How to keep a woman from breastfeeding.

Hee. Remember when I posted the Ten Steps for Baby-Friendly Hospitals? This is like the Anti-Ten Steps.

"Make sure she doesn't call a La Leche League Leader, Lactation Consultant, breastfeeding peer counselor, or anyone else knowledgable about breastfeeding." This is the last rule and in my opinion the most important. Most breastfeeding problems are culturally manufactured (notice I didn't say cultural! A cracked nipple is biological. But having no one to support proper latch-on can cause that problem.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: breastfeeding is natural, but it doesn't always come naturally. There's this idea that if you can do it with no help it was meant to be, and if not, well, it wasn't, and forget all those breastfeeding nazis and their talk about "instinct". But find me a culture in the world where the majority of women breastfeed without any assistance, advice, or role models. If anything is "unnatural", it's our idea that breastfeeding should occur in a vacuum.

Breastfeeding book giveaway!

I have seen a few great reviews of the new bookBreastfeeding With Comfort and Joy lately. It looks fabulous, just a great way to help women understand breastfeeding not only by talking about it or showing a video of "the perfect latch", but also being able to see many other women breastfeeding in many different contexts.

Now Woman to Woman Childbirth Education is hosting a giveaway...check out how you can enter.

More on breech!

And now hot on the heels of my last breech post comes this fabulous editorial from an Australian newspaper by a woman who asks, among other things, two very important questions:

1) Why do people admire men who climb mountains, but scorn women who have unmedicated births?

2) Why is it so hard to find someone to deliver a breech baby?

I admire her for asking questions and seeking out providers who can give her a second opinion on breech delivery, and I hope she writes again to talk about how her baby's birth goes. I hope many women read this and start asking more questions.

Breech waterbirth

The topic of breech presentation has been coming up for me lately from a few different venues! Someone asked me today what I would do if I had to make the choices of whether to attempt an external cephalic version to turn the baby, whether to schedule a c-section. I know that I would avail myself of acupuncture, chiropractic techniques, somersaults in the pool...every gentle way I could think of to turn the baby! I would have to weigh the risks and benefits of a version, as I would of a c-section.

One of the challenges I would be weighing, though, is how hard it can be to search and fight for the right to vaginal delivery for breech. Even in New York City, where I used to live, doulas would trade around the precious names of the few doctors who did breech deliveries. That's in a city of millions! Upstate, I knew a woman whose midwife wouldn't deliver her breech at home, but helped her find a doctor who would. He was from an African country, and thought breech was perfectly normal. He was happy to deliver her breech baby as he had many other babies in his own country. But you have to be hardworking and lucky to find a practitioner who is experienced with, and willing to do, a breech birth.

And finding a practitioner, of course, depends on you knowing and feeling confident that a breech birth is even possible. I absolutely believe that many people - even those carrying breech babies - do not know that vaginal birth and breech are not mutually incompatible.

Thinking about all this, I started rummaging around on the internets for breech info. I came across this video, and was struck by how beautiful and simple the births were (and exemplify "hands off" breech!) You're able to see breech babies emerge very clearly because of the unique birth tub used, and then you can watch them swim around a little before they're brought up to the surface! The little box that pops up at the beginning says this is in Belgium. I wonder if vaginal breech is common in Belgium, or only at this hospital. I'd certainly feel more comfortable choosing a vaginal breech delivery, though, if I had a great place like that to deliver! And this is proof that vaginal breech can indeed happen, under the right circumstances.

Beautiful story on milk banking

I heard this story was coming down the O Magazine pike, but now it's here and you can read it for free!

Seriously. Read it. Just go.

I love their description of the benefits of human milk - especially for premature babies - and about the amazing commitment it can take to provide it in difficult circumstances. It's also a great discussion of the benefits of milk banking and highlights the work of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA).

Connected to this, at some point soon there are several posts coming on the non-profit/for-profit milk banking debate - I find it really interesting and potentially very important to the future of milk banking.

Eating in labor

Eating during labor is safe and is important to help maintain a mother's energy.

Two responses:

1) Uh, yeah, obviously. But thanks for the evidence!

2) Let's see whether this changes the policy of a single hospital.

I was once with a mom who was so starved during labor that she talked about it while she was pushing, and as soon as she had her baby, she sent her husband out for Taco Bell and then ate a bag full when he brought it back. Imagine being so hungry at the birth of your baby that you think more about food than the fact you're about to meet your child! I was happier to see another mom (a nurse by profession) sneak a Snickers during an induction (I looked the other way). It's sad that women have to either sneak food or starve in labor.

Self-education is essential

Diana at Birthing at Home in Arizona has a nice post up about why you need to self-education (and self-advocate!) in health care. She has a great list of examples of having to do this during her pregnancy. I am often surprised by how willing people are to accept whatever a healthcare professional says. Midwives, doctors, nurses...they're all humans, who can make errors, forget something, or make assumptions, and who can only hold so much knowledge in their heads at one time. We all need to be the experts on our own health in order to best work with care providers!