Strollerderby : nursing

Model Defends Her Decision Not to Breastfeed

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:30:00 GMT

It couldn’t be clearer to me (and to millions of husbands around the world) that breastfeeding does not make breasts less sexy. Just ask Selma Hayek.

But for British model and reality TV star Nicola McLean, breasts are a purely “sexual thing.” On her decision to bottle feed her three-year-old son, McLean said, “I just didn’t like the thought of my child feeding off [my boobs].”

Fair enough. There are infinite legitimate reasons to choose not to breastfeed, and if McLean believes breastfeeding would interfere with her sex life with her husband, fine by me. It’s her body.

Still, I can’t help but point out that McLean’s reasoning has at least one paramount loophole. It’s not as if her body was stripped of its sexuality after she carried a baby for nine months and gave birth. And while I have no problem with her individual decision, I do have a serious problem with treating mother’s bodies as desexualized.

A commenter on Jezebel raised the important point (based only on anecdotal evidence) that younger mothers are more likely to share McLean’s attitude about breastfeeding. She wrote: “I was doing my rotation in the mother/infant unit of the hospital, the majority of teenaged/young adult mothers refused to breastfeed. They saw their breasts as a sexual tool without any utilitarian function. It was nearly impossible to convince them otherwise.” My friend, who works with young mothers at a family planning clinic, has witnessed this same attitude.

When any attitude about breastfeeding becomes deeply ingrained, it becomes increasingly difficult for women to make an individual decision based solely on their own bodies and belief systems. After all, part of the reason that Selma Hayek chose to breastfeed a baby in Sierra Leone was to combat the urban legend that women can’t have sex while they’re nursing.

What do you think about McLean’s admission? Is it a perfectly legitimate personal choice or very problematic thinking?

Photo: Top News

If You Had a Parenting Do-Over

JeanneSager — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:01:00 GMT

I love "what if" questions - much to my husband's chagrin. So I decided I wouldn't discuss the recent Wall Street Journal piece about parenting do-overs with him. I'd just share it with all of you!

Aren't you lucky? Oh, come on!

Rachel Emma Silverman over at The Juggle says she finds herself thinking "about all the things I’d do differently if I eventually have more children."

So now it's time for the big confession: I do to. And I KNOW I'm not having any more children. But since hindsight's twenty/twenty and all that jazz, I can't help looking back at the early days of my daughter's life and wanting to smack myself a bit.

A taste:

So you were told never to wake a sleeping baby? Someone please tell the nurses at the hospital where I delivered. Because I was waking that kid every two hours to attempt nursing . . . even at 2 a.m. No wonder I never slept.
Worried less that I was going to drop her. Carrying my friend's baby in a football hold recently, I realized I NEVER would have been that carefree with my daughter, and why not?
Throw out the pre-treatment laundry formulas. She was a spit-up queen, and most of the onesies got chucked in the garbage anyway. Or made really good rags.
Not let my in-laws stay at my house that first week. Sorry guys - but I was stressed enough without visitors living in my house, hiding away from the father-in-law trying to nurse, etc.

I have plenty more, but I want to hear from you all - what would you "do over?"

Image: WSJ

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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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iPhone Making Parents Everywhere More Helpless?

JeanneSager — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Who knows how mothers managed before the days of the iPhone.

If the Baby Brain iPhone app is any indication, we left them sitting in poopy diapers all day and neglected to nurse!

Designed to help new parents break through the fog of the newborn phase, the app lets you track track feedings, diapers, and sleep. Sent to us by a reader who I'm sure has the best intentions, I'm just not sure how many parents will find this useful.

Maybe I'm the only parent out there who didn't log everything my daughter did as a baby? I had one sitter who gave me a list of every time my daughter had a bowel movement (which she sweetly marked "BM" with a smiley face) and a full description of each. My reaction? Er, OK. Just telling me she had some poopy diapers would have been enough for me.

Nor did I ever find myself writing down how much she ate per feeding or how long she ate for (which, by the way, they say is counterproductive for breastfeeders). And my pediatrician never asked for specifics unless there was something wrong.

I can relate to swimming along in a sleepless fog after my daughter was born, but if multi-tasking diapers and feedings is too much for you, I have a piece of advice: put down the iPhone and give your texting thumbs a rest.

