ProMoM Announces Atlanta Nurse Out : ArriveNet Press Releases : Not For Profit

In conjunction with World Breastfeeding Week, volunteers with ProMoM (Promotion of Mother"s Milk, Inc.) will organize local "nurse outs" across the country. Local mother, Carrie Patterson, invites breastfeeding mothers to join her at Centennial Olympic Park on August 4th from 11:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. to nurse in public.

The Atlanta Nurse Out will begin at the Centennial Park fountains. Refreshments and several door prizes have been donated by local breastfeeding friendly businesses.


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`Breastfeeding Medicine' New Journal to be Launched by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 21, 2005--With the upcoming celebration of World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7, 2005, along with the growing research and interest in the field of breastfeeding medicine, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of Breastfeeding Medicine, a new, interdisciplinary peer-reviewed medical journal that will be coming out in early 2006.


Published both in print and online by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com), Breastfeeding Medicine will be the official publication of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM). The Journal will enable physicians to better understand all the complexities of breastfeeding as well as the immediate and long-term benefits. This academic peer-reviewed journal will help physicians educate medical staff and patients to ensure optimal care of mother and child.

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Hotel sensitive to breastfeeding

Gov. Douglas has proclaimed the month of August as Breastfeeding Promotion Month In Vermont and Aug. 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week, being celebrated in more than 120 countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Capitol Plaza for being a breastfeeding-friendly business. As a breastfeeding mother attending a daylong business meeting at their conference center recently, I had worried how and where I might use my breast pump. When I approached the reception desk, I cringed at the prospect of having to explain my situation to the young man at the counter. However, the grace and understanding with which he responded to my request let me know it was received as neither unusual nor unreasonable.

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Baby Food and Nutrition: Breastfeeding Baby: Breastfeeding in public at Pregnancy & Baby

In many parts of the world, the sight of a nursing mother is an ordinary aspect of daily life. In our society, however, some people are still uncomfortable seeing a mother breastfeed in public. Slowly but surely, though, people are coming to see breastfeeding as the natural, normal way of feeding a baby that it is. And thanks to public education campaigns, people are becoming more knowledgeable about the many benefits of breastfeeding.

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Mother mourns forced end to breastfeeding

In all honesty, I never was a big fan of breastfeeding.

I did it because it is, after all, best for the baby, and I was, after all, physically capable. I just never liked it. I bonded with my babies when I could see their faces, and all that New Age-y spiritual hoo-hah people come up with never worked for me. I especially didn't like nursing in public. And pumping, well, you know: moo.

Moreover, if I stopped to think about it (which I mostly tried not to) the fact that my entire life revolved around the digestive system of another person made me feel like my skin was on too tight. To add insult to injury, my bust line is Rubenesque to begin with. When I lactate, I feel like a freak of nature.

Yet I breastfed without hesitation. We do things for love, things that have nothing to do with ourselves and everything to do with someone else (especially when that someone else is our child). And so, my now-6-year-old son, Ted, breastfed until one morning, just after his second birthday, when I asked him if he wanted to nurse, and he said no.

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I cried when I read this essay. ~Ali

National title chance awaits

A NURSE at a hospital in Chester has won a regional award for establishing the largest milk bank of its type and will now go into a national final.

Lynda Coulter, a senior nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s Neo-Natal Unit, was presented with the Nurse/Midwife of the Year Award for the Northern Region for her support of the facility that collects mother’s milk from donor mums.


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Mothering Magazine Article: The Indescreet Breasfeeder's Manifesto

Recently I read a sweet little how-to article about nursing discreetly in public. It offered all manner of well-meaning and socially acceptable advice, the gist of which was to make sure the breast never sees the light of day. The key to success is keeping covered. If all is done carefully, the article suggested, no one except mother and baby need know that breastfeeding is taking place.

This seemingly reasonable advice is offensive to me. I want people to know that breastfeeding is happening. I'm proud to say I have nursed my two children almost everywhere. We are not discreet nursers, and although I probably could have been more careful, I have chosen to let it all hang out for personal and political reasons.


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As my enthusiasm and energy builds in anticipation of World Breastfeeding Week, I'm going through files and so on and finding older articles to reference. Some of you may have seen them already- in which case I beg your indulgence and hope you'll consider them as worthy of another look as I do. ~ Ali

Would boosting the oxytocin system lead to longer breast-feeding?

There's little controversy about the benefits of breastfeeding infants over giving them formula. Mother's milk is the perfect food, providing exactly the correct nourishment for newborns, while protecting them from many illnesses.

There also are good economic and maternal health reasons that would seem to make a compelling case for breastfeeding for the six-to-12 months recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"However one major reason why women stop breastfeeding is low weight gain and growth rate of their baby," Steven L. Bealer of the University of Utah points out. His team of researchers decided to find out what factors might cause low weight gain.


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Expert advice on eating out with baby

...You can pull it off, or should I say, pull it out. Yes, you read between those lines correctly. My wife breastfed Owen in the middle of a restaurant. I applaud her discretion, as I feel that not only does my child have a right to eat in public, but the other diners deserve to eat without feeling uncomfortable due to a strange lady whipping out her breast at the next table. What better way to keep your baby happy and quiet?...

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Oxytocin raises aggression, cuts anxiety during lactation; similar effects on virgin rats

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colorado (July 18, 2005) – Maternal aggressive/protective behavior is recognized throughout mammalian species, especially during lactation. When hiking, we warn our kids not to approach bear cubs, or to get between a cub and the mother. While driving and you see a fawn, you know a doe can't be too far away and will run headlong to protect it.
The same neurohypophyseal (NH) hormone, oxytocin (OT), is responsible for both the physiological and behavioral changes, but the site of action is quite different. OT is released during parturition and in lactation not only from NH terminals into the bloodstream in order to support reproductive systems, but also within the brain, into the supraoptic nucleus (SON) and paraventricular nucleus (PVN), where it has marked behavioral impact.



