More and more babies are being brought into the world with the help of Surrogates. This is nothing short of a miracle and these Surrogates are often thought of as “Angels on Earth” for what they do.
What many families are unaware of is that even though mothers are not always able to birth their own babies, they are still able to nourish them once they are here. Through a process of induced lactation a woman who has never even been pregnant before is able to feed her own child and reap the many benefits that breastfeeding has to offer.
As a Board Certified Lactation Consultant I have helped several mothers bring in a milk supply for their child, regardless if they have birthed that child or not.
How in the world is this possible? We simply trick the body into thinking it’s pregnant by using birth control, and together with other medications establish a milk supply, so by the time the baby is born they are able to feed their baby themselves. Sometimes supplementation is needed, but often a woman is able to achieve a full supply. The longer a woman has to prepare, the better results we see.
Even women who have had a hysterectomy or are in the midst of menopause can do this! How exciting that mothers are able to enjoy breastfeeding their children, no matter how they entered this world!
Showing posts with label breastfeeding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breastfeeding. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
The birth of Zen
Here is a beautiful birth story from one of my Hypnobabies students:
This is the birth story of my son, he was brought into the world in the comfort of his own home in the room that he will grow up in and in the water. It all started on the peaceful starry Saturday morning,
By the way, this whole entire time I was under hypnosis, so what many may construe as pain, I saw it as intense pressure and I actually enjoyed it. Every so often after a pressure wave, I would reach down and could actually feel my son's head! That was the coolest thing in the world. It was so soft and fuzzy. I wasn't afraid as I've seen some women in videos be. I kept feeling his head knowing that soon he would be joining us in this big bad world!
By 7 he was starting to crown and finally 20 minutes later his head was out! My partner was behind me as I was on my hands and knees in the water, and she was doing a great job calling out the play by play as my family watched quietly, which I was completely unaware of. (This hypnobabies stuff really works!) 1 minute later out came sliding our son, my partner was able to catch him with the help of the midwife and he was passed under to me as in a football hold, but I was so tired and out of it that he got to go swimming for a second before I caught him. I tried pulling him up to me as I tried to sit up at the same time, but his cord somehow in the transition got wrapped around his neck. Finally off of his neck we laid there and looked at him as he gasped for his first breath of air. Finally he was here and we all cried and laughed and were in awe of this beautiful baby boy!
Born into this world at
Monday, June 22, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Birth Of Apollo Thomas Kurtyka
It was 12:30 on March 8th, the one day I knew Apollo wouldnt be coming since it was his due date and no babies are actually born on their due date! Steve and I were trying to decide what we were going to do with our lazy Sunday; Steve just got off the phone with his Uncle Steve, who told him that he saw something on National Geographic about a tribe of women who just start pushing down on a pregnant womans belly to get things going. I told him we would not be trying that, instead he gave me a great big hug. During the hug I felt like I wet myself after standing there for a second I told Steve what I felt and went to the bathroom. When I first sat down I heard something drain into the toilet, but when I waited for more and gently pushed, nothing more came out. So, I got on my hands and knees on the bathroom floor and did some pelvic rocking, hoping it would encourage a little more drainage, but nothing happened. I told Steve I was going to lay down for 10 minutes and then when I get up, there would be more water, so we would know it was for sure my bag of water that broke. After 10 minutes of anxiously lying down, I got up and felt nothing, so Steve and I got ready to take a walk. On the way out the door, I had a gush of fluid come out and I had no doubt anymore that my bag of water had broken.
I had a huge rush of excitement; I had secretly been asking that everything started with my bag of water breaking, so that way I would really know things were going to happen.
Steve and I decided to go for a walk still, it was at that time that I felt everything between us deepened a bit even though we had been on the path to parenthood for the past nine months, this was really it; we were going to work together to bring our child into the world now, its something that I cant really put into words, but I knew we were reaching a new level in our relationship, a very spiritual level and I couldnt wait for what was in store.
During our walk, I was starting to gush fluid, so I told Steve I wanted to go back home. We decided to watch a movie, since contractions hadnt started and we wanted to stay distracted. I alerted my sister that our little man would be coming sometime soon and she notified friends and family for me, so I wouldnt have to worry about people hounding me. Steve and I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together in quiet excitement, knowing that finally we were going to meet this little man who was going to change our lives forever.
Ella came back from her Dads house around 8, I was so happy she was there, my family was all together now. She was so excited that she was going to meet her brother soon, she could hardly contain herself. We watched Madagascar 2 together and then took a nice walk outside; it was such a beautiful evening, with a slight chill in the air and the feeling that big things were coming soon!
Around 9pm Jen (my sister) and Amanda (my niece) came over to spend the night, and later my mom came up from San Diego. Steve and I went to sleep around 10, I was admittedly a little disappointed nothing had happened yet. I remained positive though, thankful that I would get some sleep before everything got going at least. We went to sleep listening to my Hypnobabies CD, relaxing me and putting me to sleep quickly.
I woke around 6:30 in the morning on March 9th, the first thing I said to myself was, I cant believe Im still pregnant! Sue, my midwife had told me to call her in the morning if I was still pregnant, but I didnt want to bother her yet, so I went out into the living room (leaving Steve and Ella snoring away in the bedroom) and woke my sister. We chatted a little bit, but my sister was pretty tired, so I let her be for a while. I waited until 7 and called Sue. She gave me my choices (hospital, wait and do nothing, or try to get things stimulated), I chose to stimulate things. First thing Sue told me to do was get a nice big breakfast in me, then start alternating between blue and black cohosh tinctures every hour. So I woke everyone up and we went to Mothers market to get the tinctures and then had a great breakfast at IHOP.
While at IHOP I noticed my contractions coming every 15 minutes or so. They werent too strong, I was able to talk through them no problem. I was really excited that my body was starting to get going on its own. Once home I did start the blue and black cohosh and just hung out with my family.
We all took a little walk down the street, it was so nice to be outside, feeling the ocean air on my face and having those I love with me, supporting me. This was the perfect day to bring my baby out to meet the world.
My Mom and Sister went and got some lunch for us around 1:30. My contractions were still coming every 10 minutes or so and not very strong. At 2 I was to start a castor oil smoothie, if things werent getting more intense, so we started making that after lunch was over.
Times and events are a bit blurry for me after this point, but I know my Midwives, Sue and Lindsey told me they were on their way to the hospital because another client of theirs had a retained placenta. I was fine with them being busy, I didnt feel like anything was going to happen soon anyway.
I was about 3-4 sips into my castor oil smoothie and my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. Lindsey called and told me to stop drinking it, because they didnt want me to go to fast and not have them there. They let me know that they called a back up Midwife (another Sue!) and she would be there in a bit.
One of my best images of my birthing is when I was in the backyard with Steve, Ella, Jen, Amanda, my mom and Sarah (my friend). We were all just enjoying the beautiful weather, every time I got a contraction, I would use my peace cue (from Hypnobabies) and rest on the table or on Steve. Many times, I would feel hands on my back or shoulder, hands of my loved ones, giving me their strength through every contraction. I loved this part of my labor.
I came inside after a while, my contractions were much closer now, probably about 2-3 minutes apart. I wanted my friend Casandra there, because shes assisted at many births and I knew if Apollo decided to come soon, she could at least help. After only being inside for about 10 minutes, Casandra and Lily (photographer) were there, I was very relieved. At that point, I think my body relaxed a little more and things got noticeably stronger.
Not long after that, Sue, the backup midwife got there. She immediately listened to Apollos heartbeat, that was the best sound to me. Once she was there and I heard my little man, I totally let go and let my body totally take over.
Things got intense FAST!
They soon filled up the birth pool and I got in. Steve got in with me and I remember how protected I felt when I sat back on him and felt like I just curled my entire body into him. He held me, protected me and loved me. He put my headphones on me and I listened to my birth guide script. This really focused me so much and I was glad he thought to use this now. Ella, Casandra and perhaps others (I never had my eyes open) were wiping me down with washcloths and it felt excellent. I was surrounded in love.
Soon, my midwives Sue and Lindsey arrived. I remember looking over at them and smiling, again, relieved that they were there. It wasnt long after that that I started to wonder if I could take much more of the intensity, I doubted myself. Sue checked me and said I was 4cm, this was unbelievable to me, I knew I had to be further, but I wasnt! I know it was soon after this I started vomiting with so much force it just shook my whole body. After discussing this with my midwife later I realized that this was helping my body fully dilate. My sister said she saw blood coming out each time (a sign I was dilating), so my body was just helping push things along for me. How amazing our bodies are! I was giving up on myself mentally, but my body was pushing along, dilating and effacing me quickly. Now I have learned that trust is essential, I know now to trust my body completely, it always knew what to do and how to do it.
Since I was losing my mental strength, Sue suggested Steve and I be alone. So we went into our bedroom. I found it very hard to get comfortable in there and was just on my knees with my face on the bed. As I got weaker mentally, Steve got stronger. He somehow knew all the right things to say, he got me through the hardest parts with just his words.
I have no idea who suggested it, but Steve and I were in the shower next. I honestly hated this, position-wise, I wanted to be on my hands and knees or closer to the ground, instead I was standing and leaning in the shower. This was my favorite part overall between Steve and I. Steve told me things while in the shower that I will keep with me forever, just thinking of the things he said now makes me want to cry. I fell in love with him a million times over in that moment. Even though I was saying I couldnt do it, at that point, I knew I wanted to do it and that I could do it, because of him.
When we got out of the shower, Steve encouraged me into the pool again, but I said no. I wanted to go back into the room, I have no clue why I chose this, but it was where my spirit pulled me. While in the room, on my hands and knees, I kept thinking that since the shower, I felt Apollo moving down. I wondered if I should push with this feeling. So, I tried it. I instantly wanted to get on the ground, so I remember looking down and seeing Tenaya, our dog, and just thinking, oh well! I plopped myself on the ground next to her and pushed. Sue was asking if I was pushing, but she didnt need an answer, she knew I was and quickly yelled out to the living room for the other midwife to get the birth supplies. Steve told me he remembered looking down and seeing Apollos head!
I really loved pushing, I wish I would have done it sooner, when I had felt him moving down. This was for sure my favorite part. I know I pushed a couple times and yelled (Ella said that scared her!) but it felt really good to be vocal. After just a few pushes he was out, born into his Daddys (and the midwifes) hands! I couldnt believe it!!! He was wrapped up awkwardly in his cord, so it took a minute before I saw him. He was brought up to my chest and I was overcome with emotion. I knew Ella was up at my head and soon Steve was too, Apollo was in my arms and I was, at that very moment, 100% complete.
Everyone had flooded into the room when they heard me pushing, so the room was filled with so much love when he entered it. I am so thankful for this. There were no cold, sterile rooms, no nurses or doctors to take him to the warming table; instead there was a room filled with happiness and love, our son was never taken from our arms.
Fast forward about 4 hours, the house was cleared of all our guests; Steve, Ella, Apollo and I were all laying in bed together. I looked at my family and tears came to my eyes, this is what it feels like to be complete, to feel whole
Apollos stats:
Born: 3/09/2009 at 7pm
7lbs10oz
21 in long
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Breastfeeding Furor Post Script
The furor continues after The Atlantic published Hanna Rosin's op. ed. The Case Against Breast-feeding this month.