What do you think, parents, will you be downloading this one to get you through the day? It's about to be available on iTunes, so if it's for you, have at!

Image: Baby Brain

The Nursing Room Locator

SunnyChanel — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

If you aren’t one who feels comfortable breastfeeding here, there and everywhere, a quiet comfortable and semi-private place to feed your baby is an appreciated respite.

The Nursing Room Locator is a site dedicated to collecting the locations and details of places all of the US where a nursing mother can go to feed their baby. There are a list of cites, states and baby friendly businesses like Ikea, Nordstoms and Motherhood Maternity as well as public gathering places like museums, amusement parks, and religious institutions.

Universal Studios in Orlando, FL was called a “nursing nirvana” with such perks as a glider rocker, a basket of children’s books, a dimmer switch to adjust the light and pillows (with disposable covers). Whereas Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA, the nursing area features a curtained off area with “two rocking chairs facing each other” and … “it was dirty and not air conditioned.” And in Southern California, they really should have some kind of cool air piped in.

The simple site continues to be updated with new additions from readers all over the place. If you once breastfed, currently are, or are planning too, would you find such a database useful?

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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Did Having a Baby Make You Start Thinking About Your Ex?

JeanneSager — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:30:00 GMT

I wasn't thinking about much when my daughter was three months old. My maternity leave was over, and I was back at work - albeit at a reduced thirty-hour schedule. I didn't have time to think about sex, nonetheless an ex.

Turns out some parents have turned the seven-year itch into the three-month itch. Their baby hits three months, and as exhausted and un-sexy as the mothers feel, they start thinking about what their life could have been if they took a different path. Namely, if they picked another partner.

In the New York Times this week, essayist Anna Solomon says she couldn't help romanticizing her exes when her daughter was still a newborn, when she hit that three-month mark everyone told her would be a turning point, when she would start to get her life back:

"I was certain that I’d ruined my life, and I was thinking — with alarming frequency — of men who were not my husband, men who seemed suddenly more attractive than they’d actually been, or kinder, or braver — men who would never have gotten me into this mess."

I always thought it was just in the movies that women turned on their husbands during childbirth, that they started screaming, "I hate you, I can't stand you, get away from me, you did this to me." But here that same feeling is, rearing its ugly head three months on, when the pain of delivery is gone and the reality of being a mother has set in. You aren't you anymore, and as long as you're stuck in this bleary-eyed state with this little person who can reach top volume and turn tomato red in the blink of an eye, it's hard to imagine you ever will be again.

Is it any wonder some women fantasize their way out of it? Even for a few moments? It's not sexual fantasies of exes past, because, frankly, sex is what put you in this predicament. It's emotional escapism, the kind that nourishes the body in what can be a very dark time for a parent, especially a stay-at-home parent or a woman still nursing a baby through the night (and hence getting no sleep). And that's why, for most of us - including Solomon, it's fleeting. Your baby grows, you get some sleep, and you realize you are pretty darn OK where you are - if not completely and wonderously in love with where you are.

Did you ever fantasize about the ex when your child was young, or daydream about going back to the pre-pregnancy days?

Image: DailyMail

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(Public) Breastfeeding Now Legal in Massachusetts!

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:01:00 GMT

Okay, so that's a slightly misleading headline (shocking, I know!). Breastfeeding has never been illegal here, or really anywhere. But until and unless individual states pass laws specifically exempting them, breastfeeding mothers have always been vulnerable to prosection under laws against obscenity and "lewd behavior." The Massachusetts law, signed in January, went into effect last week and its sponsors hope it will not only protect individual mothers, but nurture a more pro-breastfeeding culture.

From the Boston Globe article:

Up till now, women who breastfed their babies in public could have been prosecuted for indecent exposure or lewd conduct. If convicted, they could even have been forced to register as sex offenders, proponents of the bill said.

The new law authorizes breastfeeding in public places and makes it clear it is not illegal.

"This law is a long time in coming. The idea behind this law is to make sure that women who want to breastfeed their children aren't prevented from doing that. And the message should go out that security guards and storekeepers and even police officers don't have the right to prevent a woman from breastfeeding her child," said Representative David Linsky, a Natick Democrat who backed the bill.

