Celebrating Those Who Work Hard for Moms and Babies

This week I want to share with you a different type of activism!  There is a group called The House of Shine.  One of their big projects is to say thanks to someone who “shines.”  This is called the Yellow Envelope Project.  Basically they give you a nominee each week and people flood them with short notes in yellow envelopes.  This week they are celebrating a lactation consultant.  Won’t you join in for this week’s Yellow Envelope Project. Drop us a note to say, “I’m in!”  While you’re there, consider nominating someone who does an amazing job at embodying the concept of shine…

Breastfeeding: Gratitude

I always knew I would breastfeed. I was lucky enough to be breastfed myself, lucky enough to grow up in an era (the 70′s) when natural birth and parenting were popular, lucky enough to be born in a region of the U.S. (northern California) where breastfeeding was the norm. As a result, I was breastfed for 18 months by a mother who was never breastfed herself. Long enough that I have what I think is a single, fleeting, flash of a memory of actually doing it: it was evening, my mom lifted me into her lap, into the rocking chair in our living room, and then: comfort. That’s all I have. But this little scrap of a memory was enough to sustain the idea that I would always breastfeed my own children, even when natural parenting seemed to dip in popularity, when many of my childhood friends proclaimed it was gross, or later that they didn’t want to ‘ruin’ their boobs by nursing babies.

When my daughter was born, I assumed that this normal, natural function of my body & partnership with my new baby would happen easily, seamlessly. I had the right attitude, I had the right equipment & now I had the baby. Boy, was I wrong. Gretta was born ‘tongue-tied’ – the little piece of skin that attaches our tongues to the bottom of our mouths was too short – and she had terrible difficulty latching on. It went undiagnosed in the hospital and for five long, miserable days after she was born we struggled with nursing. Struggled to the point that if she was held cross-body (for any reason), she’d start crying (and so would I).

I think many moms would have given up at this point, opened up a can of formula and never looked back. Again, I was lucky – I had the support you’d expect of my mother, my midwives, my husband, and also health insurance that covered the rental of a hospital-grade pump. But also, and maybe most importantly, some unexpected support: our pediatrician.

At our first doctor visit a couple of days after she was born, Gretta had lost several ounces – he was surprisingly unconcerned. I told him we were really having trouble nursing, that she would take a little pumped breast milk, but not latch on despite the efforts of two midwives and the advice of many La Leche moms. Without blinking an eye, opened up his closet, took out a formula feeding kit (my heart dropped), REMOVED THE FORMULA (my eyebrows went up), leaving bottles and a carrying case for pumped milk, and then gave me the number of the mother of one of his clients who happened to be a lactation consultant. It was so simple – he acted like what we were going through was normal, to be expected & FIXABLE. That simple act – removing the formula from that free-sample case – demonstrated so clearly to me that despite Gretta’s weight loss & continued difficulty latching on, he was confident that breastfeeding was the best choice & that we’d get it worked out. It was in a word: awesome.

The lactation consultant we saw was nothing short of magic – she had us breastfeeding in 20 minutes, no looking back. At the time she was my savior, manna from heaven, my breastfeeding goddess. In retrospect though, I think the real hero of this story is that pediatrician. He was in a position to make or break my breastfeeding relationship with my daughter & he chose to support us. Had he been an alarmist, had he been overly concerned with Gretta’s weight loss, had he sent us home with formula, if he hadn’t trusted the lactation consultant – I’m not sure, even given my resolve, my upbringing, and my education if I would have been able to go on to develop the care-free, amazing nursing relationship Gretta and I shared.

I’d like to celebrate this year’s World Breastfeeding Week by giving kudos to those people in our lives whose help we needed to do one of the most normal & rewarding things on the planet: feed our babies. Please take a moment to add a comment with the names and contact info (and stories if you want!) of breastfeeding-friendly professionals who helped you along the way.

Pediatrician:
Izak Reischer MD
Phone: (718) 268-6200
72-38 113th Street
Forest Hills, NY, 11375

Lactation Consultant:
Catherine Watson Genna, BS, IBCLC
Email: cwgenna@covad.net
Phone: 718 846-2323
Location: Woodhaven, Queens, NY
More info: http://lactspeak.com/speakers/CatherineWatson%20Genna/