Some of the latest news:
MSNBC picked up the article to spread it further into the mainstream consciousness. At the end of article there's an option to discuss it on Newsvine. Have a look at the comments. Many thank yous from women who themselves couldn't or didn't want to breastfeed. All these women who did not or could not breastfeed applaud The Case Against Breastfeeding because it makes breastfeeding the villain and assuages their own guilty consciences.
Brings me to the point Dr. Newman makes about guilt and breastfeeding. He says "In order to prevent women feeling guilty about not breastfeeding what is required is not avoiding promotion of breastfeeding, but promotion of breastfeeding coupled with good, knowledgeable and skillful support."
Once again, we have to remember that difficulties breastfeeding are not because breastfeeding is the problem; it is usually because mothers are not getting the support they need from spouse or family, the work place, the community, health care practitioners, the government...the list goes on.
Of course, The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine issued a statement this week in rebuttal. You can read it here.
Here also is the response from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
Thank you to Tanya Lieberman at Motherwear's Breastfeeding Blog for posting that. Her response is also well worth a read as she tackles some of the scientific claims.
And here is a joint letter to the editor of The Atlantic from the United States Breastfeeding Commitee.
I'm interested to see a round up of the blog posts and articles that address Rosin's science. I think there should be something forthcoming from Phd In Parenting who also put together a collection of the voices who responded to the feminist issues in the original article. Thank you to Annie for including us in such great company.
And just for fun, Hathor the Cow Goddess's take on it all.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Some of the latest news:
MSNBC picked up the article to spread it further into the mainstream consciousness. At the end of article there's an option to discuss it on Newsvine. Have a look at the comments. Many thank yous from women who themselves couldn't or didn't want to breastfeed. All these women who did not or could not breastfeed applaud The Case Against Breastfeeding because it makes breastfeeding the villain and assuages their own guilty consciences.
Brings me to the point Dr. Newman makes about guilt and breastfeeding. He says "In order to prevent women feeling guilty about not breastfeeding what is required is not avoiding promotion of breastfeeding, but promotion of breastfeeding coupled with good, knowledgeable and skillful support."
Once again, we have to remember that difficulties breastfeeding are not because breastfeeding is the problem; it is usually because mothers are not getting the support they need from spouse or family, the work place, the community, health care practitioners, the government...the list goes on.
Of course, The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine issued a statement this week in rebuttal. You can read it here.
Here also is the response from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
In the article, "The Case Against Breast-Feeding" by Hanna Rosin, the author skims the literature and has omitted many recent statements including the 2005 statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics which supports the value of breastfeeding for most infants.
This policy references every statement with scientific evidence from over 200 articles which meet scientific standards for accuracy and rigor. The statement was meticulously reviewed by the Section on Breastfeeding, the Committee on Nutrition and numerous other committees and approved by the Board of Directors of the Academy. Breastfeeding and Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes in Developed Countries, a study released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (the AHRQ Report) strongly supports the evidence of benefits demonstrated in the breastfeeding research.
The evidence for the value of breastfeeding is scientific, it is strong, and it is continually being reaffirmed by new research work.
The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages women to make an informed decision about feeding their infants based on scientifically established information from credible resources.
David T. Tayloe, Jr., MD, FAAP
President, American Academy of Pediatrics
Thank you to Tanya Lieberman at Motherwear's Breastfeeding Blog for posting that. Her response is also well worth a read as she tackles some of the scientific claims.
And here is a joint letter to the editor of The Atlantic from the United States Breastfeeding Commitee.
I'm interested to see a round up of the blog posts and articles that address Rosin's science. I think there should be something forthcoming from Phd In Parenting who also put together a collection of the voices who responded to the feminist issues in the original article. Thank you to Annie for including us in such great company.
And just for fun, Hathor the Cow Goddess's take on it all.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Case Against Doing It All
I don’t consider myself a lactavist. I didn’t call the CBC when I was asked to move into a change room at Superstore while nursing my daughter. I have not been to a nurse-in. I have never smuggled breastmilk onto a plane.
I do think that breastfeeding is a normal natural beautiful act. I breastfeed my daughter anywhere I choose. I don’t let people’s opinions or rude looks stop me. I will breastfeed in a restaurant. At my table. Without a cover. I exclusively breastfed both of my children to 6 months. I continued with my son until he was 2.5 years old and probably will with my daughter as well. I fervently believe that it is the best and in most cases should be the ONLY choice for feeding our children.
Why?
Because I distrust processed food. Because just like I prefer to make my own food from scratch as much as I can, I also prefer to give my babies the food that is specially made for them. I believe that if my body is making it for my baby, it’s obviously the best thing to give her. I trust this million year old evolutionary biological process way more than I trust Nestlé. Because I am amazed that the composition of breastmilk changes depending on the time of day and depending on if my baby is a preemie or a toddler. Because I’ve seen the list of ingredients of breastmilk and I’ve heard that they don’t even know what it’s all for or how to replicate it in formula. Because I believe that there is a purpose for all of those ingredients even if science and medicine hasn’t been able to figure it out yet. Because I don’t doubt that they would find a link between every single one of the components of breastmilk and better human functioning in some area (physical, cognitive, emotional) if it were ethically and humanly possible to do so. Because I believe that the act of breastfeeding is about so much more than food.
So it was with utter dismay that I read Hanna Rosin’s recent article for The Atlantic, The Case Against Breast-feeding. The article is so ridiculous and odious that my husband even suggested that it may be a farce, another attempt by the author to have a little game with us, just like she did on the playground. Farce or not, I couldn’t remain quiet.
I have to warn you that I won’t even have a chance to tackle Rosin’s research and studies because I have so much to say about her attitude. And to be honest, I don’t give a damn about the studies she quoted. Personally, I think that science has a long way to go in explaining most human functions from breastmilk to the brain. Inconclusive studies about the power of breastmilk are not going to convince me that evolution was flawed when it came up with mammals.
The tone of The Case Against Breast-feeding is sarcastic, resentful and bitter and I can’t help but wonder why Rosin is so unhappy. She writes about how it is “hard not to seethe” as she breastfeeds her new baby while her husband sleeps, about being “unreasonably furious” at her husband as he leaves her “stuck at home breast-feeding.” She writes about what the What to Expect authors can expect her to do “with this damned fork” (Ok, fair enough, I can’t stand the What to Expect books either) and about wanting to “hit {people} with a two-by-four.” Wow. Really? Why are you so angry Hanna?
When I start to dissect her article, it really doesn’t seem that breastfeeding is the issue. To me her article reads like the whiney self-pitying diatribe of a woman who is unhappy in her marriage, has few real friends, is not supported to breastfeed by her mother, dislikes all the women on the playground and resents her children for interrupting her career and her life. Okay, so now I have to take back the whiney and self-pitying part because wow, that really does sound sad and my heart goes out to such a woman. To be fair to Rosin I have experienced episodes of the rage, loneliness, “crying jags” and cursing at husbands that she writes about but I realise that those times don’t sum up my breastfeeding experience. I really don’t understand how breastfeeding became the scapegoat in this story and I struggle to forgive someone who can damage years and years of work in public health trying to raise breastfeeding rates just because she is unhappy with her life.
Acceptance
The whole article begins with the way Rosin felt at the playground. She witnessed firsthand how judgmental her so-called friends and fellow moms on the playground could be. Of course, she is busy judging right back. She tries to be funny as she describes the “urban moms in their tight jeans and oversize sunglasses” and ridicules their “signifiers” (“organic content of snacks, sleekness of stroller and ratio of wooden toys to plastic”) but she comes off just as awful as she tries to portray them. She talks about her “mother friends” in a way that doesn’t sound like they are her friends at all.
Mothering criticism is definitely running rampant these days; Rosin is right to bring it up. Lord knows I’ve felt it. And stooped to it. We all need to work a little harder to accept each other. That’s a post on its own right there. Yes, moms need to cut each other some slack but that doesn’t amount to a case against breastfeeding (even if it is the major point we judge each other on—“the real ticket into the club” as Rosin puts it).
Breastfeeding Rates
Rosin goes on to wonder why every woman she knows “has become a breast-feeding fascist.” Apparently Rosin only associates with a very slim percentage of the population if every woman she knows is a breastfeeding fascist. In the US, only 17 percent of babies are still breastfed at 6 months. Rosin quotes the breastfeeding rates in the States triumphantly: “breast-feeding is on the rise—69 percent of mothers initiate the practice at the hospital, and 17 percent nurse exclusively for at least 6 months”—as if to say “How much higher can they really go?” I personally find these numbers shockingly low, especially when you consider that those women who initiate the practice in the hospital may not even stick it out past a week or two.
Meanwhile, 83 percent of mothers are NOT breastfeeding for 6 months. These are the women that the Department of Health and Human Services are trying to target with the ad campaigns that Rosin hates so much that she would wean her child out of spite. The tv ads may be tacky and the print ads may be extreme but they are up against big bucks formula companies (with marketing dollars and Washington lobbyists). Ms.Rosin, they are also up against people like you who do so much damage by suggesting that breastfeeding is holding women back from all the things they want to be doing. The ads are a desperate bid to squeak that 17 percent just a little higher.
Rosin herself explains that “the numbers are much higher among women who are white, older, and educated.” Exactly. Like the women Rosin describes in her “playground set” with their “Baby Einstein videos, piano lessons and the rest.” I would wager that the other 83 percent of the population who give up on breastfeeding after initiating it includes all the women who are working because they have to, not because they have a feminist axe to grind.
Class Struggles
Rosin explains that formula was demonized in the 70’s because South American and African studies showed that formula fed babies were more likely to die. “The mothers, it turned out, were using contaminated water or rationing formula because it was so expensive. Still, in the US, the whole episode turned breast-feeding advocates and formula makers into Crips and Bloods,” she says. Oh, I see. It wasn’t really the formula’s fault. It was the mothers. For being poor. For using dirty water. And besides, it isn’t relevant because it wasn’t in the US. As long as you can afford it and have access to clean water, formula isn’t a bad thing—is that what Rosin is saying? That sounds a little elitist coming from the same woman who (rightfully) derides breastfeeding campaigns that encourage working mothers to pump at work for being unrealistic for the lower classes (waitresses and bus drivers).
And her point about wanting to hit people who say that breastfeeding is free with a two-by-four because that means a woman’s time is worth nothing? Well, for the working poor, a woman’s time is only worth $6.55 an hour (US federal minimum wage – 28 states have minimum wage that are either the same or less than the federal rate). If she buys the cheapest formula at Walgreen’s, it is $9.99 for 105 fl. oz. and her three month old baby will go through it in 4-6 days. So on top of the time it takes to feed her baby she is spending almost 2 hours every week working just to buy the formula. And that doesn’t even get into the number of hours she has to work to pay for her childcare.
