The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

How can daylight savings mess things up so much?

Here's one of those things you wish people would warn you about:  daylight savings turns a baby's world - and by association yours - upside down.

I don't understand how one hour can make such a huge difference, but it never fails.  Babies are fussier, and sometimes insist on nursing all the time.  And if your baby has a nap schedule, it gets thrown out the window.  Mothers are of course more frazzled, and everyone is grumpy for about a week.  Seems like every mother I talk to this week tells a story like this.

Sound familiar to any of you?

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Bumper sticker give away: Public Health begins with Breastfeeding

Sorry, this contest is now closed.  I've notified the winners by email.

I have five of these great bumper stickers from the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition to give away.  They say "Public Health Begins with Breastfeeding." 

To enter to win one, leave a comment below.  Please be sure to leave a "real" email address so I can contact you if you've won.  International addresses are fine for this one.  If you don't win one, you can purchase one in their shop.

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I donated milk for this research.

A few years ago, when we were living in California, I donated milk for this research, which was being conducted through UC Berkeley and UC Davis.  I pumped at work, and then met the researcher on a street corner outside of the State Capitol building - we both joked that it felt like a drug deal!

From what I recall, the researchers took my milk, infected it with HIV, and then conducted the flash pasteurization method you see in the video.  They knew at that point that this method would kill the HIV, but were testing to see how much of the nutrition remained stable in the milk after the pasteurization. 

Many of you probably know about the complex issue of HIV and breastfeeding in the developing world.  Breastfeeding is a key route of transmission of HIV, but for women living in areas with unclean water supplies, not breastfeeding is an even more dangerous proposition.  The risk of death in the early months of life from diarrhea and other infections is considered greater than risk of HIV infection.  For that reason, the World Health Organization and UNICEF recommends not breastfeeding only "when replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe."  A key appears to be exclusive breastfeeding, as recent studies have confirmed.  One theory is that the use of supplements creates tiny fissures in the baby's gastrointestinal tract, which allow the HIV virus to enter the baby's system via breastmilk.   

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Do you have questions about increasing milk supply?

I'm planning out a podcast interview with Diana West about her new book (out later this year) Making More Milk.  Diana is the founder of the the Breastfeeding After Reduction website, an incredible resource for mothers who have had breast surgeries, and Low Milk Supply, a great resource on milk supply issues.

If you have non-urgent questions about how milk supply works, or how to make more milk, please leave them as comments below.  I'll work them into my questions for the interview!

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New York Times article highlights conflicts with doulas, lactation consultants.

Last Sunday's New York Times Style section featured an article painting doulas and lactation consultants in a pretty unflattering light.  I've posted the section about lactation consultants below. 

When 33-year-old Melissa Malka’s twins were in the neonatal intensive-care unit after being delivered at 33 weeks, a lactation consultant urged her to have tubes delivering formula through her babies’ noses removed in favor of an intravenous feed to deliver nutrients, against the advice of her neonatologist. Intravenous feeds carry a high risk of infection for premature babies, but some lactation consultants fear that  babies will develop a taste for formula and then reject breast milk.

“She was so intent on avoiding formula,” said Ms. Malka, from Olney, Md. “I was very upset with her, but that’s their standard — breast is best.”

Pumping around the clock with no milk to show for her efforts, Ms. Malka sought the help of four lactation consultants, but they couldn’t remedy the problem. When she consulted her obstetrician, she finally learned that she was unable to produce prolactin, a hormone vital to milk production. “You would hope that L.C.s would be well versed in this type of thing since they’re focused purely on the breast,” Ms. Malka said, using the shorthand for lactation consultants.

The breast-only mentality can also put off today’s participatory husbands. Kenneth Cain, a 42-year-old writer in New York, said his wife’s lactation consultant was “a nightmare.” In December, after he and his wife decided supplementing with formula for their one-month-old baby might not be such a bad thing, they turned to a lactation consultant for advice. “All we got was this ideological diatribe on the merits of breast-feeding,” he said. “It was like talking to a Marxist about an international trade deal.”

Obviously I'm a little biased because I'm a lactation consultant, but back in 2006 when we polled readers about your best sources of support for breastfeeding, lactation consultants came in second after husbands/partners. 

So I'd like to hear from you about your experience with lactation consultants.  Good, bad, indifferent?

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Wordless Wednesday: I can put on my own pants.

Motherwear Podcast: Heather Cushman-Dowdee, creator of Hathor the Cowgoddess.

Welcome to another Motherwear Podcast!  My guest for this recording is Heather Cushman-Dowdee, creator of Hathor the Cowgoddess, shown to the left nursing and drawing in her kitchen.

This was a very fun interview.  I got to ask Heather about how she draws, the inspiration for Hathor, and the time she baked breastmilk bread with 150 college students.  Bonus knock-knock joke at the end!

This one is a bit long, but I just couldn't bear to edit it down more.  It was such a fun and interesting conversation.

You can listen right here using the player below, or download it, or listen at our free iTunes store.

Heather Cushman-Dowdee podcast

Heather's new book, Hathor's Zines, Slings, and Do-it-Yourself Things, (cover to the left) is now available for pre-order!

Be sure to check out a few past posts featuring Hathor:

The Zoops (video)
Hathor on covering up to nurse in public
Hathor on Applebee's breastfeeding policy

And more podcasts are here.

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Now, that's a sale.

This may be the best sale I've seen Motherwear have yet.  All of the items shown here range from $9.95 to $17.95. 

Check it out soon - this sale lasts for two more days and things are going fast.

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