Blog Archives
Terran McCabe: The Air Force Breastfeeding Mom Finally Speaks Out – I Am Not the Babysitter
Here’s a perfect example of how breastfeeding should be viewed, and what’s wrong with how it is often viewed.
Terran McCabe: The Air Force Breastfeeding Mom Finally Speaks Out – I Am Not the Babysitter.
A Global Shortage of Baby Formula! Oh, No!
It’s been in the news lately (see here and here) that tainted baby formula in China has created a global shortage of the good stuff, due to Chinese parents (by the millions, evidently) buying and hoarding reliable European brands.
You’re not going to be surprised at my take on this.
I do feel sorry for all those parents and hungry babies. They are caught in a web, and for most of them, there’s simply no escape. Without formula, the babies will die, or at the very least, become sick or malnourished due to improper substitutes (like plain cow’s milk).
Some will escape the web because their babies are over a year old and are eating enough solid food to survive without formula. Some could escape if the mother is willing and able to put in the struggle to start her own milk up. It can be done, but it’s not easy. It’s also not quick, so wouldn’t solve the immediate problem.
So the world’s current parents are in a seriously difficult spot with no good solutions.
But all you future parents out there? The ones who are pregnant now or hope to be at some future time?
You, folks… you lucky people have a REAL choice. You can relax, smile a small, secret smile to yourselves, and calmly go about your business. Because you have no worries.
Because you can choose to breastfeed.
Right now, before there’s a hungry baby in danger of dying from contaminated formula or from no formula on the grocery store shelves. You can make a choice that will put you forever above the fray, out of the web of bad and worse choices.
Sometime in the weeks before your baby is born, your body… your amazing mammalian body… will start to make milk. At first, it’s this thick, sticky, incredible mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and antibiotics called colostrum. This is exactly the thing a human baby needs for its first few days of life.
Exactly the thing.
Not even the formula companies can claim to do that.
Then, a few days after your little bundle puts in an appearance, that colostrum turns into real, human milk.
For real, human babies.
Isn’t that amazing? Uncontaminated, fresh, always available, always-the-right-temperature, real, human milk.
Did I mention it’s free?
What else can you do with the few thousand dollars you would otherwise spend on formula and baby food? I’m sure you can think of something.
Did you know that your milk changes its composition, depending on the age and health of your baby? You don’t need to buy “infant” formula, then switch to “older baby” formula, then switch to “toddler” formula, or whatever other marketing gibberish the formula companies are putting on the shelves. Within the intimate breastfeeding relationship, your body determines the specific needs of your baby, and adjusts accordingly.
It is amazing.
People, trust the female body. It will never be perfect, but after millions of years of evolutionary trial and error, it’s damn close. It’s miles ahead of anything a scientist can come up with in a food lab. The human female body can feed a human baby without any other additives. You don’t need iron, vitamins, rice cereal (shudder), or anything at all except your breast.
Convenient, perfect, and free.
Learn about it. Practice it. Go hang out with women who are doing it.
And trust your body.
Breastmilk stem cells.
Here’s more reason to breastfeed, but there’s also a big reason to not store your baby’s cord blood. The baby NEEDS that blood. This is also why the cord should not be cut to early. These are just more “common” medical practices that save doctors a few minutes of time per patient.
Corporations Sneak Synthetic Preservatives into Organic Infant Formula – Natural Health – MOTHER EARTH NEWS
“The only commercially available baby formula available in US stores that does not contain these synthetic preservatives is Baby’s Only Organic, manufactured by Nature’s One. Baby’s Only Organic is certified organic by OneCert.”
Boy scouts chairwoman ousted and berated for breastfeeding | BabyCenter Blog
Once again, the ugly head of ignorance and bull-shit has raised up to tell a woman that she should not behave like a woman!
Boy scouts chairwoman ousted and berated for breastfeeding | BabyCenter Blog.
Add Milk and Stir. The Art of Keeping Up
I feel like I need to make it up to you for my last cry-baby post. I don’t really expect all of life to smell like roses. What fun would that be?
Today, I have made waffles, cleaned the family room and guest bathroom (childbirth class tonight), and wrote a tweet. I really need to tweet more, like once a month or so. I can’t promise to ever figure out when I’m going to read anyone else’s tweets, but I’m working on it. Honestly, how is that even DONE?
