You are currently browsing the archives for the Breastfeeding Advocacy category.
I love to see breastfeeding campaigns. Raising awareness and normalizing breastfeeding is a worthy cause.
Here is a great collection of campaigns, compiled by babble.com, from all around the world.
I particularly love these ones from the Ontario Human Rights Commission:
Did you see any breastfeeding campaigns in your area? Did they impact your breastfeeding choices?
Did you have your baby at a “baby friendly” hospital? I’m sure we would all love to say, of course! What kind of hospital isn’t baby friendly? Unfortunately, too many. In 1991, UNICEF and the World Health Organization launched the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative to encourage hospitals to be places of breastfeeding support. Again, one wonders why hospitals aren’t already the biggest supporters of breastfeeding?!
There are 10 specific steps that are needed to be followed to be designated Baby Friendly. The hospital also must not accept free or low-cost breast milk substitutes.
I moved to a new city three months into this pregnancy. I wanted to get a doctor and get one fast. It wasn’t until after I had been accepted as a patient that I looked into the hospital in any depth. Lucky for me, this hospital has recently been designated Baby Friendly, the first in Montreal. We had our tour of the labour ward yesterday, which they call the birthing center:) After an extensive, two hour lesson on what to expect in terms of breastfeeding in the 36 hour hospital stay (average time after a vaginal delivery), I feel very excited about their breastfeeding policies.
We are four weeks from our due date. As the nervous excitement for labour day increases, I am feeling pretty good about our chances of having a natural, non-medicated hospital birth, although this is not dictated anywhere in the baby friendly initiative. I am even more confident that I will get immediate skin to skin with my baby and a good start on my breastfeeding journey.
Did you give birth at a baby friendly hospital? What was your experience like?
Here is an excellent article about the Baby Friendly Initiative and it’s progress and role in American hospitals
I have never been much of a resolution maker. I tend to contemplate the year ahead, but I rarely commit to anything!
This year I do have something that I am determined to commit to. I am four weeks away from my due date with my first baby. It isn’t losing the baby weight or getting the babe to sleep through the night by X month. It isn’t to purée my own organic baby food or become a super famous mommy blogger:) My resolution is to breastfeed.
To be sure to attain this goal, here are my specific resolutions:
– Have immediate skin to skin after delivery
– Join my local La Leche League. I want to be surrounded by supportive, knowledgeable women.
– Seek help. I know this most natural and instinctive relationship can have quite the learning curve at the beginning and I want to be ready to tackle any hurdle that comes our way. I have a list of lactation consultants already on hand.
– Breastfeed exclusively for the first six months.
– Embrace this new relationship, even when it seems consuming and overwhelming (and possibly painful). I want to remember to take a deep breath and look down at my little one when it all seems too much. I am nurturing a human being. We are building a relationship of trust and comfort.
– When I am comfortable and confident, breastfeed in public. I don’t imagine I will be going anywhere to soon, having a baby in February in Montreal, but as soon as we start to thaw I want to be out and about! Rather than schedule my life around a feed, I want to embrace the mobility of breastfeeding and get out there.
– Follow my child’s lead in regards to weaning. Reference WHO recommendations and breastfeed as long as is mutually beneficial (this is more of a resolution for 2013!)
Here is a wonderful pledge to promote judgement-free breastfeeding. We all need to help each other out and support one another. Here is an excerpt of the pledge:
I PLEDGE to keep my ego in check, while treating other breastfeeding boosters, lactation facilitators, breastfeeding organizations, and mothers respectfully, knowing that we’re all working toward the common goal of providing breast milk for babies.
I affirm that my time is best spent directing my positive, encouraging support toward helping mamas successfully breastfeed.
I PLEDGE to agree that there are many right ways to breastfeed a baby. There isn’t a “wrong way” as long as the breast milk is flowin’ and the baby is growin’.
I think these words are just wonderful. Hopefully most of us have already adopted them as a perspective, but there’s no harm in reminding ourselves every once in a while:)
Check out the full pledge and sign it here.
I love this! It would make a great onesie! Check out the other fun breastfeeding slogans at www.lactivist.co.uk
What’s your favourite breastfeeding slogan?
