Strollerderby : breastmilk

Fountain Shoots, Um, Breastmilk?

JeanneSager — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:01:00 GMT

Still freaked out over breastfeeding in public? Then we're going to guess you won't be posing for pictures in front of any of the host of water fountains around the world that feature women pumping . . .in very public places.

Because what else do you call the mermaids in the celebrated Piazza Del Netunno (Neptune) in Bologna, Italy? With water shooting out of their nipples, it makes you wonder if the architect had a nursing mom at home:

And what do you make of the Fontana delle Tette in Treviso? More Italians love for mama?

So what do you think? Were these the first examples of pumping in public?

Images: Virtual Tourist, Suite 101

Playdate: Breastfeeding Bonds for Better Mom-Kid Relationships?

JeanneSager — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:32:00 GMT

I've read a lot more blogs since I took over the "What They're Babbling About" section for Strollerderby, and Breastfeeding Moms Unite! was sent my way via a "friend" on Twitter.

Not afraid to take on some of the bigger breastfeeding topics, it's worth a read anytime. But one post in particular caught my attention this week.

She asks women today if they were breasted . . . and how their relationships are with their mothers.

It's nothing scientific, and she makes clear she's not actually attributing her lack of a perfect relationship with her mother to her mom's decision NOT to breastfeed. Why then, I wondered, did she even bring it up?

Curiosity, it sounds like. And it is interesting to ponder - although entirely inconclusive. I was breastfed until just shy of the year mark. So was my brother. Neither of us has a terribly great relationship with our mother (his is better than mine). I tried breastfeeding and failed at it, and I would like to think a good relationship with my daughter is possible - at least something akin to what we have now. (I asked my husband, by the way, if he was breastfed, and he had no idea - and his mom breastfed into the toddler stage).

What's bothered me most about so many pro-breastfeeding mantras isn't the idea that breastfeeding is good for kids (because it is!) but the idea that it promotes better bonding between mother and child. Do they bond? Certainly. But better bonding? Isn't that a little subjective? A little "well, my kid loves me best?"

Because, try as we might, as parents, we can't control the feelings of our kids or the personalities of our kids. Some parents and children have horrible relationships because of bonds during childhood that were TOO tightly woven (think helicopter parenting), others clash because they as people are simply too alike. There's also the mere fact that as human beings, we all relate differently to one another.

Our own personalities as parents are distinctly different. Our personalities mesh differently with our different kids. I know some readers will take this as an attack on breastfeeding, so again, please understand, I think breastfeeding is a wonderful thing for women who do it (and something every woman should try to do). But reading through the comments on the BMU site, I pondered once again how much pressure we are putting on one small part of childhood to solve life's problems.

Take this comment: "Had I been weaned as an infant, I’m not sure I would have maintained that physical closeness with my mom. She let me breastfeed as long and as often as I needed or wanted, and I do feel that that contributed to my feeling that she was always available to me, throughout my life."

That's just one opinion, but it struck me as a perfect example of the attempts to make breastfeeding into a panacea. God forbid her mother stopped at, say one year, perfectly acceptable according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and just showered her with love, affection and a roof over her head, clothes on her back? That wouldn't be enough to retain a sense of physical closeness with her?

As one friend said when I mentioned the idea of breastfeeding in childhood in relation to an adult mother/child relationship, sometimes mothers are unhappy breastfeeders, women who did it because they knew it was best for their child's health, but end up resenting their children for a miserable eight, ten, twelve months. She posited her own mother probably had post partum depression and was not a happy breastfeeder. Today, they have a stilted relationship.

The best benefit of having a mother who breastfed? Besides the health benefits we got if we were breastfed? In my mind it's the positive role model, the knowledge that someone we know did it and made it work. If we're lucky, when it comes time to breastfeed, we have a good enough relationship with that woman (our mother) to turn to her for advice on how to proceed ourselves.

But if a mom wasn't breastfed, will it make or break her relationship? Take this comment over at the BMU site and ponder it. I think it answers it quite nicely: "You may simply be posing the question of whether or not breastfeeding can make a significant impact on mother-daughter relationships but I believe the answer has long been apparent in the relationships between women and adopted daughters."

Image: EcoStreet

Mom Uses Breastfeeding as Weapon in Custody Battle

JeanneSager — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:01:00 GMT

The story is full of bad breastfeeding puns (that, honestly cracked me up), but an interesting case came up in the Globe and Mail this weekend. A mom has made her breastfeeding schedule so rigorous that the ex-boyfriend who fathered their child has been essentially totally cut off from spending any time with his daughter.

A judge has decided enough is enough. Either wean your child or start pumping honey, because Daddy's got to have a go.

Jennifer Johne and Carl Cavannah were together only briefly, but their relationship resulted in the birth of a little girl in June 2006. Although the couple was broken up, Cavannah made it clear he wanted to be in their daughter's life, even quitting his job so he could move closer to Johne and the little girl. He volunteered (volunteered!) to pay child support, and bought books on parenting.

But Johne told him he couldn't take the little girl anywhere, because she needed be with mom to be breastfed. The Globe and Mail cites an e-mail from Johne to Cavannah that makes it pretty clear she was about to sway on the issue: "A baby belongs with its mother, and if you had an understanding of the needs of a fully breast-fed baby and truly had [her] interests at heart, you would not be bringing this subject up again."

Now with the baby ~~facing~~ past her second birthday, the date the World Health Organization suggests breastfeeding up to, a judge has said it's over. Johne can breastfeed her toddler if she wants to, but she has to do it via pumped milk, so Cavannah can spend some real time with his daughter.