Of course, Rosin who talks about launching Web sites, answering cell phones, the luxury of working part time from home, and even having a husband to curse at over division of labour is coming at the whole article from the perspective of the privileged. As she herself says, she is “too privileged for pity” so how does she know the real cost of formula?
Working Moms
Rosin doesn’t even question whether or not the same mother who can’t pump at her waitressing job can even afford to buy formula. Rosin focuses all her anger on breastfeeding and the people that she feels are pushing it down our throats. She brings up the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 1997 policy recommending that babies be breastfed to 1 year (still only half of what is recommended by the WHO) and explains that the National Organization for Women “complained that this would tax working mothers, but to no avail.” The real question is not what a woman’s time is worth (and whether she should spend it nursing her baby) but rather, why are so many new mothers working?
Rosin implies that public health officials should have tempered their child health policies to make it easier on working mothers. I would like to suggest that the problem in the United States is actually that the lack of solid maternity leave is taxing breastfeeding mothers. It certainly is difficult to breastfeed your baby to 6 months or a year when your country’s maternity leave would have you back at work when your baby is 12 weeks old (if you can even afford to take those 12 weeks off unpaid).
Support
Of course, a good maternity leave is only one aspect of the broader issue which is the need for support. Rosin herself appears to feel alienated and unsupported in her attempt to breastfeed. “Being stuck at home breast-feeding as he walked out the door for work just made me unreasonably furious, at him and everyone else,” she says. “So I was left feeling trapped,” she says. She likens her life to a prison. Her mother pesters her about whether her breastfed children are getting enough to eat. She is obviously uncomfortable with breastfeeding in public: “There I was, sitting half-naked in public for the tenth time that day, the hundredth time that month, the millionth time in my life.”
Doesn’t she realize that all the books, lactation consultants, support groups, public health campaigns, and legislation that she is tearing down with her sarcastic and mean words all exist to try to help the women who feel alienated and unsupported? All these people are working so hard to try to make the general public understand that breastfeeding moms have a huge job that is hard and often lonely, that breastfeeding in public is acceptable, that no one should have to stay home and breastfeed all the time, that mothers need help with the hours of breastfeeding they put in. They are trying to make these women feel supported. And they don’t expect you to stay away from your mother. They just want her to realise that her comments don’t help.
Feminism
But for Rosin anyway it sounds like the problem isn’t one of lack of support, but rather of feminist discontent. Her angry ranting unfortunately discloses way too much about her own feelings about children and her husband for my comfort level and tells me in no uncertain terms that she resents breastfeeding (and by extension, her children) for the inequalities in her marriage and for her inability to focus on her career.
“But fear not, You,” she says, “The root of the problem is not the sudden realization that your ideal of an equal marriage, with two parents happily taking turns working and raising children, now seem like a farce.” Who is this You she is talking to? It feels like maybe this is her own issue, especially when you see how often it comes up. I already mentioned how she seethed at her husband in the night, how furious she was that he got to go to work. She goes on to say that she “was raised to expect that co-parenting was an attainable goal. But who were we kidding?” Okay, so she resents the fact that her feminist ideals of marriage are perhaps unrealistic? Fair enough.
But listen to the way she talks about raising children:
She uses words like grate, prison, trapped, germy brats, slapping and barking to describe raising children. She talks about 28 months and counting of breastfeeding. Maybe she should stop counting and try to enjoy it. She says that by her third child, she is not staring lovingly into the baby’s eyes. Maybe she should have stopped at two children then.
Rosin closes her article with a most jarring tribute to breastfeeding after more than 5000 words in her case against it. She says “breast-feeding does not belong in the realm of facts and hard numbers; it is much too intimate and elemental. It contains all of my awe about motherhood” and yet that is the only indication in the whole article of any kind of enjoyment, let alone awe of motherhood. The only positive thing she says about breastfeeding or her children is the last sentence: “But I also know that this is probably my last chance to feel warm baby skin up against mine, and one day I will miss it.”
She spends the rest of her article comparing breastfeeding to the vacuum in keeping women downtrodden, lamenting that there aren’t more women in “positions of serious power,” complaining about pumping at work as a newspaper reporter, and as mentioned above breastfeeding while answering the cell phone and launching a new Web site while caring for two children and a nursing baby. Hmmm. Maybe the problem isn’t breastfeeding but thinking we can have it all? Maybe it’s this unrealistic feminist ideal that is the problem. Maybe Rosin is upset because she is realizing that we can’t have it all, that we do have to make choices and sacrifices.
Rosin’s feminist rhetoric fumes about a woman’s time being worth nothing and yet it is the feminists themselves who decided that the work of mothers was not valuable, the ones who said that we should all want to get out and work with the men.
Personally I think it’s time for a new brand of feminism, a feminism that says that the most amazing work a woman can possibly do is to bear, nurse and raise her babies, a brand of feminism that says that if you want to work outside the home you can but you might have to make some tough choices, a brand of feminism that says a woman’s time IS worth something and a mother’s time is invaluable. I think feminism has done us a major disservice by saying that we should be able to work AND raise kids AND have time for ourselves. The simple biological truth is that child bearing and nursing must fall to women so now with our quest for workplace power we have the pressure to do everything. No wonder we are tired and stressed out and alienated. No wonder Rosin resents breastfeeding. Because the reality is that breastfeeding and motherhood (at least while our children are young) are pretty much a full-time job. It’s hard bloody work and yes, it’s really frustrating to do all that while holding down an outside job too.
Let me be clear here. I am NOT saying that mothers shouldn't work. I am saying that the demands on today's mothers are unfair; the bar has been set too high. My own feeling is that breastfeeding shouldn't really be a choice. That is, as much as possible, with a huge margin for medical difficulties and other issues like lack of support, breastfeeding should be one of those things that is a given for parents - just like providing shelter, food, love and schooling as our children grow. Because pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding fall to the females, there will undoubtedly be times in a woman's life where she has to choose between working and mothering. The first year after the birth of a baby is one of those times. If maternity leaves allowed mothers to stay home and focus on their babies while they need to be breastfed, women might find it easier to balance work life and family life. The problem is not breastfeeding. The problem is the lack of programs and support for women who want to prioritize breastfeeding. The problem is the expectation that no one should have to make those choices, that women should do everything.
Rosin needs to look in the mirror and consider if it really is breastfeeding that she is so disenchanted with. The illusion of co-parenting is not shattered by breastfeeding. The illusion crumbles because the expectations on women are unrealistic and unfair. As Rosin’s life became more complex breastfeeding seemed to her an unbearable burden but she never stops to ask why she took on so much. In The Case Against Breast-feeding, breastfeeding became the unfortunate scapegoat in our society’s quest to have it all.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
I do think that breastfeeding is a normal natural beautiful act. I breastfeed my daughter anywhere I choose. I don’t let people’s opinions or rude looks stop me. I will breastfeed in a restaurant. At my table. Without a cover. I exclusively breastfed both of my children to 6 months. I continued with my son until he was 2.5 years old and probably will with my daughter as well. I fervently believe that it is the best and in most cases should be the ONLY choice for feeding our children.
Why?
Because I distrust processed food. Because just like I prefer to make my own food from scratch as much as I can, I also prefer to give my babies the food that is specially made for them. I believe that if my body is making it for my baby, it’s obviously the best thing to give her. I trust this million year old evolutionary biological process way more than I trust Nestlé. Because I am amazed that the composition of breastmilk changes depending on the time of day and depending on if my baby is a preemie or a toddler. Because I’ve seen the list of ingredients of breastmilk and I’ve heard that they don’t even know what it’s all for or how to replicate it in formula. Because I believe that there is a purpose for all of those ingredients even if science and medicine hasn’t been able to figure it out yet. Because I don’t doubt that they would find a link between every single one of the components of breastmilk and better human functioning in some area (physical, cognitive, emotional) if it were ethically and humanly possible to do so. Because I believe that the act of breastfeeding is about so much more than food.
So it was with utter dismay that I read Hanna Rosin’s recent article for The Atlantic, The Case Against Breast-feeding. The article is so ridiculous and odious that my husband even suggested that it may be a farce, another attempt by the author to have a little game with us, just like she did on the playground. Farce or not, I couldn’t remain quiet.
I have to warn you that I won’t even have a chance to tackle Rosin’s research and studies because I have so much to say about her attitude. And to be honest, I don’t give a damn about the studies she quoted. Personally, I think that science has a long way to go in explaining most human functions from breastmilk to the brain. Inconclusive studies about the power of breastmilk are not going to convince me that evolution was flawed when it came up with mammals.
The tone of The Case Against Breast-feeding is sarcastic, resentful and bitter and I can’t help but wonder why Rosin is so unhappy. She writes about how it is “hard not to seethe” as she breastfeeds her new baby while her husband sleeps, about being “unreasonably furious” at her husband as he leaves her “stuck at home breast-feeding.” She writes about what the What to Expect authors can expect her to do “with this damned fork” (Ok, fair enough, I can’t stand the What to Expect books either) and about wanting to “hit {people} with a two-by-four.” Wow. Really? Why are you so angry Hanna?
When I start to dissect her article, it really doesn’t seem that breastfeeding is the issue. To me her article reads like the whiney self-pitying diatribe of a woman who is unhappy in her marriage, has few real friends, is not supported to breastfeed by her mother, dislikes all the women on the playground and resents her children for interrupting her career and her life. Okay, so now I have to take back the whiney and self-pitying part because wow, that really does sound sad and my heart goes out to such a woman. To be fair to Rosin I have experienced episodes of the rage, loneliness, “crying jags” and cursing at husbands that she writes about but I realise that those times don’t sum up my breastfeeding experience. I really don’t understand how breastfeeding became the scapegoat in this story and I struggle to forgive someone who can damage years and years of work in public health trying to raise breastfeeding rates just because she is unhappy with her life.
Acceptance
The whole article begins with the way Rosin felt at the playground. She witnessed firsthand how judgmental her so-called friends and fellow moms on the playground could be. Of course, she is busy judging right back. She tries to be funny as she describes the “urban moms in their tight jeans and oversize sunglasses” and ridicules their “signifiers” (“organic content of snacks, sleekness of stroller and ratio of wooden toys to plastic”) but she comes off just as awful as she tries to portray them. She talks about her “mother friends” in a way that doesn’t sound like they are her friends at all.
Mothering criticism is definitely running rampant these days; Rosin is right to bring it up. Lord knows I’ve felt it. And stooped to it. We all need to work a little harder to accept each other. That’s a post on its own right there. Yes, moms need to cut each other some slack but that doesn’t amount to a case against breastfeeding (even if it is the major point we judge each other on—“the real ticket into the club” as Rosin puts it).
Breastfeeding Rates
Rosin goes on to wonder why every woman she knows “has become a breast-feeding fascist.” Apparently Rosin only associates with a very slim percentage of the population if every woman she knows is a breastfeeding fascist. In the US, only 17 percent of babies are still breastfed at 6 months. Rosin quotes the breastfeeding rates in the States triumphantly: “breast-feeding is on the rise—69 percent of mothers initiate the practice at the hospital, and 17 percent nurse exclusively for at least 6 months”—as if to say “How much higher can they really go?” I personally find these numbers shockingly low, especially when you consider that those women who initiate the practice in the hospital may not even stick it out past a week or two.
