Exclusive pumping

Sometimes feeding at the breast doesn’t work, sometimes it isn’t what a mother prefers. In any case, the numbers of mothers that exclusively pump and feed their babies their expressed milk are growing. The website ExclusivelyPumping.com looks like it has lots of useful information for mothers that are EPing.

Nursing Twins

Karen Gromada’s book and website are great resources for mothers of twins. The page that I just discovered is her collection of photos: nursing two babies in lots of positions. Ever wondered how you could nurse two babies while lying down? What about at the beach? Or while talking on the phone? Or if the…

(Qualified) Good News

The good news: the American Academy of Pediatrics has officially endorsed the UNICEF/WHO 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. You can read the letter below. The qualification: it’s not a whole-hearted endorsement. They devote a significant part of their letter saying that they don’t agree with avoiding pacifier use in breastfeeding infants.

Moms in the military

Mothers are doing every kind of work now — including serving in the armed forces. Some of the challenges for breastfeeding mothers in the military seem to be shared by all working mothers. Others (as far as I can tell as a non-military person) are unique. I just found a website by a US navy…

Really cool historic breastfeeding pictures

I’ve been meaning to post a link to Jennifer James’ breastfeeding blog (on Mothering.com) for ages. She puts up historical breastfeeding pictures, along with a little commentary and historical context. I find these such an interesting window into the breastfeeding and mothering world of women just a few generations ago. I look at them and…

Nighttime Feedings

This cartoon shows why so many breastfeeding mothers end up sharing their sleep space with their babies. Breastfeed In Your Sleep

D-MER

D-MER or “dysphoric milk ejection reflex” is the name for the brief rush of negative emotions that some women feel right before their milk lets down. It is something that mothers may be reluctant to talk about. Here’s a video.

Fathers are REALLY important

Yes, of course everyone knows this. But it’s true for successful breastfeeding too. According to one study (Clinical Pediatrics, Vol. 33, No. 4, 214-219 (1994)): Strong approval of breastfeeding by the father was associated with a high incidence of breastfeeding (98.1 %), compared to only 26.9% breastfeeding when the father was indifferent to feeding choice…

Nursing in public — the statue

Check out this World Breastfeeding Week story NEW YORK, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ — For World Breastfeeding Week, Phantom-Financial announces the unveiling of a life-size park bench sculpture of Angelina Jolie nude with her twin babies by New York artist Daniel Edwards just minutes from Brad Pitt’s own birthplace in the Oklahoma City Metro area in…

Older nurslings

It really is different nursing an older baby or toddler. I’ve heard women say that they would never nurse a baby that could ask to nurse. While that might work for them, I found that breastfeeding just started to get easy around the time my babies started to talk. At the end of the first…