Frankly, I'm surprised he waited this long to "bring this subject up again." Because as wonderful as breastfeeding is (and this is very definitely not a breastfeeding vs. formula post), it's also pretty darn great for a child to have their biological parent who WANTS to be in the picture and has demonstrated themselves to be a a willing and able participant in their life. If anything, this mother is proving not how important it is to breastfeed but the theories of those women who would say breastfeeding chains them to their child.

Because while there are the bonding elements of breastfeeding, the larger part of the argument has always been that breastmilk itself is healthier than formula. So pumping and handing it over to her ex-boyfriend to feed their daughter would still make this child a "full breast-fed baby," albeit one who had the opportunity to bond with both her mother AND her father during her formative years.

Johne actually works in a daycare (which enabled her to keep her daughter around her so constantly), where she sees perfectly healthy and able children who are not attached to the mother's breast constantly.

What irks me about this story? This is a woman who has put breastfeeding above everything else. She's taken "breast is best" to an extreme that's unhealthy, and makes a bad name for breastfeeders everywhere.

Image: EcoStreet

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The Backlash to Breast is Best

Breastfeeding Benefits For Moms Greater Than Previously Believed

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:01:00 GMT

Not that you needed another reason to choose breastfeeding -- or pat yourself on the back if you did/do, or feel horribly guilty and pissed off if you didn't/don't -- but this week came news reports of even more dramatic health benefits for moms who breastfeed. The new study, published in the May issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that women who had breastfed were less likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease than their non-nursing counterparts, and that the effect increases with increasing duration of breastfeeding.

The study looked at the data of 139,681 post-menopausal women whose health records have been followed as part of the Women's Health Initiative. Those who breastfed for more than a year over the course of their lives, the study found, were almost ten times less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke than those who hadn't nursed at all, and they were 20 percent less likely to have diabetes, 12 percent less likely to have hypertension, 19 percent less likely to have high cholesterol. Even one month of breastfeeding was associated with lowered rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Studies like this are often criticized for offering correlation but not causation -- they are not constructed as a double-blind study with controls, and so it's hard to tease out just which health benefits come from breastfeeding and which tend to go along with being the type of mother for whom breastfeeding is a priority (breastfeeding rates are much higher for richer, better-educated women overall). As one doctor told the New York Times, those who breastfeed “may be healthier women who take better care of themselves." True -- but the fact that this survey breaks down rates among women who nursed a little and those who nursed a lot may tend to argue for an actual medical difference, a mechanism by which breastfeeding protects women who do it (and offers more and more protection the more one does it). It's a nice study to show to anyone whose mother-in-law keeps asking, "haven't you weaned that child yet?"

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What They're Babbling About: Bring It On Home

JeanneSager — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:29:00 GMT

Want another helping of our trip around the 'net? As always, we offer up our Friday look at What They're Babbling About:

Tired of tripping over Legos? It doesn't take much convincing that a toy-free room in your house is good for mom and dad. . . if you can convince your kids. - ParentDish

Need a little something to get the girls going (and yes, that's a euphemism guys). Get the breastmilk a flowin' with this list. - LilSugar

Earth Day is every day, so get green with this global craft project - they'll have the whole world in their hands. - Momformation

We have ALL been there - we're finally parents and our parents want to step in and tell us how it's done. Back of Mom! - CafeMom

We've all been here too - moms are addicted to the Internet (er, guilty). So what is it doing to our kids? - Parenting

Get off the computer and get out to the sandbox - and fill it with what? They're building a list, they're making it bigger... - Apartment Ohdeedoh

Image: Momformation

Breastfeeding Debates: Just a Tempest in a Sippy Cup?

JeanneSager — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:23:00 GMT

Here's the thing about the breast is best debate. Do we really care what another mother does with her boobs?

No, really. You might say you care that she gets the best medical advice, that that precious little baby gets the best start to life. But when your kid and her kid sit side by side in kindergarten, holding hands, is it really going to matter who did what on day thirty-six of that baby's life?

Sometime Babble contributor Lynn Harris turned her often irreverant sense of humor to the oh so serious topic of breastfeeding on NPR this week, and though she treats the subject with all due respect (she is, after all, a mother), she pokes her fun where it's due. The breastfeeding debate, she says, is nothing but "a tempest in a sippy cup."

For MOST women, it isn't about whether or not they think breastfeeding is good for babies, or even whether they WANT to do it. Says Harris:

"Because we don't read the Journal of the American Medical Association to decide whether, or how long, to breast-feed. We consider our bodies: Are we physically able to nurse in the first place? Or are we plagued, as I was with my first child, by plugged ducts and serious mastitis? We consider the child: Did we, luck of the draw, get one who just says no to latching? We consider our workplace: How long is our maternity leave? Where can we pump when we go back?"

And that, my friends, is where the debate needs to take a hike. You want to breastfeed? You made it work? Woohoo! Fabulous! Really. I'm not being facetious here. I'm happy for you that you are able to nourish your child with your breastmilk, that you have got the latch down and find the appropriate place to pump if need be.

Not breastfeeding? Didn't want to? OK, well, that's your choice. Did want to, but couldn't? I'm sorry, is there anything we can do? Other than berating you and telling you you're feeding your child pure evil in liquid form and forcing you onto mega doses of Paxil to handle your postpartum depression caused by feelings of inadequacy?

Here's why everyone needs to read Harris' essay: she puts blame where blame is due. On the crappy advice in hospitals. On the crappy employers who don't give moms appropriate time for pumping. On the family medical leave act's lack of depth and the lack of paid leave time available for new mothers. On the public breastfeeding conundrum, especially for women who are shy and uncomfortable out in the public eye.

