden Krystal, as a violation of a World Health Organization code that deals with the marketing of breastmilk substitutes.

The code states “no financial or material inducements” may be provided by formula companies to promote their products to health workers.

Nestlé cancelled the event following news of the controversy.

The WHO code is not enforced in America, mostly because the high profit formula companies have strong enough ties with the lawmakers who would be in charge of actually enforcing it. It’s nice to see that in Canada some people can actually get the giant Nestle to step back. Sadly it means that women now birthing in the Burnaby General hospital have lost what might have been their greatest breastfeeding support.

The hospital says that they are training the nurses in infant feeding. I hope that they will be teaching them how to support breastfeeding moms rather than push formula on them over every little thing. Perhaps the hospital will ask Renee Hefti-Graham and Linda Good to come back. With all of the news this story has been generating perhaps Nestle will think before aggressively taking over a hospital.

Sadly, I doubt it.

Nestle, breastfeeding

I came across an article here about breastfeeding in the UK. Apparently there is a law being passed through the Parliament in the UK to protect breastfeeding mother’s rights for up to 1 year. However now the government is trying to take that down to only 6 months. The entire thing is a tricky read, but interesting nonetheless.

The writer says that in Scotland mothers are protected for up to 2 years. As soon as I read that my heart skipped a beat. I could not imagine breastfeeding in public with my own now 2 year old. When he was younger I had no problem with it, however now I can only imagine how people would respond. I envision someone flipping open their cell phone to report me for child abuse. So the idea that a country would create a law to protect a mother’s right to breastfeed her child for two years just makes me swoon.

In the US there is a Federal Law protecting a woman’s right to breastfeed in public on Federal property, however the law does not establish a upper limit for age. Each state has also created their own laws for breastfeeding in public and how to protect that. The sad thing is that they need the laws at all, that we can’t just accept that mothers will feed their babies and that often happens outside the home. Like outside of a courtroom for example.
Toronto, Canada is also working on a public breastfeeding initiative. it’s something that has me pretty excited. Imagine, an entire city proudly promoting breastfeeding moms who dare to leave the house.  It’s a beautiful thing.

The initiative, called “Breastfeeding Friendly. Anytime. Anywhere.” will encourage the 6,100 restaurants throughout the city to post decals in their windows and register online to let mothers know that breastfeeding inside is not only accepted but encouraged.

breastfeeding, lactation

This post is for the Carnival of Breastfeeding. Welcome readers!

When my oldest was born my milk was a plenty. In those first few, hazy days we were not yet sure if I would return to work or not. So just in case we got an electric pump. It was bad! It was a cheap model from some brand I had never heard of, and used. At the time it was the best we could afford so I made due.

Luckily, my breasts seemed to love that cheap, loud, almost painful pump. Each day I hooked myself up to the thing, feeling like a cow at the dairy farm, and worked towards a stash of milk that I hoped would keep my son nourished should I return to work. Just as my maternity leave pay was ending we made the decision that I would stay home instead.

I cannot explain the sadness of seeing those bags and bags of precious milk going to waste. A few were used now and then when we went on trips out, before I was confident enough to breastfeed in public, and a few others on those rare dates without the baby. But for the most part I was only counting down the days on the bags, watching all that work go to nothing. It was by total chance that I read online about a woman who had had multiple infants and was unable to nurse them all. The article talked briefly about her trying to buy milk from a milk bank, but the costs were high and the supply was low. It was like a light switched on in my head.

The next week I had faxed in forms and was eagerly awaiting my blood test results. Though I could not donate the bags of milk I already had I could put my breasts to good use for babies I would never see.

I was fortunate to have a good supply already established. I could nurse my own son and still pump 5 - 8 ounces per feeding. It was an amazing feeling to know that I was helping other mothers and children each time. Somehow it made the pain of pumping lessen. Though I was only able to donate milk for a short while before time and other issues became a problem, that short time was amazing. I still keep on my fridge a magnet for the National Milk Bank to remember the time when I could give to more than just my own children.

