The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

My heritage, as represented in file folders.

We're just through a rash of celebrations including two birthdays, an anniversary, and two Passover Seders.  Last week brought Childrens' Day, a Japanese holiday which is sometimes celebrated in the Japanese American community.

For Passover I was asked to lead an activity which involve hiding the afikoman - a piece of matzoh which the kids hide during the Seder and is later returned in exchange for a small prize.  Since the kids who were attending aren't old enough to sew with cloth and needle, I punched holes in blue file folders and they sewed them together with yarn.  I found some clip art for them to glue on one side, too.

For Childrens' Day I wanted to do an activity with my son's preschool class.  With some help from my mom I settled on making koi wind socks (koi nobori), which are traditionally put outside houses for this holiday.  Here are directions if you'd like to make your own.

So I cut carp bodies out of yellow file folders and had the kids glue on scales and eyes and stuff them with newspaper.  They also added streamers to blow in the wind. 

You never know what to expect from file folders.

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Breastfeeding in emergencies.

It's been a week of disasters in Burma and China, and I've been thinking a lot about the victims of these horrific events. 

I traveled in Burma in the early 1990's with a good friend.  The country was beautiful (especially Pagan, shown to the right) and the political repression was palpable.  One memory:  My friend became quite ill, and we found a doctor who came to our hotel and treated her.  When we asked how much we could pay her, she refused to accept anything.  We were so grateful for her help, and asked for her address so that we could send her a gift when we got home.  She wouldn't give us her address, telling us that she didn't want to be seen as connected in any way to people outside the country. 

But back to the disasters, and the importance of breastfeeding in emergencies.  In a disaster such as the one in Burma, breastfeeding can be a life-saving act.  Why?  In emergencies formula is often not available.  If it is available, water supplies are often compromised.  Formula mixed with contaminated water can cause diarrhea and dehydration, which can quickly become life-threatening to infants.  Power to sterilize and refrigerate formula is also often not available.

Sometimes, well meaning humanitarian efforts result in such an influx of formula that efforts to protect and support breastfeeding are disrupted.  This is such a concern that in 1994 the World Health Organization adopted the following policy, urging member states to "exercise extreme caution when planning, implementing, or supporting emergency relief operations, by protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding for infants," and to ensure that formula is distributed only under specific conditions.

Still, there is a lot of confusion about the role of breastfeeding in these situations.  INFACT Canada has a great write up taking on myths about breastfeeding in emergencies, which I've posted below:

MYTH 1:  Malnourished mothers cannot breastfeed.

In virtually all cases, a sub-optimally nourished mother can breastfeed her child.  The important response is to feed the mother so that she can feed her child.  It is far safe and more effective to provide nutritional support for the mother than to risk her infant's health by feeding breastmilk subsitutes.  Mothers in these situations need help and support to enable them to breastfeed.

MYTH 2:  Stress makes a mother's milk dry up.

Although extreme stress or fear may temporarily reduce a mother's milk supply, this response is often of short duration.  On the other hand, breastfeeding produces hormones that have a calming effect on mother and baby and creates an inseparable bond between the mother and her child.  There is virtually no abandonment of babies in emergency situations when mother and baby are breastfeeding and kept together.

MYTH 3:  Babies with diarrheal disease need water or tea.

Breastmilk contains about 90% water.  Exclusive breastfeeding provides all the water, nutrition and immunology a baby needs, without the risk of contamination.  Feeding an infant water can introduce disease-causing bacteria and other contaminants, especially if safe water is scarce or unavailable.  It is only in the case of severe diarrhea that infants may need rehydration fluids in addition to breastmilk.

MYTH 4:  Mothers cannot resume lactation once breastfeeding has stopped.

Mothers and babies can restart breastfeeding even after a period of not breastfeeding.  Increased skin-to-skin contact and frequent access to the breast helps to increase milk supply and enables mothers to resume full breastfeeding.  This can be critical for babies during emergencies.

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Making More Milk: Diana West talks about milk supply and answers your questions.

Welcome to another Motherwear Podcast!  This episode features Diana West, IBCLC.  Diana is best known for her work supporting mothers who have had breast surgeries through her website Breastfeeding after Reduction Surgery and her book, Defining your own Success.

Diana is co-author of a new book, The Breastfeeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk, which will be out in December of this year and is available now for pre-order.  This is the first book to focus solely and in great detail on milk supply, and it looks like a wonderful resource.

