Wow, the news services are buzzing with the new research that breastfeeding "may" reduce a child's risk of developing nearsightedness later on. Well, I certainly believe that breastfeeding is the best start a mother can give her child in life, but I'm a little skeptical about this one. I'd hate to see millions of mothers out there be disappointed when after all their breastfeeding efforts, they still have to buy glasses for their children once they reach school age.
Here is the significant quote from the above linked article:
While 62 percent of the breast-fed children had myopia, or nearsightedness, 69 percent of those not breast-fed did. "It's really a modest effect," Stone said.
There are a lot of researchers out there who want to give us more and more reasons why breastfeeding is better for babies than formula feeding, and it's true. It is better. But we know a lot of other health reasons to breastfeed our babies besides this one. This one seems pretty slim, and possibly got more air time than it deserved. We should be honest with ourselves about this one.
More than half of our perfect breastfed little angels are going to grow up to be near-sighted anyway, just like their formula fed friends.
A little experience, assertiveness, and confidence sure goes a long way.
I met a woman last night, who when she found out what I do, told me how glad she was I was promoting breastfeeding. She told me the story of her youngest child, her third, who had been born 3 months prematurely in 1987. She was still outraged to this day that the nurses were discussing "what to do when she dried up" and "what additives to put in her pumped breast milk as there was less and less of it", because they were so sure she would not be able to pump enough or long enough to support her little premie. Well, she was outraged and got in their faces and told them, "I breastfed my other two children, and I sure as h-e-double-hockey-sticks will breastfeed this one!" (I like assertive mothers.)
In those days, not that long ago, most breast pumps only pumped one breast at a time. Her doctor took her aside and suggested she get a second tube & breast shield, and rig up a "Y" connection to the suction jack coming out of the breastpump machine. He told her double pumping would accomplish pumping twice as fast, and keep her milk-producing hormone level up. (Yeah, get it all with the first let-down, nearly impossible with single-pumpers.)
Now compare that with the experience of another mother, this one a first time mother, with a full term baby who ended up being re-admitted for jaundice. First off, I had been correctly coached: "Feed the baby on demand." That I did. But what do you do if the baby doesn't demand? She was sleeping 7 hours through the night pretty darn quickly that first week, and it didn't occur to me that something was wrong. At four days my milk really came in, but by then I could not wake the baby to feed her. She'd open her eyes, look at me, and fall back asleep. The nurse came that day for our at home check, but the lighting in the house wasn't very good, and it took Grandma, thank heaven she was there, to say, "Doesn't she look a little yellow?" That was when the nurse opened a curtain, held the baby up to the window and said, "You're right!"
When we got to the hospital, we were having even less success getting the baby to open her eyes, and the nurses sat and watched me for a full half hour trying to coax her into latching on. It reached the point, though, that we were all desperate to get fluids into her. It took an awful lot of doing, but at last a nurse got her to swallow some formula. With a full belly, she began her few days under a billi-light.
One of the nurses handed me shoe box sized box that contained a heap of plastic breast pump parts, with no instructions. She was able to plug me into an old Ameda/Egnel (at the time state of the art) single pump machine. It looked like an elegant sewing machine, sitting next to a classic wooden rocking chair. It was in a private room, just for breast pumping. Whaddaya know! (I was impressed.) I was able to pump a little bit, and supposedly I should have been able to pump more at home too, but I had no clue how to assemble the rest of the parts.
I came in the next day very apologetic that I had not been able to figure out how to assemble it. It seems ridiculous now, but you gotta remember, a woman who has just given birth is dealing with both a lack of sleep and a hormonal haze. I think the nurse almost laughed, as she took the parts, and in a split second, handed me back one of these old fangled cylinder jobbies. I used it to get a few ounces out at home, but in reality, I knew my baby was pretty much living on formula until this ordeal was over, and we'd just pick up and breastfeed when she got sprung from that joint.
Now if only I'd been confident enough and assertive enough to get enough breast milk into my baby before her jaundice was out of control.
First time mothers have it very difficult. Besides the bewildering new baby, there is all the luggage they come with, with all kinds of tools and appliences you've never seen before.
That's why BreastPump.Com really tries to lay it out for mothers, and demystify at least all this breast pump stuff.