Be sure to visit all the other people joining in the fun:

• The 17th Carnival of Breastfeeding
• The Adventures of Pumping: Don’t Spill That Liquid Gold!
• The thrills and chills of person-to-person milk donation
• Exclusively Pumping and Cleft Palate
• Electrify Me!
• I’m in here… uh… busy!
• I was ‘Pumped’ To Launch
• Enter to Win A Medela Freestyle Pump

breastfeeding, milk banks, pumping

If you don’t already read the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog you might have missed their call for posts for the next Carnival of Breastfeeding. This month’s topic is pumping and expressing milk, so if you have a story to tell be sure to join in. I will be sharing my own pumping and donating story from when my oldest was still a tiny baby. Donating milk was one of the most wonderful things I did, next to breastfeeding my own son. Submissions are due by June 17th, so get to writing!

Speaking of breastfeeding, I read this interesting article in the news the other day.

Premature baby girls appear to get greater benefit from breastfeeding compared than premature baby boys, according to new research.

The study was done by looking at the hospitalization rates of boys and girls due to infections and comparing the formula fed infants to the breastfed infants. The results showed a sizable decrease in girls who were breastfed than those who were fed formula, while boys rates stayed the same. One interesting thing is that the girls, in general, seemed to be sicker than boys when not breastfed. Fifty percent of the formula fed girls had to be hospitalized due to infections, while only nineteen percent of the formula fed boys. The numbers seem to go both ways, not only are girls healthier when breastfed but they are also sicker when not.

Part of me wonders if some of those numbers stem not from actual health but from the male/female stereotypes that start as soon as birth. Boys are seen to be stronger, girls more fragile, so that girls are more likely to be taken to the hospital for infections.

Despite this apparent decline, some gender stereotyping persists and is consistent across studies. The parents in all three studies rated female newborns as finer featured than male newborns, and the parents in both the present and the Sweeney and Bradbard (1988) studies rated female newborns as more delicate than male newborns. Thus, parents seem particularly likely to perceive their female and male newborns as differing on physical characteristics. These differences were perceived even though there were no observed physical differences between the male and female infants in this or the previous studies. Via: Parents’ gender-stereotyped perceptions of newborns: the eye of the beholder revisited

It will be interesting to see if more information on this study comes to light and what can be made from it. Hopefully this will not make some mothers decide not to breastfeed their sons.

breastfeeding

“Mommy, my eyes hurt.”

My oldest suffers from bad allergies so complaints about his eyes and nose suffering are not new. I made a mental note to give him allergy medicine when we got home and went on with running errands. When we got home, however, it was clear that it was not just allergies he was suffering from.

Both eyes were puffy, oozing, and pink. When he complained that it felt like sand was in his eyes I was certain, it was pink eye. Added to it was swelling and tenderness  in his cheeks that always told me a sinus infection was happening. Needless to say it was not a pleasant weekend. Fortunately I have a pretty good medical trick up my sleeve. Breastmilk.

Conjunctivitis, or pink eye, can be caused by several different things.  But when it is bacterial, breastmilk works wonders. Breastmilk contains many antibodies that help fight infections, the most abundant being secretory IgA. What’s so special about that?

Breastmilk has been used by mothers (probably for many years) to treat infectious conjunctivitis. Secretory IgA is an immunoglobulin, present in colostrum and mature human milk. It has been found to inhibit the adherence or bacteria to mucosal surfaces and limits bacterial colonization of the eye. Via: ivillage

Conjunctivitis, pink eye, breastmilk

To continue my Co-sleeping and Breastfeeding theme from earlier I wanted to touch on a news story that is gaining a lot of attention lately. Crib deaths linked to common bacteria.

Researchers have pinpointed two common bacteria that may contribute to crib deaths, even when infants show no sign of tissue damage.

Post-mortem tests on more than 500 babies found high levels of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in babies who died for unexplained reasons, a team from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London said on Friday.

One explanation could be that the bacteria release deadly toxins, which damage the young heart, lungs or nervous system.

But bacterial growth may also be a secondary effect of other known risk factors like over-heating, parental smoking and lying a child on its stomach.

Crib death, also known as SIDS, is when babies stop breathing and die for unexplainable reasons in their sleep. Though often suffocation is lumped in with SIDS by people, they are not the same. True SIDS is the term given when doctors can find no reason for the child to have suddenly died.

This new finding has sparked heated debates across the web. Many parents are asking where is the link between the bacteria and the children. Some are asking about tainted formula or vaccines, while others are wondering if there is a defect that allows a bacteria found in everyone’s bodies to become so dangerous. One question that I read asked if there was a difference between those babies who were breastfed and those who were not in the numbers of SIDS cases and this bacteria.

