"Women do not fail to breastfeed. Health professionals, health agencies and governments fail to educate and support women who want to breastfeed." I've been teaching breastfeeding for about nine years. For most of that time, I've started my class off by asking participants, "What are some of the benefits of breastfeeding you've heard about? Just … Continue reading Benefits of Breastfeeding vs. Risks of Formula Feeding
Category: Breastfeeding
My teenage son, who has grown up listening to me talking about birth and helping moms with breastfeeding on the phone, asked a great question the other day when I told him I was on my way to teach a breastfeeding class. "Why do you need to teach a class about that? I think it … Continue reading “Why do you need a class about that?”
I recently came across two different discussions of breastfeeding that share a very important outlook. Rather than presenting breastfeeding as an activity to be mastered by the mom--like golf or gourmet cooking--both view it as an integral part of the relationship between moms and babies. The recent posting by Diana Cassar-Uhl, IBCLC at The Leaky … Continue reading Head and heart are not either/or
I know how hard it is to get out of the house. Even after 13-plus years of being a parent and honing the morning routine, I experience many days when getting myself and everyone else out the door is a stressful, last-minute rush. With a newborn, getting out of the house can be even more … Continue reading Get out of the house
Even after more than 10 years of helping moms with breastfeeding and more than seven years as a birth doula watching first feedings and then following up to see how things go, I'm not sure I can say with certainty what makes for a "hard" vs. an "easy" time breastfeeding. The first challenge is definitional. … Continue reading It’s either hard or it’s easy
Being both a birth doula and a supporter of breastfeeding moms puts me in an interesting position to observe the (sometimes dramatic) effects of the birth experience on breastfeeding. This is a tricky and potentially delicate topic for someone who educates prospective parents about breastfeeding. Parents come from diverse backgrounds and belief systems. My aim … Continue reading Cause and Effect: Birth -> Breastfeeding
There are two schools of thought about how to prepare for breastfeeding (and, I suspect, to parenting as well). One is the read-everything, prepare-to-the-nth-degree approach. These folks read all they can get their hands on, take a bunch of classes, and ask their friends for advice in advance. The other school of thought is best … Continue reading Watch your baby, not your iPhone timer
The other night I taught my regular breastfeeding class ("Breastfeeding Basics" at Blossom Birth in Palo Alto). One of the prospective parents--a mom--stayed after class to ask a question about a topic she wished I had brought up in class: the emotional aspects of breastfeeding and their effect on intimacy. This topic was on her … Continue reading Breastfeeding and intimacy
A Yahoo news report on a UK study of current guidelines that mothers breastfeed exclusively until babies are 6 months old began: "Breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months is not necessarily best for a baby's health, British researchers said Friday, calling into question advice given to new mothers." I teach breastfeeding and have long … Continue reading Another study, more confusion
Peninsula Birth Companions 