The Attached Mother

“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
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Revolution Health has an interesting service available that shares just how mom friendly each state in the US really is. It’s called MomScore, and you can use it to see how your state ranks on several issues important to the health and wellbeing of moms and children.

Each state is judged on several criteria to determine their overall score.  Access to prenatal care, maternal mortality, risk of pregnancy complications, childcare availability, infant mortality, air quality, violent crime rate, access to health insurance, affordable children’s health insurance, and the state’s mandatory paid leave policies are all picked over and compared to give a breakdown of how the individual states add up. If you are curious as to how they determined the scores you can read their methodology here.

Mississippi comes in last in their score card while Vermont is number one. My own state, Oklahoma, came in near the bottom of the heap at #44 out of 51 states and D.C. Access to prenatal care and health care coverage are ranked as Oklahoma’s worst issues.  I do wonder exactly who they are including in their results of access to prenatal care. Did they count midwives in their numbers? Not that it would add much to OKlahoma, says the mom who had to drive over an hour in labor to get to the nearest midwife, but I wonder if that would increase the scores of other states.

Check out the numbers and see how your state ranks. What other qualifications would you add to the list?

motherhood, parenting

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

There is a great post up at API Speaks from Amy about her choice to have a homebirth. The post was originally written before her son was born. Amy has been a loud voice in birth options for women, giving information and insight into the home birth option. You can find many of her well researched and thoughtful articles at BlogHer where she shares her perspective on midwives and home birth. Also check out her blog where she dishes on parenting and life as a Crunchy Domestic Goddess.

When I was pregnant with my second son we decided on a home birth. My first was born in a free standing birth center with a midwife that I loved, but the center was an hour away from my home. After enduring that long drive in the throes of labor once I was certain that I did not want to do it again. Unfortunately living in a rural area there are not many birth options available. It was either drive an hour or more in any direction or hand myself over to the local OBs, none of whom were open to anything other than medicalized births. At 20 weeks the home birth decision was made.

Of course many people assumed that choice was made out of ignorance or some idea of birth being a fuzzy, soft affair. Most people tended to ignore the mountain of research I had in front of me, the hours each day spent questioning everything birth related that lead me to the home birth option. Though it wasn’t such a giant leap for me after already researching my birth options with my first child.

Though my home birth ended up not happening the research I did led me to fully support women who want to go that route. It is a wonderful option, one that more women should know the facts of and have available to them. Childbirth can be a huge industry and many who profit from it aren’t willing to share the stage, which can lead to home birth and free standing birth centers not being given equal availability. Luckily there are women like Amy out there who educates and inspires women on this great birth option.

birth, childbirth, home birth

Vaccinations are a hot topic among parents. On schedule? Delayed? All? Some? None? There are facts and opinions on all sides of the debate that parents should familiarize themselves with. Knowledge is power, blindly following any doctor takes away your power. The same goes for following the makers of the vaccines, or those who get rich off of them.

Setting up a schedule to delay vaccinations or to choose which ones your children will receive can be difficult. There is a lot of information out there to dig through to help you make your decisions.  You should first visit the AAP to see what the “official” schedule for childhood vaccinations is. Then talk with your doctor to see what their schedule is. And if your children are school aged be sure to find out if there are specific vaccinations required for school. Some only require a selected few of all the ones given which may be useful to know if thinking about selective vaccination.

Vaccinations are not just in the realm of attachment parenting, it is a universal debate among all parents. I have giggled to meet moms who choose a standard medical birth, breastfeed for only a few months, never co-sleep, and yet have a delayed vaccination schedule for this children. I have also met co-sleeping, baby-wearing, breastfeeding moms who use the full vaccine schedule on time.

What ever you choose to do for your children be sure you research the facts first and make a solid decision. You don’t have to do all or nothing, you can choose to turn down the ones that you do not trust or just hold off for a year or two until you feel your child’s body is more able to handle the stress.

vaccinations, vaccines, selective vaccinating