Breastfeeding During Pregnancy – Common Concerns About Safety

Pregnant mothers who continue to breastfeed often have questions about whether it is safe to nurse throughout pregnancy as well as what effects it will have on the health of their nurslings, their unborn babies, and themselves.

http://bit.ly/bfpreggers

Vegan Babies: A New Trend?

The AP reported that estimates put vegans in America at around 1% of the population. But while the diet may be more mainstream than it once was, some still wonder how women manage to make it through pregnancy and breastfeeding without any animal products.

http://huff.to/veganbabies

Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week With Positive Messages

by: Mary Jessica Hammes

Do you ever feel like people around you are talking in code?

“I gave you formula and you turned out fine.” Translation: “Why bother breastfeeding?”

“How old is your child?” Translation: “You’re still breastfeeding? A toddler?!”

“I don’t think women should breastfeed in public.” Translation: “Breastfeeding is strange, dirty, shameful, and it freaks me out. If you breastfeed in public, you are a weirdo.”

Today’s breastfeeding culture is fraught with judgment and criticism. All around us, friends, colleagues, the media, and even some health care workers send signals with their comments, and they may not always be interpreted as intended.

It’s World Breastfeeding Week, and this year’s theme is “Talk to me! Breastfeeding—a 3D Experience.”

Read More: http://bit.ly/wbw2011

An Opinion About Sleep…And Babies

Are our babies robots? Or dogs that we need to train? No, they are very small people who can’t understand why everyone ignores them once the sun goes down, even when they cry hard enough to throw up. A baby’s cry is intended to be disturbing. If we train ourselves to ignore it, we lose our instinctive rachmanut (compassion). And a baby whose cries are ignored learns that his feelings don’t count for much. Eventually he will give up and go to sleep, but pay a steep price.

Who are we to say that our need for a solid eight hours (which we usually don’t get anyway for all kinds of trivial reasons) trumps the baby’s needs? Adults can learn to cope with less sleep and babies need concern and sympathy no matter when they are in distress. Trust your baby; she will tell you when s/he is developmentally ready to fall asleep without your help.

Taken from: http://www.blogher.com/time-magazine-advocates-tough-love-approach-infant-sleep

ilovemazzy: Our breastfeeding journey

(love hearing these stories!)

“I was not breastfed, neither was my mom. My grandma stopped after my uncle bit her nipple and she was traumatized by the whole thing. I am glad that I am breaking the cycle with Mazzy. We have been breastfeeding for 8 1/2 months now, it has been a long and bumpy road for us. Mazzy was delivered via c-section because we found out she was breech at 35 weeks! So there went my plans for a completely natural, drug-free labor. I never experienced any contractions, so I feel like I missed out on a lot of the experience of childbirth. It was surreal walking the few blocks to the hospital the morning of surgery, knowing that we would meet our little baby in about an hour. The actual c-section was so fast, it took more time prepping and getting the epidural. I heard her scream and they took her away to clean her up and weigh her, Jacob went with the nurses to the other side of the room. The first time I saw her was on camera, a picture Jacob snapped while cutting the cord.
They finally brought her over to me about 20 minutes later and the nurse asked if I wanted to try and feed her. She latched on right away, I thought that was it…it was going to be easy, Wrong! She was groggy from the anesthesia and we had issues latching over the next 4 days in the hospital, so it was tons and tons of pumping and not giving up. My doctor pushed formula on us saying it was best because she had lost some weight (which is completely natural for a newborn breastfed baby) But we stuck to it, and steered clear of the formula.
We dealt with a lactation consultant in the hospital who was downright mean to me. But I was determined to figure it out. We got home and still had issues with getting a proper latch and finding nursing positions that worked for us. The latch issue went on far too long, I now realize I should have gotten help from another consultant. It did eventually work itself out after a few months and some extremely sore nipples.
Then we hit another bump, at around 4 and 5 months Mazzy was very fussy and would kick me, pull my hair and scream every time I tried to feed her. She was so impatient waiting for the letdown. I think she was going through a growth spurt and more hungry than usual. I thought that was going to be the end, but we stuck with it again. She was exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months. I introduced formula as a supplement because she was hungry ALL the time. I actually cried when I gave her the first taste of formula! Ha, I guess those hormones were still hanging around.
Today, we are still breastfeeding every 2 hours, sometimes she will go a little longer but not usually. She gets a bottle or two of formula a day, mostly because of her teething and the pressure on her gums.
Oh, and I have been “bitten” but it hasn’t deterred me :)”