The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Share your favorite nursing story or tip, and enter to win a $50 gift certificate.

Motherwear wants your nursing stories and nursing tips! 

Send one in and you're entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate.

All entries must be emailed by November 7, 2008.  Send your tips and stories to Motherwear's customer service department. 

The winner's tip or story will be posted on Motherwear's homepage.

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Join the next Carnival of Breastfeeding: Product reviews.

Our next carnival of breastfeeding will feature reviews of nursing products. 

Is there a pillow or tea you couldn't live without?  Is there a book you've been wanting to read or a bra you've been wanting to try out?  Here's your chance to write about it! 

As usual, we'll be looking for posts that are:

- Well written and grammatically correct
- Thoughtful and directly related to the carnival subject
- Submitted from blogs related to breastfeeding or parenting

Email me your submission by November 10th, 2008.  The carnival will be on 17th, 2008.  Please note that, if your post is selected for inclusion by our regular group of bloggers, you will be asked to link to each of the other participants in the carnival.  We reserve the right to choose posts for inclusion.  Examples of past carnival posts can be found here.

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Guest post: Trista on nursing triplets.

Today I'm very pleased to share a guest post by Trista, a mother of six who nursed triplets.  Trista and her family live in Iowa.

When I was growing up, all I wanted to be was a mom. Part of that dream was to breastfeed my children.  I really only knew one person who ever nursed, but she made a big impression on me at an important age.

When I got pregnant with my first child, I was young and didn't prepare myself or research things very well.  I was on medication that I had to start immediately after having him and was told by several professionals that I would be unable to nurse on medication.  I didn't push it, and was devastated by that decision... but it also made me more determined with the rest of my children.

Prior to my next son's birth, I thoroughly researched breastfeeding.  My husband and I took a breastfeeding class.  We learned as much as we could about nursing and I ended up being very successful.  The first few days were difficult, but thanks to our research, the class, and my determination, we persevered.  Aidan nursed for over thirty months until we finally weaned him to try for baby number three.

Things got interesting when baby number three turned into babies three, four, and five.  During my pregnancy I researched more about breastfeeding - this time multiples.  I was again determined.  I figured I would not be able to directly nurse them, so I planned on pumping for them and supplementing if I had to.  I had to be realistic and most triplets are born very early and with lots of complications, and we do have two older boys to think about.

We were incredibly blessed to last 35 weeks and four days - just three days before they were scheduled to be delivered.  As we were waiting to deliver, the lactation consultant came in to see me.  She said since Aidan had just weaned, my milk would come in fairly quickly.  When I told her my plans to pump for them and not directly nurse them, she thought I could work out a schedule to nurse them.

Our triplet boys were born very healthy.  Nathanial (4 lbs, 9 oz) went to the NICU for two days for observation.  Noah (5 lbs, 12 oz) went to the NICU for three days for oxygen and observation.  Ethan (5 lbs, 3 oz) did not to to the NICU at all.  I had to have magnesium sulfate so was unable to move for 24 hours, which meant that I couldn't get to Nathanial and Noah.  Since I had Ethan with me, we decided he would not receive any bottles at all, or pacifiers.  Nathanial and Noah were given bottles in the NICU.  By the time they were a day and a half old, I was pumping 8-10 ounces at a sitting and no one was receiving formula.  When everyone was in the room with us (we roomed in with the babies) we worked out a schedule with our new lactation consultant.  Baby A would nurse for no more than 20 minutes on the left, Baby B on the right for 20 minutes, Baby C on the left, and then I would pump for 20 minutes, ten minutes on each side.  My lactation consultant said that to be fed properly, they only needed ten minutes on each side and anything above that was for comfort's sake.  Since  they were preemies and had to eat often, it was impossible to allow them to nurse any longer than that.  I got about a 40 minute break before it all started again. 

We rotated babies for each feeding so that each baby got a different breast each feeding, so that if one had a better latch, it was alright.  Every feeding (who ate where for how long and at what time), wet or dirty diaper (along with color), and nap was charted for the first several months.

The NICU time and the bottles did surprisingly little to the boys' ability to latch.  All three had a bit of an issue with a preemie suck, but quickly outgrew it.  They all had excellent latches and did quite well nursing.

