promote breastfeeding

I just wanted to add this clip from Sesame street somewhere on this site. This is the perfect area. This is a clip from the ‘older’ Sesame Street showing and explaining breastfeeding.

Click here

breastfeeding has sssooooooooo many positive aspects to it for everyone involved. Why not breastfeed. Before I got pregnant and the whole time during, i never thought i could “have somebody sucking on my titty”. But not even five to ten minutes after my 1st and only so far, girl was born, the doctor said ” oh my goodness, she really hungry, you should feed her mommy.” and the nurses started telling me how to breastfeed. So, all whacked out on staidall and from just having a baby, i was like, yeah, sure, ok and i also kinda really feeling like well “my baby needs this”-like what people say about things when your baby is in utero. I did and from the very first time, I swore that i was going to and loved to breastfeed. It was so much simpler than bottles and did not stink like formula. it was natural, and had a large number of benefits for both me and my baby. Never turned back, and have been proudly breastfeeding for a year now, and i am really sad that it will be coming to an end soon. it was definetly not easy at first, there were alot of hurdles, but now it is like second nature, a cake walk.

For moms to be or new moms, I encourage them to breastfeed. I tell them about the difficulties I had in the first few months of my daughter’s life. But, persevering through it was well worth the effort. Working through the “hour long” nursing sessions, the nursing every hour to hour and a half, etc. was well worth it. I realize and accept that breastfeeding isn’t for everyone. I’m not saying that those who don’t breastfeed are somehow losers or not-as-good-moms. I’m definitely not espousing that. It’s just that in the U.S., breastfeeding still isn’t all that encouraged. Doctors do encourage moms to breastfeed, but the reception from the public is still not great.

Martha was impacted our lives in a most positive fashion. I give her a lot of credit for Isabella being provided breastmilk exclusively for the first six months of her life. Though she still has breastmilk (and no formula), I can no longer say she’s breastfed exclusively. I’ve been trying to give her baby cereal and now green beans. Anyways, if we are here, in South Texas, another year, Martha has asked me to give a testimony at some sort of breastfeeding meeting for lactation consultants. Sounds good to me.

last weekend, my husband and i went to the home of one of my former students and his wife. they had a baby a few weeks ago. we made them some lunch while we were there (what all new parents need, meals cooked for them). the wife/mommy and i had a chat about being a mommy. one topic we perused was feeding. she was doing some breastfeeding and more formula. without being a nazi about the breastfeeding thing, i tried to tell her the benefits of breastfeeding. but then, i spent most of the time encouraging her, telling her that she’s doing a good job, that she has what it takes to breastfeed, that the overwhelming exhaustion won’t last forever. yesterday, she wrote me an e-mail to tell me ‘thanks’ and that she’s breastfeeding almost exclusively now. no more problems with her not producing enough milk. yay!!!

B got me a shirt for Christmas that says “Babies suck” and has a graphic of a woman breastfeeding. :)

I saw this billboard on my way home last night. It’s only about 2 miles from my house, in a high-traffic area in Gary! Great that they’re getting the word out not only about it being breastfeeding month, but also that Indiana has a breastmilk bank system!

So the other day, my little Yahoo natural parenting group sent out a little blurb. A woman in the Northwest Indiana Times wrote into the anonymous “BackTalk” section of the paper, where you can rant about things going on in the region.

The original person wrote:

Breast-feed at home

I admire and applaud women who breastfeed, but not when they do it in public. Why didn’t you nurse your baby before you left home? If your baby requires nursing more often than every two hours, why didn’t you pump for this feeding? It makes me sad that some women are taking something beautiful and turning it into exhibitionism.

I wrote in, and my response got published in the paper!!

Here’s my response. It’s signed “Gary” and the title is “Breastfeeding is Beautiful”. A woman that goes to the meetings each month also wrote in. Hers is signed “Valparaiso” right under mine.

I’m so excited! I had to call and tell Adam. He’s going to try to snag a copy of the paper. I can put in my natural parenting binder. :)

Someone sent this link along to me. It’s fabulous and the perfect way to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week!

http://celebritybabies.typepad.com/photos/breastfeeding/index.html?utm_source=CBB&utm_medium=web

Happy world breastfeeding week! (August 1-7, 2006.)