This isn't the first state law to specificially exempt nursing moms from anti-obscenity laws -- 40 other states have passed similar legislation, most in the past decade and a half -- and at this point it's more interesting to see which states do not provide such protection: Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia. Indications are that most of them will follow suit. Perhaps most illustrative, though, is the lingering objection to such laws, as seen in the fact that it took eight years of sponsors putting up the Massachusetts bill before it was finally signed into law, and as currently seen in the comments section following the Globe article online. While many were very positive ("at last!" "yay!" "this is a great day"), a surprising number expressed outrage that women can now nurse in public without fear of harrassment or even arrest.

A sampling:

"I am a mother of two and i find it disgusting when a woman breastfeeds in public. People take this to an extreme and are practically nude! I do not want my boys to have to see this."

"Show a little respect for those of us who don't want to be subjected to this wonderful bonding experience. I think that breast feeding should be done in private. Nothing is the world is more awkward than running into a woman breast feeding a child. I most certainly do not want to have to explain to my young children why this person is exposing her private parts in public. My parents raised all of us on bottles and we turned out just fine. If you made the choice to go "natural" that so be it, but do not cram your choice down our throats."

"And really...would it be that hard to just use a bottle when you are out in public? I mean really??"

Leaving aside the extreme ignorance of how breastfeeding works -- as if nursing mothers should all want to bottle feed as well? -- it's fascinating to me how many of the commenters are worried about their small children being exposed to breastfeeding. Um, I get it that most of those objections come from parents who themselves used bottles, but why do they assume their children would share their discomfort -- at least, until they teach it to them, as they so obviously will. Babble readers, what do you think? Is it damaging for a child to see another child nursing with its mother? If so, why? And if not, what's the best come-back you can think of to some parent who gives you the stink-eye while breastfeeding in the same vicinity as their children?

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They Say: Early Pacifier Use Can Undermine Breastfeeding

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:31:00 GMT

Some parents swear by them, some swear at them, but pacifiers are a nearly universal symbol of babyhood. Now a new study by Danish researchers suggests what many have warned, that early use of pacifiers can be associated with shorter duration of breastfeeding. The study looked at data from visiting nurses who assess and assist all new mothers in Denmark, typically in the family's home around eight days after birth. The health visitors, specially trained in breastfeeding issues, specifically noted whether the baby was being offered a pacifier; two-thirds were.

Published reports about the study are notably light on details. But apparently the Danish study authors noted that early pacifier use correlated with shorter breastfeeding duration, and have advised that mothers wishing to nurse their babies should hold off on offering the pacifier in the first few weeks after birth.

At most U.S. hospitals, nurses still use pacifiers -- without parental notification or consent -- in the earliest hours and days of a baby's life. I'm fairly certain this was the case where my children were born (although nobody ever mentioned it to me one way or the other, the tiny green newborn Soothie was always right there in the bassinet). My kids were both massive nursers and refused the pacifier at home (they also refused bottles), so I don't believe their early introduction interrupted our nursing relationship; that said, it would be interesting to see a study of this sort in the U.S. Some lactation consultants here warn against their use, citing nipple confusion issues, but others hail them as a way for a baby to get its suck on while your nipples rest.

What do you say? Do pacifiers help or hinder the nursing cause?

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Move Over Booties! Here Come Knitted Boobies!

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:30:00 GMT

From England, a new and crafty way to promote breastfeeding: a competition in which knitters create faux breasts. The contest is called Tit-Bit for Knitters, and is a project of the Trading Standards, a government agency that oversees trade, consumer, and food issues, in the town of Wigan, just outside Manchester.

Part of a larger governmental push to get more British moms breastfeeding, the Tit-Bit contest has already attracted some attention, according to Julie Middlehurst, a spokesperson for the Wigan Trading Standards. From the article:

"It's a bit of a joke but there's a serious message behind it. There isn't a huge up-take of breastfeeding nationally and it's the same in Wigan. Around 15% of mothers in Wigan who start breastfeeding stop after a few weeks.

"We're hoping to get people talking about the issue. We've had quite a few entries already, which are all different shape, sizes and colours."

Any Babble readers who find themselves in or around Wigan can still submit their knitted boobies, up to the April 3 deadline. Winners will be chosen, according to the news article, for qualities such as "most eye-catching, the most realistic and the largest number knitted."