This interview is divided into two parts.

Part One discusses what determines milk supply, what causes low milk supply, what mothers can do to increase milk supply, and what feelings are common among mothers with low milk supply.  You can listen to it on the player below, or download it.

In Part Two Diana answers your excellent questions about milk supply (shown in the comments section of this post), on topics including the impact of birth on milk supply, suggestions for maintaining milk supply when pumping at work, how stress and periods impact milk supply.  You can listen to it on the player below, download it.

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Happy Mothers' Day!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a great Mothers' Day!

I'm posting pictures here of the very cute babies who came to my breastfeeding support group last week.  It's pretty remarkable that none of them cried for their web debut picture.

If you're looking for a little activism in your Mothers' Day celebration (after all, the holiday began as an effort to promote peace), check out this e-card from Moms Rising and sign their petition to support newly introduced legislation which would provide paid maternity/family leave.

I hope that you all have a wonderful day!

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Bear with me for a moment.

Due to reasons too boring to explain, I'm re-posting a number of past podcasts. 

The podcasts themselves aren't at all boring, though!  I'll shortly be moving them back to their homes in the archives, and you'll be able to find them under the Podcasts category.  Thanks for your patience!

Making More Milk, Part II - Diana West

Part II of an interview with Diana West on milk supply.  Diana answers readers' questions about birth and milk supply, keeping up milk supply while working, and how stress affects milk supply.  Download it.

Hathor the Cow Goddess - Heather Cushman-Dowdee

An interview with the funny and intrepid artist behind the Hathor the Cow Goddess cartoon.  Heather Cushman-Dowdee shares the origins of her cartoon, her own breastfeeding experiences, and how she balances life as an artist and mother.  Download it.

Postpartum Depression and Breastfeeding, Part II - Kathleen Kendall-Tackett

Part II of an interview with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett on breastfeeding and postpartum depression.  The role of inflammation and omega-3 fatty acids, and ways of advocating for breastfeeding-friendly treatment plans are discussed.  Download it.

Postpartum Depression and Breastfeeding, Part I - Kathleen Kendall-Tackett

Part I of an interview with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett on breastfeeding and postpartum depression.  Causes, treatment options, and new research is discussed.  Download it.

MilkShare - Private milk donation - Kelly Faulkner

This episode features Kelley Faulkner, founder and owner of MilkShare, a website on private milk donation. 

Download the podcast to your own player. 

The Milk Memos - Cate Colburn-Smith

An interview with Cate Colburn-Smith, co-author of "The Milk Memos: How real moms mixed business with babies, and how you can, too." Download it.

Lactation cookies.

No, this is not about cookies made with breastmilk, though I wouldn't blame you for thinking so after Monday's post.  It's about cookies that contain ingredients which increase milk supply. 

I baked a batch of chocolate chip, oatmeal "lactation cookies" for my breastfeeding support group this week.  The moms at the group thought that they were really good. 

You can find the recipe on Epicurious if you'd like to try it out.  The recommended "dose" is four cookies a day.  Oh, how I wish someone would write me a prescription for cookies.

Before I talk about the ingredients in these cookies, I should say that these cookies would certainly not be among your first options for increasing supply.  For a list of good ways to increase supply, see this page on kellymom.com, or Dr. Jack Newman's handout on milk supply.

So, what are those special ingredients?  Oats, brewer's yeast, and flaxseed meal.

Oatmeal is a frequently recommended food for increasing milk supply, possibly because it contains iron and nursing mothers are often iron deficient.  It's also a good source of fiber, and I'm told that if you ask a dairy farmer what they do to increase milk yield, they say that they increase fiber intake. 

Brewer's yeast has long been recommended to increase milk supply, though there are some doubts that it does the trick.  It does contain lots of B vitamins - another area where nursing mothers may be deficient.  At a minimum it might give you a bit more energy.  When eaten in large amounts it also might give your baby a "yeasty" smelling diaper, and I'm not sure if it's recommended for mothers who are struggling with thrush.  The recipe said 'no substitutions' for this ingredient, but I couldn't find brewer's yeast in time, so used nutritional yeast instead.

Flaxseed oil (this recipe calls for flaxseed meal) is considered by some to be a galactagogue, but I had a hard time finding much on its effects.  It does contain Omega-3 fatty acids, and many nursing mothers are deficient in that area because our stores are used in breastmilk.  Omega 3s from fish oil are considered a promising therapy for preventing and treating postpartum depression (see the podcast I did on this topic), but the Omega 3s in flaxseed oil are a different form and are not viewed as effective for this purpose.

