The new federal strategy will include increasing community acceptance of breastfeeding as a cultural and social norm, establishing breastfeeding support networks for pregnant women and improved breastfeeding training for health professionals.

Earlier this year, in June, to be exact, a $100,000-a-year Queensland Health breastfeeding campaign was attacked for using “guilt-inducing” language. The campaign was called “12+months on the breast: Normal, natural, healthy”.

And now, there’s talk of a milk bank in Queensland opening up so that mothers with a surplus of breast milk (or just because they want to) can donate some of their own supply for preemies and sick babies whose mums are unable to feed them.

Which is all well and good, we suppose – but we just can’t help thinking here we go again. More pressure to breast feed, more guilt for those who can’t. And from the government, of all people.

But we want to know what you think. Do you think it’s a great idea, the more women can learn and be taught about the benefits of the breast the better? Or do you think it’s time women were left alone to make their own choices about what’s best for them and their little ones? Or, indeed, maybe you think a combination of the two viewpoints is the wisest way to go. Whatever you think, let us know in the comments boxes below!

Nursing a healthy baby is hard enough. As Elizabeth puts it, “Nursing my son was easy. I could just pick him up and cuddle him. There’s nothing cuddly about a Medela breast pump.”

When a newborn is too small even to take food by mouth, here’s some expert advice from mums and lactation consultants on how (and why) to breastfeed.

Plan to breastfeed. Before your baby is born, discuss breastfeeding with your partner and your midwife or doctor. Read up on breastfeeding, and talk with experienced mums among your friends and family.

Have an advocate. Being in a NICU with your newborn can be overwhelming. Try to have an ally, like a friend or family member who isn’t as physically and emotionally drained as you are, who can help you communicate with hospital staff.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Sarah Whedon, a trained doula and a nursing mum whose daughter spent her early days at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, USA, says talking to her babies’ medical caregivers was the key to nursing her baby in the NICU. “Parents can see things going on with their babies that the hospital staff doesn’t necessarily see,” she said.

When you begin pumping, pump milk as often as you would feed your newborn, says Medela lactation consultant Irene Zoppi. That should be about eight times a day. You’ll probably wind up with too much milk this way, but that’s the kind of problem you want to have.

Why go to so much trouble when you’re overwhelmed dealing with all the other stresses having a premature infant brings into your life?

“The science is very solid,” says Zoppi. “Human milk is more than just food. It offers infants protection. We refer to it as medicine for babies. It helps protect babies from complications of their prematurity.”

It was that immunity protection that kept Abraham going during the 32 days her daughter was in the NICU.

“The single biggest problem for premature infants of Vivian’s type is infection,” she said, noting that with a pre-schooler at home their household is especially exposed to common colds and flus. “There are lines of defence and breastfeeding is the big one we have to fall back on. ”

Well, that study has been updated, and the news is better, but not great. The Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study, or FITS, found that while kids still don’t get enough fruit and vegetables, there’s some good news as well. Mothers are breastfeeding longer, and kids are consuming fewer sweets and sweetened drinks.

But still, a quarter of older infants, toddlers and preschoolers don’t eat a single serving of fruit on a given day, and even more, 30 percent, don’t eat a single serving of vegetables. That’s about the same as the last time the survey was done, in 2002.

Back when the 2002 study hit the headlines, I rolled my eyes and thought “Geez, I can’t believe how badly people feed their kids! They just need to offer them a wide variety of foods and not offer junk and they’ll eat just fine!”

Do I need to tell you I hadn’t had my first kid yet? And that kid actually was a pretty good eater — likes vegetables, likes fruit, will eat sugar until the cows come home but at least she’ll eat good stuff. Kid number two, however, has been raised in the same family, was actually breastfed longer than the first kid, and gets offered a wide variety of good foods and every meal includes a vegetable or fruit yada, yada, yada. And guess what. Child #2 is picky as can be and refuses most fruit and vegetables – and left to his own devices would eat nothing but carbs and cheese forever and ever, amen. Our dog is the prime beneficiary of my well-balanced meals since everything he doesn’t like goes right over the side of the highchair.