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Breast feeding: Lactation increases rate of wound healing, lowers stress hormone levels in mice

2003 DEC 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a study of mice, scientists found that lactation increased the rate of wound healing and was associated with lower levels of the stress hormone corticosterone when compared with controls.

"Our study was conducted in mice, but may have clinical implications," said study authors A. Courtney DeVries, PhD, and Tara Craft of Ohio State University. "Whether giving birth naturally or via cesarean section, women sustain substantial tissue trauma. Because many of the hormonal changes that occur following birth and during lactation are similar in mice and women, it is possible that lactation (i.e., breast-feeding) may improve healing in women also."

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Hospitals 'failing' mothers who want to breastfeed

Huge differences in the amount of support new mothers receive when they start breastfeeding are to be revealed in a study this week. It shows the north of England as far more 'baby-friendly' than the south, writes Jo Revill.

The UK has one of the lowest rates in Europe for breastfeeding, despite the clear health benefits to the newborn. But even within this country, there are large regional variations, linked not to money, but to maternity units not making it a priority.

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How to Make Breastfeeding Difficult

"How to Make Breastfeeding Difficult" by Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC

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this is one of my favorites.... ~ Ali

Message in a Bottle - Breast-feeding: Breast-feeding vs. Formula-feeding

Ever since my son was born three months ago, I have been bombarded with promotional literature touting the wonders of infant formula. The brochures--peddling everything from Carnation's Good Start to Ross Products' Similac--insist that "breast milk is best." But this not-very-heartfelt disclaimer does little to dilute the companies' dominant message: Breast-feeding is inconvenient, embarrassing in social situations and quite possibly unnecessary. So relentless are marketing strategies that any but the most ardent La Leche League disciple is forced to think twice before putting a baby to her breast.



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Consumer born every minute

THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, mothers giving birth in hospitals are likely to receive a gift bag full of brand-name goodies and promotions. T-shirts, baby detergents, nursing pads, guides to infant growth, ice packs and most prominently infant formula are some of the freebies for the new moms.

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Six Flags says mothers can breast-feed anywhere

Six Flags Great America is investigating an incident in which a mom breast-feeding in a wading pool at the amusement park was told to move for health reasons, a company spokeswoman said Friday.

The incident in June involved a North Chicago woman who was watching her 2-year-old play in a wading pool while breast-feeding her 4-month-old at Great America’s Hurricane Harbor Water Park.

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Breast-feeding Mom Says She Was Booted From Starbucks

NEW ORLEANS -- A discrimination claim has been filed against a Metairie coffee shop after a woman said she was asked to leave for trying to breast-feed her newborn.

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CBS 2 Chicago WBBM-TV: Woman Asked To Stop Breast-Feeding At Pool

A North Chicago woman has complained that she was asked to stop breast-feeding her child in a wading pool at Six Flags Great America despite a state law giving women the right to breast-feed in public.

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Breast-feeding mom: Six Flags told me to move

A Great Lakes Naval Base mother is crying foul after an employee at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor allegedly asked her not to breast-feed her 4-month-old daughter in a wading area at the water park.



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Activists seek respect for women who nurse in public

They call themselves "lactivists," these outspoken women who encourage mothers to breast-feed their babies. And they're criticizing ABC's popular daytime talk show "The View," which they say has made negative comments about the practice.

The issue first came up in May, when co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned from maternity leave, announced that her month-old baby had switched from breast milk to formula — and was applauded and praised by her "View" sisters and the studio audience.

Star Jones Reynolds, one of the show's regulars, proceeded to voice her disgust over breast-feeding.



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Breast-feeding mom upset at Six Flags

Rebecca Gray was in a wading pool at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee recently, watching her 2-year-old son splash around and breast-feeding her 4-month-old daughter.

"I used a diaper pin to attach her blanket to my bathing suit strap so that the only thing you could see of the baby was her feet," said Gray, 26, of North Chicago.

But within minutes, a lifeguard told her she would have to leave the pool due to health concerns and informed her the park had two private areas for breast-feeding moms, Gray said.

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UNC center assists new mothers

The newest lounge in town doesn’t offer loud music, alcoholic drinks or a smoky atmosphere. Instead, it features comfortable couches, baby wipes and breast pumps.

The Carolina Women’s Center recently opened a lactation room in its second-floor office on Franklin Street where nursing mothers at the University of North Carolina can feed their babies in a comfortable and private setting.


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'Nurse-in' staged to protest column

Eileen Eckert sat down on a grassy hill outside the Poughkeepsie Journal Wednesday, lifted her shirt and fed her 6-week-old daughter Quinn.

She was one of several moms who breast-fed their children as roughly 50 adults and dozens of children staged a "nurse in" to support public breast-feeding.

"I do really feel like people shouldn't be embarrassed to do it," the Town of Poughkeepsie mother of two said. "If a baby's got to eat, you shouldn't feel excluded, or feel you should have to retreat to the car or a bathroom, or feel like it's disgusting."

The nurse in, part of a growing movement to support public breast-feeding, was staged in part as a response to Journal columnist and Rhinecliff attorney Jonna Spilbor.



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Breast-Feeding Kosher In Shul

To the truly religious, the Torah is like mother’s milk — sustaining and nurturing.

Many, however, don’t believe the sanctuary is a place where mothers and their babies should extend that metaphor into breast-feeding. In their view, the only thing that should be uncovered during services is the Torah scroll.

But a new religious opinion passed recently by the Conservative movement’s law committee endorses the idea of women discreetly breast-feeding their children in the sanctuary.


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Breastfeeding push starts

The Public Health Ministry is campaigning for mothers to breastfeed newborn babies to strengthen their immunity as about 10 million Thais are suffering from allergies which cost the nation over two billion baht a year.