Meanwhile, 83 percent of mothers are NOT breastfeeding for 6 months. These are the women that the Department of Health and Human Services are trying to target with the ad campaigns that Rosin hates so much that she would wean her child out of spite. The tv ads may be tacky and the print ads may be extreme but they are up against big bucks formula companies (with marketing dollars and Washington lobbyists). Ms.Rosin, they are also up against people like you who do so much damage by suggesting that breastfeeding is holding women back from all the things they want to be doing. The ads are a desperate bid to squeak that 17 percent just a little higher.
Rosin herself explains that “the numbers are much higher among women who are white, older, and educated.” Exactly. Like the women Rosin describes in her “playground set” with their “Baby Einstein videos, piano lessons and the rest.” I would wager that the other 83 percent of the population who give up on breastfeeding after initiating it includes all the women who are working because they have to, not because they have a feminist axe to grind.
Class Struggles
Rosin explains that formula was demonized in the 70’s because South American and African studies showed that formula fed babies were more likely to die. “The mothers, it turned out, were using contaminated water or rationing formula because it was so expensive. Still, in the US, the whole episode turned breast-feeding advocates and formula makers into Crips and Bloods,” she says. Oh, I see. It wasn’t really the formula’s fault. It was the mothers. For being poor. For using dirty water. And besides, it isn’t relevant because it wasn’t in the US. As long as you can afford it and have access to clean water, formula isn’t a bad thing—is that what Rosin is saying? That sounds a little elitist coming from the same woman who (rightfully) derides breastfeeding campaigns that encourage working mothers to pump at work for being unrealistic for the lower classes (waitresses and bus drivers).
And her point about wanting to hit people who say that breastfeeding is free with a two-by-four because that means a woman’s time is worth nothing? Well, for the working poor, a woman’s time is only worth $6.55 an hour (US federal minimum wage – 28 states have minimum wage that are either the same or less than the federal rate). If she buys the cheapest formula at Walgreen’s, it is $9.99 for 105 fl. oz. and her three month old baby will go through it in 4-6 days. So on top of the time it takes to feed her baby she is spending almost 2 hours every week working just to buy the formula. And that doesn’t even get into the number of hours she has to work to pay for her childcare.
Of course, Rosin who talks about launching Web sites, answering cell phones, the luxury of working part time from home, and even having a husband to curse at over division of labour is coming at the whole article from the perspective of the privileged. As she herself says, she is “too privileged for pity” so how does she know the real cost of formula?
Working Moms
Rosin doesn’t even question whether or not the same mother who can’t pump at her waitressing job can even afford to buy formula. Rosin focuses all her anger on breastfeeding and the people that she feels are pushing it down our throats. She brings up the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 1997 policy recommending that babies be breastfed to 1 year (still only half of what is recommended by the WHO) and explains that the National Organization for Women “complained that this would tax working mothers, but to no avail.” The real question is not what a woman’s time is worth (and whether she should spend it nursing her baby) but rather, why are so many new mothers working?
Rosin implies that public health officials should have tempered their child health policies to make it easier on working mothers. I would like to suggest that the problem in the United States is actually that the lack of solid maternity leave is taxing breastfeeding mothers. It certainly is difficult to breastfeed your baby to 6 months or a year when your country’s maternity leave would have you back at work when your baby is 12 weeks old (if you can even afford to take those 12 weeks off unpaid).
Support
Of course, a good maternity leave is only one aspect of the broader issue which is the need for support. Rosin herself appears to feel alienated and unsupported in her attempt to breastfeed. “Being stuck at home breast-feeding as he walked out the door for work just made me unreasonably furious, at him and everyone else,” she says. “So I was left feeling trapped,” she says. She likens her life to a prison. Her mother pesters her about whether her breastfed children are getting enough to eat. She is obviously uncomfortable with breastfeeding in public: “There I was, sitting half-naked in public for the tenth time that day, the hundredth time that month, the millionth time in my life.”
Doesn’t she realize that all the books, lactation consultants, support groups, public health campaigns, and legislation that she is tearing down with her sarcastic and mean words all exist to try to help the women who feel alienated and unsupported? All these people are working so hard to try to make the general public understand that breastfeeding moms have a huge job that is hard and often lonely, that breastfeeding in public is acceptable, that no one should have to stay home and breastfeed all the time, that mothers need help with the hours of breastfeeding they put in. They are trying to make these women feel supported. And they don’t expect you to stay away from your mother. They just want her to realise that her comments don’t help.
Feminism
But for Rosin anyway it sounds like the problem isn’t one of lack of support, but rather of feminist discontent. Her angry ranting unfortunately discloses way too much about her own feelings about children and her husband for my comfort level and tells me in no uncertain terms that she resents breastfeeding (and by extension, her children) for the inequalities in her marriage and for her inability to focus on her career.
“But fear not, You,” she says, “The root of the problem is not the sudden realization that your ideal of an equal marriage, with two parents happily taking turns working and raising children, now seem like a farce.” Who is this You she is talking to? It feels like maybe this is her own issue, especially when you see how often it comes up. I already mentioned how she seethed at her husband in the night, how furious she was that he got to go to work. She goes on to say that she “was raised to expect that co-parenting was an attainable goal. But who were we kidding?” Okay, so she resents the fact that her feminist ideals of marriage are perhaps unrealistic? Fair enough.
But listen to the way she talks about raising children:
“after three children and 28 months of breast-feeding (and counting), the insistent cheerleading has begun to grate.”
“This time around, nirvana did not describe my state of mind: I was launching a new Web site and I had two other children to care for, and a husband I would occasionally like to talk to.”
“So I was left feeling trapped, like many women before me, in the middle-class mother’s prison of vague discontent: surly but too privileged for pity, breast-feeding with one hand while answering the cell phone with the other, and barking at my older kids to get their own organic, 100 percent juice”
“With her first child, for instance, a mother may be extra cautious, keeping the neighbor’s germy brats away and slapping the nurse who gives out the free formula sample. By her third child, she may no longer breast-feed…Maybe she is now using day care, exposing the baby to more illnesses. Surely she is not noticing that kid No.2 has the baby’s pacifier in his mouth, or that the cat is sleeping in the crib (trust me on this one). She is also not staring lovingly into the baby’s eyes all day, singing songs, reading book after infant book, because she has to make sure that the other two kids are not drowning each other in the tub.”
She uses words like grate, prison, trapped, germy brats, slapping and barking to describe raising children. She talks about 28 months and counting of breastfeeding. Maybe she should stop counting and try to enjoy it. She says that by her third child, she is not staring lovingly into the baby’s eyes. Maybe she should have stopped at two children then.
Rosin closes her article with a most jarring tribute to breastfeeding after more than 5000 words in her case against it. She says “breast-feeding does not belong in the realm of facts and hard numbers; it is much too intimate and elemental. It contains all of my awe about motherhood” and yet that is the only indication in the whole article of any kind of enjoyment, let alone awe of motherhood. The only positive thing she says about breastfeeding or her children is the last sentence: “But I also know that this is probably my last chance to feel warm baby skin up against mine, and one day I will miss it.”
She spends the rest of her article comparing breastfeeding to the vacuum in keeping women downtrodden, lamenting that there aren’t more women in “positions of serious power,” complaining about pumping at work as a newspaper reporter, and as mentioned above breastfeeding while answering the cell phone and launching a new Web site while caring for two children and a nursing baby. Hmmm. Maybe the problem isn’t breastfeeding but thinking we can have it all? Maybe it’s this unrealistic feminist ideal that is the problem. Maybe Rosin is upset because she is realizing that we can’t have it all, that we do have to make choices and sacrifices.
Rosin’s feminist rhetoric fumes about a woman’s time being worth nothing and yet it is the feminists themselves who decided that the work of mothers was not valuable, the ones who said that we should all want to get out and work with the men.
Personally I think it’s time for a new brand of feminism, a feminism that says that the most amazing work a woman can possibly do is to bear, nurse and raise her babies, a brand of feminism that says that if you want to work outside the home you can but you might have to make some tough choices, a brand of feminism that says a woman’s time IS worth something and a mother’s time is invaluable. I think feminism has done us a major disservice by saying that we should be able to work AND raise kids AND have time for ourselves. The simple biological truth is that child bearing and nursing must fall to women so now with our quest for workplace power we have the pressure to do everything. No wonder we are tired and stressed out and alienated. No wonder Rosin resents breastfeeding. Because the reality is that breastfeeding and motherhood (at least while our children are young) are pretty much a full-time job. It’s hard bloody work and yes, it’s really frustrating to do all that while holding down an outside job too.
Let me be clear here. I am NOT saying that mothers shouldn't work. I am saying that the demands on today's mothers are unfair; the bar has been set too high. My own feeling is that breastfeeding shouldn't really be a choice. That is, as much as possible, with a huge margin for medical difficulties and other issues like lack of support, breastfeeding should be one of those things that is a given for parents - just like providing shelter, food, love and schooling as our children grow. Because pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding fall to the females, there will undoubtedly be times in a woman's life where she has to choose between working and mothering. The first year after the birth of a baby is one of those times. If maternity leaves allowed mothers to stay home and focus on their babies while they need to be breastfed, women might find it easier to balance work life and family life. The problem is not breastfeeding. The problem is the lack of programs and support for women who want to prioritize breastfeeding. The problem is the expectation that no one should have to make those choices, that women should do everything.
Rosin needs to look in the mirror and consider if it really is breastfeeding that she is so disenchanted with. The illusion of co-parenting is not shattered by breastfeeding. The illusion crumbles because the expectations on women are unrealistic and unfair. As Rosin’s life became more complex breastfeeding seemed to her an unbearable burden but she never stops to ask why she took on so much. In The Case Against Breast-feeding, breastfeeding became the unfortunate scapegoat in our society’s quest to have it all.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Beautiful Breastfeeding Resources
Just a quick post to share some wonderful breastfeeding resources I came across today. These were posted on the BC Baby-Friendly Network as resources for World Breastfeeding Week in October 2008. There are all kinds of interesting things including posters for your workplace, clinic or shop, a doorhanger for a new mom that on the front reminds guests that mom and baby are resting and explains on the back how to nurse side-lying and a list of all the ingredients in breastmilk among other things.
I particularly liked this great Motivational Breastfeeding Poster Series:
Support - large or small
Satisfaction - large or small
Protection - large or small
Preferred - large or small
Healing - large or small
Family - large or small
Connection - large or small
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
I particularly liked this great Motivational Breastfeeding Poster Series:
Support - large or small
Satisfaction - large or small
Protection - large or small
Preferred - large or small
Healing - large or small
Family - large or small
Connection - large or small
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Birth & Breastfeeding News
Dr. Jack Newman's Clinic Needs Your Help
Dr. Jack Newman is a pediatrician, former consultant to the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative, and world renowned breastfeeding advocator. His books, handouts, videos and consulting at the clinic have helped countless mothers achieve long-lasting breastfeeding relationships despite challenges,conflicting advice and unsupportive health practitioners.
