One of my parenting regrets is that I only have two pictures of me nursing one of my babies. I breastfed four children for a total of over a decade. We nursed everywhere, all the time. It was a normal, happy part of my life for many years. But the only photos I have are…
Category: Breastfeeding
What are the stats?
When I first started breastfeeding, the only people that collected large scale information on breastfeeding rates were formula companies. Of course there’s a conflict of interest here. Now we’ve got data collected by the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The quick summary for Wisconsin is: Breastfeeding initiation: 67.9% Any breastfeeding at 6 months:…
Another reason to ride the bus
The Madison and Dane County public health and WIC programs have got some great breastfeeding promotion posters on the Madison Metro buses. If you aren’t going to be on the bus soon, you can see them here:
Some new research (and an old joke)
Here’s the joke: “A blonde is walking down the street with her blouse open and her right breast hanging out. A policeman approaches her and says,”Ma’am, are you aware that I could cite you for indecent exposure?” She says, “Why officer?” “Because your breast is hanging out.” he says. She looks down and says, “OH…
Each baby is special
This post deals with an aspect of breastfeeding that I think is important but is hard to articulate well. Please be patient with me. It starts with someone that I admire: Mr. Rogers. Here is a goodbye video that he did: Mr. Rogers is so kind. He talks about how each person is special —…
Good job, government
I wanted to put in a plug for the US Department of Health and Human Services breastfeeding information webpages. The pages are attractive, easy to navigate, and have lots of good basic information. A sample of topics includes: up-to-date breastfeeding-in-the-news features, a page on milk banks, a latch video, links to contact in-person help, and…
When breastfeeding is accepted…
Marin County Breastfeeding Coalition launched a public awareness campaign featuring life-size cutouts of breastfeeding mothers holding cards that say, “When breastfeeding is accepted, it won’t be noticed.” This is the long-term goal that we need for our culture: breastfeeding is so normal, so accepted that no one even thinks twice about a breastfeeding baby. When…
Time with baby…
Mothers really do need time with their babies to learn to breastfeed before having to head back to work. As this article by Anne Harding summarizes a study published in Pediatrics: The strongest predictor of whether a woman would continue breastfeeding was whether or not she returned to work within 6 weeks of delivery, the…
More thoughts from the New Yorker
Jill Lepore goes on to look at what part of breastfeeding is the part that is important to babies’ well being: is it the breastmilk? or is it the interaction with mothers? And if it is (even at least in part )the interaction, why is pumping given so much priority? Rhode Island’s Physicians’ Committee for…
Images of Breastfeeding
Normal breastfeeding comes in all shapes, sizes, and situations. Enjoy!
Madison Breastfeeding Help 