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Grain of Doubt

... Last month, with approval of two permits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ventria Bioscience, a biotechnology company in California, planted 75 acres of rice that has been genetically engineered to produce proteins found in human milk, saliva and tears....

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Addressing Moms' Needs at Work

Chicago lawyer Beth Stroup resumed her full-time job after a three-month maternity leave in 2003, following the birth of her son Jake. For the next 10 months, her workday included one to three 15-minute breaks to pump breast milk into a bottle. "It was a short time frame, but the health benefits he'll receive will last a lifetime," she said.

Stroup is among a growing number of women who continue to breast-feed their babies after returning to work. According to the most recent Ross Mothers Survey, conducted annually by the Ross Products Division of Ohio-based Abbott Laboratories, 29.5 percent of employed women breast-fed their babies at 6 months of age in the United States in 2003, compared with 15.4 percent in 1993. For many of those women, like Stroup, pumping milk at work was necessary to keep up their milk supply so they could continue breast-feeding.



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Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Asthma rates go up as Mexican children come to US

...They found several possible explanations for the differences in asthma rates. It was more common for mothers to smoke during pregnancy in the United States, while women were more likely to breast-feed if their children were born in Mexico....

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Israel News - Knesset okays nat l breast-milk bank

The Knesset passed a law yesterday establishing a national milk bank to supply mother's milk to babies who are not breast-fed, and therefore, do not receive the nutrients contained in milk.

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Companies discover benefits from supporting breastfeeding employees

New mom Meredith Kiesnowski has some frank advice for employers who suggest nursing moms pump their breast milk in a bathroom stall.

"You take your lunch and eat it on the toilet. You wouldn't want to cook your child's dinner on the toilet. The worst place to pump is in a bathroom, sitting in a stall," said Kiesnowski, who works as an administrator at a Plastic Surgery Center

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UTV Breastfeeding feature

A number of local businesses across Northern Ireland, incuding hairdressers, coffee shops and restaurants, have signed up to a scheme to support breastfeeding mums in their local community.

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Program teaches mothers to nurse

Four days after her first child, a girl named Angela, was born by C-section, Melissa Hall pulled her aching body out of bed to get some answers about breast feeding.
"I wasn't sure she was getting enough," Hall said. "It's pretty scary if you don't know if you're baby is eating enough."

Hall eventually found Tricia Lewandowski, who is a mentor with the Breast Feeding Peer Counseling group through the Women, Infants and Children program in Grand Island. For several weeks, Lewandowski, who is breast feeding her child, helped her get over all the hurdles women face.

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Bottle-feed mums 'feel a failure'

Women who choose to bottle-feed their baby are made to feel like second-rate parents by campaigns stating "breast is best", researchers have said.
A study found that one in 10 mothers felt a sense of failure, guilt and uncertainty about not breastfeeding after intending to breastfeed but their plans not working out.

Many women also worry about what their health visitor or midwife might say to them, as well as being concerned about how formula milk will affect their baby's health.

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Family Ties - A mother feeding a baby shouldn’t be a crime

The baby’s crime is being hungry. The mother’s crime is trying to feed her baby. Almost everywhere in the country, it’s called breast-feeding. In Arizona, it’s indecent exposure.

Breast-feeding is the very essence of nurturing motherhood, a biological function with astonishing health benefits to both mother and child. Yet it is a practice so misunderstood and, in some cases, so reviled that it can have mom and her baby banished to the bathroom.



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CDC's Breastfeeding Resources

The CDC's page of Breastfeeding Resources includes a .pdf of The CDC Guide to Breastfeeding Interventions.

CLICK TO VIEW....

Mothers protest, legislator to push for nursing law

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. -- About 25 nursing mothers protested outside a Victoria's Secret lingerie store supporting the right of women to breast-feed in public, one of them holding a sign reading "The Secret's out ... Victoria supports Breasts, but not Breastfeeding."

Meanwhile, state Rep. Chip Limehouse plans to introduce a bill protecting the rights of mothers to nurse in public places, as do laws in about three dozen other states. Limehouse, R-Charleston, wrote a similar bill in the late 1990s, but it never passed.



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Oleh Profile: An American in the land of breast milk and honey

In South Carolina, where she grew up, "boobs" were definitely not for breastfeeding, says Esther Grunis, one of Israel's top lactation consultants.

Until fairly recently, Israel shared this same outlook towards the provenance of mother's milk. Powered by the commercials of successful baby formula companies, the benefits of breastfeeding were pushed into the footnotes of health history.



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Letters for June 30: Mealtime intimacy

It's really not about a woman's breasts. Or anyone else's in skimpy clothing, for that matter. It's about them. We all have errands to run, hours to work, meetings to attend, friends to share a park bench with, but it seems over the top to ask us to witness, not a woman's breast, but her selfishness.

Looking the other way isn't much of an option, either, when the "lactivists" insist on their cause being so hotly in-your-face. Breast-feeding isn't noble, or sexual, or even all that interesting to anyone but a hungry baby.

(letter is the second on the page... scroll down to view....)

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Breast is best, nurses say

TOBE Adamson doesn't know it yet but he's one of the babies benefiting from Moyne Shire's Maternal and Child Health nurses efforts to promote breast feeding.

The eight-week-old baby's mother, Penny Adamson, plans to continue feeding her third child, contributing to the 55.1 per cent of babies who are breast fed until they are at least six months old.

The figures are a success story for Maternal and Child Health nurses Sian Burman, Phyllis Walsh and Sandra Swan and much higher than the levels of breast feeding recorded than other south-west municipalities.



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Changing a culture forever

Malnutrition claims the lives of thousands of Ethiopian babies each year. In the latest of his dispatches from east Africa to coincide with the Live 8 concert this weekend, reporter Richard Edwards witnessed a brand new project that teaches mothers breast is best.