I should also add that the study was funded by Nestle. Yes, the chocolate people, who also make baby formula, Gerber baby food and those horrid processed toddler foods. Puffs aren’t fruit, people, no matter how much they try to make them seem like the next best thing.

I’m a working mother of a 20-month-old girl. Recently I’ve been having a very hard time with the reality of being away from my daughter. It’s never been particularly easy, but now that my daughter can talk I can literally hear her call out for her daytime caregiver when she’s hurt or hungry instead of me. And it makes me so sad. Though I am glad she has great care during the day — she has had a really nice nanny since about eight weeks — I still feel like she’s missing a connection with her mum. I also worry whether she’ll have attachment disorder from the back and forth. I can’t leave my job so that’s not an option, but I would like to know if there’s anything I can do to make her feel more connected to me. I still breastfeed by the way. — Detached and Despondent

Dear D& D,

Clinical Attachment Disorders develop when an older baby/young child is repeatedly ignored, abandoned and/or abused. The basis of these disorders is Attachment Theory, which grew out of the study of orphans in post World War II Europe. These kids were so deprived of ANY responsive care giving whatsoever that they developed severe problems. We’re talking homeless kids in dark rooms with no one answering their cries. It’s super depressing and extreme stuff. And it’s not what’s happening to your daughter.

On the contrary, your daughter has a loving caregiver and a very connected, loving working mother. Hearing her call out someone else’s name can pull at a mother’s heartstrings. We’ve been there, and we know it’s not easy. But you are her mother. Her caregivers will flow in and out of her life — some will be consistent for years, some will be relatives, some will be short-term sitters. But you’ll always be there. You gave birth to her, you nurse her, you go to work, you come back.

Though more of us are working mothers than not these days, the idea of the mum as the only one who can be the primary caregiver 24/7 can be hard to shake off. In her book Mother Nature, anthropologist Sarah Hrdy explores, among other things, care giving across time and cultures. And guess what. It’s not just “natural” for a kid to be raised by a community of caregivers while the mother works, it can actually be good for them. It’s great if a baby/young child feels loved and cared for by a small or even large network of people. Young kids do develop primary attachments, but this can be with someone besides a mother. Like a dad. Or a grandmother. Or a caregiver. And they have room in their hearts for more than one. Many of us have two parents, after all. Completely random, massively inconsistent care is not good — and could, in extreme cases, lead to attachment issues — but a loving, regular nanny: absolutely fine.

It doesn’t sound like you need to do more to be connected but there are some things working mums do. Some co-sleep or continue nursing into the toddler years for some overnight bonding. Others push bedtime back a little in order to spend a couple/few hours with the child/ren after work. If she takes a whopper of a nap midday, she’ll be up past nine o’clock , no problem. This can get difficult once school starts, but a toddler’s sleep is usually more flexible.

As much as you may feel jealous of your caregiver — which is, by the way, a totally normal, understandable feeling — remember that a good, responsive caregiver is not taking away from your love. It’s just adding more, from another direction. If your daughter felt cranky and detached from her daytime sitter, she would probably call out your name more . . . but she wouldn’t be any better for it.

But keep your shirts on. They want fake boobs (sit down, Pammie, they want single wool ones in fun, surprising colours) and lots of them.

The knitted breasts are used to teach young mothers how to breastfeed. Apparently, plastic dummies have a “sticky sensation to them,” which is less than ideal.

Why not use the real thing?

From This is Lincolnshire:

“If a mother is being shown how to breast feed on her own body, then when she looks down she can’t see if the baby is attached properly.

“If someone is sitting showing the mother with a doll and a fake boob, then they can show the action the baby is going to take and the correct way to hold the baby.

Well, then, grab some needles, Ladies and let’s get knitting!

Photo: craftycrafty.tv

Katie Drummond of True/Slant broke down the study, published in the Journal of Andrology, explaining the scientists were attempting to get to the root of increasing testicular cancer in westernised countries.