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Babble Talk: Extended Nursing = Bad Parenting?

Jen Chaney — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:28:00 GMT

Ronda Kaysen's son is attached to her breasts. Often literally. He is seventeen months old and, as Ronda writes in this Bad Parent essay, he still nurses, hungrily and heartily.

Kaysen says she always intended to breastfeed her child until he self-weaned. Yet even she is often embarrassed by his behavior, especially when her boy demands a meal from his mom in public. Frankly, I can empathize with that feeling. While I totally acknowledge that it's perfectly natural, even healthy to nurse a child into his or her toddler years, I can't imagine ever wanting to do it. After a child reaches a certain age, there is something about that process that seems sort of ... ooky. I'm not saying that's right or fair or even remotely justified. But I can't deny I feel that way, even though I completely respect Ronda's decision.

Based on the comments posted in Ronda's essay, I may be in the minority on this.

"I too am nursing a toddler and I try to dodge the judging questions I get from family. It's almost as if I'm trying to give an excuse when I say,'Yes, he still nurses but it's only three times a day!" when in actuality it's more like six,'" writes one reader.

"I nursed my daughter until her 4th birthday. I loved it and don't regret one second of it," adds another.

In fact, one of the prevailing opinions among the commenters was that perhaps this essay didn't qualify for "Bad Parent" designation: "I am getting very annoyed with Babble editors who continually put rather banal topics into the 'BAD PARENT!!!' column," says one reader.

And this comment just made me laugh:

"Babble... what the hell has happened to Bad Parent? Are there no more parents willing to share stories about being gun-toting, pot-smoking, toddler-alcohol-providers bragging about keeping their kid out of school so [as] not to interfere with a busy bar-hopping schedule?"

Yes, America, where are those parents?

In Babble's defense, I have never thought of any of the Bad Parent authors as "bad parents," but rather as people making choices that some might consider controversial. For the record, I don't think Ronda Kaysen is a bad mother at all. Could I do what she is doing, even if someone gave me $150,000 and a year's supply of nipple cream? I don't think so. Actually, maybe that makes me a bad parent.

I'm not sure. But perhaps you can pass judgment on one or both of us by posting a comment.

5 Things That Make You a Breastfeeding Nazi . . . And 5 Things That Don’t

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:01:00 GMT

Ah, breastfeeding and formula. It seems like forever since we’ve been able to talk about infant feeding without immediately getting sidetracked into the explosive meta discussion about how we should talk about it, or, more often, how we shouldn’t.

The ability to discern between truth-telling and guilt-tripping seems to get a little hazy to all involved sometimes. In the interest of lancing the boil I present the following cheatsheet on how not to become a breastfeeding Nazi—and how not to see them where they are not.

Part 1: 5 Things That Make You a Breastfeeding Nazi

1.   Making disparaging comments to parents giving bottles to their kids.
I shouldn’t even have to say that this is Not OK, and I think it is rarer than some on the defensive would like to make out, but apparently strangers hissing “Shame on you, you should be breastfeeding” does happen. So let’s just get this straight: You don’t know what the story of that parent/caregiver and baby are (or even what’s in that bottle), so shut the eff up. Besides, even if you somehow knew that someone really could be breastfeeding, do you really think that being mean is the way to change their mind?

2.   Refusing to acknowledge that sometimes breastfeeding is hard and sometimes it sucks.
I’m well convinced that with the right post-partum protocols (baby to breast within an hour of birth, for example), support, and information (and maternity leave) that breastfeeding could be a lot easier for a lot of people than it is. But the fact is that (a) most mothers aren’t in that ideal situation and (b) even in ideal cases sometimes milk comes in late, latches aren’t formed right, infections happen, medical conditions lower milk supply, etc. and those things can be miserable. Pretending this isn’t the case is rude to the women who’ve struggled really hard—both the ones who persevered through it and the ones who eventually prioritized other things.

3.   Quoting discredited studies.
Guess what? Breastfeeding doesn’t raise your baby’s IQ. That finding failed to control for parental IQ and when they did, the difference went away. I didn’t know that until recently either, but now that you know, have the integrity to drop it from the plenty-long list of advantages to breastfeeding.

