Buying a breast pump is expensive. Also there isn’t lots of good comparison information out there. I just learned about a website that is trying to fix that: http://www.breastpumpcomparisons.com/. If you’re thinking about buying a pump this could be a good starting point – they have reviews as well as manufacturer’s information. If you already have a pump, it would be great if you submitted a review so that they have more data for other mothers to work from!
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 27, 2010
Pump review website
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 22, 2010
What is normal?
Interesting thought about child development: (related to breastfeeding because how and where babies sleep is totally related to how easy it is to breastfeed)
Sometimes, child development experts in the United States regard adults in other communities as irresponsible if young children handle dangerous materials or tend infants, because they assume that young children can’t do such things. However middle-class U.S. families also expect children to do some things that are seen as inappropriate or even dangerous in other places, such as sleeping by themselves from the first months of life, engaging in school-like discourse or beginning to learn to read in the toddler years.
From The Cultural Nature of Human Development by Barbara Rogoff (2003, p.170)
I also like the book, Our Babies, Our Selves by Meredith Small for reading more about how different cultures parent babies.
Posted in Breastfeeding, Parenting
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 19, 2010
Biological Nurturing video online
Suzanne Colson has super information about positioning for breastfeeding that takes advantage of normal baby behavior. She focuses on babies’ reflexes and states of consciousness. Now she has a short video clip on her website of a baby latching. Sorry I don’t know how to embed this video, so here is the link http://biologicalnurturing.com/Pages/bioflash.html. Her DVD (for sale on her site and in the US through Hale Publishing) is fantastic.
I can’t say enough about how Suzanne’s insights into how mothers and babies breastfeed together have helped me as I help families.
Note: I’ve added the link to my Library page list of latch resources.
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 16, 2010
Breastfeeding in art
Posted in Breastfeeding, Just for fun
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 16, 2010
Mental health for mamas
There is loads to say about this – having a baby is a huge life stress as well as a welcome joy. Breastfeeding often gets blamed for lots of problems with lack of sleep being on of the biggies. According to an article by Kathleen Kendall-Tackett (one of my very favorite authors on the topic of stressed out mamas) we shouldn’t be blaming breastfeeding for our exhaustion after baby is born. The reality is that breastfeeding mothers get more sleep than bottle feeding mothers:
In a study of mothers and fathers at three months postpartum, data were collected via wrist actigraphy and using sleep diaries (Doan et al., 2007). The study compared sleep of exclusively breastfed infants vs. those supplemented with formula. In this sample, 67% were fed exclusively with breast milk, 23% were fed a combination of breast milk and formula, and 10% were exclusively formula fed. Mothers who exclusively breastfed slept an average of 40 minutes longer than mothers who supplemented. Parents of infants who were breastfed during the night slept an average of 40 to 45 minutes more than parents of infants given formula. Parents of formula-fed infants had more sleep disturbances. They concluded that parents who are supplementing with formula under the assumption that they are going to get more sleep should be encouraged to breastfeed so they will get an extra 30-45 minutes of sleep per night.
Posted in Benefits, Breastfeeding, Research, Sleep
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 14, 2010
Positive story in USA Today about milk banking
I thought it was pretty cool that a story about banked mothers’ milk made a media source as mainstream as USA Today – and not as a story about donating milk to mothers in disaster areas. It is a story about something that could (and does) happen in Madison.
Keely Shaw, 30, feeds her 5-month-old son Halston while her 2-year-old Wiley plays. Both boys were born premature in the 35th week and drank breast milk from the milk bank while Keely waited for her body to produce milk. She now donates breast milk to The Denver Milk Bank.
If you’re a Madison-area mother that wants to donate milk, get in touch with the Mothers’ Milk Association of Wisconsin (MMAW). If you need donated milk for your baby, MMAW is a good place for you as well to find the information about how to get it.
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 12, 2010
USA health care reform act: breastfeeding support in the workplace
The United States Breastfeeding Committee has posted FAQ’s about the provisions in the new health care reform legislation for workplace support of breastfeeding mothers. They summarize the provision:
Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Health Care Reform), states that employers shall provide breastfeeding employees with “reasonable break time” and a private, non-bathroom place to express breast milk during the workday, up until the child’s first birthday. Employers are not required to pay for time spent expressing milk, and employers of less than 50 employees shall not be required to provide the breaks if doing so would cause “undue hardship” to their business.
Here’s the link. It includes answers to questions including what the law does (and doesn’t do), when it takes effect, why the law is necessary, and what employers will gain from providing breastfeeding support for their employees.
Posted in law and breastfeeding, Pumping, Working
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | April 9, 2010
Latching On – the movie
It’s not a how-to movie but a cultural documentary about breastfeeding in America. Here is the trailer:
Posted in General Info
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | March 18, 2010
What babies do…
Lots of breastfeeding questions that I hear are really questions about normal baby behavior. In our culture many parents don’t get to spend much time with babies until they have their own — and then they only spend lots of time with their own baby. It can be very reassuring to know what is normal. The blog, Secrets of Baby Behavior, tries to share research-based information with parents. I like this blog a lot.
Another resource is a new program called text4baby. Mothers can sign up for this program and get free texts to their cell phone about pregnancy and baby’s first year. The texts are timed to match baby’s age and if baby is born early, mothers can update their account. The program is sponsored by the US government and several private companies. My main concern with this resource is that it may be oversimplified and make some parents less comfortable with parenting. Anyone out there using this already? What has your experience been?
Posted by: madisonbreastfeedinghelp | March 16, 2010
Safety – pesticide exposure
The bad news is that babies get exposed to pesticides and other harmful chemicals during pregnancy and through their mothers’ milk. The good news is that all the research we have shows that mothers’ milk is best for babies despite this exposure. But I suspect most mothers would be happy to minimize that exposure if they could. The Environmental Working Group has a tool you can use to do that: The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides. You can look at their lists of most and least contaminated fruits and veggies and adjust what you buy. If you can’t afford to buy all your food organic, you can focus on the produce that is most likely to be heavily contaminated.
