It is easy to say “all babies should be breastfed” but then ignore the social context that mothers have to work within as they try to breastfeed their babies. This post from the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine does a great job addressing this issue. Here is a taste: These issues transcend breastfeeding. Why, for example,…
Category: Working
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”…
Breastfeeding Friendly Day Care
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has created a resource kit, “Ten Steps to Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care Centers Resource Kit”. It can be downloaded for free from the DHS website. It is attractive and seems easy to read. It has a brief summary of how a daycare provider can support breastfeeding for mothers that…
Bottles
Going back to work while their babies are little is the reality for most mothers that I see. And while it is possible to feed a baby by cup or spoon or finger, most care providers really prefer to feed babies with bottles. So I’ve been trying to learn more about what kinds of bottles…
Camping story
Check out this hiking adventure from Erin Lotz at Outdoor Baby where two moms forget a very important item on their Grand Canyon trip. Here’s a little bit of the intro: We planned to hike to the river, spend a night, hike along the river, spend another night, and then hike all the way back. …
Breastfeeding Promotion Act
From the United States Breastfeeding Committee: On June 11, 2009, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (NY) and Senator Jeff Merkley (OR) introduced the Breastfeeding Promotion Act in both houses of Congress, to provide a unified national policy to keep mothers, their children, and their communities healthy. This is the first time the bill has been introduced…
Products worth knowing about
Update (7/12/2009): Happy Bambino is now carrying both Hygeia and Pumpin Pals so we’ve got a local source for both products! They also started carrying Ameda pumps. Mothers in the Madison area now have easy access to all the major quality pump options. (Hooray!) The majority of breastfeeding mothers that I see in the Madison…
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…
Pumping culture
In the New Yorker, Jill Lepore writes about the pervasiveness of breast pumps. A few quotes that I found interesting: Today, breast pumps are such a ubiquitous personal accessory that they’re more like cell phones than like catheters. Last July, Stephen Colbert hooked up to a breast pump on “The Colbert Report.” In August, the…
Madison Breastfeeding Help 