As of September 30, 2008, the clinic will no longer be receiving any private funding. (Government funding ceased in 2005). They need immediate donations to keep the clinic open and their website (with all of their educational resources) online. For a charitable tax receipt, please send your donation to www.canadianbreastfeedingfoundation.org. Please direct your donation to NEWMAN BREASTFEEDING CLINIC. You can also call 416-498-0002.
Alberta Midwifery Receives Government Funding
In October, the Alberta government announced that midwifery will finally be funded. Though regulated by the government since 1998, families have had to pay out of pocket for midwifery care. As of April 2009, families will now be able to choose midwifery care and their birth place with the service covered. This is great news for midwifery and home birth. Click here for more information.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Dr. Jack Newman is a pediatrician, former consultant to the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative, and world renowned breastfeeding advocator. His books, handouts, videos and consulting at the clinic have helped countless mothers achieve long-lasting breastfeeding relationships despite challenges,conflicting advice and unsupportive health practitioners.As of September 30, 2008, the clinic will no longer be receiving any private funding. (Government funding ceased in 2005). They need immediate donations to keep the clinic open and their website (with all of their educational resources) online. For a charitable tax receipt, please send your donation to www.canadianbreastfeedingfoundation.org. Please direct your donation to NEWMAN BREASTFEEDING CLINIC. You can also call 416-498-0002.
Alberta Midwifery Receives Government Funding
In October, the Alberta government announced that midwifery will finally be funded. Though regulated by the government since 1998, families have had to pay out of pocket for midwifery care. As of April 2009, families will now be able to choose midwifery care and their birth place with the service covered. This is great news for midwifery and home birth. Click here for more information.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Breastfeeding on Sesame Street 1977
I just came across this great clip on a blog called connietalk. I'm really glad she shared it. Who knew that mainstream American tv could be so great? Too bad those days are long gone.
Enjoy!
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Enjoy!
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Birth & Breastfeeding News This Week
It is Thanksgiving Weekend here in Canada and I have my in-laws visiting so it'll be a short news run down this week. Enjoy your weekend and Happy Thanksgiving Canada!
Health Canada Warns Against Morning-Sickness Remedy
Health Canada is advising Canadians, especially pregnant and breastfeeding women, to avoid taking the traditional remedy calabash chalk because of potential health risks from high levels of lead. Testing has shown that calabash chalk also contains arsenic. Calabash chalk - which is generally sold loose and without a particular brand, batch number or best-before date - is not authorized for sale in Canada.
Coverage of the Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge
CTV covered the Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge in Toronto and spoke to renowned breastfeeding proponent, Dr. Jack Newman. Have a look at the comments section following the article – I was particularly pleased by the number of positive comments from both men and women. It appears that Canada’s breastfeeding acceptance is pretty good.
Breast Milk Associated With Greater Mental Development in Preterm Infants, Fewer Re-hospitalizations
The US department of Health and Human Services (yes, the same one that’s been under scrutiny in recent weeks) has released a report this week stating:
Lay-Midwife Charged $11,000 For Practicing Without a License
Diane Goslin, an Amish midwife in Pennsylvania, has been fined and ordered to cease practicing midwifery because she is not licensed. Goslin, a former premed student, has been a lay-midwife for 25 years and attended 5,000 births but does not have the state’s required nurse certification. Homebirths attended by lay-midwives are common practice among the Amish and Mennonite communities in the area. Apparently the case against Goslin does not rest on questions of her competence and she has many supporters within the community. Not all states require nursing certification to practice midwifery. (I think there are about 10 states that do). Goslin is registered as a direct entry midwife (that is, a midwife who has undergone formal training, apprenticeship and testing but is not a nurse) through the North American Registry of Midwives but her certification is not recognized by Pennsylvania. There are 29 states that legally recognize certified direct entry midwives. Learn more…
What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear your comments.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Health Canada Warns Against Morning-Sickness Remedy
Health Canada is advising Canadians, especially pregnant and breastfeeding women, to avoid taking the traditional remedy calabash chalk because of potential health risks from high levels of lead. Testing has shown that calabash chalk also contains arsenic. Calabash chalk - which is generally sold loose and without a particular brand, batch number or best-before date - is not authorized for sale in Canada.
Coverage of the Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge
CTV covered the Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge in Toronto and spoke to renowned breastfeeding proponent, Dr. Jack Newman. Have a look at the comments section following the article – I was particularly pleased by the number of positive comments from both men and women. It appears that Canada’s breastfeeding acceptance is pretty good.
Breast Milk Associated With Greater Mental Development in Preterm Infants, Fewer Re-hospitalizations
The US department of Health and Human Services (yes, the same one that’s been under scrutiny in recent weeks) has released a report this week stating:
“Extremely low birth weight premature infants who received breast milk shortly after birth, while still in intensive care units, had greater mental development scores at 30 months than did infants who were not fed breast milk, reported researchers in an NIH network. Moreover, infants fed breast milk were less likely to have been re-hospitalized after their initial discharge than were the infants not fed breast milk.”
Lay-Midwife Charged $11,000 For Practicing Without a License
Diane Goslin, an Amish midwife in Pennsylvania, has been fined and ordered to cease practicing midwifery because she is not licensed. Goslin, a former premed student, has been a lay-midwife for 25 years and attended 5,000 births but does not have the state’s required nurse certification. Homebirths attended by lay-midwives are common practice among the Amish and Mennonite communities in the area. Apparently the case against Goslin does not rest on questions of her competence and she has many supporters within the community. Not all states require nursing certification to practice midwifery. (I think there are about 10 states that do). Goslin is registered as a direct entry midwife (that is, a midwife who has undergone formal training, apprenticeship and testing but is not a nurse) through the North American Registry of Midwives but her certification is not recognized by Pennsylvania. There are 29 states that legally recognize certified direct entry midwives. Learn more…
What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear your comments.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Birth & Breastfeeding News This Week
New Maternity Care Recommendations in the UK
Government advisory body the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has laid out recommendations for how women should give birth in an attempt to standardize the currently varied practices across the country.
It says that women should be given information and support to make an informed decision about where they would like to give birth.
Among the options of the surroundings for labour are a home birth, hospital birth and water birth – with the latter not currently available to all women in labour.
Other Nice recommendations include supportive one-to-one care for women in labour; clinical intervention only being offered if the labour is not progressing well; and informing women about the risks and benefits of choosing epidural analgesia.
Source: In The News UK
NICE indeed! I’m especially pleased about the bits I’ve highlighted. Though, I suppose one issue (of the many that have come up over this, most of which I’m not familiar with because I’m not overly familiar with the medical system in the UK) is that there is a lot of debate about when labour is not progressing well—by who’s timetable??
As is to be expected, reaction in the UK to this announcement has been all over the map. Childbirth groups have welcomed the guidelines and encouraged health organizations to implement them as soon as possible. On the flip side, Prof James Drife, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology at Leeds University, says that because midwife-led maternity units are not staffed by consultants trained to deal with life-threatening emergencies during birth thousands of women may need to be rushed to hospital if complications arise, possibly putting the lives of mother and child at risk.
Related articles:
Water birth 'provides the safest form of pain relief'
The Facts about Birth in the UK
More commentary on the case of the homebirth death in Oregon reported last week
Elise Hansen, regional representative of the Oregon Midwifery Council, wrote a letter co-signed by 15 midwives lamenting that home birth makes the news only when there are deadly complications.
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Bill Maher
I don’t watch Bill Maher. I don’t have a tv. But I have noticed the web ripples he’s caused with his latest “New Rules” on breastfeeding in public. Louise Marie Roth, who writes regularly at HuffingtonPost.com wrote this excellent piece in response. I took a class in persuasive writing in University and it makes me incredibly happy to read a well-researched, cool-headed response to small-mindedness and ignorance. It’s easy to get angry and write something scathing or equally small minded; It’s a lot more difficult to have the control to present a well thought-out argument that puts someone in their place without letting your emotions get in the way. Kudos to Ms. Roth.
The Politics of Breastfeeding
This commentary from the Toronto Star examines the recent rise in activism for breastfeeding rights. Here’s a choice quote:
So don't people have a right to not be comfortable with public breastfeeding? Sure, but even the YMCA this week said it's time to start dealing with their discomfort as the problem, and not the breastfeeding mom. Those who are uneasy can leave, or look away, or just get used to it. Or as Gilmore says, think of it this way: "What about the rights of the baby – to eat?"
Vitamin D
The Canadian Pediatric Society urged pregnant and breastfeeding women to increase their daily vitamin D intake to up to 2,000 IU. This goes against Health Canada’s recommendation to take 200 IU a day. Health Canada says that 2,000 IU is the maximum allowable safe intake. However, this is the second time in recent months that a health advocacy group has recommended an increase in Vitamin D without the backing of Health Canada. In June, the Canadian Cancer Society said that adults should increase their daily intake to 1,000 IU. This week, Health Canada continued to assert that no changes to Vitamin D intake should be made until further studies showed evidence of a need to revise recommendations.
Vitamin D is included in most multivitamins, some foods, such as milk, are fortified with it, and it is also found in oily, cold water fish, such as salmon. Vitamin D has been shown to offer protection from multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, asthma, osteoporosis, dental cavities and inflammatory bowel disease.
Increase spending to support midwifery?
The Green Party’s platform (in Ontario’s provincial election) includes a promise to increase funding of midwifery training by $10 million over four years, increasing the amount of midwives in the province. Cool.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge
Join us to celebrate breastfeeding in a fun “competition” where every child “wins” because they are breastfed!!
What: Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge 2007 This fun event is a challenge for which geographic area ( province, state or territory) has the most breastfeeding babies, as a percentage of the birthrate, “latched on.” at 11am local time.
When: September 29th 2007
Why: to celebrate breastfeeding and demonstrate promotion, protection and support for breastfeeding women and their families. It’s a chance for education and peer support done in a fun social way.
“Latch on”: 11am local time. Some sites are a few breastfeeding women who get together to “be counted” and others are much larger events with lunch, raffles, education, speakers, door prizes etc.
Registration: online at no cost and submit some simple paperwork to be counted on the big day. Dial up www.babyfriendly.ca
Background: In 2001 when this event started, there were 856 babies at 26 sites in British Columbia, Canada. Last year there were 4,687 babies at 156 sites across Canada and the US. This year we would love to see that number increase dramatically. Do your part, join us – organize a site – big or small! Every breastfeeding baby counts in the final count.
Find a location near you!
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
What: Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge 2007 This fun event is a challenge for which geographic area ( province, state or territory) has the most breastfeeding babies, as a percentage of the birthrate, “latched on.” at 11am local time.
When: September 29th 2007
Why: to celebrate breastfeeding and demonstrate promotion, protection and support for breastfeeding women and their families. It’s a chance for education and peer support done in a fun social way.
“Latch on”: 11am local time. Some sites are a few breastfeeding women who get together to “be counted” and others are much larger events with lunch, raffles, education, speakers, door prizes etc.