I continued that schedule for the first month.  I was never able to tandem nurse.  We then discovered that Noah had severe reflux and he needed his feedings to be thickened.  So Noah was given pumped milk exclusively.  Our older two boys were also feeling very left out (all the pumping and nursing left little time for them), so we adjusted our schedule.  I would nurse one or two of them, and the other one or two would then receive bottles of pumped milk. 

It was an exhausting schedule to keep up, so we adjusted our nighttime routine.  For the first half of the night, we continued like the daytime and my husband slept.  For the second half of the night, my husband would feed all three of them and I would get up only to pump.

I nursed the triplets for four months and then stopped because of the time it took away from our older two boys, who already had major adjustments.  At first I felt defeated but am now comfortable with that decision.  They received benefits from what I was able to give them, and my body was able to provide adequately for four months of nursing.  They were born healthy and still are very healthy, and active, little boys at 20 months old.  They had no problems with colds or ear infections, despite being born prematurely in the middle of the winter.  I credit that to nursing them.  Nursing triplets was an extremely rewarding experience and I am so thankful that I had a wonderful lactation consultant who explained the technical side of nursing them.  Without her support and the support of my husbnd, I'm not sure I would have even tried anything more than pumping for them.

We now have added a little girl to our family and are planning on nursing her until she self-weans.

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Podcast: Breastfeeding in the Movies

Have you seen the breastfeeding scenes in Me, Myself, and Irene?  Training Day?  Meet the Fockers? 

What do they say about how we feel as a culture about breastfeeding? 

I'm pleased to bring you a new podcast interview with Sarah Rubenstein Gillis, whose article "Reel Milk" appears in the current edition of Mothering Magazine (will link as soon as it's available online).

In it she discusses what she found when she went hunting for references to breastfeeding in mainstream American film. 

On her website, Sarah lists all of the movies in which she's found references to breastfeeding. 

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it from our iTunes store (should be up later today).  Check out past podcasts, too!

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Okay, there's hope.

After last week's post about some very discouraging practices at most hospitals, I was happy to find this video (below) on Harlem Hospital's Baby Friendly status.  It's not easy to become Baby Friendly.  It requires a lot of commitment and coordination, so this is a big achievement.  I felt better after watching it.   

Another heartening piece of news came from a lactation consultant with whom I trained in California.  She is coordinating a county wide effort in San Joaquin County to improve breastfeeding rates at all hospitals.  The Stockton Record reports:

All six of the county's acute-care hospitals with maternity departments have signed on to a new initiative to improve breast-feeding efforts. It's the first such countywide collaboration among any of California's 58 counties.

"During the last year, San Joaquin General Hospital has been part of a countywide effort to improve breast-feeding-related hospital practices, and exclusive breast-feeding rates have tripled in that facility," according to a statewide policy update released this week on California Breastfeeding and Hospital Performance from the University of California, Davis, Human Lactation Center.

So, there's hope.

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The Office could use some help with its breastfeeding humor.

I love The Office.  But this clip, and the other mentions of breastfeeding on the show, don't really reflect the cleverness of the show.  It actually bothers me less that the jokes are breastfeeding-phobic than that they're just kind of tired.   

There are a lot of funny things about breastfeeding, but they don't seem to be able to get past the "ew, gross!" or the "ooooh, a breast!" themes. 

The funny thing is that the actress in the clip, Melora Hardin, is quite an attachment parenting mother.  More on breastfeeding in the media next week...

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Phantom lactation?

Well, maybe this video wasn't as far off as I thought.

A Canadian study shows that men's prolactin levels increase when their partners are pregnant:

In a surprising series of tests by Canadian scientists, up to 90 per cent of dads have reported pregnancy-like symptoms such as nausea, cravings and weight gain. Anne Storey, of Memorial University, Newfoundland, analysed 31 expectant men's blood and found that those with phantom-pregnancy symptoms had significantly raised levels of the hormone prolactin, which is named for its role in promoting lactation in women. It also prompts animals to build nests. Storey reports in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior how she also found that the boisterous male hormone, testosterone, falls in new and expectant fathers by as much as 33 per cent. It also decreases in response to an infant's cries and when men comfort their own child. The reduction, she suggests, may serve to encourage fathers to relate, rather than compete, with their children.

The study also showed that men with high prolactin levels are more alert to a baby's cry, and that men with lowered testosterone levels feel more of a need to respond to their infants' crying.