"Show me a lactation room at the Qwik Mart, and I'll show you a woman more willing to leave the maternity ward without her care package of free formula," Harris says (see, told you she was a bit irreverant).

Come on moms, let's look at who you're really mad at. It's not each other.

Image/Source: NPR

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Babies Switched In NYC Hospital

JeanneSager — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:52:00 GMT

Let me just say that part of this story is absolutely awful - that a maternity ward's security practices could fail so miserably that two newborn babies are mixed up for several hours is criminal.

HOWEVER, every time I hear a re-telling of the story of Shatiesha Brown's baby being given to the wrong mom in the New York City hospital's maternity ward, I am more mystified by her misplaced anger.

Brown told a NYC news station that she was outraged that her little girl, Aniya Victoria, was breastfed by another woman at Brookside Hospital.

OK, so what? I'd be flipping a lid over the fact that my newborn child was given to someone else to begin with. That she was breastfed by that woman. . . eh. . . as long as the woman had no communicable diseases, who cares?

The thing is, Shatiesha Brown was told by her doctors that her dangerously high blood pressure had to be monitored. For twenty-four hours, they said, she would have to be separated from her newborn. It's during that period when hospital staff apparently took little Aniya Victoria to the room of another new mom, whose last name was also Brown and whose first initial was also S. The other new mom breastfed the baby and posed for pictures before the mistake was discovered.

Now Shatiesha is claiming that her daughter suffered nipple confusion and that the hospital ruined all her plans to breastfeed the little girl with the mistake. "The bond that you have when you breastfeed your child, that's everything," she told ABC 7.

Except that's not how nipple confusion works. Moving from breast to breast isn't an issue - if it was, babies would have trouble moving from the right side to the left on a mom who has different shaped or sized nipples (which is actually most of the population). Nipple confusion comes into play when a newborn baby feeds from an artificial nipple - which Aniya Victoria would have done ANYWAY if mom and baby were to be separated for twenty-four hours. Even then, babies can still make the switch, albeit with some difficulty, and many women report successful breastfeeding of a year or more after their baby received an artificial nipple during the very early days of life.

The mother I feel for is the one who breastfed Aniya Victoria . . . while her own baby lay in the nursery, missing out on the colostrum that's chock full of nutrients and antibodies.

Shatiesha is suing, of course (doesn't everyone?). I agree she has grounds to demand the hospital be held accountable for the mix-up itself, but I'm smelling a cock and bull story here.

Would you be more upset over the mix-up or the fact that your child fed at someone else's breast?

Image: ABC

Motherless Baby Breastfed By Six Women Each Day

JeanneSager — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:02:00 GMT

A baby without a mom. A bunch of moms still breastfeeding their own babies. It was just meant to be.

You don't hear about death during childbirth much anymore, (and thank goodness for that), but when Susan Goodrich lost her life shortly after giving birth to her son, one of her most important wishes for her child was fulfilled by a band of impromptu wet nurses, moms who heard a baby needed their help.

Charles Moses Martin Goodrich was born on Jan. 11, but when his dad said he wanted the boy to receive breastmilk right off the bat, he was told the hospital didn't have a milkbank. A delivery could come in from elsewhere in Michigan, but it would take several days to ship.

Then Robbie Goodrich got a call of condolence from a friend, a mom who was still nursing her one-year-old daughter. Anything the family needed, she said, anything. . . even her breastmilk. It's when Robbie told his hometown paper that things clicked - he realized other moms might want to help him in his plight, and he called on a family friend to help him round up moms with something to give.

The found twenty total women who set up a schedule - six times a day, Charles has been fed by a different woman (that's one of the volunteers pictured). And by fed, I mean actually suckling at the breast.That is the most incredible part of the story to me - that these women don't just pump their milk and ship it over. With children at home (obviously), they drop everything to drive to the Goodrich home and allow a stranger's baby to nurse. It's the kind of love only a parent could muster for a child - but these aren't his parents!

At night, his father feeds him with bottles of milk pumped by the volunteers, and Charles is a happy, healthy baby despite his rough start to life.

The subject became controversial recently with Salma Hayek's highly publicized feeding of another woman's child, which some called a publicity stunt. There's no way these nameless women could be accused of the same thing. More to the point, what they're doing is life-sustaining while Hayek's one-off feeding was not going to drastically change a child's life.

What do you think of this? Would you do it? Or would you just pump your milk and send it over?

Image/Source: The Mining Journal

They Say: Blame Hospitals for Breastfeeding Failures

JeanneSager — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:31:00 GMT

Reading this study, I couldn't help but feel a little vindicated. I've always felt like a big fat failure at breastfeeding - despite all my best efforts, I didn't make it very long. And I put a lot of that blame on the misinformation swirling around the maternity ward where I gave birth to my daughter.

Guess what?

A new study says hospitals are largely to blame for the failure of breastfeeding moms in America. And that includes hospitals where attempts are being made to encourage breastfeeding.

The study by the Boston University School of Public Health looked at data on some fifteen hundred women in the nation who had recently given birth. At least seventy percent of first-time moms said they wanted to breastfeed exclusively. Good news, right? Except by the time the babies were a week old, only HALF of the women were exclusively breastfeeding.

Guilty as charged.

Which is why even this article about the study made me angry. One of the chief problems I've found with many maternity wards (not all, but many) is the lack of breastfeeding education for members of the staff. And the same misinformation peddled in hospitals that hurts breastfeeding rates is being pushed out in articles like this one: ie. "some new mothers really are too exhausted to breast feed right away, or they can't produce enough breast milk for their baby's nutritional needs."

No. No. No. No.

