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