Breastfeeding: A Vision for the Future

United States Breastfeeding Committee aims to increase awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and focuses on nine objectives that must be met in the United States to fully address the barriers faced by mothers.

1. Meet and exceed the Healthy People objectives to increase the proportion of mothers who breastfeed.
2. Implement maternity care practices that foster normal birth and breastfeeding in every facility that cares for childbearing women.
3. Ensure that health care providers provide evidence-based, culturally competent birth and breastfeeding care.
4. Create and foster work environments that support breastfeeding mothers.
5. Ensure that all federal, state, and local laws relating to child welfare and family law recognize the importance of breastfeeding and support its practice.
6. Implement curricula that teach students of all ages that breastfeeding is the normal and preferred method of feeding infants and young children.
7. Reduce the barriers to breastfeeding imposed by the marketing of human milk substitutes.
8. Protect a woman’s right to breastfeed in public.
9. Encourage greater social support for breastfeeding as a vital public health strategy.

The goal is to reach over 15,000 supporters of Breastfeeding: A Vision for the Future. Show your support by signing your agreement with their mission.

Thank you in advance for your support. Together we can make a difference for future generations!

*United States Breastfeeding Committee*
2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202/367-1132
Fax: 202/367-2132
E-mail: office@usbreastfeeding.org
Web: www.usbreastfeeding.org

"Birth is a joyous affair here..."

An interesting article in the New York Times about nurse-midwives at a Native American hospital in Arizona. I especially like the quote: "Midwives are better at being there for labor than doctors are. Midwives are trained for it. It's what they want to do."

Lessons at Indian Hospital About Births

Halloween baby!

After spending four hours in pre-labor at the Bryn Mawr Birth Center, my client decided to down some castor oil... Two hours later, active labor began - rather definitively. She went from moderate contractions that required walking and swaying to sudden intense contractions during which she leaned back hard against her husband as he pressed on her lower back. These contractions involved incredibly voluptuous hip-shaking and some lovely moaning sounds. Between contractions, she rested against her husband's chest; they kissed, nuzzled. The intimacy was strikingly beautiful. At one point during this stage, my client started crying - not because it hurts, she said, but because it is so intense.. (Yes, of course tears came to my eyes too!)
As she progressed, she became more and more vocal with even fuller movement. Between contractions, she had deep laughter and said that she felt almost high. The two of them spent a bit of time in the shower - my client was marching and explained to her husband that she was on a hike they had taken in the Grand Canyon. She kept marching and started laughing really hard about some experience they had involving tuna fish, soda, and kids. While in the shower, the vocalizations she made during contractions really portrayed her progress. They were loud and beautiful and exactly what she needed to get through.
One very intense hour later, a beautiful baby boy was born.
This birth was definitely at the top of my experiences so far. It was thoroughly fun. And I really mean - fun. My client had a difficult first labor and birth. Throughout this experience and many times within the first hour postpartum, she said - this is so much better, this is so much better.
I love being a part of such beauty and intensity...

The Beauty of Breastmilk.

Check out Holistic Moms Network. The following article was published in the autumn 2010 issue of their magazine, The Wise Mom.

wisemom_Breastmilk[1]katewright

Lactation Consultant Layoffs

There have recently been a number of health care layoffs in the Philadelphia area - lactation consultants have been hit especially hard. Following is a letter from an IBCLC, explaining the situation and suggesting that people write letters to the decision-makers in our health system reminding them of the significance of lactation consultants in our hospitals. Addresses follow the letter.. 

Lactation consultants literally save lives as well as encourage current and future health within our communities. Thanks for your support! 

 

As you know, we are in difficult economic times, and health care has been hit along with everyone else. Two weeks ago, on October 6, Main Line Health System announced 105 layoffs throughout the four hospitals in the health system (Lankenau, Bryn Mawr, Paoli, and Riddle). Apparently the decision was made at the corporate level to lay off lactation consultants at all four hospitals; however, the president at Paoli identified that the lactation consultants were important to patient satisfaction and chose not to lay off those positions at Paoli, and the lactation consultant at Bryn Mawr effectively presented the need to keep a lactation consultant at Bryn Mawr. Unfortunately, the lactation consultants were laid off at both Riddle (Kay Hoover, IBCLC) and Lankenau (Michaela Kent, RN, IBCLC and Geraldine Wismer, RN). This means there are no lactation consultants on staff at either Riddle or Lankenau to help mothers and babies at the hospital; it also means that the mother's group that met at Lankenau every Monday and was run by Mickey Kent has been discontinued.

 

I'm sharing this news with you for two reasons: to be aware if you (or anyone you know) is expecting a baby and delivering at one of the affected hospitals that there will be no lactation consultant there to help you; and to encourage you to share your concern about this decision with the top decision-makers at the health system and the hospitals.

 

If you delivered at either Lankenau or Riddle, and received help from the lactation consultants there, write about your personal experiences. If you delivered at Bryn Mawr or Paoli, and received help from the lactation consultants at those hospitals, you might also wish to write. You might address your letters to the appropriate hospital president, and copy the president and CEO of Main Line Health. The contact information is below.

 

Also, some of you know that I also worked as a part-time lactation consultant at Paoli Hospital. I had resigned just prior to the layoffs to be able to focus on my private practice; I didn't know about the layoffs before I resigned, and I now feel free to encourage you to write as I am no longer an employee of Main Line Health.

 

I appreciate your support of lactation professionals!

 

Warmly,

Lisa
------
Lisa Mandell, MBA, IBCLC
www.best4both.com

=============

 

John J. Lynch III
President and CEO, Main Line Health
Bryn Mawr Hospital
130 S. Bryn Mawr Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA  19010

 

Phillip D. Robinson
Interim President
Lankenau Hospital
100 Lancaster Avenue
Wynnewood, PA  19096

 

Gary L. Perecko
President
Riddle Hospital
1068 West Baltimore Pike
Media, PA  19063

 

If you also want to contact Paoli and Bryn Mawr to thank them for keeping lactation consultants on staff and emphasize the importance of doing so, here are those contacts:

 

Barbara Tachovsky
President
Paoli Hospital
255 W. Lancaster Avenue
Paoli, PA  19301

 

Andrea Gilbert
President
Bryn Mawr Hospital
130 S. Bryn Mawr Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA  19010

I am a doula!

Last night was a lovely night so Dan and I sat in our backyard for a while - a fire in the chimenea and leaves falling all around us. As we chatted, we fell on to the topic of my future as a doula. I can't say that I have ever been more excited about a "profession" before. I clearly remember adoring my life as a teacher in South Africa. I was struck by how much I could actually look forward to my work, by how much I could enjoy it on a daily basis - so much so that I asked a good friend of mine to never let me return to a job that didn't suit me, that felt mundane and dry to me. Although I have had a few dry spells since then, I am now in a place of satisfaction. As a doula, I feel excitement. I feel lucky. I look forward to each birth for its unique thrill. Having the opportunity to watch new families blossom during the first few months postpartum is also rather special, an intriguing event that most people do not have the pleasure of taking part in. Each person changes, grows, and figures out how things fit. I am happy to assist them as they emerge.