I heard this in the hospital after my daughter was born, and I bought it hook, line and sinker. It's one of the main reasons I exhausted myself in the first two weeks of my daughter's life, attempting to breastfeed every two hours, attempting to pump every other hour to increase my milk production because the nurses at the hospital had me convinced I wasn't producing enough. Yes, that meant I was up every hour on the hour for two solid weeks - I was literally tethered to the breast pump.

The problem? Most women DON'T produce milk in the first few days of their child's life. We produce colostrum, the incredibly rich and incredibly thin liquid that's a sort of pre-milk. And that's all the baby needs. As breastfeeding expert Laura Keegan said in a recent piece I wrote about the most common hurdles for new moms right here on Babble, "If you are pumping, be aware that pumping small amounts is not an indicator of a low milk supply."

Colustrum is in every breastfeeding book out there, so why don't nurses working on maternity wards know about it? Although I don't agree that formula is poison, I will say that convincing a mother she isn't making enough . . . so she needs to supplement . . . is poisoning her mind. Her body CAN'T make more, and she's being told she's a failure. Yet, her body is doing exactly what it's supposed to do.

What else is wrong with the above statment? The idea that moms are too exhausted immediately following birth to breastfeed. Yes, we're tired. But after that first feed, so is the baby. In fact, while nurses at my hospital practically tanned the hides of my husband and myself for not waking our daughter every two hours to eat, newborn babies are exhausted too. They just went through the same labor Mom went through. And so sleeping for a few hours is one hundred percent normal. Babies will not starve if they suckle only a few times at the very beginning. And Mom, by the way, may be exhausted. I was. But I've yet to see a mother who isn't on drugs from a C-section or already showing severe signs of postpartum depression who isn't itching to get her hands on that baby in the first twenty-four hours.

So sticking a bottle in the baby's mouth to let his mother sleep is wrong; she should have the chance to make that decision. But so is harping on a breastfeeding mother every few moments - pushing her to breastfeed now, when the baby is sleeping and she could be getting the sleep she missed when you woke her in the middle of the night for a feeding.

There is a movement that's gaining speed in American hospitals, sponsored by UNICEF, that can make all the difference. Baby Friendly Hospitals require all staff - be it the nurses, the doctors, whoever - have up-to-date breastfeeding education. They make lactation consultants available to every mother and allow babies to room-in with their mothers, so she can determine when the baby's hungry and when she wants to attempt feedings.

It takes effort to become Baby Friendly, but if breast is best is ever going to really take hold, misinformation has to stop at the beginning - the place where the baby is born. When you're losing the mothers (like me) who walk in the door with the very best of intentions, the women who already know breast is best and WANT to make it work, you have to step back and realize the machine is broken. It's time to fix it.

Images: BabyFriendlyUSA

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What They're Babbling About: Pregnancy, the Good, the Bad and the Newly Born

JeanneSager — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:26:00 GMT

Without pregnancy, there wouldn't be a parenting blog for y'all to read, so today's What They're Babbling About goes full bore on making baby.

Most of us would pay beaucoup bucks to keep the cameras at bay during pregnancy. But when the fantastic photog is the baby's daddy, and he writes weekly love notes like this, I think even a pregnancy-induced zitfest could look beautiful - Pacing the Panic Room

Whatever modesty you had pre-pregnancy is gone by the time it comes to the pushing. We'd bare it in Macy's window if it would just . . . make . . . it all go away. This mom came close - Macy's is less than a block from Penn Station, where one intrepid traveler gave birth. - Parent Dish

Breast is best, but what happens when the breastmilk has a toxo-load? Find out why moms are mulling contamination at the boob. - SuperEco

Ever heard two uglies make a pretty? Tell this girl - his ugly face and her ugly soul will make a pretty darn screwed up kid. - Jezebel

This is what we call recession maternity wear - making it work without going up a size. - LilSugar

So you think life is going to be boring now that you're giving up alcohol (for now, anyway) and spending every Friday night in front of Sesame Street? Guess again - changes are afoot. - MomLogic

Image: davhor

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They Say: Breastmilk Fights Respiratory Viruses Better in Girls

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Science gets particularly exciting when it turns up things no one was expecting. Researcher Fernando Polack, working in Buenos Aires investigating how much protection breastmilk provides for very-low-birthweight babies against the wicked metapneumovirus (no vaccine yet developed), was surprised to find stark gender differences in his results:

Girls who were not breastfed had a much higher risk of rehospitalization for respiratory illness than boys, but breastfed girls were almost never rehospitalized. In boys, the difference between breastfed and not was insignificant. (The researchers hasten to point out that there are plenty of other benefits of breastfeeding that still hold true for boys.)

The fascinating part of this is that a gender difference may point to breastmilk's protective properties working differently than previously supposed. Maybe it's not just delivering mom's immunities until the kid gets its own—why would there be a gender difference in that? Could breastmilk prompt anti-viral protection in the absence of exposure to viruses somehow, interacting directly with the baby's developing immune system? (Of course, why would there be a gender difference in that either?) The report from Vanderbilt Medical Center speculates maybe, though they have no idea how.

Sounds to me for now like another thing to throw on the "we don't know what breastmilk is well enough to replicate it" evidence pile.

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Fired For Pumping Case Reaches Higher Court

Brett Singer — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:30:00 GMT

A woman who worked for Totes/Isotoner Corp. was fired for taking too many bathroom breaks. No, she wasn't snorting coke in there. She was pumping breast milk.

After losing in court in 2008, and again on an appeal, LaNisa Allen is appealing to a higher authority -- the Ohio Supreme Court.

The legal argument seems to be that "the company didn't discriminate because breastfeeding doesn't legally constitute an illness or medical condition." Attorneys for Totes/Isotoner also say that "there is legal precedent showing that employers don't have to give extra breaks to breastfeeding women."