4.   Confusing lactivism with promoting one-right-way-to-parent.
I will never forget reading an otherwise decent article critiquing all the subtle ways in which our culture promotes bottle feeding when suddenly the author was on a condescending tangent about the insufficiently committed mothers who had this selfish need to occasionally have a little time to themselves without their kids. I could just hear a thousand undecided pregnant women saying “Well, if that’s what breastfeeding is about, forget it.”

5.   Blaming individuals, not systems.
The major cause with low breastfeeding rates in the United States is not selfish parents. It’s a stew of bad hospital protocols, bad family leave policy, misleading formula marketing, badly crafted parental education, overworked and undertrained labor and delivery nurses, unsupportive workplaces, and on and on. If we all keep that in mind we might even be able to work together.

Part 2: … And 5 Things That Don’t

1.   Encouraging an uncertain or undecided mother to give it a try/keep trying.
This is different from berating someone who has already made a decision and it doesn’t count if it’s done in such a way as to fall under #2 or #4 above. But if someone truly isn’t sure, offering encouragement, suggestions, information, data, or contacts that might help them succeed in something this big is a service not a judgment. This extends to critiquing misinformation or “balanced” pro-con literature that parents have been given or offering to talk to an uncertain spouse.

2.   Trying to get the word out about how some common breastfeeding problems can be alleviated by different nursing patterns.
Talking about breastfeeding “management” tactics to address problems like lactose overload in no way blames mothers for the problems. It certainly sucks to learn afterward that there might have been something in your control that might have helped make breastfeeding work better, but we all know this isn’t inborn knowledge. You can’t withhold the information from those who want it so you don’t offend those who didn’t have it when they could have used it.

3.   Talking about the statistical risks of routine formula feeding.
This is the hot, wet heart of it all. Yes, there are plenty of perfectly healthy formula-fed kids. They are just statistically less common. Yes, fear of illness doesn’t have to trump every other consideration.

But neither of those things mean we should stop talking about the real and stark differences in health between the two options on a statistical level: Two to five times the rate of SIDS, twice the death rate from diarrhea, six to ten times the rate of necrotizing enterocolitis, higher rates of respiratory illness, leukemia, asthma . . . Post neonatal infant mortality rates in the United States 26.6 percent higher. We’re not actually just talking about fewer annoying ear infections here.

We need to talk about these numbers not in order to make anyone feel bad, but in order to organize for the systemic changes that would actually make breastfeeding a viable option for more people.

4. Opposing formula marketing in hospitals.
Formula is an important option to have on hand when breastfeeding doesn’t work for many reasons. In that way it’s a little like a drug, or at least a nutritional supplement. Hospitals don’t hand out anti-cholesterol meds to people with healthy hearts; they shouldn’t hand out formula as a matter of course either. It’s misleading and it implies that doctors think it is a medically equivalent option and it isn’t. (Same goes for opposing misleading formula ads.)

5. Disliking the term “breastfeeding Nazi.”
Aside from this being yet another case of the term Nazi being tossed around like the Nazis were merely cross-patches, not mass murderers, it implies that there is an organized movement to be horrible and judging to all parents who don’t toe the line, instead of a loosely-knit network of people and organizations trying to advocate for a public health measure, some small minority of which sometimes behave in mean or counterproductive ways. The same can be said of both sides of nearly any cause people get passionate about. It’s time we got back to having the real conversation.

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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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They Say: More Abuse, Neglect Among Bottle-Feeding Mothers

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:01:00 GMT

The nutritional and health benefits of breastfeeding are, of course, well-known, as is the general medical recommendation that nursing is the overall best method of feeding one's baby. Most research on breast versus bottle focuses on physical health and wellbeing, from allergies to asthma to obesity -- but what if the choice has ramifications beyond the actual realm of feeding?

A new study out of Australia reports that failure to breastfeed one's baby is associated with higher levels of infant maltreatment, including neglect, emotional and physical abuse, and sexual molestation. Researchers looking at a longitudinal study of nealry 6,000 mothers and their children found that mothers who did not nurse were 3.8 times more likely to mistreat their children than those who did, and that the duration of breastfeeding had an effect on those numbers.