Upscale employers are getting the picture, that providing a nice private place for employees who breastfeed to use their breast pumps, makes life easier and helps with employee retention. But what if you don't work for an upscale employer? What if you work in a small place of business that isn't office based, or that doesn't have a spare office to convert, or is a cubicle environment? How would you find an outlet with privacy for your breast pump then?
Ahhh, go to a battery model you say?
Well, then there is the issue of motor noise. If you're not real careful, as in ripping it out of the package and turning it on before you drop a chunk of change on it, you might just find when you get it home that you've just bought yourself a buzz saw with a megaphone on it. And you wanted privacy? You see, you weren't supposed to know about this before you took it home! (And unless they malfunction, breast pumps are generally not returnable.)
Epinions.com used to run a commercial of its own reviews. They had one of a woman reviewing a hand-held motorized battery breast pump. She spoke as she ran it, and it was so loud you could hardly hear her speaking. It was hilarious, with the pizza guy at the door, and the cat trying to lap any drops that might befall it. Epinion's point was that regular folks "like you" do their reviews for them, but I can tell you that that particular bit of campaign levity didn't last long. It was yanked offline real fast. Why? I don't really know, but I'd be willing to bet money that the manufacturer of that particular breast pump shook some legal sabers at them. If prospective customers for that product knew how loud it was, they sure wouldn't be prospective customers very long! What does the manufacturer care if you have to go out and buy yet another breast pump to solve the noise problem? Heh heh heh, I bet they do care, but not the way you think.
So we're back to solving the problem of privacy while using a breast pump at work.
Well, there are manual pumps out there too. Some are nicer than others, and some are much nicer than others. Some require two hands to operate to pump one breast. Some use the same hand to both squeeze the pump lever and hold the pump in place. Kinda awkward, but at least you can eat your sandwich. But not one of these manual pumps will pump both breasts at once for you.
Suppose you had a virtually silent breast pump, one that didn't require any electrical outlet or batteries at all, one that you could use anywhere you'd likely not be disturbed, even in the storage room? What if you could double pump with this wonder, to get done in half the time? What if it was compatible with the tubing set you plug into on your big-brand-name heavy-duty sewing-machine-sized table-top rented breast pump at home, no matter what big-brand-name it was? (Shhhhh.... What if you discovered you could stop paying rent on that behemoth?)
Well, it just so happens such an answer exists. BreastPump.Com's Universal Breast Pump Pedal has all these features, plus it improves on the machines because you have complete control over the suction strength and rhythm speed. And it's as light as a feather. Well, ok, 1 lb. with the shipping box.
So simple. So clever. It was developed by a working breastfeeding mom who wanted one very badly. May it serve you well too. Check it out!
Once a long time ago I had heard of an African tribe where the men think nothing of offering a nipple to a crying baby if the mother is not immediately available, but I was never quite sure if it was only a subSaharan legend. Now I know. FatherWorld, a UK magazine, has published a study on these men, and not only that, but FatherWorld treats it as something normal and wonderful. They offer a photo of an Aka Pygmy dad and his child. (It's an odd file type, but your browser should be able to handle it.) Two things I notice about the Dad. #1 He looks extraordinarily young himself, and #2 he looks extraordinarily peaceful & happy. Has that oxytocin (that wonderful breastfeeding peace hormone) kicked in?
I doubt many "modern world" men would ever try do what Aka Pygmy dads do, but maybe there are a few out there who do, but just ain't talkin'. Like all the women I've known who've nursed their children a lot longer than they are willing to admit to their pediatricians. They just use the unspoken, "if I'm not asked, I won't tell" rule.
Well, even if y'ain't talkin', Happy Father's Day to all you happy breastfeeding dads out there. And to all you happy dads who support your child's breastfeeding relationship with his or her mother.
Encouraging and enabling women to breastfeed their babies is all well and good, but when we read in the news of women breastfeeding animals, even in so called "emergency situations", it just is really unsettling. Besides the obvious shock value, it's not necessarily good for the animal.