The Danish researchers opted to compare the breastmilk in women in Denmark, where the rates of testicular cancer are high, with that of mums in Finland, where the testicular cancer rates are significantly lower.

So what did they find? Significantly higher levels of pesticides and PCBs in the milk of Danish mums—- which they’re finding could have a devastating affect especially because of the period of development when a baby is ingesting the toxins. Not just testicular cancer, they say, but low sperm counts.

Interesting to note — a study done in Japan on the mothers of men who developed testicular cancer looked at duration of breastfeeding and found no link. But scientists did note an anecdotal link between a mother’s social class and the probability that her son would develop cancer of his testes. The sons of women of a “higher social class,” posed a higher risk. And how does this link back to breastfeeding? The greater percentage of women breastfeeding in Japan are those who fall into that “higher social class,” women who have childcare leave, support from the spouse, etc.

So what does all this mean for American mums? Not much — the risks may be real, but the scientists say the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh them.

So carry on mum. Just go easy on him when he can’t give you grandbabies.

Via Jezebel

Image: EcoStreet

According to The Tele, the police intelligence analyst – identified only as Sarah – was denied the use of morning and afternoon tea breaks and accumulated leave, after continued requests for hours that suited her childcare needs were rejected.

Reportedly, she was refused a private room and instead instructed to use a toilet cubicle or ‘unclean’ interview room to express milk. Sarah was left little choice but to express milk in her car, but eventually become so embarrassed that she drove home to feed her baby and was forced to make up for the time she was gone.

The Public Service Association claimed in a statement yesterday that Sarah is one of many new mothers in the public service being denied breastfeeding facilities in direct violation of the state Government’s own policy. The association will today launch action in the Industrial Relations Commission in an effort to force government departments to uphold the policy.

Was Sarah unfairly treated? Do you have any horror feeding-at-work stories of your own?

What is it with you people? Can we stop the moral attacks, for just one hot minute? While all you mums are busy hating on each other you lose the one thing that’s most precious to you – your solidarity!

A couple of days ago I was witness to my own little mummy war. Right there at our kitchen table, my wife and a soon-to-be-ex-friend were discussing that ridiculously violent book by Christos Tsiolkas called “The Slap”.

“Clearly Tsiolkas is anti-breastfeeding,” my wife said, “and possibly anti-breasts in general?”

I tend to agree.

Not a fan of the public or even private display of breastfeeding, Tsiolkas refers to breasts as “teats”, makes his female characters refer to their own vaginas as “cunts” and claims that women who breastfeed for “too long” are somehow failed human beings or weak or stupid etc. Their pathetic kids should be slapped and possibly their fathers and mothers as well. Tsiolkas is a self-consciously modern man and likes his women to be modern also. Which means, to Tsiolkas, limit the breastfeeding and get the hell back to work. Like Rachida Dati, for example, the French Minister of Justice who was famously back at work within hours of giving birth.

Anyway, the soon-to-be-ex-friend, claimed to love the book, in particular, agreeing with the idea that breastfeeding your baby for “too long” is “revolting.”

“Revolting, you say?” asked my wife, eyebrows raised.

I quickly moved to the other end of the room.

Standing up, she declared proudly that she breastfed both our babies for over three years- longer than the “at least” two recommended by the World Health Organisation. A heavily pregnant or three weeks overdue silence ensued, followed by some terse words, a quick exchange of statistics to support opposing positions, then an attempt to smooth it all over. And, finally, mercifully, a speedy exit, with perfunctory promises of “should get together again soon.” Yeah. Sure. As if.

And another female friendship bit the dust.

Over what, exactly? Some half-understood, half-baked stats from the WHO? Or some equally half-baked stats from the file of “recent research from some already-fogotten university study indicates….”?

We live in a fast paced world. Opinions and research change weekly, monthly, daily. One week it’s “breast is best;” the next week it’s “bottle is better.” It seems that all we can be certain of is that things are pretty uncertain. Clearly there are good reasons for breastfeeding. Just as there’s many reasons against it. And each woman will defend her position according to her own specific story.