That may be true. But so what? (I mean, it's not like she was driving while she pumped.) No, breast feeding isn't an "illness" but I was surprised to read that someone was fired for doing it at work, sued, and then lost. Twice. It will be interesting to see if the Ohio Supremes are more sympathetic to Allen's cause. Even if the company was legally correct, it seems like bad policy to punish a breast feeding mother like this.

Anyone have any experiences, good or bad, with pumping on the job?

Source: Dayton Daily News via Slate

Image: ymswwc.com

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Breast Milk Cupcakes

Brett Singer — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I was more skeptical of this one then I was of the snow ice cream. What would inspire someone to do this? (Other than needing something to bring to a La Leche meeting, I mean. I kid.)

Curiosity I suppose. But according to Viceland (note: the site has language and images that are not safe for work, click the "source" link below if you're OK with that), these made with mommy milk cakes are quite tasty. In fact, in a taste test, they beat out cupcakes made from cow's milk.

A comedian whose name I can't recall once wondered about the first person who thought it would be a good idea to milk a cow. "Hey, look at those things hanging down underneath Bessie. I wonder if liquid comes out when I squeeze them. It does! Hey, I wonder if I can drink it? I can! Clem! C'mere, check this out!" Or eggs. "Look what came out of that chicken. I wonder if it would if the goopy stuff inside of it would taste good fried and served with grits. Mmmm. Clem! Get back out here!"

When you look at it that way, breast milk cupcakes don't sound nearly as weird. (Actually, lots of people question whether or not cow's milk is something humans should be putting in their bodies. But that's another topic.)

I always wanted to try breast milk while my wife was nursing. It felt somehow wrong, though. Like it wasn't mine to eat, y'know? I did taste a teeny bit when I was warming up a bottle, and if I recall correctly it was kind of salty.

We had a freezer full of milksicles at one point. I never realized that this was a tasty frozen treat.

Has anyone ever tried cupcakes, or any other food, made with breast milk? Would you?

Source: Viceland via Buzzfeed

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Study Launched to Examine Malnourished Breastfed Babies

JeanneSager — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:02:00 GMT

The first-ever study to examine what every breastfeeding mom fears has been kicked off in the United Kingdom: scientists will finally take a look at whether baby is really getting enough.

Although doctors say its rare that babies fall ill from lack of nourishment during breastfeeding, the doctors who have launched this project say there's a tendency not to talk about the very real risks involved - because no one wants to rock the breastfeeding boat.

"People are very cagey about saying anything that might give breastfeeding a bad name," Dr. Sam Richmond, a consultant neonatologist at Sunderland Royal Hospital, told the BBC News. "But it does need to be addressed - and properly studied - because the consequences can be so severe."

Writing an article for Babble that examines a few of the most common hurdles (just a few - to hit every hurdle would have taken me three books!), I found that every mom I talked to went through that phase - usually when they came home from the hospital - when they wondered how the milk they were producing could ever be enough to sustain a hungry baby. The best comment came from a pediatrician quoted in the article who admitted she felt the same way - and she KNOWS better. After all, she's a pediatrician. Kind of makes you feel better, doesn't it?

My hope is that these types of studies - which as Richmond points out are very necessary - will help put better information into the hands of worried mothers. If we could understand the circumstances of malnourished babies in breastfeeding conditions, moms who have nothing to worry about can have one less burden in those crucial early days of breastfeeding. What's more, for those who simply CAN'T breastfeed because of this very real condition, there will be evidence to use to back them up when a breastfeeding nazi comes knocking on her door.

Image: BBC News

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Salma Hayek Shines Spotlight on Breastfeeding Taboos

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:30:00 GMT

As most people know by now, Salma Hayek’s very public breastfeeding in Sierra Leone was not just a moment of compassion for a hungry child. It was that, but it was also a calculated—and noble—attempt to dispel the notion in some parts of Africa that breastfeeding women can’t have sex. Given this entrenched belief, you can probably guess how husbands feel about their wives breastfeeding.

It’s easy to see such an urban legend as shocking, but, as Ada Calhoun points out in TIME, the U.S. certainly has its fair share of breastfeeding taboos—most notably, against cross-nursing. Indeed, many media outlets and online commenters were disgruntled at best by the YouTube video of Hayek nursing another woman’s child. (EW.com awarded the video “biggest eyebrow-raiser” of the day.)

According to Calhoun, no American institution will support informal cross-nursing, citing concerns about “the possibility of transmitting infections, a decrease in supply for the donor's own baby, psychological confusion on the part of the infant, and the fact that the composition of breast milk changes as children get older.”

Hayek’s very public cross-nursing demonstrated that there are certainly instances in which none of these concerns are relevant. The Sierra Leonean baby she breastfed was born on the same day as her daughter and Hayek knew him to be healthy. She’s not in any danger of her milk running dry from one emergency feeding, and no one would argue that any “psychological confusion” the baby boy may have experienced outweighed the benefits of assuaging his hunger.

Photo: The Daily Mail

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Salma Hayek Breastfeeds Hungry Baby in Africa

Going the Extra Mile for Breastmilk, Part 2: Induced Lactation

Miriam Axel-Lute — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:00:00 GMT

I know an adoptive couple who, together, exclusively breastfed their adopted son from time of his placement until he was old enough for solids (and beyond). I have to admit that I find this super cool, and not just because they ended up with a son who's allergic to cow's milk and soy. It's because it makes them so happy. And because I'm a science geek and think the human body is awesome.

The weirdest part about it for me is that it has put me in the amusing position of having to explain to my daughter why she gets milk from only one of her moms instead of both...