It is sometimes touted that bottle fed infants have a higher risk of SIDS than those who are breastfed. Though the evidence so far is inconclusive, depending on who is doing the research, the connection between the two is certainly there. Especially when co-sleeping(pdf) is added to the mix. However, there is one important connection that I want to point out. The anti-bodies found in breastmilk. As Dr. Sears points out
(more…)

Since breastfeeding and co-sleeping go together so well I wanted to share these two pieces of news together.

Did you ever try co-sleeping with your babe? For a day, a week, a month, or longer? Are you still co-sleeping with your little, or not so little, ones. If so let yourself be counted in the co-sleeping survey going on right now. The purpose of the survey is to normalize co-sleeping in the public eye and show that a lot more parents are doing so than is assumed. I added in my nearly two years of co-sleeping time to the survey, four months for my oldest and eighteen months with my youngest.

I should also send you over to the Motherwear blog where Tanya is taking examples of breastfeeding funnies from your kids. What hilarious things have your kids said when it comes to breastfeeding. Think of it as “Kids Say the Darnest Things” boobs edition.

co-sleeping, breastfeeding, kids, parenting, attachment parenting

The Motherwear Blog has a great list up of breastfeeding freebies that all nursing moms would love to have. Everything from free videos and posters, to books for kids, and a great recipe for cookies that helps increase lactation. It’s a great excuse to curl up with your baby and a plate of cookies. Breastfeeding is hard work so it’s nice to get some free goodies for it.

Especially when you are nursing a toddler! It is often called the Nursing Olympics, the special brand of nursing when your toddler is hanging over your shoulder, upside down, while trying to eat cookies and pulling your hair. Every mom still nursing her older child knows all about that phase. They are too big to be happy staying still but too little to understand why mommy needs them to stop trying to run through the house with your nipple in their mouth. Ouch!

Though one of the perks is getting to watch your toddler mimic you in cute ways. I have pictures of both of my sons as toddler nursing their baby dolls.  Though their baby dolls never gave them the fun of trying to nursing a child doing loops in their lap.

As my youngest is going on 2 (in six days) and still breastfeeding daily I’m happy to be mostly past the squirming and flipping phase. He still has his moments of thinking he needs to nurse while laying across my back and leaned over my shoulder. I don’t know how long this is going to last, right now as long as he wants, but as long as there are some fun freebies I’m still game.

breastfeeding, extended breastfeeding

Via CNN:

A Chinese policewoman is being hailed as a hero after taking it upon herself to breast-feed several infants who were separated from their mothers or orphaned by China’s devastating earthquake.

Police officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, was feeding nine babies at one point.

Officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, the mother of a 6-month-old boy, responded to the call of duty and the instincts of motherhood when the magnitude 7.9 quake struck on May 12.

“I am breast-feeding, so I can feed babies. I didn’t think of it much,” she said. “It is a mother’s reaction, and a basic duty as a police officer to help.”

OK, so not an attachment parenting topic, but still something worth sharing. The earthquake that struck caused many families to be torn apart in so many terrible ways. To see a woman step up and help children who were separated or orphaned from their mothers is a heroic act we should all applaud.

I  do not want to turn this into another formula verses breastfeeding fight. There are hundreds of infants still starving from lack of food, whether that food is breast milk or formula. In the horrors of the quake  many mothers have been able to feed their children themselves or been able to obtain clean water and proper formula.  That another mother would step in and do something so amazing should be above all of that.

Milk banks are one way any breastfeeding mother can be a hero also. These banks collect and store breast milk for babies who cannot be breastfed for a variety of reasons. There are milk banks in many countries across the world that help care for children by connecting nursing mothers to babies in need.

Some hospitals in China have milk banks already set up to collect milk donations. Spreading the word about the ability to help other babies in need is a great way to help other children affected by the quake. Even if you cannot help them donating milk to your local banks will children here in America who are unable to have the benefits of breast milk.

For more information on the quake in China and information on how to help visit the China Earthquake Relief page.

breastfeeding, China, earthquake, orphans

More than three out of four women in the U.S. are breastfeeding their infants at least briefly, according to a CDC survey released Wednesday, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, the percentage of new mothers who breastfeed for some period has gradually risen from 60% in 1993 and 1994 to 77% in 2005 and 2006

I read this news this morning and was excited to hear that 77% of mothers are breastfeeding, if only for a short while at least. Those first few days and weeks of breastfeeding is so important not only for the health benefits but also for the bonding experience breastfeeding creates. Unfortunately this huge increase of breastfeeding drops back off by 6 months of age.