I still need to do the breakfast dishes, today should be a gym day, I must stop at the grocery store for milk, and get my lesson together for tonight. I should also make muffins for the class. Tonight’s the last class in the series, and I like to send them away with muffins filled with flaxseeds and other things that will build up their milk supply. But I forgot about the muffins, didn’t plan for them, so I don’t have apples or carrots, which are essential. Which means I need to get to the store early today. It occurs to me that I need milk for the muffins, too.
It’s one of those days.
I’m not whining! I’m just busy.
Yesterday I started a new novel, which is silly, considering I have several novels started that need to be finished. But that’s how it is. I find that I have to begin work on a new idea in order to get it established. If I just make a list of wannabe projects, I never get to them. I think it’s part of my aversion to a blank page. As long as the page is blank, it’s likely to stay that way. But if I can get something on the page, then I’ll go back to it. Eventually.
I am, unfortunately, a slow writer. No matter that the current publishing climate demands two or more novels a year. I can’t do it, and if that means I never make a million bucks at this, it’s okay. Part of why I’m doing this gig is because I enjoy it. I don’t mind the stress that comes with it, but I’m not going to force myself in constant misery trying to meet a standard that doesn’t make sense for me.
What about you? How fast or slow do you churn out the works? What’s your level of comfort?
Breastfeeding In Public « (Wo)Men Speak Out’s Blog
Breastfeeding In Public « (Wo)Men Speak Out’s Blog.
A male perspective on breastfeeding. Useful reading.
Banned From Baby Showers: Breastfeeding In Tents
Banned From Baby Showers: Breastfeeding In Tents.
Sometimes I try to avoid a topic, if it’s going to result in a ranting post. So yesterday, I was reading the Mannerup column in USA Weekend (yes, I read advice columns. They are a cheap source of self-esteem building, as in “at least I’m not that stupid). Anyway, yesterday’s question had to do with how to stop women from breastfeeding their babies in public, in this case, an elementary school event.
The question had the steam coming out of my ears. The answer helped reduce some of the steam: essentially, you can’t stop them, because they have a legal right to feed their babies wherever they happen to be.
Then she suggested that the writer talk to the school principal about providing a separate room for breastfeeding mothers.
The steam shot back up and turned purple at that.
Still, I wasn’t going to blog about it. I did snap off an email to the columnist. But then, this morning, there was Banned From Baby Showers, talking about a “breastfeeding” tent at baby fairs. (Don’t ask me what a baby fair is. I don’t know.)
So, okay. I’ll blog about it.
On the surface, it may sound like a good idea. A nice, comfy, quiet place for mom and baby to snuggle and eat. What’s wrong with that?
Well….imagine you’re Mom. You’re at the ball game. Your team is behind by 1, it’s the bottom of the ninth, with 2 outs. There’s a runner on 1st and 3rd, the count is 3 and 2.
(If you have no idea what all that means, just trust me. It’s a tension-filled moment.)
Baby is HUNGRY. It’s not the kid’s fault – little babies have little tummies. When they’re hungry, they’re hungry NOW.
So you, Mom, are banished from the public seats, to feed your baby in the thoughtfully-provided “Mommy Room.” Any decent, moral woman would want to do this, rather than flashing her evil, sexy breasts for everyone to see.
Or say you finally get a lunch date with the long-time gang. It’s been ages since you got to relax and chat. The food has just arrived, and Margo has just launched into a detailed account of her co-worker’s on-the-side affair with a supervisor in accounting…
and baby is HUNGRY.
Bye, ladies. I’m off to the Mommy Room. Don’t eat my fries while I’m gone, ‘k? I’ll eat ‘em cold when I get back.
Are you pulling your hair out yet? Because I am.
Banishing a woman to a separate room for breastfeeding is so… Victorian. Puritanical. Demeaning.
Breastfeeding mothers are smart, capable women, with a life to live. They are social creatures. They are doing something WONDERFUL, and should have the full support of society while they do it.
If you’re out in public, and you see a woman nursing her baby, go on about your business. Chances are, there’s very little to actually see, since mom’s clothes, and the baby itself, are covering most of the skin. But whatever the case, it’s not anything to be concerned about. Just go about your business and let the world keep turning.
And if the kids see it? Bravo. Maybe when they grow up, they’ll understand it’s a completely natural thing, and they won’t have any hangups to get over.
Pastor calls breastfeeding mom a stripper | The Mommy Files | an SFGate.com blog
Let me see if I can put this in language everyone can understand. The first and most important use for breasts is to FEED BABIES. So people, if you have a problem with a woman FEEDING HER BABY, tough shit.
Get over it.
Pastor calls breastfeeding mom a stripper | The Mommy Files | an SFGate.com blog.