A year or two ago, we learned of a woman in India breastfeeding an abandoned baby monkey. Last fall, we learned of a woman in Norway who breastfed a litter of puppies when the puppies' mother died. Most recently we've been hearing about two rare tiger cubs, who have been breastfed over the last six weeks by a woman in Myanmar, who was recruited by the zoo because the mother tiger had rejected them.
We don't know whatever became of the monkey. We'd like to think the it grew up and went on to live a happy monkey life. But we'll never know. The puppies were breastfed only for the duration of a weekend, until a lactating dog could be found to take over. The tigers, well, they were breastfed for a matter of 6 weeks, and finally died because their tiger livers just could not handle all the human milk. That, I think, is the saddest part. The zoo staff were aware that these cubs were just wasting away, but they somehow concluded that just turning up the air conditioning would help. Why they didn't contact other zoos worldwide for a recipe for a formula that more closely approximated tiger-milk, I just don't understand. I'm sure these were not the first motherless tiger cubs in captivity.
Well, they died. What do we learn from that?
I am surprised the media that took such an interest in these odd cases did not turn it around and begin to question the practice of giving cow's milk to human babies and children. Granted, for babies, the formula industry has gone to great lengths to doctor up the cow's milk to try to mimic human breastmilk as closely as possible. But even so, there are still some babies who just cannot thrive on cow's milk, who cry and are sickly until they are switched to something else. In fact, there are some babies who cannot even tolerate cow's milk second-hand through their mother's diet.
Mother nature really did design each milk specific to each species, and feeding the milk of one species to the babies of another species has very real risks for those babies. Even within species, the milk of each mother is tailored specifically to each baby as the baby's needs change over time.
No one else in the world can give a baby what his own mother can give him. No one else can give your baby what you can. The importance of that cannot be overstated.
All the Breast.
Suz on 06.12.05 @ 12:28 AM MST [link]
Friday, June 10th
Rosie O'Donnell takes the cake
Barbara Walters may have caused a firestorm of "Lactivists" staging nurse-ins with her comments on ABC's "The View", that she felt uncomfortable sitting next to a breastfeeding mother a plane, but Rosie O'Donnell takes the cake, AND the milk!
Later in the week on that same show, Rosie O'Donnell gave her take on it (and take it was). She and her woman partner, Kelli Carpenter, have adopted several children together, but Rosie felt "left out" of the mothering process when Kelli gave birth in 2002 and began a breastfeeding relationship with her new baby, Vivienne. Within a month, Rosie put her foot down and "banned" Kelli from breastfeeding her child. And Kelli, apparently, acquiesced!
Ya know, I'm a mother who put a lot of time into breastfeeding my children, and it's a very loving and empowering thing. I've even known adoptive mothers who were so loving, they hiked themselves over to La Leche League and got assistance in nursing their adopted babies. Some adoptive mothers, if they know in advance when the baby is arriving, will even give themselves a head start with a breastpump. I would never presume to tell an adoptive mother she ought to breastfeed, but my God. Rosie, ya missed the boat. Even as a stand-in father. Someone who "forbids" a mother from breastfeeding her own baby, out of pure petty jealousy, is to say the least, NOT LOVING.
Successfull breastfeeding takes strength and determination. Mothers ARE constantly confronted with obstacles, although usually not in their own homes. I wish Kelli had had the strength to stand up for herself and Vivienne. Vivienne depends on her, and now that I have older children, I know it will not be the last time Life will call upon her to stand up for her child. Not by a long shot. The sooner you start, the better.
All the Breast.
Suz on 06.10.05 @ 01:50 PM MST [link]
Thursday, June 9th
All the Breast
This is the first issue of All the Breast. It seems Barbara Walters has fallen between the generations where breastfeeding was accepted. Breastfeeding was common among our grandmothers, but for our mother's, the "scientific advances" of the 50's convinced many women that scientists developing "formulas" in labs knew better than Mother Nature what was best for babies. Now mothers who breastfeed are on the cutting edge of "alternative/natural medicine". Oi, what the world is coming to.
Alice on 06.09.05 @ 05:07 PM MST [link]
Universal Breast Pump Pedal has all these features, plus it improves on the machines because you have complete control over the suction strength and rhythm speed. And it's as light as a feather. Well, ok, 1 lb. with the shipping box.