Registration: online at no cost and submit some simple paperwork to be counted on the big day. Dial up www.babyfriendly.ca
Background: In 2001 when this event started, there were 856 babies at 26 sites in British Columbia, Canada. Last year there were 4,687 babies at 156 sites across Canada and the US. This year we would love to see that number increase dramatically. Do your part, join us – organize a site – big or small! Every breastfeeding baby counts in the final count.
Find a location near you!
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
World Breastfeeding Week
Breastfeeding first!
"Breastfeeding first – breastfeeding within one hour of birth” is the theme for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, to be celebrated in Canada, October 1-7. The theme promotes the idea that the initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour after birth is the first and most vital step towards reducing infant and under-five mortality. Thousands of babies can be saved every year – beginning with ONE action and ONE message: begin breastfeeding within ONE hour of birth.Learn more…
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Thoughts on breastfeeding in public
I wanted to share this piece on breastfeeding in public because I thought it presented a very realistic balanced view on the subject. I appreciated that the author was so matter of fact.
Furthermore, though the article reflects the culture in the States in many subtle ways it is still encouraging because it demonstrates that little by little we are making headway. Consider this sentence: “I’m a fairly modest person, so I didn’t expect to be the type to nurse in public.” The ingrained belief that breastfeeding in public is immodest is so pervasive that there is a preconceived notion of the “type” of person who would nurse in public. I assume the author is referring to the sign-toting, nurse-in attendees or to sexually promiscuous women? Yet she changed her mind. She had to “get a life and get over it” as she says. And she went one step further: she wrote an article about it. This piece is evidence that the message is getting out there and it’s not just lactivists who are doing their part to publicly advocate for a better breastfeeding culture.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Furthermore, though the article reflects the culture in the States in many subtle ways it is still encouraging because it demonstrates that little by little we are making headway. Consider this sentence: “I’m a fairly modest person, so I didn’t expect to be the type to nurse in public.” The ingrained belief that breastfeeding in public is immodest is so pervasive that there is a preconceived notion of the “type” of person who would nurse in public. I assume the author is referring to the sign-toting, nurse-in attendees or to sexually promiscuous women? Yet she changed her mind. She had to “get a life and get over it” as she says. And she went one step further: she wrote an article about it. This piece is evidence that the message is getting out there and it’s not just lactivists who are doing their part to publicly advocate for a better breastfeeding culture.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Nursing Mom Told to Leave Public Pool at YMCA
A mother of three says she filed a complaint with the human rights commission on Monday after a lifeguard at the Scarborough (Ontario) YMCA asked her to move from the pool deck where she was breastfeeding her baby.
Carolynn Prior, a midwife, said the incident occurred on Sept. 1 when she was nursing her 5-month-old son while watching her older children, ages 7 and 9, take swimming lessons. According to Prior, a lifeguard approached her, suggested she would be more comfortable in the childcare facility and said "this is a family place and it might offend someone."
Steven Heipel, vice-president of communications of the YMCA of Greater Toronto, acknowledged that the incident occurred and called it "an error in judgment" by the lifeguard and the supervisor she consulted.
I see a lot of stories about this kind of thing while trolling the news and I always feel incredibly relieved that I live in Canada. Nine times out of ten, these stories are about the States. In fact, it seems that this comes up almost every day, to the point it’s not really news. I would assume it happens everywhere everyday. We only tend to hear about it when someone decides to publicly stand up for themselves and their babies. (As an aside, I wonder if it happens more often in Canada too but perhaps we aren’t as vocal about it?)
My son just turned two (today, in fact) and we are still nursing. In my experience, I really could breastfeed anytime, anywhere. I never had any problems. Now that my son is older, can talk and understand more and is eating and drinking other foods, I often do ask him to wait until we are at home or at least in a place that’s more convenient, simply because it’s easier. It is getting a bit more interesting now that he’s older and people have opinions about how old is too old to nurse, but I can honestly say that I’ve never been made to feel bad because I was nursing, in public or otherwise. And for this, I am so grateful for not being American.
It’s easy for Canadians to list all of the ways that we are not like our southern neighbours and the rest of the world giggles at us, because in many ways our cultures are homogenous. But thankfully, we are different in some very important ways. In my work on breastfeeding and birth culture, I’m consistently relieved to be Canadian and saddened at the state of affairs in the United States.
I would like to believe that this incident in Ontario is an isolated event but perhaps, the problem is more widespread than I think?
Please share your breastfeeding experiences with us. I’d love to have your comments. In your experience breastfeeding, how supportive was the atmosphere in Canada? Or in America?
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Carolynn Prior, a midwife, said the incident occurred on Sept. 1 when she was nursing her 5-month-old son while watching her older children, ages 7 and 9, take swimming lessons. According to Prior, a lifeguard approached her, suggested she would be more comfortable in the childcare facility and said "this is a family place and it might offend someone."
Steven Heipel, vice-president of communications of the YMCA of Greater Toronto, acknowledged that the incident occurred and called it "an error in judgment" by the lifeguard and the supervisor she consulted.
I see a lot of stories about this kind of thing while trolling the news and I always feel incredibly relieved that I live in Canada. Nine times out of ten, these stories are about the States. In fact, it seems that this comes up almost every day, to the point it’s not really news. I would assume it happens everywhere everyday. We only tend to hear about it when someone decides to publicly stand up for themselves and their babies. (As an aside, I wonder if it happens more often in Canada too but perhaps we aren’t as vocal about it?)
My son just turned two (today, in fact) and we are still nursing. In my experience, I really could breastfeed anytime, anywhere. I never had any problems. Now that my son is older, can talk and understand more and is eating and drinking other foods, I often do ask him to wait until we are at home or at least in a place that’s more convenient, simply because it’s easier. It is getting a bit more interesting now that he’s older and people have opinions about how old is too old to nurse, but I can honestly say that I’ve never been made to feel bad because I was nursing, in public or otherwise. And for this, I am so grateful for not being American.
It’s easy for Canadians to list all of the ways that we are not like our southern neighbours and the rest of the world giggles at us, because in many ways our cultures are homogenous. But thankfully, we are different in some very important ways. In my work on breastfeeding and birth culture, I’m consistently relieved to be Canadian and saddened at the state of affairs in the United States.
I would like to believe that this incident in Ontario is an isolated event but perhaps, the problem is more widespread than I think?
Please share your breastfeeding experiences with us. I’d love to have your comments. In your experience breastfeeding, how supportive was the atmosphere in Canada? Or in America?
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Breastfeeding News This Week
Toronto Plan Embraces Nursing Moms
The Public Health Department in Toronto has come up with a new plan that, if passed, would request restaurants and city-owned venues to voluntarily display a breastfeeding friendly decal. The decals, adapted from Health Canada's "Breastfeeding Friendly; Anytime, Anywhere" symbol, would let nursing moms know that they're welcome. The plan would go into effect in the spring of 2008 if it is passed this week.
Facebook in hot water over breastfeeding stance
Facebook is embroiled in controversy over the removal of photos showing mothers breastfeeding. The social networking site permanently closed Karen Speed’s account saying that she violated Facebook’s terms prohibiting posting photos that contain “nudity, drug use, or other obscene content.” Response to the move has been overwhelming, with a support group Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! (Official petition to Facebook) has grown to over 18,000 members in just 3 weeks.
Check out the group’s wall posts to see comments from supporters. The Toronto Star also has online comments showing both sides of the debate:
http://www.thestar.com/Speakout/Voices/article/255772
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/255973
It seems to me that sometimes public perception of lactivists is that they are trying to push their choices (and their breasts) in everyone’s faces. Conservatives may see it as infringing on their rights not to see breasts in public and don’t understand the point of public photos of breastfeeding. This seems fair enough. Though, the comments I read about this still smack of sexualization of the issue, as if they believe that the women posting the photos get some perverted enjoyment out of it.
The real issue is not whether or not we have the right to post public photos of breastfeeding. The issue is breastfeeding is the natural way to feed a baby. Breastfeeding is the actual purpose of breasts. Breastfeeding is the healthiest choice for babies. Breastfeeding rates are too low because women are not being supported in their choice to breastfeed. Or to get really outrageous, let’s not even call it a choice—women are not being supported in their duty to breastfeed. Breastfeeding rates are too low because our society is still laden with holdovers from our Puritanical, Victorian history as embodied by people who think that breastfeeding is obscene.
A woman posting on the wall of the Facebook group above made a very valid point along these lines: It’s pretty sad that we need decals to show which areas are breastfeeding friendly. The whole world should be breastfeeding friendly.
For more...
Breastfeeding does not protect against asthma, allergies
A new study published in the online British Medical Journal seems to corroborate the HHS story about science not supporting their proposed ads. The study of over 13,000 children in Belarus showed that contrary to earlier findings, extended breastfeeding does not seem to be associated with lower rates of asthma and allergies, and in fact, was associated with higher rates of certain types of allergies.
As I trolled the news, I found it rather interesting to see the ways the study was reported in various news outlets. Time’s headline was: What Breast-Feeding Can't Do. It’s funny how some headlines focused on the negative aspect as if they were just waiting for evidence that breastfeeding isn’t as good as everyone thinks. Compare this with the more neutral stance of the AFP (Breastfeeding has no impact on asthma risk, says study) and Medical News Today (Breastfeeding Makes No Difference To Risk Of Asthma Or Allergy). Clearly it's all semantics, but it seems like these two headlines are focusing on the fact that the risk of allergies and asthma are more or less the same, whether you breastfeed or not, rather than focusing on breastfeeding as being flawed.
The study’s authors say that it is the first randomized trial of human lactation. It compared a breastfeeding group with a control group that did not receive extra urging to breastfeed. By one year, 20% were still breastfeeding versus 11% in the control group. It does make me curious how this can be considered a study of extended breastfeeding if only 11%-20% actually succeeded in breastfeeding to one year. I wonder if the data would be different if the extended breastfeeding rates were more like 50%-75% instead.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
The Public Health Department in Toronto has come up with a new plan that, if passed, would request restaurants and city-owned venues to voluntarily display a breastfeeding friendly decal. The decals, adapted from Health Canada's "Breastfeeding Friendly; Anytime, Anywhere" symbol, would let nursing moms know that they're welcome. The plan would go into effect in the spring of 2008 if it is passed this week.
Facebook in hot water over breastfeeding stance
Facebook is embroiled in controversy over the removal of photos showing mothers breastfeeding. The social networking site permanently closed Karen Speed’s account saying that she violated Facebook’s terms prohibiting posting photos that contain “nudity, drug use, or other obscene content.” Response to the move has been overwhelming, with a support group Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! (Official petition to Facebook) has grown to over 18,000 members in just 3 weeks.
Check out the group’s wall posts to see comments from supporters. The Toronto Star also has online comments showing both sides of the debate:
http://www.thestar.com/Speakout/Voices/article/255772
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/255973
It seems to me that sometimes public perception of lactivists is that they are trying to push their choices (and their breasts) in everyone’s faces. Conservatives may see it as infringing on their rights not to see breasts in public and don’t understand the point of public photos of breastfeeding. This seems fair enough. Though, the comments I read about this still smack of sexualization of the issue, as if they believe that the women posting the photos get some perverted enjoyment out of it.
