The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Wordless Wednesday: Nursing bears at the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum.

Sweeter than sugar.

Last week a study came out which appears to confirm what some of us probably think is obvious:  breastfeeding provides better pain relief to babies when they get one of those "heel sticks" than a dropper of sugar water.  Here's the study, and here's a press article about it.

This might seem obvious, but there really is a debate at hospitals about what to do for pain relief for newborns during those heel sticks and other procedures.  You might remember that it's just in the last ten years or so that the debate (yes, debate) about whether newborns feel pain at all was resolved.  Some of you may remember your babies being given "Sweet Ease" with a pacifier during a painful procedure.

This study looked at 101 newborns who were getting heel lances to test for congenital disorders.  The study measured babies' heart rate increase, oxygen saturation, and crying behavior after the heel stick.  The breastfed babies were held in their mothers' arms before the procedure, and then stuck with the heel lance once they had started to nurse.  The sugar water babies were given 1 ml of a sucrose solution while lying on an examining table, 2 minutes before the heel stick.

I can hear your protests already.  First, how did they measure crying in the breastfed group when their mouths were full of breasts?  Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't find this addressed in the study.  Second, it's pretty hard to compare the stress levels of babies being held by their mothers with babies who were lying on an examining table.  You know how they love being laid on cold, hard tables!  Third, the nursing babies group was able to suck - a behavior that is in itself calming - while the sugar water babies were not.  Finally, the timing of the stick varied significantly, with the sugar water babies receiving the sugar water significantly before the procedure. 

The authors address some of those concerns, noting "Actually we cannot discriminate the role of the different components of breastfeeding or the mechanisms behind analgesic effect of sucrose solutions: skin-to-skin contact, holding, orotactile stimulation because of oral liquid, or orogustatory stimulation."

So this wasn't the best study.  I mostly write about it because I want you to know that there is an active discussion going on among your healthcare providers about how to help your baby cope during painful procedures.  That in itself is a good thing.  But, and maybe I'm just being cranky about it, the fact that there is any question that breastfeeding, the most basic of newborn calming and nurturing behaviors, provides powerful pain relief is, to me, a little silly.

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Book give away.

Thanks to Hachette Book Group, I have two books to give away this week.  They aren't quite breastfeeding related, but probably of interest to most of us.

First you can win a copy of the baby-name book A is for Atticus.  From the book description:  "Baby namers today want monikers that reflect something personal. Where better to draw inspiration than the books you cherish and the characters you love? A IS FOR ATTICUS mines the classics for the best names and brings them all into one volume. "

Next, you can win a copy of The Self Esteem Trap.  From a review:  ""Wise and packed with insight, the book explodes the myths of specialness and self-esteem, replacing them with solid values much more likely to lead to successful children and, even more important, children who turn out to be good people."

To enter, leave a comment below telling me which one you'd want to win.  Leave your comment by by September 12th, 2008.  Be sure to leave a 'real' email address so I can contact you if you've won.  The winner will be notified by email (no announcement made on the blog).  U.S. addresses only, please.

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Did you think you'd ever hear something like this during a presidential campaign?

However you feel about Governor Sarah Palin, you have to admit that this is a remarkable quote to read in the context of a presidential campaign:

The mother of five told People magazine she is still nursing her baby son, Trig, born in April. But she did not think she'd have any trouble balancing her family obligations with the challenges of the campaign or the vice presidency if the Republican ticket prevails in November.

“What I’ve had to do, though, is in the middle of the night, put down the Blackberries and pick up the breast pump. Do a couple of things different and still get it all done,” Palin said of balancing work and family.

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Wow.

I was reading a textbook on lactation the other day and found this:

It seemed surprising that human milk SIgA antibodies often are directed against just about any bacteria present in the gut.  This was explained when it was discovered that lactogenic hormones important for the development of the mammary glands towards the end of pregnancy directly influence the migration of lymphocytes from the aggregates of lymphocytes in the gut to the mammary glands.  This is called the entero-mammaric link and results in SIgA antibodies in the milk being directed against bacteria in the mother's gut and bacteria arriving there from her upper respiratory tract secretions.

In other words, toward the end of pregnancy, hormones cause lymphocytes in the mothers gut to migrate to the breasts, so that at birth the breasts can start making milk which contains antibodies against the things which the mother's gut already fights.  This was discovered in 1978.  Cool.

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Motherwear's 25th anniversary contest for September.

It's time for another $25 gift certificate contest, in honor of Motherwear's 25th anniversary. 

The catalog covers in this post are from 2000 (left) and 1998 (right).

To enter, leave a comment below by September 7th, 2008.  Be sure to leave a 'real' email address so I can contact you if you've won.  The winner will be notified by email (no announcement made on the blog).  U.S. addresses only, please.

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed?  Click here.