“The evidence suggests there is a biology of fatherhood,” says Barry Hewlett, an American anthropologist who has studied Aka hunter-gatherers in Central Africa for three decades and considers them hugely attentive fathers. Aka men spend almost half their time either holding their babies or being within reach of them. They let their offspring suck their nipples for comfort, Hewlett says.

He ran a study in the United States that took blood samples from fathers before they held their infants, and again after they had them on their chests for 15 minutes. Their prolactin levels went up.

Oh, and who says men can't be breastfeeding counselors?  Not this Missouri dad.

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That Angelina Jolie cover.

I'm late, of course, in writing about this.

The picture is just lovely, especially because she looks like such a real mom - tired, happy, a maybe just a teensy bit annoyed at having her picture taken?

But my favorite is the quote that goes with it:

"I’m with a man who’s evolved enough to look at my body and see it as more beautiful, because of the journey it has taken and what it has created,” she says. “He genuinely sees it that way. So I genuinely feel even sexier."

Not everyone sees it like I do, but as they say about breastfeeding in public, if you're offended by pictures of celebrities breastfeeding, just don't look.  That's why God gave us necks.

Oh, and I just saw this little line in a profile of her:  “Just come tell me if you need me to pump,” she said to an assistant [taking care of the twins] before starting the interview.

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Breastfeeding and breast cancer.

One of the lines I used to use when I taught breastfeeding classes was: "As a culture, we're used to seeing breasts as sexual, and also as a part of our body that can develop cancer.  We're just now starting to get reacquainted with them as the source of food for babies."

I used to say it as a means of introducing the idea that breastfeeding is normal, even if we don't always treat it as such. 

But the other way to read that line is that huge strides have been made in educating the public about breast cancer.  Breast self exams, mammograms, and pink ribbons are now a standard part of the lexicon of American womanhood.  I'm very grateful to the many organizations and individuals who have raised our awareness and saved many, many lives.

Here is a compilation of breast cancer related posts I've written over the last two years;

Breastfeeding and expecting a biopsy? We need your help!

How does breastfeeding protects us against breast cancer?

Breastfeeding protects against breast cancer (and many other diseases).

Breastfeeding after mastectomy: Paula's story.

Join the Love/Avon Army of Women fighting breast cancer.

Breastfeeding protects against breast cancer, even among 'older' (sigh) mothers.

These posts aren't on breast cancer, but they offer some perspectives on cancer and the power of breastfeeding:

Pumping through chemotherapy: Jenn Michelle's story.

Cancer patients using donor breastmilk as treatment.

Preparing to breastfeed, when your sister is carrying your baby.

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AAP recommends more vitamin D, starting it earlier.

This week the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled the amount of vitamin D it recommends for babies and older children:

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is doubling the amount of vitamin D it recommends for infants, children and adolescents.  The new clinical report Prevention of Rickets and Vitamin D Deficiency in Infants, Children, and Adolescents recommends all children receive 400 IU a day of vitamin D, beginning in the first few days of life.  The previous recommendation, issued in 2003, called for 200 IU per day beginning in the first two months of life.

Our primary source of vitamin D has always been the sun.  But our current lifestyle, which involves limited sun exposure and use of sunscreen, has resulted in lower vitamin D levels in some mothers and babies.  It's been said for some time that the highest risk mothers and babies are those who are exclusively breastfeeding, darker skinned, and living in northern climates. 

The AAP states that "dietary sources of vitamin D are limited, and it is difficulty to determine a safe amount of sunlight exposure to synthesize vitamin D in a given individual."  Kellymom's page on vitamin D discusses some of the research on that topic.

One popular misconception is that breastmilk is "deficient" in Vitamin D.  Renata, a dietician and blogger points out that breastmilk, like other foods, "wasn't designed to be the primary source of vitamin D.  The sun was."

I was asked recently about whether increasing a mother's intake a vitamin D can increase the amount of vitamin D in breastmilk.  I passed along one recent study which investigated the effect of increasing maternal intake on levels of vitamin D in breastmilk.  Kellymom's page on vitamin D also discusses past studies in which increasing maternal intake of vitamin D increased breastmilk levels, but notes "babies were 'designed' to get only part of their vitamin D from breastmilk and the remainder from sun exposure." 

What did your pediatrican recommend, and what did you do about vitamin D?

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