The real issue is not whether or not we have the right to post public photos of breastfeeding. The issue is breastfeeding is the natural way to feed a baby. Breastfeeding is the actual purpose of breasts. Breastfeeding is the healthiest choice for babies. Breastfeeding rates are too low because women are not being supported in their choice to breastfeed. Or to get really outrageous, let’s not even call it a choice—women are not being supported in their duty to breastfeed. Breastfeeding rates are too low because our society is still laden with holdovers from our Puritanical, Victorian history as embodied by people who think that breastfeeding is obscene.
A woman posting on the wall of the Facebook group above made a very valid point along these lines: It’s pretty sad that we need decals to show which areas are breastfeeding friendly. The whole world should be breastfeeding friendly.
For more...
Breastfeeding does not protect against asthma, allergies
A new study published in the online British Medical Journal seems to corroborate the HHS story about science not supporting their proposed ads. The study of over 13,000 children in Belarus showed that contrary to earlier findings, extended breastfeeding does not seem to be associated with lower rates of asthma and allergies, and in fact, was associated with higher rates of certain types of allergies.
As I trolled the news, I found it rather interesting to see the ways the study was reported in various news outlets. Time’s headline was: What Breast-Feeding Can't Do. It’s funny how some headlines focused on the negative aspect as if they were just waiting for evidence that breastfeeding isn’t as good as everyone thinks. Compare this with the more neutral stance of the AFP (Breastfeeding has no impact on asthma risk, says study) and Medical News Today (Breastfeeding Makes No Difference To Risk Of Asthma Or Allergy). Clearly it's all semantics, but it seems like these two headlines are focusing on the fact that the risk of allergies and asthma are more or less the same, whether you breastfeed or not, rather than focusing on breastfeeding as being flawed.
The study’s authors say that it is the first randomized trial of human lactation. It compared a breastfeeding group with a control group that did not receive extra urging to breastfeed. By one year, 20% were still breastfeeding versus 11% in the control group. It does make me curious how this can be considered a study of extended breastfeeding if only 11%-20% actually succeeded in breastfeeding to one year. I wonder if the data would be different if the extended breastfeeding rates were more like 50%-75% instead.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Friday, September 7, 2007
Breastfeeding and the Lack of Paid Maternity Leave in the US
In the wake of last week’s uproar over formula companies lobbying the government to change health policies, I came across an interesting article discussing the flipside of the breastfeeding issue. The author, Anne Hart, argues that women are intelligent beings who aren’t to be fooled by formula advertising and rather, the low breastfeeding rates have more to do with the United States’ lack of paid maternity leave.
Personally, I think she underestimates both the power of marketing dollars and the political power of lobbyists. See Peggy O’Mara (Mothering Magazine)’s most recent column A Quiet Place: Is Breastfeeding in Trouble? Though to be fair, Hart is concentrating specifically on the practice of giving formula samples out at US hospitals (a practice that has been banned by the WHO and UNICEF).
Despite this, Hart is totally on the mark about maternity leave. In the United States, women are only entitled to 12 weeks off work, and that’s unpaid leave. The National Geographic (August 2007) published a survey of 168 countries to see what maternity benefits were like around the world. The results showed shockingly that things need to change in the States. The United States are among only 5 nations that do not offer any paid leave at all (brown on the map below).
Considering that it can take more than 6 weeks just to get breastfeeding successfully established at all, how is a new mother supposed to also navigate the return to work AND continue breastfeeding, especially without adequate support? Is this why women are turning to wet-nurses?
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Personally, I think she underestimates both the power of marketing dollars and the political power of lobbyists. See Peggy O’Mara (Mothering Magazine)’s most recent column A Quiet Place: Is Breastfeeding in Trouble? Though to be fair, Hart is concentrating specifically on the practice of giving formula samples out at US hospitals (a practice that has been banned by the WHO and UNICEF).
Despite this, Hart is totally on the mark about maternity leave. In the United States, women are only entitled to 12 weeks off work, and that’s unpaid leave. The National Geographic (August 2007) published a survey of 168 countries to see what maternity benefits were like around the world. The results showed shockingly that things need to change in the States. The United States are among only 5 nations that do not offer any paid leave at all (brown on the map below).
Considering that it can take more than 6 weeks just to get breastfeeding successfully established at all, how is a new mother supposed to also navigate the return to work AND continue breastfeeding, especially without adequate support? Is this why women are turning to wet-nurses?
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
The Return of the Wet Nurse
The Daily Mail in the UK ran a story today on the growing trend of wet nursing both in the UK and in California. Occasionally called cross-nursing or shared feeding, reasons for the resurgence of the practice range from medical (a women hurt in a car accident) to convenience (mother’s returning to work too soon but wanting their children to enjoy the benefits of breastfeeding) to vanity (women with breast implants who have difficulties breastfeeding).
The article explains the serious health risk this practice poses, as breast-milk can pass on everything from HIV and syphilis to TB and hepatitis. Furthermore, breastfeeding groups like La Leche League explain that breastmilk changes as the child grows and contains different enzymes and antibodies. Spokeswoman Anna Burbidge says “Your milk will not have the makeup which will necessarily suit another child and it also worries me that it might affect the baby psychologically to be fed so intimately by another woman, or even more than one.”
The article also discusses the idea that many people are outraged by the practice because it is the last mothering taboo, because we think it is too sensual, too intimate. I wondered if this argument was suggesting that those who are worried by the practice are being “prudish”? In fact, my objection to the idea of wet nursing is rooted in something else entirely.
Since when did our culture get so screwed up that it is more important to work than to feed your own child!?! I know the cost of living is outrageous. I know that it’s hard to make ends meet on a single income. I know that mothers want a life and a career too, that we don’t want to stay stuck at home with the chores and the kids, feeling like our identities are entirely wrapped up in our kids. But has anyone looked at the alternative? We’ve become a society that would rather our identities be wrapped up in consuming, in having the big house, the two cars, in climbing the corporate ladder, being successful. We have fallen into this trap where we live a certain way because we think we have to. Could we not make sacrifices so that we can feed our children ourselves??
I am all for women’s rights, for equality, for not being automatically given the role of Susie Homemaker just because I am a woman. I am glad that we got the vote, that we can wear pants, that we are allowed to have any job we are interested in. I am ecstatic that my husband changes diapers, was present at my son’s birth, helps with the housework. I feel fulfilled by my activities that aren’t directly related to my family (my work, my friends, my hobbies).
But in our quest for equality, we’ve somehow decided that all the things women used to do (taking care of home and family) are lesser jobs, menial jobs. I wonder sometimes if those jobs aren’t the more important ones: nurturing our children, feeding our families nutritious food, making the home a happy healthy place to grow. Since when did it become so shameful to want to be a part of that? Since when did it become so important to focus on life outside of family (work, friends, hobbies) that we are willing to pay someone else to feed our babies? That we say we have to live this way, we have no choice?
On the one hand, I’m thrilled that the breastfeeding message is getting out there, that women realize there are benefits to breastfeeding. As the Daily Mail says “Yet a steadily growing minority of mothers now believe that wet-nursing is the answer to the eternal dilemma of women who want to go back to work but also want their babies to enjoy the benefits of breast-milk.” (emphasis added) On the other hand, it worries me that these women can’t be bothered to do it themselves.
I can’t help but feel that there is something seriously wrong with our culture when women are so selfish that they want the implants and the job and the house and the perfect accessory, a baby (who is breastfed), without sacrificing anything? Anything but their relationship with their child, that is.
The Daily Mail article has it right when they say it’s one thing to wet-nurse for health reasons (although even then, there are alternatives like the milk bank) and quite another to do it out of convenience. I really hope that this trend remains in the minority and that the only reason it’s making news is because it’s sensational.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
The article explains the serious health risk this practice poses, as breast-milk can pass on everything from HIV and syphilis to TB and hepatitis. Furthermore, breastfeeding groups like La Leche League explain that breastmilk changes as the child grows and contains different enzymes and antibodies. Spokeswoman Anna Burbidge says “Your milk will not have the makeup which will necessarily suit another child and it also worries me that it might affect the baby psychologically to be fed so intimately by another woman, or even more than one.”
The article also discusses the idea that many people are outraged by the practice because it is the last mothering taboo, because we think it is too sensual, too intimate. I wondered if this argument was suggesting that those who are worried by the practice are being “prudish”? In fact, my objection to the idea of wet nursing is rooted in something else entirely.
Since when did our culture get so screwed up that it is more important to work than to feed your own child!?! I know the cost of living is outrageous. I know that it’s hard to make ends meet on a single income. I know that mothers want a life and a career too, that we don’t want to stay stuck at home with the chores and the kids, feeling like our identities are entirely wrapped up in our kids. But has anyone looked at the alternative? We’ve become a society that would rather our identities be wrapped up in consuming, in having the big house, the two cars, in climbing the corporate ladder, being successful. We have fallen into this trap where we live a certain way because we think we have to. Could we not make sacrifices so that we can feed our children ourselves??
I am all for women’s rights, for equality, for not being automatically given the role of Susie Homemaker just because I am a woman. I am glad that we got the vote, that we can wear pants, that we are allowed to have any job we are interested in. I am ecstatic that my husband changes diapers, was present at my son’s birth, helps with the housework. I feel fulfilled by my activities that aren’t directly related to my family (my work, my friends, my hobbies).
But in our quest for equality, we’ve somehow decided that all the things women used to do (taking care of home and family) are lesser jobs, menial jobs. I wonder sometimes if those jobs aren’t the more important ones: nurturing our children, feeding our families nutritious food, making the home a happy healthy place to grow. Since when did it become so shameful to want to be a part of that? Since when did it become so important to focus on life outside of family (work, friends, hobbies) that we are willing to pay someone else to feed our babies? That we say we have to live this way, we have no choice?
On the one hand, I’m thrilled that the breastfeeding message is getting out there, that women realize there are benefits to breastfeeding. As the Daily Mail says “Yet a steadily growing minority of mothers now believe that wet-nursing is the answer to the eternal dilemma of women who want to go back to work but also want their babies to enjoy the benefits of breast-milk.” (emphasis added) On the other hand, it worries me that these women can’t be bothered to do it themselves.
I can’t help but feel that there is something seriously wrong with our culture when women are so selfish that they want the implants and the job and the house and the perfect accessory, a baby (who is breastfed), without sacrificing anything? Anything but their relationship with their child, that is.
The Daily Mail article has it right when they say it’s one thing to wet-nurse for health reasons (although even then, there are alternatives like the milk bank) and quite another to do it out of convenience. I really hope that this trend remains in the minority and that the only reason it’s making news is because it’s sensational.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Breastfeeding & Birth News This Week
Nicotine in Breast-milk Shortens Baby’s Naptimes
Hmm…another reason not to start smoking again after your baby is born. A study reported by Forbes showed that babies’ naps were reduced by 37% when mothers smoked cigarettes before breastfeeding. Apparently nicotine shows up in breast-milk after about 30 – 60 minutes and disappears after 3 hours so mothers could time when they smoke, but really, once you’ve stopped why start up again? The article mentions that more research needs to be done if nicotine affects the babies in any other ways.