They are hard to find, but here is a great collection of breastfeeding ads from babble.com. They span the decades.
I love this one. It’s part of a series from Canada published in the 1990′s.
The small print says “you’ve got what it takes to make a healthy baby and it doesn’t cost a thing”
Have you seen a great breastfeeding ad around your town, in a magazine or online? Please share!
I found this slogan on pinterest. I love it!
What do you say if or when someone asks you not to breastfeed in public??
I am due with my first child in two months. There are so many things I am looking forward to, but… I don’t like drawing attention to myself, making people uncomfortable or being insecure. What I really don’t like is that these things are often associated with breastfeeding in public!
I am truly excited for the breastfeeding relationship only I will be able to have with my child. Because of my work on this blog and my involvement with an amazing community of online breastfeeding mothers, I feel that I will confidently breastfeed in public. I just hope that if (or when, as it seems more often) I run into negative reactions I will remember this “confidence” I have now!
Last month there was an article about a Michigan judge that deemed breastfeeding (discreetly in the back of his courtroom) “inappropriate”. Read the article here. It seems everyday I read about more women feeling embarassed or belittled when breastfeeding in public. Breastfeeding is normal!! I don’t want to breastfeed in public to make a statement of my rights and responsibilities. I want to breastfeed because that is what is best for my child.
I would like to see this stop being an issue. Bottle-feed or breastfeed, the idea is that if you are out with your baby you should not feel weird about feeding it!
Do you feel comfortable breastfeeding in public? How do we make breastfeeding the cultural norm?
I am in research mode. I have hit twenty-two weeks in my pregnancy and I am devouring any and all information I can to help me with my plan to have a natural childbirth. I have discovered that I want a doula.
Here is the role of a birth doula from DONA International:
Studies have shown that when doulas attend birth, labors are shorter with fewer complications, babies are healthier and they breastfeed more easily. That sounds good to me!
It seems imperative to have a doula in my situation: wanting a natural birth in a hospital. A doula can help me make informed decisions in the moment, based on my true desires. Ideally, I would like to be in a birthing center with a midwife (I’m on a few waiting lists…), but I feel confident that if everything is going well in my labour that I can have an intervention-free birth in a hospital. I just have to be prepared. That is why my husband and I have asked my mother to take on the role of our doula. Luckily for me, my mother has recently trained to be one! I was going to have her in the room anyway! But, trust me, she is going to be my doula, not my mother in this instance.
A postpartum doula provides service to the family after the birth. The role of a postpartum doula is to “do whatever a mother needs to best enjoy and care for her new baby. A large part of their role is education. They share information about baby care with parents, as well as teach siblings and partners to “mother the mother.” They assist with breastfeeding education. Postpartum doulas also make sure the mother is fed, well hydrated and comfortable.” – DONA International. This extra support could be instrumental in making the transition from couple to family. I am making sure my mom sticks around for a few days!
Did you have a birth doula? How would you describe her role in your labour and delivery?
Did you have a postpartum doula? What kind of things did she do?
DONA International Birth Doula FAQ’s
DONA International Postpartum Doula FAQ’s
The Doula Guide to Birth: Secrets every pregnant woman should know by Ananda Lowe and Rachel Zimmerman
With Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, I wondered how breastfeeding mothers fair at such family events. I am not due until February, so I will not be breastfeeding at the two biggest family gatherings this year. Let’s say I’m preparing for Easter!
It would seem to me (as an eager mom-to-be), that a family gathering should be a welcoming and supportive place to breastfeed. But then again a part of me imagines it is more comfortable to breastfeed in front of a busload of strangers than while trying to have a conversation with my father-in-law. Family members also seem far too comfortable putting in their two cents about how you should raise your child. A mother wrote this plea on a forum recently “Help with opinionated MIL….” I love the responses. It’s not just mother-in-laws! Friends and family often offer suggestions (er, criticism) on all topics of parenting.
Norman Rockwell painting
So how do you deal with it? What are your tips for surviving family events without awkwardness and debate?
Happy Thanksgiving Canada!
En boutique | Vente en gros | © 2012 Vêtements d’allaitement Momzelle | Sitemap | RSS Feed