For more on lactogenic foods, check out this great page on the MOBI Motherhood website!

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Celebrate Motherwear's 25th anniversary with another $25 gift certificate contest.

Motherwear's 25th anniversary continues with another monthly $25 gift certificate contest!

This time we're celebrating Mother's Day by asking you to leave a comment with your favorite advice from your own mom.

Here are a few from my mom that I recall on a daily basis:

When I got overwhelmed: "First things first."
When I was trying to carry too many things:  "Take two trips."
When I lost something:  "Don't forget to look under."

Leave your favorite advice from your mom in the comments section by the end of the day on May 9th.  I'll pick a winner randomly and notify you by email if you've won.  Please remember to use a "real" email address so I can contact you.

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I can buy colostrum at Whole Foods?

I was in Whole Foods last week and did a complete double take.  There, in the supplements section were several brands of colostrum for sale.  And to make it even stranger, next to the colostrum was a bottle of lactoferrin (another component of breastmilk) for sale.

I checked out the bottles and of course found it was bovine colostrum and lactoferrin on the shelf.  But this experience really got me thinking about the complete acceptance we have of cow's milk and the at best uneasy relationship we have with human milk.

As I'm sure you know, we're the only species that drinks another mammal's milk.  I consume it daily in many forms.  But it wasn't until a friend pointed out to me that the milk I drink was made to meet the exact nutritional and immunological needs of a baby cow, that I started to look at my morning cereal differently.  What messages was this milk sending my body about the way to develop, say, a baby cow's brain, or fend off a disease that a baby cow might be subject to in a pasture in another state?

I'm not arguing that we shouldn't drink cow's milk, or that we shouldn't make formula.  But I do object to the squeamishness we have about human milk when cow's milk is treated as normal.  Your thoughts?

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Join the May Carnival of Breastfeeding: Pregnancy and breastfeeding.

May is Pregnancy Awareness Month, and for this month's carnival we're seeking posts on the topic of pregnancy and breastfeeding.

You might write about:

- What you did (or wish you did) in pregnancy to prepare for breastfeeding
- What you thought/are thinking about breastfeeding during your pregnancy
- Your advice to pregnant women about breastfeeding
- Breastfeeding during pregnancy

We'll be looking for posts that are:

• Well written and grammatically correct
• Thoughtful and directly on point for the carnival subject
• Submitted from blogs related to breastfeeding or parenting

Email me your submission by May 20th, 2008.  The carnival will be on Tuesday, May 27th, 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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Breastfeeding rates hit a 20 year high.

New data from the CDC shows that breastfeeding initiation rates hit a 20 year high of 77% in 2006.  And there were especially big gains for African American women.  The Associated Press reports:

About 77 percent of new mothers breast-feed, at least briefly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"It looks like it is an all-time high" based on CDC surveys since the mid-1980s, said Jeff Lancashire, a CDC spokesman...

The percentage of black infants who were ever breast-fed rose most dramatically, to 65 percent. Only 36 percent were ever breast-fed in 1993-1994, the new study found.

For whites, the figure rose to 79 percent, from 62 percent. For Mexican-Americans, it increased to 80 percent, from 67 percent...

The latest CDC report found rates of breast-feeding were also lowest among women who are unmarried, poor, rural, younger than 20, and have a high school education or less.

I should note here that these statistics show an increase in the number of women who initiate breastfeeding.  Sustaining breastfeeding, especially exclusive breastfeeding, is a different story.  But any upward trend is something to celebrate, right?

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And now a message from 1914.

I was just reading The Nursing Mother's Guide to Weaning, which has an interesting introductory section on the age of weaning through history.  This quote put the poster in context:

"...by 1915 [the recommended age of weaning] had declined to seven to eight months.  Several trends coincided, moreover, to make many women wean earlier than recommended and others fail at breastfeeding or never even attempt it.  First, women spent more time away from home; while the Industrial Revolution sent poor women into factories, some wealthy women entered professions, and even more joined volunteer organizations...At the same time, the extreme prudishness of Victorian culture made public breastfeeding inconceivable...

Thanks to Amanda for this one!

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Breastfeeding stand-up.

This clip cracked me up.  Hope you enjoy it!

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