I didn’t plan to be a nursing mom…

I didn’t always plan to be a nursing mom. In fact up until I was about 23 years old I had never even known anyone who breastfed their child. At this time I worked with a group of women who were all breastfeeding their children and we got into a discussion about it. They taught me all about how amazing and wonderful breastmilk is for babies. I finally asked ‘So why doesn’t everyone just breastfeed’ and they all just shook their heads that they didn’t know. Man that moment stuck with me. Fast forward about 5 years to the beginning of my first pregnancy. I instantly knew I would breastfeed our baby. When I learned a few weeks later we were expecting twins my resolve weakened a little. Is it even possible to nurse more than one baby? Could I do that? Would I want to? Would it just be too much to deal with?
I was very fortunate to have a friend who had twins about six months before I did and she was successfully nursing them. She gave me one of the greatest pieces of advice I had ever been given. If you want to do it, don’t ‘TRY’ to do it. Get educated, get support and just do it. She suggested I contact the local La Leche League to attend their meetings while I was pregnant. I wasn’t too sure about that, since I had heard some of the women could be pretty extreme in their advocacy, but I decided to look into it. I was so excited to see that one of the leaders in my area had nursed twins. I contacted her immediately and she invited me to a meeting. When I was about 5 months pregnant I attended my first meeting. In the 3 1/2 years that have followed I have only missed a handful of these meetings. This group became my ‘place’ they helped me learn and to see the pitfalls that I may encounter at the hospital and how to handle them. They helped me to understand that while three o’clock in the morning may seem like the loneliest time of day when you are awake for the tenth time nursing yet again, it isn’t simply because of all the women who have been in your shoes who had survived just as I would.
In the early days the only place I felt really comfortable taking the twins alone was to a La Leche meeting. This was my monthly sanity saver for about 3-4 months. They helped me to feel comfortable with my own children. I set small breastfeeding goals for us. Two weeks, two months, 6 months, suddenly a year had passed and I couldn’t believe the pride I felt. I had given my babies the greatest gift in the world for over a year. It was no longer a struggle to nurse (in fact it really hadn’t been since the very first few months) and we had really found our groove as a nursing unit. Because there were two of them nursing granted us so much skin to skin time that I just couldn’t have made possible otherwise. Breastfeeding our twins helped me to connect to them, know them, love them on a level that I could never describe to someone who hadn’t nursed their children. My la leche group gave me that to me and so much more.
They helped me to become comfortable parenting in my own skin and taught me to trust my inner voice and instincts and that these would rarely steer me wrong. When the boys started biting they had suggestions, guidance and sympathy. As I nursed well past their first birthday they helped me to feel good about the gift I was still giving my children. When I again became pregnant and made the choice to gently wean our sons they gave me love and support through what I feared would be a tough process (and in reality it wasn’t!). These women were the first to gently suggest I consider my options with my next birth and eventually were my biggest cheerleaders during my pregnancy and natural birth with our daughter. It was one of my leaders who answered the phone at 4 am the night after Becca was born because she had jaundice and I needed someone to tell me I was not crazy in what I knew was the right course of (non)treatment.
These women have become my friends and I am so fortunate that they have become a part of my life. About a year ago I began the next chapter in breastfeeding book by taking on the role of a La Leche Leader. Now I get to pay forward all those new mommies asking all those questions I once asked. What a wonderful and fulfilling opportunity to help all these moms the way some very special ladies once helped me.
I never planned to be a cosleeping, breastfeeding, babywearing, cloth diapering, natural birthing, gentle parenting, selective vaxing mama and if it weren’t for my lovely friends from the La Leche League I might never have become one. What a shame that really would have been! So thank you to the founding mothers of La Leche for creating such a group to help us all be the mothers we were meant to be and thank you to all the mothers who helped guide me along my path. My journey as a mother is really just beginning and while I won’t always be an actively breastfeeding mom, I will always be a breastfeeding mom.

Kristen is a counselor, doula and childbirth educator working in Omaha, Nebraska. She is the mother of three children, three year old twin boys Alex and Nate and her VBAC baby Becca, 1 year.

Chapters

I write this post not as a lactation professional, or a lactivist, or
even a breastfeeding supporter. I write it as a mom. A mom who has
spent the last two years of her life watching her child grow healthy
and strong with the help of my milk. Breastfeeding has been an amazing
accomplishment for us and has served us both well.

Breastfeeding did not start off easy for us. My daughter’s attempts to
nurse made me bleed and cry. Luckily, I knew that breastfeeding wasn’t
supposed to feel like this. Through a long combination of pumping, cup
feeding and reteaching her how to nurse, we became successful at
breastfeeding without pain. I am eternally grateful to the lactation
consultant who helped us and to my dear friend who went with us to
each appointment, holding my hand and reminding me that I was making
the best choice for my daughter.

Later we went through many stages in our nursing. We exclusively
breastfed through a dairy and soy allergy (whew, the money we could
have spent on prescription formula!) until my little one was six
months old. As we introduced complementary foods I thought to myself
“how could we quit this now? We’ve just really hit our stride!” and we
continued on.

At her first birthday, people asked us if we were “finally” ready to
wean. No, my heart wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready. The World Health
Organization wasn’t ready. So we continued. We nursed through my
surgery and recovery, her father helping her climb onto the couch to
carefully latch on. It was all the healing I needed while I waited for
final biopsy results. It calmed us both through that time.

My daughter turns two next week and we are in the slow process of
weaning. Breastfeeding has meant so much to me that I am sad to let
this relationship go. On the other hand, I am ready to close up this
chapter in our lives and thankful for the wonderful memories we’ve
had. Thankful for the gift of health for my daughter and myself. I am
thankful for the gift of peaceful nights nursing in our bed and “good
morning nursies” that we share now. We’ve had a good run at this
nursing thing.