From the article:

They found that of the 1421 women who did not breastfeed their children in the group, 102 women - or 7.2 per cent - neglected or abused their child in some way. This compared with 4.8 per cent of the 2584 women who breastfed for less than four months and 1.6 per cent of the 2616 women who breastfed for more than four months.

What are we to make of this? Does the very act of nursing a baby elicit feelings that would tend to mitigate against any otherwise present urges to hurt or neglect her? Is the bonding that takes place over a Boppy really that powerful? Or is it a case of correlation, not caustion, with mothers in the groups least likely to breastfeed -- poor, young, less well-educated -- also at risk for abuse and neglect for environmental reasons?

I'm as big a proponent of nursing as anyone I know, but even I have a hard time believing that breastfeeding alone is the decisive factor in whether or not one mistreats a child. And while I'd like to see data from studies like this used to help promote breastfeeding among populations where strong advocacy is useful, I'm worried it will be used, instead, to further alienate or villify those mothers who are most in need of hearing positive reasons to breastfeed. What do you think? Is there a way to read this that doesn't feel judgmental and divisive?

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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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UK Schools To Teach About Breastfeeding in Kindergarten

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:31:00 GMT

Facing falling rates of women who even attempt to nurse their newborns, local officials in Liverpool, England, are launching an educational program to introduce students, some as young as five years old, to the idea of breastfeeding. Early lessons would use diagrams and include the material in "general discussions about growing up," while students in high school would be visited by actual nursing mothers. Boys will be part of the curriculum because school officials acknowlege that male opposition is a factor in women's rejection of breastfeeding.

Two things shock me about this idea. One, that it's possible to go forward with this kind of endeavor in England, while in the US you'd face rampant objections from all sides. And two, that a breastfeeding rate of "just one third" is considered particularly low. The current US rate is something like 70% upon leaving the hospital, but less than a third at three months. It's too bad our culture wouldn't allow such a program here; we could use it.

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Torn Nipple Ad

Cole Gamble — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Here is the infamous ad:

Of course, such bodily mutilation won't occur if you happen to buy the brand of nipple lotion advertised here. As a copywriter, I think it's pretty damn clever, but what do you think? Offensive?

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Poll: How Do You Feel About Nursing On Airplanes?

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:35:00 GMT

From Galley Gossip, a column on the Gadling travel blog, comes a poll about breastfeeding on airplanes. So far almost nobody has weighed in -- I voted for "I do it all the time and don't care what anyone thinks" -- so it's high time for some Strollerderby readers to share, if not their brazen, indiscreet breasts, then their opinions.

Maybe then we can get past the weirdness the author, a flight attendant, describes when she had to escort a flying mother into an airplane bathroom with her baby and toddler, because she was worried about nursing in front of her seatmates. When I think of the times I've flown next to people doing absolutely foul things -- from nose-picking to ear-cleaning to nail-clipping -- I'm flummoxed than anyone would put nursing into a category requiring the cramped privacy of an airplane lav. So, Babble readers, tell us -- and Galley Gossip -- how you feel about it.

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Things You Should Never Say To A Nursing Mother

Brett Singer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:30:00 GMT

For most of these, we'll assume that you are speaking to your significant other, unless otherwise indicated.

- “Can I get a squirt of that?” The answer is no. If you're desperately curious about the taste of breast milk, try some that the mother of your children has expressed into a bottle.
- Two words that should never go together: “Tittie milk.” Not funny. Trust me.
- “How far can you squirt that stuff? Can you hit this cup on the shelf? How about if I move it closer? Honey? What are you doing with that hammer? OW!”
- “You and the baby are being really loud. Can you do that someplace else? I'm watching TV.”

And here are a few things not to say to a woman you don't know if you see nursing in a public place:

- “Ew! Gross!”
- “Niiice.”
- "Hey baby. Get it? Hey... baby...?" (It's not funny. I know you think its funny. But it's not.)
- A blank stare.
- A lascivious stare.
- Any sort of stare at all.

Anything to add? Remember – it takes a village.

image: Flickr

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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!

The iPhone: Making Parenting Easier (and Techier)

Jen Chaney — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:28:00 GMT

There are plenty of iPhone applications to occupy our kids' time and attention. But what about the apps that make parenting easier?

