Strollerderby

AMEN! I will admit it i quit after about oh um a week and yeah i am happy with the decision but there is also a small part of me that regrets it terribly. i'll try it again with the second baby and hopefully it will be better now that i know where to find more support....

on a side note i read somewhere that 11 public nyc hospitals are going to stop giving formula in order to promote breastfeedng. as someone who was "saved" by the formula i left the bospital with i am not sure how to feel about it, how can you stop giving the formula but not fix the problems that women have with breastfeeding?

Considering the segment on NPR yesterday about hospitals in NYC baning formula samples, I think peoples' intentions are good, but they are missing out on a few key points, the first one being that nursing can be hard, and support is a much stronger motivator than guilt.  I think in order for the breastfeeding "movement" to be really successful, the underlying issues need to be addressed.  Women are tossed off airplanes, kicked out of stores and asked to leave restaurants, is it any wonder than the idea of nursing in public makes potential mothers nervous?  Not to mention that minority women with no education beyond high school are the least likely to breastfeed and educated white upperclass women are the most likely.  Why is that?  Better access to prenatal care?  Better support networks?  Better jobs with employers willing to make arrangements for pumping and milk storage?

I think before anything is going to change, those are some things that need to be addressed FIRST.

P.S. Concerning statistics, it pisses me off when someone bends them to suit an agenda.  You know that one about how only such and such percentage breastfeed exclusively to 6 months?  My son was developmentaly ready at 4 months, and my daughter started waking every 2 hours to eat at night at 5 1/2 months.  Not only did we start them on solids before 6 months, we did it with our doctor's blessing.

I'm a pumping mom, and I pump in a conference room twice a workday!  It's the only room without interior windows, although now I'm so numb to the exposure I don't even bother closing the exterior blinds.  :)  If people wanna watch the dairy cow, they can feel free.

One sucky thing about pumping is that sometimes the babies REALLY prefer the bottle to the breast.  So even when I'm home, I pump milk in front of my daughter and then pour it into a bottle.  She hates my boob so much, she's willing to wait.  The other sucky thing is that it's always a struggle to keep the supply up.  My daughter's 7 months old now, and I pump about 24-30 oz. a day, when she guzzles somewhere around 30-40 oz.  So sometimes she gets a formula bottle at night (GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!).  I wonder if she counts in these statistics.

Our daughter was born 6 weeks early, an even though my wife wanted to breastfeed, it wasn't possible given that they wouldn't let us leave the NICU until our daughter could drink 42 ml of formula or expressed milk in under 30 minutes consistently.  The one lactation consultant was only there from 9-5 weekdays, and I believe we only saw her twice in the two weeks we were there.  Afterwards, we had to supplement breastfeeding with formula because, even after hiring another lactation consultant, our daughter could not get enough milk.  She then self-weened at a little over 3-1/2 months.

To add to your fifth thing -  Don't forget all the fabulous parents that adopt kids.  They do everything they can for their kids and get told that it's not enough.  That's lousy. Hooray for parents that adopt kids.  Go ahead and give them formula.  Many formula drinkers have turned out to be decent people.

NY Hospitals will still give away formula to moms who ask for it.  They are banned from putting it in the leaving the hospital bag automatically.  I wonder if you don't ask for formula, you could get more free diapers or receiving blankets or something.

Recently, the Canadian government released similar statistics but the numbers were higher and from 2001-04. What the study proved quite easily, was that women who gave birth prior to the mat leave being 12 months( it used to be 6 months off work with Employment Insurance cheques of about 1200 dollars a month plus whatever your employer topped up for you. Now it's a full year and the cheques.) nursed a lot less than the women who had the full year. Obviously, being able to be at home and not having to pump allowed women to nurse longer. Furthermore, we do have a lot more help when we get home. You can call a public nurse to come to the house and help you with get a good latch or answer questions for you or check the baby to see if there's weight gain WITHOUT having to trek to the doctor's office. Actually, the public health nurse will come to your house, whether you like it or not, unless you have midwife care, in which case, the nurse only comes if you insist. If you have midwives, they perform all the roles a doctor would play in the first 6 postpartum weeks.

Obviously, more support, not heavy handed guilt is what is needed. And as to why middle/upper class moms nurse longer and with more success? I've read many explanations and most of it comes down to this: if you're wealthy, it's because you're likely well educated, if you're educated, you are likely more comfortable to reaching out for help in problem solving, you are more comfortable attempting to get access to services and resources, you have the internet and phone, you likely have fewer cultural and langauge barriers, and you are more comfortable standing up for your rights to nurse in public places, and to stand up to family members who might disagree with your choices to nurse. The same gap of socioeconomic status existed in the study done and it actaully stated the above reasons. You can find it, if you want, on www.statscanada.ca .