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Breastfeeding Protection Initiative Aims to Raise Awareness of Breastfeeding Rights

Breastfeeding Protection Initiative Aims to Raise Awareness of Breastfeeding Rights

La Leche League International and Lansinoh team up with a cause bracelet to raise funds for awareness and education on breastfeeding rights and legislative issues

WASHINGTON, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine being told you must withhold food and nutrition from your child because someone else's comfort level is being compromised. Imagine being ridiculed or humiliated because you are trying to feed your baby. Imagine a child being forcibly withheld from its only source of nutrition because of a custody arrangement, divorce, or because you were called to serve for jury duty. Imagine making a child eat their food in a restroom. Think these things are not happening? Think again, because this is happening everyday to mothers who are merely trying to give their babies the best possible start in life as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and other leading medical organizations.

To try to raise funds to combat these types of situations through education and awareness of breastfeeding rights, La Leche League International and Lansinoh Laboratories today announce the launch of The Breastfeeding Protection Initiative(TM) with the release of Encourage, Support, Protect Breastfeeding(TM) cause bracelets.



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Mother: Park Snubbed Me For Breast-Feeding

A woman claims she was treated rudely by park employees while breastfeeding her baby.

It happened at a company outing in May at Cliff's Amusement Park.

She claims a manager told her she was exposing herself and said people were complaining. He said she needed to cover up with a blanket, go to the restroom to feed the child, or leave the park.

Park managers admit the incident happened, but not exactly as it was portrayed.

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TV pundit Schramm slipped on mother's milk

Hell hath no fury like breast-feeding moms scorned.

My column calling for people to lighten up when it comes to women who breast-feed in public generated nearly 1,000 e-mails and phone messages.

That is more feedback than comes from blasting the disastrous war in Iraq or the $11 billion Monorail Moneytrain.

People called this month's piece "boob-tastic," which makes me blush.

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For what it's worth - I LOVE this column!!! ~ Ali

Breast-Feeding Is Urged for Preemies

WASHINGTON -- Specialists are trying to promote breast-feeding among mothers of premature babies. Breast milk is considered especially important for the most vulnerable babies, those born smaller than 3 1/2 pounds. But they're the least likely to get it, especially if they're born to low-income or black mothers.

Now specialists are targeting frightened mothers of the smallest preemies to try to change that -- with strategies that range from free breast pumps to bringing breast-feeding "peer counselors" into the intensive care unit to train moms to nurse.


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Breast's best in the city (Australia)

INNER city babies are up to three times more likely to be breastfed than their outer suburban counterparts.

The disparities in the way Melbourne's newborns were being fed is revealed in an analysis of annual Maternal and Child Health Services figures.
It shows that by six months, only one quarter of babies in outer suburban Whittlesea and Greater Dandenong were fully breastfed.

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S.C. laws don't protect mothers who breast-feed in public

CHARLESTON - When Lori Rueger's 2-month old daughter got fussy at a Mount Pleasant shop, she thought she'd step into a dressing room to calm her down. But a store clerk thought a restroom at a nearby store might be a better place for feeding - a suggestion that Rueger found disgusting.

"Would you want to eat in the same room where someone was defecating?" she said. "I wouldn't even bring a soda into a bathroom because I'm so afraid of germs."


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Mommy knows best

A newborn baby has only three demands. They are: warmth in the arms of its mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breastfeeding satisfies all three. — Dr Grantly Dick-Read.

The word mammal is from the Latin “mammalis”, meaning “of the breast” and so a mammal — which includes us humans — is characterised by milk-producing mammary glands in the female for nourishing its young.

In a country [India] where a baby is born almost every two seconds, someone is either having a baby or knows someone who is about to. So, getting your breastfeeding primer updated is going to come handy, one way or another.


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ProMoM's 5th Annual National Nurse Out

ATLANTA, GA, (NAMC) - This year’s National Nurse Out will occur during the week of July 30 – August 7, in conjunction with World Breastfeeding Week, announced ProMoM (Promotion of Mother’s Milk, Inc.) executive director Dana Anagnostou.


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Moms say Chandler should be more friendly to breast-feeders

CHANDLER-Nursing mothers may find it easier to breast-feed their children in Chandler after taking their case to the City Council.

More than a dozen breast-feeding mothers, supportive fathers and rowdy children crowded the back walls of the City Council meeting Thursday night in hopes that the council will meet their demands of setting a breastfeeding policy.


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Milk Money: How Corporate Interests Shaped Government Health Policy for Women

Last summer, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled an ad campaign to promote breast-feeding. As it turns out, the campaign was much different that what was originally produced. It was a battle between mother's milk and the companies that make infant formula who put intense pressure on the government to change its approach.

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Considerations For Weaning Your Child

I received a phone call the other day from a breastfeeding mother who was concerned about a medication she was instructed by her physician to take. As per our hospital protocol, I asked how old her nursling was. After a short, but uncomfortable pause, the mother laughed and stumbled a bit over her words, but I was sure I had heard, “two and a half years.” I could feel her red cheeks burning through the phone, so I quickly verbally applauded her as she began offering excuses for breastfeeding her child. After a few more embarrassed laughs, she became much more comfortable speaking with me about her breastfeeding relationship, and I reassured her that breastfeeding her child was perfectly normal and something she should be proud of. As the call ended, she brought up weaning, so I offered a few questions… “Is weaning something YOU want to do?” “Is weaning something your child wants?” Her reply of “no” to both then led me to, “who wants you to wean, then?” This opened the door for discussion, and I offered her a few considerations to make when deciding to wean.



Considerations For Weaning Your Child - Breastfeeding

Lactivists say 'don't fear the nipple'

Recently, on an episode of ABC's "The View," Barbara Walters felt the need to comment on something which she said made her "uncomfortable." While on an airplane, she was seated next to a woman with a nursing infant who was breastfed during the flight.