Perhaps seeing it happen all the time is why the assumption that breastfeeding is out of the question for adoptive parents takes me by surprise even though I know it is (1) very rare and (2) not particularly simple to get going. Still, it works, which many people don't even know, and as research continues on the best ways to induce, interest keeps rising.

There are two main components to getting lactation going: The most important is that the physical act of suckling induces lactation. This means that you can either use a supplementer (see picture) to feed donated milk or formula to a baby while having it nurse from the breast or pump several times a day in advance of a placement/birth (a good way to store up extra that can then be donated!). Most women also use combinations of medications and herbs that fool the body into thinking it's pregnant, boost supply, or just have lactation as a side effect, especially if they have a sense of when a kid will arrive and want to be able to breastfeed from day one. Many of these are the same things that bio moms who've had an illness or supply issues use. For more details, check with the experts.

I'm quite sure that this is one of those cases where even raising the possibilty, even while acknowledging how hard it is, will make some parents feel judged for not taking it on. They shouldn't, but that's easy for me to say. (The Milkshare folks do suggest that those who can try induced lactation do, so as to keep donated milk for those who can't, which I suppose is reasonable.) Still, I think it's worth spreading the word that it is possible, for those like my friends who might be really happy to be able to do it and/or have kids who could really benefit.

I'd be interested in hearing from adoptive or potentially adoptive parents. Had you heard about this? What were your reactions?

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Going the Extra Mile for Breastmilk, Part 1: MilkShare

Miriam Axel-Lute — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:30:00 GMT

There are numerous situations in which it is hard or impossible for parents to give their babies breastmilk—medical or supply problems, high-order multiples, adoption. But with the increasing amount of research about the benefits of breastmilk, a small but growing number of these parents have decided to seek out ways to do it anyway. Since formal milk banks are very expensive, they don't tend to be long-term solutions. But depending on the situation, there are other ways.

After I wrote a bit about the supply shortages and cost associated with formal milk banks, a commenter pointed me to MilkShare. MilkShare is not a milk bank, but it's a network connecting parents who want breastmilk to those who have more than enough and are willing to pump and donate. Basically, it regularly facilitates arrangements like the awe-inspiring outpouring that recently turned up enough breastmilk to keep a two-year-old with severe irritiable bowel syndrome alive.

It primarily costs less because recipients have to do their own legwork of contacting and screening donors, paying for health testing, arranging shipping, etc. (It's illegal to sell bodily fluids, so costs are those involved in shipping, health testing, storage bags for the donor etc., as well as getting a deep-freeze freezer for storage.)

MilkShare, understandably, recommends that those looking for milk hold to the standards of the milk banks when screening donors, but acknowledges obliquely that some parents may not feel the need to do so in every particular. (That seems risky, but before you judge, look at the standards and see if you would meet them all.) On the other hand, I hear through the grapevine that many parents aren't bothering to require testing at all (or are too shy too), which is probably not a good idea.

The payoff for the legwork seems worth it: Some recipients report being able to exclusively feed their infants on breastmilk to the recommend six months and continue providing it beyond, while others use it to supplement during a period of inducing lactation. Given that from a milk bank, breastmilk could cost $3 to 5/ounce, that's an astounding value. And for all the "four-quart does" who were cringing at expressing their "liquid gold" down the sink, there's a huge amount of satisfaction to be gained by sending it somewhere it can make a difference.

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Breast-is-Best 2.0: Pumping in Public

Madeline Holler — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:31:00 GMT

You know I'm all about the breastfeeding. I like to think I support all things boob and breastmilky. And I do, I really do. But we all have our challenges, our things to get over. Pumping in public is mine.

But not Christen Clifford's. She rather likes to pump in public, or at least has no problem doing it. The nursing soldat in me says "Kudos! Kudos to you and your battery operated Evenflo, Christen!" The more squeamish side of me is blushing and quickly looking away.

Clifford writes that she first pumped in public on the subway after a long meeting. She could no longer endure her engorged breasts, so she popped out her boob and latched on her handheld with one hand, held on to the pole with the other. People stared. Her nipple was visible through the clear plastic shell, the steady spray of milk no doubt audible. This wasn't ideal, she acknowledges. Nonetheless, she was hooked (up).

Next, she tells us she pumped at theatre bar during intermission.

From HuffPo:

It wasn't the ideal place to be squeezing out human milk, but I tried to remember that it was a part of breastfeeding: if I think women should nurse everywhere (and I do) then we should pump everywhere too.

Fair enough. Still. Ew?

Clifford brings up the much discussed New Yorker article about companies' attempts to make the office more breast-pump friendly. The writer, Jill Lepore, lays out arguments that what the workplace should focus on is longer maternity leaves. Many readers (Clifford included) think Lepore is waging a new battle in the mommy wars: breastmilk from the breast vs. breastmilk from a bottle. Lepore even asks "who would want to pump in public." Of course, we know Clifford's answer to that.

As for me, no thanks, but I'll keep an open mind. Go for it, public pumpers. If you need me for a pump-in, I'll charge up the Medela, go sit on a sidewalk and suck it up (and out). But I won't be public-pumping on my own any time soon. Not because I shouldn't, but because I just don't want to. In the high stakes breastfeeding competition, I have been bested (breasted?).

What about you? Is public pumping no worse than blowing your nose in the middle of a crowd or is this mother out of control?