Some breastfeeding experts said that they were happy with the report’s findings but noted that breastfeeding rates after six months of age have not changed and are significantly lower than the goals set by government agencies. According to the Times, the survey did not report breastfeeding rates for infants who are six months old because of lack of data

Breastfeeding has such great benefits for a child well past the first 6 months of age. In fact breastfeeding benefits continue well into the toddler years. The nutritional benefits alone are worth exploring continuing breastfeeding past 12 months. Early eaters are notorious for being picky, there isn’t a mom alive who hasn’t at least once worried that their child was getting enough to eat when their little one only wants to eat mac & cheese for a week straight. That is where the extra nutrition can come in handy. According to Kelly Mom:

• In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides:
  • 29% of energy requirements
  • 43% of protein requirements
  • 36% of calcium requirements
  • 75% of vitamin A requirements
  • 76% of folate requirements
  • 94% of vitamin B₁₂ requirements
  • 60% of vitamin C requirements

  — Dewey 2001

One thing that was not discussed in the article is why these numbers are going up. I think it’s important to know what is happening to encourage more women to breastfeed so that we can do more of that. Are we getting better at educating parents on why breastfeeding is important, are more workplaces offering policies to allow new mothers time to breastfeed, or are we as a culture opening back up to the idea of breasts as feeding instruments? Laura Harding at Type-A Mom points out that the attitudes about breastfeeding are changing for the better. After a period where breastfeeding came out of fashion and was looked down on people are finally coming back to what breastfeeding can be.

breastfeeding

There area few celebrity moms that I just love. Gwen Stephani being one. From her stylish sling that Kingston got to rock (and hopefully number 2 will enjoy as well) to her breastfeeding comments, Gwen has just stood out to me as a mom I would love to know. Angelina Jolie was another mom who wore her kids and loves co-sleeping. Family snuggles in the bed are so relaxing. Charlotte Church is another mom who’s homebirthing, breastfeeding, co-sleeping attitude made me smile.

Unfortunately not all celeb moms feel the same way. There are some who think it is perfectly fine to hand their newborns over to someone else while they jump back into their careers or begin training for marathons.  I know that many say all mothers are attached, but sometimes I wonder about some mothers. How attached are you when you can say “OK, here you go, I’ve got to get back to the gym now”. Marathon training isn’t just half an hour or an hour every other day. That is a huge piece of your time, time that your children are not getting.

I’m just sad that instead of spending time with her newborn twins she’s spending time with a personal trainer. Rather than make her kids proud by being a good mother she wants to make them proud by being in good shape.

Yes we’re all mothers, and yes we should support each other as mothers. But that does not mean we have to agree with or even like what other mothers choose to do. And we can be vocal in our opposition while still not taking away their right to make those kinds of choices.

So what celeb moms do you look up to? Which ones are influential in all the right ways?

parenting, attachment parenting, celebrity moms, celebrities

I read this news article and could only sigh and shake my head. Apparently Millions of new mums say breastfeeding in public is still a nightmare. Even in this day and age mothers are still being looked down on for simply feeding their children.

Over at The F-Word there is a great post discussing this issue. The numbers shared are shameful and disturbing to think about. Despite the knowledge that breastfeeding is the best way to nourish children there is still a disaproving glare cast on it from society.

More than one fifth of the women who participated claimed they have left their babies screaming from hunger rather than opting for the alternative of feeding them in a public place. Many women fear that they would be judged for their decision to breast-feed, with 38 per cent of new mums banishing themselves to lavatories as they anticipate a negative reception in a public space. In fact 54 percent of mothers claimed to have received unwanted attention when feeding their babies, with more than 14 per cent confessing to having heated arguments with those who have been so abhorred by their actions. Consequently, more than a third of the women questioned opt to use formula milk in public in order to avoid any unnecessary conflagrations.

Unfortunately it isn’t just confined to the UK. Mothers in the US have seen their fair share of issues over public breastfeeding. And there have also been the online fights such as MySpace removing breastfeeding images as obscene, LiveJournal deleting breastfeeding icons, and FaceBook banning breastfeeding images. It is almost no wonder some moms would rather let their babies cry than try to feed them. The public reactions make it clear which option is more acceptable.

(more…)