In response to this apparently unnecessary outburst, "lactivists" have organized "nurse-ins" in public establishments across America. One Web site, www.nurseatstarbucks.com, describes their mission as "(1) To make a clear national policy that mothers have a right to breastfeed in their stores without being asked to move, hide, cover up or leave, (2) to train all employees that breastfeeding is different from other behaviors that customers might complain about (such as loud music, offensive language, etc.) and (3) to make the public aware of this policy."


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Breast-Feeding Cuts Risk of Myopia

TUESDAY, June 21 (HealthDay News) -- Here's yet another reason to breast-feed babies: a new study finds it may reduce a child's likelihood of growing up to need eyeglasses.

Researchers who compared a group of breast-fed infants with formula-fed babies found that breast-fed infants were a bit less likely to be nearsighted at ages 10 to 12.

"It may have to do with some constituents in breast milk, but we can't be sure," said Dr. Richard Stone, an ophthalmologist at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-author of a research letter on the study in the June 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Uncensored!

The State of Ohio Presents... Moms gone wild!

(an editorial cartoon)

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It's Your Call with Lynne Doyle

It's Your Call with Lynne Doyle is going to be doing a show on public breastfeeding - it will air Tuesday 6/21/05 at 9:00 PM.

click to view show's page...

As k Amy column

Dear Amy: I agree that breast-feeding is a simple fact of life, and I am not offended by it when it is done publicly. Urination is also a fact of life. Any idea why I got arrested when I did it in public?- Carl

Dear Carl: Actually, I think that public breast-feeding does offend you. Otherwise you wouldn't compare it to public urination.

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Are breastfeeding mums over-exposed?

If anyone dared to try and stop Minka Phillips from breastfeeding her son in front of them they would soon find themselves at the receiving end of a "rocket".

The barrister-turned-mum is a vocal supporter of a mother's right to breastfeed in public and says she would be quick to defend any woman battling discrimination.

"It's hard enough to breastfeed when you're a new mum without having to worry about the whole issue of breastfeeding in public," she said.


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New Moms Breastfeeding in Record Numbers, Yet Many Stop By Three Months, Survey Reveals

(Press Release)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 20 /PRNewswire/ -- It's been well-documented for quite some time that breastfeeding is beneficial to babies and mothers, offering many protective health benefits. These range from providing the essential nutrients and antibodies babies need to develop physically and neurologically, to lowering a mother's risk of certain cancers. So why do so many women stop breastfeeding before the recommended 12 months? According to a new national survey, the top reasons why new mothers stopped breastfeeding were they felt like they were not producing enough milk (47%), followed by difficulties getting the baby to latch on (33%) and work-related issues (29%).

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One Mom to Another

HOLLISTON -- Kelley Faulkner is nine months pregnant and she has everything in order for her home birth.

Underpads and plastic sheets are stored in drawers next to the bed. She has ready a placenta bowl she painted at a pottery store. A hand-sewn sling she'll use to weigh the baby hangs next to the door.

She also has 14 women lined up to donate breast milk because Faulkner's milk glands are underdeveloped and her right breast can only produce a few drops at a time.

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Breast is best anywhere � isn't it?

NEW YORK, (AFP) - In an era when surgical bust enhancement and cleavage-led advertising are accepted norms, it might seem odd that legislation is deemed necessary to protect the most natural function of the female breast.

Last week, Ohio became the 34th US state to sign into law a provision bolstering the right of women to breastfeed in public, amid complaints from nursing mothers of discrimination and harassment.

A common grievance is one of double-standards, as voiced by Lisa Herek of Nebraska when she testified recently to state legislators in support of a pro-breast-feeding bill.

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hungry

A great video from the End Hunger Network-

click to view the video

House members pass amended form of breast-feeding bill

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — House members have unanimously passed an amended Senate bill that encourages Oregon employers to be more accommodating toward breast-feeding mothers.

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W.Va. must allow nursing in public

Ohio has done its duty to mothers who breast-feed their infants. Now it’s West Virginia’s turn.

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Protect and encourage breastfeeding: Kedgley

Too few New Zealand women are breastfeeding and more needs to be done to halt its worrying decline, says the Green Party.

Health and Women's Issues Spokesperson Sue Kedgley strongly supports the call for changes to protect and promote breastfeeding, including offering legal protection to mothers and ensuring workplaces make provision for it.

"There has been a steady decline in breastfeeding rates in New Zealand and it is a huge concern that only 23 percent of mothers now breastfeed their babies for the full four to six months recommended by the World Health Organisation," said Ms Kedgley, the Deputy Chair of the Health Select Committee that considered the petition of campaigner Elizabeth Weatherly.



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Lost in the static

Breastfeeding has been big news lately. Between legislation and nurse-ins, celebrity statements and slander, well, it seems that boobs are everywhere.

But I have to say that I'm disappointed in a lot of what I'm hearing and seeing - because the really important messages are getting lost in the noise of everyone shouting. Everyone's focusing on the right to nurse in public, the right to nurse in privacy, the right to bottlefeed and so on. And those are really worthwhile topics for discussion, and I'm glad to hear some reasonable conversations about it.

But while watching a clip of Rosie O'Donnell when she appeared on 'The View' I was really struck by this statement:

"If you want to nurse, you can nurse, and if you don't want to nurse, you don't have to, because it's America!"

But that's not what it's about, folks. This is not a choice between apples and apples - and that's the point.

If you choose not to breastfeed, then that's your choice. But you are entitled to make an informed choice. Sadly, most parents never are given the information necessary to allow them to make such a choice, and it's high time we changed that.

Remember, once we thought smoking was just fine. Hey, in 1942 an advertisement claimed that Kool cigarettes would give extra protection against the common cold; in 1964, a "tobacco industry writer suggests tobacco control advocates have psychiatric certification that they are not suffering from pyrophobia and suppressed fear of the 'big fire' or atom bomb." Big tobacco finally got called onto the carpet, and soon enough the artificial baby milk makers will be held accountable as well.

I'm too tired and so on to say much morethan that at the moment; this has been a long, hard week.