Photo: milkend.com

Little Girl with Bowel Disease Kept Alive on Donated Breastmilk

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Two-year-old Grace Vaught of Westminster, Colorado, has what her doctors say is a very bad case of inflammatory bowel disease. According to an article in the Longmont Times-Call, beginning around a year ago the girl would vomit repeatedly each night; it was obvious there was something terribly wrong. As her symptoms grew worse, Grace began refusing to eat or drink anything, at one point going three days with no food or drink. Desperate, her mother gave her a bottle of pumped breastmilk (she was already nursing a second daughter, Grace's baby sister). When Grace was able to keep the breastmilk down, Stacey (a mother of six) attempted to pump enough to feed both girls but found her supply inadequate to the task.

She turned to Mother's Milk Bank, but found the cost prohibitive (it would cost $200 a day to provide the milk Grace needs). The bank did respond to her plight with a $1,000 donation of breast milk. Vaught then turned to her church, and through it to a virtual army of nursing mothers. First, the Samaritans Ministry Christian Health Care raised $21,000 to help buy breast milk for Grace; then, through a group called mamasource.com, women at Vaught's church connected with other women in the area. Before long, dozens of local women began pumping a little extra every day for Grace.

Vaught says she's beginning to introduce fruits, vegetables, rice and organic meats into Grace's diet, but the three six-ounce bottles of breast milk are still her staple. From the article:

“There is no textbook thing about this,” Vaught said. “I have to be creative. I credit attention to what she eats and prayer.

“She can eat. She’s happy. Her hair is growing, and she’s got energy.

“I don’t know how long it has to be this way (drinking breast milk), but I feel like it’s getting better,” Vaught added. “I am thankful she can eat and she can live.”

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Wait, Was That A Nursing Mom? Or A Political Statement?

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:21:00 GMT

In an effort to raise awareness and support for breastfeeding, an advocacy group in Marin County, California, is placing life-sized cardboard cutouts depicting nursing mothers and their babies in various public places.

According to the Marin Breastfeeding Coalition, the faux mamas and babies have been invited to "government buildings, businesses and the ferry terminals." The figures hold placards reading, "When breastfeeding is accepted, it won't be noticed."

The group is spreading the word both to promote breastfeeding and to remind the pubic that California law protects nursing mothers from being asked to leave or cover up when feeding their babies in public. The idea for the campaign came from David Swope, an advertising man whose wife is active in La Leche League. He told the Marin Independent Journal he can think of a few more venues where they might be useful: "I'd love to see these cutouts in sports bars - places where guys can start a discussion about breastfeeding."

Now if they could only engineer a 3-D version to use on airplanes, we'd be all set (although Barbara Walters would have to take a Xanax).

Smackdown: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't (Breastfeed, That Is)

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Uncover Your Nipples! 7 Gems from the Mouths of Nursing Toddlers

Miriam Axel-Lute — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Every mother who has nursed past a year has heard someone's opinion that "Once they're old enough to ask for it, they're too old." This is, from health and evolution standpoints, absurd.

But especially in a culture that's still a little iffy on being made too aware of breastfeeding at all, the fact remains that having a verbal nursing kid can lead to some, ahem, interesting moments. They fall into a few key categories:

Baby Talk: Too Much or Too Little

1. "Num-nums!" "Oobies!" "Boob!" "Nu-nu!" There's no better way to realize that you have, despite your pre-parental protestations, incorporated sickeningly cutesy baby talk into your everyday vocabulary than to have it shouted at you in public and realize you're going to have to respond as if those words were language, and possibly even speak them yourself.

2. "Mama snacks!" "Hello nipple!" "Where's your breast?" Or the gourmet who says "Yum!" whenever he passes by the bras at Target. Some toddlers don't just nurse, they are vocal and articulate nursing enthusiasts. Some times so pointed that it's verbal equivalent of saying "damn the discreet cover-up." Which is fine. Except of course it was your kid's choice, not yours.

Your Words Out of Their Mouths

3. Version A: The politeness backfire. "Ask, nurse, please?" says one kid. "Hi. Milk. Smile," said mine for a while, betraying our attempts to explain what, beyond the technical words, constituted asking nicely.
4. Version B: Crossed wires. One mother reports that after training her son out of bad nursing behavior (oh, the dreaded twiddling) by repeatedly telling him he was all done with that, now he asks to nurse by saying hopefully "All done? All done?" (Bet she gets the "He wants to wean and you're not letting him!" treatment.)

The "Other Side" Confusion

4. "Side! I want side!" I thought it was a funny fluke that my daughter's younger friend picked up on her saying "other side" and began calling nursing "side." But apparently he's far from alone. That doesn't mean that anyone hearing will think it makes any sense though.

Parenting Shortcuts Exposed

5. Many of us have tried the squirting-breastmilk-on-an-oozing-eye trick. Whether or not it works, it gave my daughter the idea that she wanted milk squirted on her every injury. Once she got this in her head, a symbolic waving of a bare nipple across the offended limb was placebo enough to make almost anything instantly all better, so I played along out of laziness. Until, that is, I was on the sidewalk with a kid with a scrape who was screaming "Mommmmy! Milk on my knee! No! Milk on my knee!"

The Mini-Domme

6. "I'm going to open you up!" It's one thing to have a kid determinedly lifting your shirt before you've said it's OK. It's another when it comes with a declaration worthy of a TV surgeon. Of course that's better than . . .

7. "Uncover your nipples!" It's not as bad as it sounds, as she usually means it as a contrast to my having drawn the covers up over us in bed for a falling-asleep nurse, but I admit that I'm not-so-secretly hoping this one never leaves the house.

I'm sure I and mothers I heard these from are not alone. What has your nursing Baby Einstein come out with?

(Images were submissions to the Mothering breastfeeding icon contest.)

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Donated Breastmilk Comes to NY, Slowly

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Hudson Valley Breastfeeding recently became only the second facility in all of New York state to receive a license to store and dispense donated breastmilk from a milk bank.