Rickets on the Rise
The Toronto Star reported in July that cases of rickets, a childhood disease which causes deformations of bones, are on the rise again. Rickets was widespread from its first medical description in 1650 until its eradication from North America in the 1930s. Rickets is caused by Vitamin D deficiency and it seems that the rise in rickets cases comes from over cautious mothers. Vitamin D is added to milk, but families aren’t drinking as much milk as they once were. Vitamin D is absorbed by exposure to sunlight but we are covering our kids in sunscreen and clothing to guard against skin cancer. I’m sure tv and video games have also reduced the time that kids spend outdoors as well. And Vitamin D is not found in breast-milk so exclusively breastfeeding means infants may need a Vitamin D supplement. For a discussion on vitamin D for breastfed babies, check out Today’s Parent (featuring comments from Dr. Jack Newman). See also Breastfeeding and Other Foods or Some Breastfeeding Myths.
As the Star says: “The obesity crisis has brought to light the lack of outdoor activity in both adults and children. Mix this with fears about hormones in milk, skin cancer from sun exposure and mercury in fish such as salmon that contain plenty of vitamin D – and a deficit is created.”
The interesting point about the rise of rickets (for me anyway) is that rickets was a major reason for death in childbirth. Women who had suffered from rickets as children often had deformed pelvises and couldn’t birth their babies. The history of rickets is part of the reason for the still common diagnosis that some women are too small to deliver a large baby (resulting in planned cesarean births). I’m interested to see whether rickets does indeed become widespread again.
In any case, the article recommends living a balanced life: drinking milk, eating fish, spending time outdoors. Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Brace Yourselves
As I suspected last week, the report into the case of the homebirth death in Quebec has started a shit storm of reactions. The latest from today’s Vancouver Province had me so angry that I can’t even begin to formulate a response. I am sure it’s only the beginning too.
I invite everyone to write the Province cool-headed, well-informed letters with sources and suggestions of where to find more info on both the safety of home birth and the insanity of our current maternity system.
We need to find that middle ground where it’s not home OR hospital. What about birth centres? What about home for low risk birth and hospital for high risk birth? What about changing the hospital system so that people actually want to birth there????
My first suggestions, once I calm down, will be to have Ms. Lakritz read Born in the USA: How to Heal a Broken Maternity System by Marsden Wagner and the most recent issue of Mothering Magazine with its pieces on Cesarean Birth and on Homebirth in Holland. Hmm, maybe we should also get her started on Gentle Birth Choices by Barbara Harper and the classic, Immaculate Deception II by Suzanne Arms.
Please post your comments here on what you think of Ms. Lakritz’ commentary.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Hmm…another reason not to start smoking again after your baby is born. A study reported by Forbes showed that babies’ naps were reduced by 37% when mothers smoked cigarettes before breastfeeding. Apparently nicotine shows up in breast-milk after about 30 – 60 minutes and disappears after 3 hours so mothers could time when they smoke, but really, once you’ve stopped why start up again? The article mentions that more research needs to be done if nicotine affects the babies in any other ways.
Rickets on the Rise
The Toronto Star reported in July that cases of rickets, a childhood disease which causes deformations of bones, are on the rise again. Rickets was widespread from its first medical description in 1650 until its eradication from North America in the 1930s. Rickets is caused by Vitamin D deficiency and it seems that the rise in rickets cases comes from over cautious mothers. Vitamin D is added to milk, but families aren’t drinking as much milk as they once were. Vitamin D is absorbed by exposure to sunlight but we are covering our kids in sunscreen and clothing to guard against skin cancer. I’m sure tv and video games have also reduced the time that kids spend outdoors as well. And Vitamin D is not found in breast-milk so exclusively breastfeeding means infants may need a Vitamin D supplement. For a discussion on vitamin D for breastfed babies, check out Today’s Parent (featuring comments from Dr. Jack Newman). See also Breastfeeding and Other Foods or Some Breastfeeding Myths.
As the Star says: “The obesity crisis has brought to light the lack of outdoor activity in both adults and children. Mix this with fears about hormones in milk, skin cancer from sun exposure and mercury in fish such as salmon that contain plenty of vitamin D – and a deficit is created.”
The interesting point about the rise of rickets (for me anyway) is that rickets was a major reason for death in childbirth. Women who had suffered from rickets as children often had deformed pelvises and couldn’t birth their babies. The history of rickets is part of the reason for the still common diagnosis that some women are too small to deliver a large baby (resulting in planned cesarean births). I’m interested to see whether rickets does indeed become widespread again.
In any case, the article recommends living a balanced life: drinking milk, eating fish, spending time outdoors. Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Brace Yourselves
As I suspected last week, the report into the case of the homebirth death in Quebec has started a shit storm of reactions. The latest from today’s Vancouver Province had me so angry that I can’t even begin to formulate a response. I am sure it’s only the beginning too.
I invite everyone to write the Province cool-headed, well-informed letters with sources and suggestions of where to find more info on both the safety of home birth and the insanity of our current maternity system.
We need to find that middle ground where it’s not home OR hospital. What about birth centres? What about home for low risk birth and hospital for high risk birth? What about changing the hospital system so that people actually want to birth there????
My first suggestions, once I calm down, will be to have Ms. Lakritz read Born in the USA: How to Heal a Broken Maternity System by Marsden Wagner and the most recent issue of Mothering Magazine with its pieces on Cesarean Birth and on Homebirth in Holland. Hmm, maybe we should also get her started on Gentle Birth Choices by Barbara Harper and the classic, Immaculate Deception II by Suzanne Arms.
Please post your comments here on what you think of Ms. Lakritz’ commentary.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Breastfeeding and Birth News This Week
Lots of controversy in the news this week so I’ve broken up the news report into several posts:
Check out Breastfeeding Campaign Watered Down in the United States and Midwifery Under Scrutiny in Quebec in separate posts.
Nunavut Midwifery Goes High-tech
This really got me excited: The Ajunnginiq Centre launched a trilingual midwifery website last week, which supporters say will help strengthen the ties among midwives throughout the Inuit regions. The website has information in English, French and Inuktitut. Translation was done with the help of elders who gave advice on traditional birthing terms.
"This will be a very good communication tool for the communities and interested parties," said Natsiq Kango, head of the Midwives Association of Nunavut. "There is a lot of interest, but there aren't a lot of outlets for it. The technology in place today, this is going to provide a real channel for this."
There is a new midwifery program in Iqaluit that took on six new students this year. Nunavut Arctic College also offers classes in maternity care. The site will also be used by midwives, nurses and nutritionists.
This is exciting because in remote northern communities women often have to travel hundreds of miles to give birth in the nearest hospital. This often means being separated from family and community for weeks at a time when it is important for women to be close to family and friends. Encouraging midwifery and traditional practices is a step in the right direction for the North. It’s wonderful to see programs in place that train the local people and that foster respect for the community’s traditional ways.
‘Pushed’ Cries Out for Childbirth options
Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, a new book by Jennifer Block, former editor at Ms. Magazine, is looking at maternity care and childbirth options. One of Block’s goals was to support women who choose alternative birth options and to spell out the truth about maternity care in the United States, care which often involves a “pushed” birth. Block describes a “pushed” birth as “one that is induced, sped up and/or heavily medicated for no good reason, and all too often concludes with surgery, invasive instruments, an episiotomy or a bad vaginal tear -- outcomes you don't want."
For more info: check out the website, or this review.
BOLD initiative: Birth, the play
All through September, a play about birth is running in Washington State and around the world. Birth, the critically acclaimed play billed as the Vagina Monologues of childbirth, is part of Birth On Labor Day (BOLD), a global movement to make maternity care mother-friendly. The play is the story of eight women, the births they experienced and their right to choose where and how they birth. The play will run in 30 cities worldwide. Unfortunately, the play is only running in one Canadian city (in Ontario). Check out the play’s website for more info about Birth and about BOLD.
Survival Tips for New Moms
Healthy Mum, Happy Baby is part survival manual and part recipe book. The idea for the book, to write a breastfeeding manual, came to Annemarie Tempelman-Kluit in the middle of the night. She researched and compiled all of the info she found and is now running two websites to help new moms. Healthymumhappybaby.com updates the information in her book, and www.yoyomama.ca provides helpful, hip info, tips and guides to local events to smooth over the yo-yo bumps of early motherhood.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
Check out Breastfeeding Campaign Watered Down in the United States and Midwifery Under Scrutiny in Quebec in separate posts.
Nunavut Midwifery Goes High-tech
This really got me excited: The Ajunnginiq Centre launched a trilingual midwifery website last week, which supporters say will help strengthen the ties among midwives throughout the Inuit regions. The website has information in English, French and Inuktitut. Translation was done with the help of elders who gave advice on traditional birthing terms.
"This will be a very good communication tool for the communities and interested parties," said Natsiq Kango, head of the Midwives Association of Nunavut. "There is a lot of interest, but there aren't a lot of outlets for it. The technology in place today, this is going to provide a real channel for this."
There is a new midwifery program in Iqaluit that took on six new students this year. Nunavut Arctic College also offers classes in maternity care. The site will also be used by midwives, nurses and nutritionists.
This is exciting because in remote northern communities women often have to travel hundreds of miles to give birth in the nearest hospital. This often means being separated from family and community for weeks at a time when it is important for women to be close to family and friends. Encouraging midwifery and traditional practices is a step in the right direction for the North. It’s wonderful to see programs in place that train the local people and that foster respect for the community’s traditional ways.
‘Pushed’ Cries Out for Childbirth options
Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, a new book by Jennifer Block, former editor at Ms. Magazine, is looking at maternity care and childbirth options. One of Block’s goals was to support women who choose alternative birth options and to spell out the truth about maternity care in the United States, care which often involves a “pushed” birth. Block describes a “pushed” birth as “one that is induced, sped up and/or heavily medicated for no good reason, and all too often concludes with surgery, invasive instruments, an episiotomy or a bad vaginal tear -- outcomes you don't want."
For more info: check out the website, or this review.
BOLD initiative: Birth, the play
All through September, a play about birth is running in Washington State and around the world. Birth, the critically acclaimed play billed as the Vagina Monologues of childbirth, is part of Birth On Labor Day (BOLD), a global movement to make maternity care mother-friendly. The play is the story of eight women, the births they experienced and their right to choose where and how they birth. The play will run in 30 cities worldwide. Unfortunately, the play is only running in one Canadian city (in Ontario). Check out the play’s website for more info about Birth and about BOLD.
Survival Tips for New Moms
Healthy Mum, Happy Baby is part survival manual and part recipe book. The idea for the book, to write a breastfeeding manual, came to Annemarie Tempelman-Kluit in the middle of the night. She researched and compiled all of the info she found and is now running two websites to help new moms. Healthymumhappybaby.com updates the information in her book, and www.yoyomama.ca provides helpful, hip info, tips and guides to local events to smooth over the yo-yo bumps of early motherhood.
Sweet Home Birth Boxes - the supplies you need no matter what your birth plan includes!
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