~ Ali

"Everyone knows people who were formula-fed and seem fine, but George Burns' smoking and living a good life to age 100 does not mean that smoking is not a huge health risk. Smoking rates have decreased since the U.S. surgeon general made educating the public about the risks of smoking a public health priority. The dissemination of public health information must be founded on research. The truth is that the risks of not breast-feeding are profound."

- Chele Marmet, Director, Lactation Institute, Los Angeles

MPs back right to breastfeed in public

One woman's campaign to safeguard her right to breastfeed in public has resulted in a parliamentary committee recommending law changes to protect and promote breastfeeding.

Parliament's health select committee yesterday said the Government should investigate law changes to protect the right to breastfeed in public places and to protect an infant's right to receive nutrition.

The woman behind the recommended law changes is Aucklander Elizabeth Weatherly, who organised a petition - signed by nearly 9000 people - advocating legislation to preserve breastfeeding rights.

Ms Weatherly's campaign began after she was prevented from breastfeeding her 2 1/2-year-old son, Michael, at his pre-school in 2003.


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Discretion allows public to adjust to new breast-feeding law

A baby propped up on mom's hip is cute, a reason for others to smile and coo.

A baby at mom's breast, though, may be another matter. To some people, it's natural; for others, it's embarrassing.

Those others, however, are going to have to get used to it, breast-feeding advocates say. But, they concede, the dirty looks and rude comments won't stop just because state law has changed.

On Tuesday, Ohio became the 35th state to protect women who breast-feed from being asked to leave public places.



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Angry mum in fight to breast-feed her baby

A mum was furious when she was told to stop breast-feeding her baby by staff at Letchworth JobCentre.

Samantha Hough refused until 10-month-old Charis had finished. She has now complained officially, contacted MP Oliver Heald and is going to start a campaign to make Letchworth GC a breast-feeding-friendly town.

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Breastfeeding in Public : The Barbara Walters Scandal

Barbara Walters sparked a major controversy over her recent comments regarding breastfeeding in public. On her show "The View", she stated that she while she and her hairdresser were on a flight, the woman seated next to them breastfed her baby on board. She then claimed that this made her and her hairdresser “uncomfortable”.

Following this comment, debates on breastfeeding in public have sprung up all over the internet. Breastfeeding mothers have vowed to boycott watching "The View". Breastfeeding advocacy groups are urging breastfeeding supporters to flood Walters’s email box with messages. And in the biggest show of anger towards Walters’s comments, 150 women breastfeeding women who refer to themselves as “lactivists” gathered outside of the ABC headquarters in Manhattan and staged a “nurse-in”.

How can our society be so divided on the issue of breastfeeding in public? Society’s inhibitions on breastfeeding conflict with the information given to us by the medical community....

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The Snobs On "The View"

Have pity on Barbara Walters. Barbara Walters is, after all, Barbara Walters. And Barbara Walters should not be made to suffer the gross indignity of flying in first class while a common woman breast-feeds her baby.

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Public breast-feeding often lesser of two evils

If a glimpse of a nursing mother's breast is enough to inspire columnist Lydia Lovric to write an entire column, it's not "lactivists" who need to lighten up.

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Despite more laws protecting breast-feeding, squeamishness remains

They're asked to leave concerts, burger joints and coffee houses. What the women are doing is not illegal. It is in fact strongly recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Medical evidence supporting breast-feeding keeps growing, but nursing mothers struggle against lingering squeamishness at the idea of feeding a baby with a body part.

As Ohio creates a right to breast-feed in public, a federal bill languishes and bills were killed or are stuck in the few states that never addressed the issue.

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Nothing shameful about breast intentions

I am a breast man. That is what my mother says.

When it came to feeding time, my baby lips steered clear from the rubber nips. No bottle-feeding for me.

Fortified by my mother's choice long ago, I now have no choice but to carry the flag in the ongoing dust-up in the mommy wars: Public breast-feeding is healthy, natural and perfectly acceptable -- or it should be.

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Breast Feeding in Public

breastfeeding in public cartoon -

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Black Hills Mother Respond to Barbara Walters Attack on Breastfeeding

Should Breastfeeding be Controversial? How Society Gives Lipservice in Encouraging Healthy Choices

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Mass. Lawmakers Ask: Is Public Breast-Feeding Indecent Exposure?

State Rep. David Linsky has filed legislation in the Massachusetts State House that would give women the freedom to breast-feed in public places — ensuring they would not be charged with such crimes as indecent exposure or face large fines. This is the third time Linsky has filed such a bill.

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Both sides need to lighten up on breastfeeding

Breast is best, but what ever happened to a bit of modesty? Barbara Walters has ignited a firestorm after admitting on The View that the sight of a woman breastfeeding during a recent airplane flight made her uncomfortable.

Angry mothers responded by organizing a public "nurse-in" outside of ABC's headquarters last week. The protesters nursed their babies while carrying signs which read, "Shame on View" and "Babies Were Born to Be Breast-fed."

The women were also upset because Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the youngest and newest co-host of The View, admitted that she recently gave her two-month-old daughter her first bottle of formula. The other co-hosts applauded at the news. Why, I have no idea.

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5 Facts About Nursing a Preemie

Is breastfeeding different with a premature baby?

Here are five things you should know about breastfeeding your preemie:

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News Review From Harvard Medical School -- Breastfeeding Women Protest

About 200 women nursed their babies outside ABC headquarters in New York City June 6 to protest a remark made by Barbara Walters on her talk show, "The View," The New York Times reported June 7. Walters commented that she felt uncomfortable sitting next to a woman breastfeeding on an airplane. The protest was one of several recently by activists supporting public nursing, including a "nurse-in" at the U.S. Capitol in May to support legislation that would provide legal protection for women to pump breast milk or breastfeed in the workplace.