Brett mentioned three not too long ago, but a recent post on ParentDish -- which I discovered via Wired's Geekdad blog -- provides an extensive overview of iPhone applications that are particularly helpful to parents. So far, no one has figured out a way to make the iPhone raise our children for us. But many of these make our parenting responsibilities easier. You should definitely check out the full post, but these are the four I think new moms and dads may find most useful:

Baby Monitor: This one turns your iPhone into a baby monitor, which is such a great idea, especially for parents who frequently travel or don't want to spend extra money on another device. Word of caution: Yes, the phone will call you when the infant stirs, but that doesn't mean it's safe to leave the kid in his crib while you hit a "Quantum of Solace" matinee.

Nursing Tracker: Most moms find it challenging to keep track of how long they last nursed, which side the child fed on, etc., especially when they're operating on very little sleep. This app helps make that process easier. Sure, you could just write down the information. But this way, that feeding log can't get lost or inadvertently thrown away by a spouse who think he's being helpful by cleaning up in the nursery. Not that, like, I am speaking from experience.

Food Additives: This application is perfect for parents of children with food sensitivities and allergies. It allows you to look up information about 450-plus additives, ideal for those times in the grocery store when you're trying to make a quick decision about whether to buy or not to buy. Pretty useful for grown-ups with allergies, too.

Diaper Tracker: This is one that Brett mentioned and is perhaps the most useful of them all. My husband and I spent a ludicrous amount of time tracking our son's, um, defecation progress in those early days because he wasn't gaining enough weight. This app allows you to record all of the relevant information, right down to the description of the b.m. (Appetizing, I know.) Now, will you look like kind of an a-hole when the pediatrician asks for details about your child's bowel movements and you whip out your iPhone? Kinda. But you'll also have the most precise poop information of any parent around.

Image: codegoo.com via ParentDish.

They Say: Nursing DOESN'T Make Your Breasts Sag

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:33:00 GMT

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I read about a new study, published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal, that disproves the popular conception that nursing results in sagging breasts - a condition technically known as breast ptosis.

The real causes of sagging breasts, according to the researchers, are far less noble: increased age, higher BMI, number of pregnancies, bigger pre-pregnancy cup size, and smoking.

Lead author Dr. Brian Rinker expressed his hope that the study would persuade women who were thinking about not breastfeeding their babies because of concerns about sagging to re-think their decisions.

iPhone app for nursing, diapers, wedding day

Brett Singer — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Actually, these are all separate apps, and are not necessarily to be used in that order. (Not that there's anything wrong with doing things in that order, of course.)

Proving that the iPhone is good for more than just viewing dopey YouTube videos, ANDESigned has released iPhone apps to help busy parents remember that the kid is hungry, smelly, and oh yeah, shouldn't you be married?

Here are the apps:

- Baby Tracker: Diapers
"With the tap of a button, Baby Tracker: Diapers records everything you need to keep track of concerning this “stinky” part of child rearing! Forget about journaling, lists and charts...Baby Tracker: Diapers does the remembering for you!"

Me, I didn't keep track of any of this stuff, but if I did, this seems like it would be an easy way to do it. At 99 cents, it's actually cheaper than some notebooks.

- Baby Tracker: Nursing
This more expensive ($7.99) app "keeps track of your nursing sessions with just a few clicks, allowing you to relax and focus on feeding your baby without worrying about lists and sheets of paper, stop-watches and safety pins in your bra, or extraneous ribbons and bracelets!" This one I admit to being totally ignorant about, so I ask the readers: is this something nursing mothers keep track of, which breast, etc.? To my completely untrained eye, it always looked like the schedule was partly dictated by baby hunger, and partly by reality (must… get… milk… out… NOW…).

This feature is interesting: "Multiple baby support (up to 6), with names and easy switching (slide your finger left or right)." Is it possible to nurse that many babies? That's a LOT of milk.

- Wedding Day
Again, the order these are listed in is probably accidental, but with teen pregnancy being much in the news of late, it's sort of funny that Wedding Day comes after diapers and nursing.

This app (not yet available) will cost 99 cents, and seems to be arguably the most useful in terms of helping someone to organize things. I found my wedding plans to be incredibly complicated, and most of my involvement was limited to, "If we use that band, I’m not coming."

Any iPhone users out there planning on trying these apps?