I’m not going to bother with listing all the reasons why breastfeeding is better for your child’s health, IQ, emotional maturity etc. because I know these ideas will change and will be replaced with new “scientific findings”, which most of us will only hear of or read about in a very second, third, fourth or fifth hand way.

But there’s so much pressure these days on parents to get everything right. So much anxiety caused by well-intentioned experts who clamour for the attention of worried, uncertain parents.

I remember sitting our first born in front of Baby Einstein videos in the wild hope that he would become a baby Einstein or at the very least develop the brainpower of that wheel chair dude. He looked interested, then bored, and finally, tried to eat his foot. This caused me no end of concern. I was certain that because he wasn’t thoroughly absorbed by Baby Einstein videos he was ADD and sure to be a moron by the time he was 6.

And where’s the proof that Baby Einstein videos work? It was just another fashion in the increasingly fashionable world of the baby industry.

Back to breastfeeding. In the fifties it was essential to breastfeed. In the high times of 1970’s feminism the bottle was king. Now we’ve swung back to the breast. I’m not saying that there isn’t important and objective work being done on this. But it’s so clouded by moral crusades and ideology that we, as parents, are prevented from having a decent discussion about it. And somehow, one way or the other, women get hemmed in by it all.

I know a woman who had three kids. Two she breastfed and the third wouldn’t have a bar of it. She desperately wanted to breastfeed the little’un. But she would not latch on. She tried. She cried. And eventually she and her baby girl worked it out. She was a bottle baby. That’s how it was. No experts. No manuals. No high-booted magazine gossip bloggers. Just her and her, in that beautiful dialectic that can only happen between a woman and her child.

So please. Stop all the bickering. You can do it in your own way. You and your baby know what’s best. You really, really do.

Follow Angry Dad on twitter!

MYTH #1:
Breastfeeding is easy
FALSE

Expert Suzanne Schlosberg: It’s true that for many women, breastfeeding is a breeze and a joy from the get-go; their babies latch on within minutes of birth, and a calmness fills the mother and seems to flow into the baby. But for others, those first few weeks, maybe even more, can be a maddening struggle. A newborn might fall asleep on the job, lick your nipple instead of suck, or clamp her mouth shut. Ouch! Almost all of the time, things will work out, but mum may have to get help from a lactation consultant and be persistent and patient. It took my twin boys six weeks to get the hang of it, and I wanted to quit several times.

MYTH:
Breastfeeding can cause premature labour
TRUE

Expert Suzanne Fredregill: Nipple stimulation can cause contractions in later pregnancy. If a mum-to-be is at higher risk of early labour or is having contractions, it is best to follow the advice of her midwife or ob-gyn.

MYTH:
Mothers with postnatal depression have emotional trouble with breastfeeding
RARELY TRUE

Expert Suzanne Fredregill: Much research shows breastfeeding actually decreases the incidence of postnatal depression. The hormone prolactin, produced in Mum’s body when baby nurses, acts like a natural tranquiliser. That’s why for some women, postnatal depression doesn’t become an issue until weaning. However, there are some who are diagnosed with [postnatal depression] who may have to take an antidepressant. Talk to your doctor about safe medications.

Check out the rest here.

The US study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at over 60,000 women who had given birth and had participated in a major health survey from 1997 to 2005. According to results, those women who had a mother or sister affected by breast cancer, lowered the chance of developing the disease by almost 60%, by breastfeeding. The link did not appear to be effected by duration of breastfeeding or whether the mother breastfed exclusively.

As Dr Alison Stuebe of the University of Carolina, who conducted the research, explained:

“Breastfeeding is good for mothers and for babies… These data suggest that women with a family history of breast cancer should be strongly encouraged to breastfeed.”

The study also found women who did not breastfeed but used medication to surpress milk production had a 42% lower chance of developing the disease than women who neither breastfed nor used medication to surpress lactation.

While, this latest research still doesn’t provide any solid proof for the cause of breast cancer, it does raise some interesting questions about the link between breastfeeding and breast cancer.

Source