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Nutrition, exercise and weight loss while breastfeeding at Pregnancy & Baby

Think you have to have a restricted diet while breastfeeding? Think again! Lactation Consultant Anne Smith has some interesting news about nutrition as well as postpartum weight loss for breastfeeding moms.

Don't be too restrictive
Most mothers are highly motivated to eat a nutritious diet during their pregnancies. Assuming that you ate an adequate diet while you were pregnant, you can produce plenty of milk for your baby by keeping up this motivation and making sure you continue your healthy eating patterns during lactation.

While you should attempt to eat a "good diet" while you are nursing, you need to be aware that your diet doesn't have to be perfect to support lactation. You can still breastfeed even if your diet is less than ideal. You may be surprised to learn that studies have shown that maternal nutrition has only a minor effect on the composition and quantity of breastmilk produced. Usually, unless a mother is severely malnourished, her milk is fine.



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Partnership's goal is to fight obesity in South Carolina

A new fight against obesity - a rising challenge here in the Palmetto State and across the United States - is being spearheaded through a public-private partnership designed to help South Carolinians lead a healthier lifestyle.

The plan, Moving South Carolina Toward a Healthy Weight: Promoting Lifestyles and Healthy Communities, was developed by the South Carolina Coalition for Obesity and Prevention Efforts and is being promoted by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

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Grandparenting: Public breast-feeding has come out of the closet

Our column on the pros and cons of public breast-feeding aroused a massive response. It had been set off by a Marietta, Ohio, "Granny" who complained that her granddaughter, a "ravishingly beautiful 21," loves to "show off" her first child, and her bosom, while breast-feeding in public. Instead, we suggested it should be done "discreetly," and possibly with a special blouse.


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Breast feeding moms back bill

Mary Kniaz, a mother of five from Hopkinton, breast-fed all her children no matter where she was. Whether riding public transportation or traveling in faraway places like London or San Francisco, she was neither deterred nor encouraged to tuck her breast away from her baby's mouth.

"I learned how to do it discreetly, but confidently," Kniaz recalls.

Today Kniaz is a volunteer leader for the Ashland, Hopkinton and Holliston branch of La Leche League, an international organization dedicated to the promotion of breast-feeding.

Women like Kniaz say they welcome Natick state Rep. David Linsky's third try to get public breast-feeding legalized in Massachusetts.

If the measure passes, no woman could be charged with indecent exposure for breast-feeding in public. A $300 fine would also be levied to anyone who denied mothers this right. So far, 26 states have passed similar laws.


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Women protest breastfeeding rights during "nurse-in" in Grand Rapids

(Grand Rapids, June 9, 2005, 1:02 p.m.) A group of Grand Rapids women wants to raise awareness about breastfeeding rights. These women say mothers who nurse in public are often times harassed and discriminated against. So they are holding in a "nurse-in" at Calder Plaza
on Thursday.

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CBC New Brunswick - Breastfeeding numbers low in N.B.

FREDERICTON – A new study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information says mothers in New Brunswick are the least likely in the country to breastfeed.

The institute found that only one out of four new mothers in the province chose to breastfeed their babies for the first four months. The national average is one out of two.

The information was contained in the institute's annual report on health indicators, released Wednesday.


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Going public with breast-feeding

They call themselves "lactivists," and from New York City to Louisville, activist women are speaking out in favor of breast-feeding -- and in opposition to a series of what they see as negative comments about the practice on ABC's daytime talk show "The View."

The issue first came up last month, when co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned from maternity leave, announced that her month-old baby had switched from breast milk to formula -- and was applauded and praised by her "View" sisters and the studio audience.

Star Jones Reynolds, also one of the show's regulars, proceeded to voice her disgust over the practice.

And then, in late May, the show's co-executive producer, Barbara Walters, talked about public breast-feeding making her uncomfortable.

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Mom saves breast milk as she goes off to war

A story you won’t hear on the front lines of Operating Iraqi Freedom. An Oklahoma mom has 10 gallons of breast milk frozen for her baby boy. Every mom, who is called to serve our country, spends hours preparing to leave her children. Here is the story of one mom that will leave her son with the most precious gift she has to give.

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komo news | I'm All For This 'Cover Up'

SEATTLE - It was called a "nurse-in."

150 breastfeeding moms showed up outside ABC studios in Manhattan to protest something said by Barbara Walters.

And just what did she say?

Only that sitting next to a woman breastfeeding her baby on an airplane - no cover, no nothing! - made her uncomfortable.

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Be sure to watch the video clip of this opinion piece - the anchor has something to say at the very end which made me cheer.

Breastfeeding OK when mom is on lithium

But doctor recommends infants get regular blood, kidney and thyroid hormone tests

Babies can safely breastfeed when their mother is taking the psychiatric drug lithium, a recent study shows.

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Lawmaker files public breast-feeding bill again

BOSTON -- Mothers would be allowed to breast feed in public without fear of reprisals under a bill backed by MetroWest lawmakers.

State Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, is pushing the legislation, which he has filed twice before, that strengthens women's right to breast feed in public places. It ensures breast-feeding women cannot be charged with crimes such as indecent exposure and calls for imposing fines of up to $300 against anyone who deprives them of the right to breast feed.

"When you have to feed the crying infant, you have to feed the crying infant, you can't wait," Linsky said yesterday before touting the bill to the Legislature's joint Judiciary Committee. "We just have to make it clear that it's not against the law."

While Linsky said no one incident prompted him to file the legislation, he said he knows of numerous times when women have been asked to stop breast-feeding by mall security guards and restaurant owners who did not know the women were not breaking the law.


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Artist goes back to drawing board over breastfeeding boob

AN artist boobed after his painting of a breastfeeding mum attracted a number of complaints from staff on a maternity ward.

Jason Elliott, a 40-year-old father-of-two, from Bradshaw, Halifax, had painted the black and white picture using a photograph from an old medical journal.

But when it went on show at Calderdale Royal Hospital earlier this month some staff complained.