Nursing in Public Blog Carnival

We’re going to be participating in the Nursing in Public Blog Carnival – so exciting! But I wanted to let you know about it too so that you, my dear Birth Activists, might join…

Mandalas, Pregnancy, Birth Art and Beyond

Tree of nourishment and abundance

To write my first blog for this site I had a little bit of anxiety/ excitement over what to write and I wanted it to come natural. To aide in my writing process, I turned to what I do naturally as an Art Therapist and became engaged in what I like to think of as a “centering” art process. I set out to make a mandala.

For those who do not know, the practice of mandala making is said to be from ancient Buddhism and is a meditative practice involving making art inside of a circle. It is also known as a “drawing in the round”.  I did this tonight to inspire a topic to blog about but instead found that I should share the wisdom of the mandala making practice with the birthing activist community because it can be a very supportive, easy, meditative way to work through the pregnancy/ birth process feelings.

When you stop to think about a circle image, there are many reasons why this is an appropriate means of expressing feelings and thoughts about birth. It all starts with an egg and a sperm, cylindrical shapes. Our bellies form a nice round, juicy shape during pregnancy. Some may think of the womb as being a round shelter for our babies.Our cervix’s dilate into a round(ish) opening that is large enough for the baby to fit through. It seems natural, like childbirth that making mandala drawings throughout pregnancy and reflective drawings after birth, would help a woman “center” herself and work through any feeling/ joys/fear/doubts she may be having.

This is a simple art process.

Materials needed: paper (any size, any color)

drawing materials or painting materials (preferably color)

1) Make a circle on the paper

2) Make a mark to indicate the center of the circle (neither of these need to be exact, use your instincts)

3) Ask yourself this question

“What is on your mind in regards to pregnancy, childbirth, or parenting?”

4) Start the drawing from the inside of the circle, work your way outwards

5) With your finished drawing, look at it and try to decipher the image as a whole, how does the drawing make you feel? What have you learned about yourself from this drawing?

I thought I’d share mine quickly….I am 5 1/2 months pregnant with my second daughter. With my first, I went back to work at 3 months. I was breastfeeding at the time and my jobs rigorous schedule and lack of places to pump in private made it very difficult to continue breastfeeding. I did not have an abundant supply of milk to begin with and during the next month, my milk supply diminished. Though I have a happy and healthy baby, my guilt from not breastfeeding any longer has eaten me up. Today I experienced a lift in hope and happiness when I discovered that my colostrum had come in for this second baby. I get to stay home my second daughter and not return to work right away and will not experience the same agony over not continuing to breastfeed my second. This is what was reflected in my drawing today. It is a joyous scene with breasts, and flowing milk, and a big sturdy tree that grows from this nourishment.

This process can be used in every day meditation to not only answer the question that I suggested, but help work through any other thoughts that are on your mind.

Let the art flow!

Amy

Breastfeed in the Bathroom?

Seriously, someone needs to explain to Heather W. at Shine on Yahoo, that breastfeeding in the bathroom is not okay.  Haven’t we been through this before like a gazillion times?  Conveniently there is no contact given for her, though the blog is done for Better Homes and Gardens. So you’ll have to submit a question through the BH&G website. (Note, be sure to uncheck the box to subscribe to the free newsletter.)

Breastfeeding: The Ethnicity Debate

The Office of Women’s Health does a great job of trying to encourage women to breastfeed. They have many great products and services to help women of all backgrounds successfully breastfeed. In making their new Breastfeeding Guide, they sent out an email asking for people to vote for one of three cover choices. The issue that’s being brought up is that all over the women are Caucasian.

Does this matter? Is it important? Does it change your mind if you know that they are also making different editions for “African American and American Indian and Alaskan Native” women? You can add your thoughts in the comments or join the discussion here.

_{Photo © Office of Women’s Health}

A New Breastfeeding Blog to Love

Breastfeeding is something that is important to me.  We spend a good deal of time here at Birth Activist talking about breastfeeding.  Pros, cons, choices, support, work, family leave, pumps…  You get the picture.  But today I stumbled on a new blog that is simply great.  The topic is breastfeeding.  The articles are thought provoking and well written.  Do you want to know what won me over?  Here’s the subtitle: Physicians Blogging About Breastfeeding

While it’s true that many physicians don’t have as much knowledge or practice as they should have, these docs are all a part of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM).  What the moms and lactation professionals lack in many eyes is a medical degree.  Can’t use that argument here…

Check it out!

Do You Have a Breastfeeding Success Story?

Womenshealth.gov is looking for stories about positive breastfeeding experiences for our new breastfeeding guide. Please use our contact form if you would like to submit a story about the joys of breastfeeding for consideration. Not all stories that are submitted will be published.

This is reprinted from the Women’s Health Newsletter. It’s free and often has really great information. You can also subscribe.