See also: techmamas, Gizmodo, daddytypes

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Babies R Us tells breastfeeding mother to get out

Brett Singer — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:30:00 GMT

A reader sent us a link to this post on Consumerist. Basically, a woman shopping at a California Babies 'R' Us tried to use a nursing chair, "for its intended purpose, she was told that she was not allowed to breastfeed on the sales floor." Apparently, this is illegal under California law. Something similar happened in New York at the Times Square Toys 'R' Us; that time, the ACLU got involved, since the New York law is similar to the one in California – breast-feeding anywhere, anytime.

I admit to being a little torn on this one. While I agree that all companies should follow the law, and that it's not unreasonable for a woman to breastfeed in public, I've also seen situations where I felt like it was a bit inappropriate. I can't imagine anyone wanting to nurse a baby at the Toys 'R' Us in Times Square, for example. (I also can't imagine anyone wanting to spend any time there at all, so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask about this.)

The comments on the site are similarly divided. The first one was 'disemvoweled', but I think it used to say something like, "So, they provide a room and that still isn't good enough?" along with something about "self-righteous parents." ('Disemvoweling' means the vowels were removed; this is the preferred fate for potentially offensive comments on many sites. If you don't know what that means, consider yourself lucky that you have better things to worry about; if you want to know, click here.) Not very nice, but does he/she/it have a point?

A more measured approach is shown in this comment: "Personally, I would use the room. I don't see the point of breastfeeding in public when a private room is available. It's not that breastfeeding is 'dirty' or 'wrong'…[but] it's not something I'd like to share with other people who could gawk because of their own insecurities."

And the award for the best comment on that post goes to: "First rule of Fight Club is: Don't get the La Leche League on your ass."

Now, obviously the employee was, at best, a jerk, and at worst was violating the woman's civil rights. (I'm not a lawyer so forgive me if I've used that term incorrectly.) But is the woman in the article going a little too far as well? What do you think?

source: Consumerist, via a reader (thanks!)

image: msnbc (not related to this story, its from a "nurse-in" in 2006)

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Is It Wrong for Hospitals to Give Formula to Breastfeeders?

Jen Chaney — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:58:00 GMT

It happened to me, and maybe it happened to you. As I prepared to leave the hospital with my newborn, nurses handed me -- a still recuperating mom clearly attempting to breastfeed -- a goody bag that contained free samples of infant formula. A button sporting the Similac teddy bear even hung from the bag's handles.

According to new information published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, and mentioned in this Chicago Tribune story, my hospital isn't the only one. After surveying close to 1,300 medical facilities on the East Coast, researchers found that 94 percent of them disseminate formula samples even while encouraging mothers to nurse.

Some say the samples are nothing more than freebies intended to be used as back-up if breastfeeding issues arise. Others insist they send a mixed message and imply that it's okay to bail on the whole boob thing. Or, to put it in the extreme terms attributed to the chairwoman of the Chicago Area Breastfeeding Coalition: "Handing bags of free formula, even formula advertising, is like handing out Big Macs on the cardiac floor."

In the words of Robert Downey, Jr. in "Tropic Thunder": "Pump your brakes, kid." I understand why the formula and all the nursing advocacy seem to be at odds with each other. But the Big Mac analogy is a little ridiculous. Eating a greasy, fat-laden burger after a heart attack is taking a serious health risk. Giving a baby a free sample of formula may not be as solid a choice as giving him breastmilk, but it's not going to give him high cholesterol and put him back in the E.R.

I'm not sure that it's a good idea to give out those samples. I think on more than one occasion, I may have used them as a crutch. At the same time, the hospital also loaned me a highgrade breast pump (yes, for a fee, but still) and made sure I had all the information I needed about lactation consultants, which I also took advantage of. In the end, while there may be a mixed message inherent in all this, I think we mothers make our own choices about how to nurture our children. If we're super-committed to breastfeeding and aren't having major problems with it, all we have to do is chuck the samples, or pass them on to another mom who might use them. Voila. We don't have them anymore. Case closed. And if we're struggling, well, at least we have the option to try them on our fifth consecutive night with sore nipples and no sleep.

Did anyone else get free formula samples in the hospital? I'm curious to know how accurate those survey numbers are. And also, while you're up, can you get me a burger? All this talk of Big Macs is making me hungry.