The acrylic painting shows a close up image of a woman's breast with a child suckling but infant feeding adviser Marilyn Rogers said it was important that examples of breastfeeding were accurate and this particular painting was not technically correct.

She said it should have showed the child's chin being supported.


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Lactose intolerant!

Nearly 150 angry moms - babies at their breasts - staged a peaceful "nurse-in" yesterday outside ABC's Manhattan studios in defense of mother's milk.

The women - self-named "lactivists" - took to the streets after Barbara Walters, interview queen and host of "The View," made what they consider disparaging comments about breast-feeding on the talk show.

Walters said she felt awkward sitting with her hairdresser next to a woman who was breast-feeding on an airplane.

"It made me very nervous," Walters said on the May 17 show. "She didn't cover the baby with a blanket. It made us uncomfortable."

Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who is nursing her daughter, Grace, said she was "uncomfortable breast-feeding in general."

The show's hosts also seemed to celebrate the news that Hasselbeck's daughter had her first bottle of formula - spurring women in four cities to lift children to their breasts in a synchronized milk-in yesterday.


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'Lactivists' Taking Their Cause, and Their Babies, to the Streets - New York Times

The calls for a "nurse-in" began on the Internet mere moments after Barbara Walters uttered a negative remark about public breast-feeding on her ABC talk show, "The View."

The protest, inspired by similar events organized by a growing group of unlikely activists nationwide in the last year, brought about 200 women to ABC's headquarters yesterday. They stood nursing their babies in the unmistakably public venue of Columbus Avenue and West 67th Street. They held signs reading, "Shame on View," and "Babies are born to be breastfed." Ms. Walters, who remarked a few weeks ago on the show that the sight of a woman breast-feeding on an airplane next to her had made her uncomfortable, said through a spokesman that "it was a particular circumstance and we are surprised that it warrants a protest."

But the rally at ABC is only the most visible example of a recent wave of "lactivism." Prodded by mothers who say they are tired of being asked to adjourn to the bathroom while nursing in a public space, six states have recently passed laws giving a woman the right to breast-feed wherever she "is otherwise authorized to be."



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Mother nature gets a helping hand to nurse

FOR TENS of thousands of years, it was what women did naturally. Yet since breastfeeding fell out of fashion in the 1960s, the health service has faced an uphill struggle to get babies off the bottle. Public health campaigns have long extolled the benefits of breast milk for mother and baby. Infants who are breastfed are protected against a long list of conditions, including diarrhoeal illness, lower respiratory tract infection, middle ear infection, urinary tract infection, and juvenile onset diabetes.

Women who have breastfed experience long-term health benefits, reducing their risk of premenopausal breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and hip fractures in later life.

Despite the mounting evidence in favour of breastfeeding, rates in Scotland have remained stubbornly low. The latest statistics show that the average breastfeeding rate for babies aged six to eight weeks is only 35.9 per cent - well short of the Executive's target of having 50 per cent of mothers breastfeeding by 2005. In Lanarkshire, the rate is as low as 25 per cent.



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Breastfeeding toddler elicits meddling from others

Never have I encountered so much meddling as when people discover I'm still nursing a child who's got eight teeth, a head full of hair and the ability to string sentences.

By their appalled reactions, one might assume I was putting a teenager to breast, not a 20-month-old toddler.

A couple of months ago, I was in a department store restroom, discreetly nursing so that shopping could continue in relative peace. A woman walked in and stared with disdain.

"How old is that child?" she snapped as she placed her parcels on the counter.

"She's in middle school," I lied, kissing the top of my tot's head. The woman made some muffled comment just as the water came rushing from the faucet.

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Model turns supermum in one Elle of a campaign

Supermodel Elle Macpherson is calling on Chase Farm Hospital to get behind a campaign to boost support for breastfeeding mothers as part of her work with children's charity UNICEF.

Ms Macpherson, special ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund, has written to ask hospital chiefs in The Ridgeway to introduce a series of measures to earn baby friendly' accreditation.

The mum-of-one writes: "Babies who are breast fed are less likely to suffer a wide range of illnesses, including gastroenteritis in infancy, childhood allergies and heart disease in adulthood."

She said that baby friendly hospitals had reported significant increases in the number of mothers who chose to breast feed.

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dailypennsylvanian.com - Nursing class plugs benefits of breastfeeding

The effects of the community-based breastfeeding class that started at the School of Nursing 10 years ago are spreading not just throughout Philadelphia, but across the entire field of nursing.

Diane Spatz, a Nursing professor, started teaching "Case Study in Breastfeeding and Human Lactation" in 1995.

This seminar of between 15 and 23 students is offered every fall and consists of two hours of instruction and 14 hours of related work at community sites per week, in addition to an individual community-advocacy project.

The course "focuses on the community service that the students do [for] the advocacy of breastfeeding," Spatz said.



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Weaning Part 1 - Breastfeeding

Out of the blue one day, your husband or significant other, whom you love very much, informs you that he no longer wants to hug or kiss or be intimate with you. You are stunned, shocked and bewildered because you had no idea there was anything wrong. He explains that there really isn’t anything wrong; it’s just time for the two of you to stop clinging to one another. He really loves you more now than ever, but it’s time for you to find another source of comfort because he’s decided that the hugs and kisses aren’t working for him any more. Dumbfounded, you also learn that when you try to hug him anyway, he quickly pushes you away. In fact, he has decided that every time you do hug him, you will get a quick “zap” similar to a dog who wears a bark collar. You think to yourself, “This is crazy. After years of marriage, this makes no sense. What is wrong with my husband? What is wrong with me?”


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Diabetes drug levels in breast milk insignificant

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New findings show that women who are breastfeeding can be reassured that if they take metformin for diabetes it won't harm their baby.

Metformin is excreted into breast milk, but the levels are not enough to adversely affect blood sugar levels of nursing infants, according to the findings of a small study reported in the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.


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