Milk banks collect expressed milk from rigorously screened and tested volunteers, pasteurize it, and dispense to hopsitals or individuals with a prescription. It can fill a gap where breastfeeding isn't possible, or where it's slow to get established.

Given that many of the circumstances that make breastfeeding difficult to near impossible—such as severe prematurity, maternal illness, or trying to switch away from formula at a later age due to allergies—are also times when the fine-tuned nutrition and infection-fighting properties of breastmilk are particularly needed, it's surprising to me that New York has been so slow to embrace this option.

Of course it does have to be shipped in from North Carolina, which has the only milk bank licensed to ship to New York state. (New York mothers can donate to that milk bank though. Go FedEx overnight shipping!) There are, in fact, only 10 milk banks in the country (shipping to 80 cities). And sometimes they run out.

Sounds to me like there next step needs to be a much bigger outreach to and cultivation of potential donors. Despite my own plentiful supply, turns out I wouldn't have qualified (I lived in England in the wrong year, so I'm a mad cow risk, doncha know), but it's certainly not like anyone asked. (Though there are those on Craigslist who will pay you . . .) Perhaps the milk banks could borrow some of the blood-drive PR people. (Become a donor.)

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Man Says Drinking Breastmilk Cured His Cancer

JeanneSager — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:25:00 GMT

We've all heard breast is best, but best for a middle-aged man fighting prostate cancer? Howard Cohen says he chased away the cancer cells with daily drinks of mother's milk - human mothers.

In this video sent my way after reporting on the Facebook ban of breastfeeding mothers, Cohen, an American, chats with a British interviewer about his decision to start drinking breastmilk - based on a study found by wife Barbara (and covered here on the 'Derby last year). Asked by the interviewer if he ever though it was disgusting, Cohen says it's "perfectly natural."

"I saw it as something I could do in addition to traditional medicine, I didn't know I was going to be doing it instead of traditional medicine," he says, claiming that his continued regimen of twice-weekly breastmilk shakes has kept the prostate cancer at bay for more than nine years.

So we know that breastmilk is natural for babies, yes. Natural for the rest of us?

Cohen says it's an "extremely healthy thing for humans to do." And while I'd agree it's healthy for babies, what he doesn't mention in the video (below), is that breastmilk is made by a mother specifically for her baby. Yes, you can argue that cow's milk is made for that calf or goat's milk for that kid. But there are also processes in place to ensure goat or cow's milk don't contain any viruses - while people who have bought into this study and Cohen's marketing of it, are buying milk by the frozen pack via the Internet - with no such guarantees.

And some people aren't even using it for such lofty goals as curing cancer - there are apparently guys buying breastmilk from moms who think they're helping a mom who can't breastfeed or people with cancer . . . and they're getting off on it. One mom says she had ten men contact her shortly after she posted an offer to sell her breastmilk online. One said his wife had died, and he needed it for his baby - but he couldn't provide her proof that he had a baby. Not that Cohen is to blame, certainly, for these freaky horny guys!

But it's scary to me to think that people are out there randomly buying breastmilk. Would you do as Cohen has, take to drinking breastmilk in lieu of traditional medicine?

Image: Channel4

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Can a Mom Pumping Breastmilk Really be Sexy?

JeanneSager — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:28:00 GMT

Question: What is totally lacking in any element of sexuality? Answer: A mother hiding away in her office with plastic tubes stuck to her boobs and a little vaccum pulling on her nipples. Necessary? Yup. Sexy? Are you kidding me?

An office supply giant's security guard apparently thinks so. Now he's facing jailtime. Gregory Mannino pled guilty to "capturing or distributing the image of an unclothed person." I don't feel bad for him, but I'd like to know what in the heck he was thinking.

He violated the poor woman's privacy, any way you look at it - and for that he deserves to face the five to twenty-five years of prison time the Grand Rapids Press says a judge will get the chance to decide on come January. But come on, what did he thinking was going to happen in there? Did he really think he'd be getting a sexy peep show?

I've pumped before. It's a pretty utilitarian process. Comparing it to milking a cow isn't that far off. I've been in a milking parlor, and they just use bigger machines. They get a lot more too - hence the bulk tank in place of the bottle. Does replacing a giant cow's teet with a swollen Mom's boob make things any different?

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They Say: Breastfeeding Builds Better Lungs

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Insert your "lungs"-as-euphemism-for-breasts jokes here! But no, this story has nothing to do with the lungs, juggs, or rack of the nursing mother, but rather with the developing lungs of her baby. A new study by Dr. Ikechukwu U. Ogbuanu of the University of South Carolina in Columbia lends weight to the already overwhelming evidence of the health benefits of breastfeeding. Following 100 children from the Isle of Wight in the UK, researchers found that children who were breastfed for four months or longer had better lung capacity than their bottle-fed peers, and that the benefits could be seen ten years later, suggesting lifelong advantages to their respiratory health.

The benefits come not from the breastmilk alone, but rather from the act of nursing, which exercises infant lungs differently than does bottlefeeding -- a distinction that prompts researchers to call for longer maternity leaves, so that working mothers can directly nurse their babies longer. From the Reuters article:

The findings suggest that babies who are bottle-fed with pumped breast milk may be missing out, Dr. Wilfried Karmaus, another researcher on the study, told Reuters Health. "We may go just in the wrong direction with the pumping and bottle feeding. That's why it's so important to really clearly consider what's going on there."

The policy recommendation is my second-favorite part of the report. My favorite is that the initial paper was published in a journal called Thorax. Simple, scientific, to the point, and a little bit gross -- I want a copy for the next time I'm stuck on a plane with potentially chatty seatmates!