The lactation consultant says, “You have the best chance to provide your baby with the best possible start in life, through the special bond of bresatfeeding. The wonderful advantages to you and your baby will last a lifetime.” And then the mother bottlefeeds. Why?

In this fantastic article by Diane Wiessinger, she offers a new way of talking about breastfeeding.

http://www.het.brown.edu/people/kjp/stuff/watch_your_language.htm

Once you read this article, you’ll never say “breast is best” or talk about the “benefits of breastfeeding” ever again.

Ruth

Everyone needs a bit of help sometimes.

Home-Start is a charity that provides support to families with a young child or children, that are experiencing difficulties.

Perhaps you feel isolated in your community with no friends or relatives nearby.

Perhaps you, your child, or a relative is ill and you are having a hard time coping.

Perhaps you are struggling with the emotional and physical demands of having twins, triplets or more, or of having many children at a young age.

Perhaps there are other problems - practical or emotional - and you feel you are struggling.

Home-Start can help. Home-Start has trained volunteers with parenting experience who can visit you on a confidential basis and assist with whatever it is you need. They can provide a shoulder to cry on; maybe read to your children, maybe give you support to make or keep medical appointments, maybe find out about and even take you to activities locally so you can make new friends. You don’t have to pay for the help and it is totally non-judgemental.

You can find your nearest Home-Start by phoning 0800 068 6368 or by going to www.home-start.org.uk/findus.

Home-Start sometimes run groups for parents with young children if you feel that one-to-one support is not for you.

As an example, Home-Start in Knowsley helps with running a fabulous breastfeeding support group at the local Whiston Hospital. The group runs every Friday morning from ten until twelve; partners, grandparents and older children are always welcome. There is no need to book; you can just turn up on the day. A variety of support is available from midwives and breastfeeding counsellors to peer support from other Mums.

To find out more about Home-Start Knowsley call 0151 480 3910 or go to www.homestartknowsley.org.uk. To learn about the group at Whiston Hospital go to http://www.sthk.nhs.uk/library/documents/patientinformationdropinclinicnickijones4.pdf (opens a pdf document in a new window).

Ruth

You know the advert I mean. Thankfully I’ve not seen it for a while, but you may remember it. The one that basically implies that you can only have the perfect partner / father if you feed your baby a certain brand of artificial baby milk.

One of the many things that angers me about the advert is how clever it is; a byproduct of how much money and time has been spent in designing it and making it.

And how much time and thought, by comparison, goes into breastfeeding adverts in the UK, particularly in England? Not much!

It was getting me down, so I wrote this:

http://theperfectlatch.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/an-alternative-to-that-advert/

it starts like this:

<Gorgeous bloke massaging partner’s shoulders as she breastfeeds the newborn baby>

“I promise to support you in your decision to breastfeed, and never to suggest that any problems would be easily solved with a bottle.”

<Picture of said bloke cooking hot casserole as partner nurses the baby>

“I promise to “mother” you, as you mother our baby, and never to hassle you about household chores.”

Just imagine what we could do, if we had the same budget and the same access to top advertising companies that the artificial baby milk companies do!

And if you do see the original advertisement on TV again - don’t forget to complain. Maybe one day the ASA will have to listen!

Ruth

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/robots/dn12980-androids-in-pain-and-breastfeeding-baby-bots.html

15:48 29 November 2007
NewScientist.com news service
New Scientist staff and Reuters

Japan’s premier robot event offers visitors the chance to find a high-tech ping-pong opponent, see an android dental patient twitch in pain, and to nurse baby robots in the same afternoon.

Showcasing around 1000 industrial and service robots, the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo confirmed Japan’s enthusiasm for robots, many of which manufacturers hope to adapt to the needs of an ageing population.

Employees of Yamazaki Educational Systems, for example, were busy nursing four baby robots who cried and burped enthusiastically. The $620 robots are meant to help teach soon-to-be parents how to care for infants.

“Opportunities to see kids in society are decreasing,” says company representative Kaoru Nukui, referring to the sharp fall-off in births in Japan that means many families have only one child.

“The way students would touch a baby would be completely different once they have looked, touched, and experienced this ‘baby’,” he adds, before demonstrating a nipple-like sensor that can be used to “breast feed” each baby.
Programmed pain

Nearby, a female android on a dentist’s chair also drew the crowds. Simroid, a $635,000 android, was developed by Japanese company Kokoro as a dummy patient for dental students. See a video of Simroid in action here.

“That’s painful!” Simroid says, twitching and blinking when a student pressed her teeth too hard with a tool. Her chest also rose and fell as if she was breathing.

“Previous dummies … looked obviously different from humans, so the students may have been a little careless,” says Satoshi Uzuka of the Nippon Dental University Hospital, which co-developed the android. “They are now as tense as when treating a real patient.”

I was at the two breastfeeding demonstrations on Parliament Square on 18th and 21st July.

We sang my campaign song, which was inspired by Morgan Gallagher who organised the Monday BF picnic. Feel free to use it, as long as you mention my name!

Protect my baby, protect me (tune: It’s a long way to Tipperary)

Please protect me, protect my baby at our breastfeeding time,

for it keeps us both fit and happy, and it should not be a crime.

We ask the nation’s leaders injustice to reject;

please protect me, and protect my baby, and show us respect!

Alison Blenkinsop

In those early days with a new baby, the help you need is not “let me take the baby off you while you have a rest get on with the housework” but is rather “let me do some housework for you while you get on with nursing and bonding with your baby”. It’s difficult to ask for help though so the wonderful Diane Wiessinger, lactation consultant and LLL Leader, has come up with this:

http://www.normalfed.com/Starting/refrig.pdf

Print it off, fill it out, stick it to your fridge or other prominent position, and people will - hopefully - get the hint!

Fit to Bust - Alison Blenkinsop IBCLC - a unique celebration of motherhood and breastfeeding.
ISBN 978-1-906206-89-5 £9.99
Release date 1 August 08

Fit to Bust is a comic treasure chest of songs, stories, jokes, cartoons and fascinating titbits of information about breastfeeding and related subjects. Its aim is to raise awareness of the value of mother’s milk and financial support for Baby Milk Action, which works to protect both breastfeeding and formula-fed babies and is a member of IBFAN. It will appeal to expectant parents and nursing mothers, older parents, health professionals, breastfeeding support workers, and anyone with an interest in ensuring that parents receive unbiased information on infant feeding.

Alison Blenkinsop is a musician, songwriter, and member of Lactation Consultants of Great Britain.

Here is a snippet from the book:

There’s no place like home (tune: taken from ‘Consider yourself‘ from Oliver!)
Deliver yourself at home!
Deliver yourself, surrounded by family;
contractions will be so strong
we’re sure your labour will not be long.
No need to pack your bags and trundle off to hospital,
meeting people you don’t know;
with all the lights and noise and strangers coming in and out,
labour’s likely to be slow.
If factors of risk are small
and you’re in the best of health,
with confidence and privacy and midwife’s skill,
deliver your babe by yourself!

www.linkable.biz/page7.htm

This really is the present for the breastfeeding mum who has everything.

A beautiful hand crafted fairy made from silk flowers boasts an impressive chest and holds a new baby in her arms.

Her legs bend so you can get her to sit down (much more comfortable for feeding!).

She is approx 250mm tall and suspended from a thread from the top of her head.

Not a toy! Not for under 3 yr olds.

http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.2403774.0.mums_make_breastfeeding_stand_in_parks.php

There are some scary comments on this news item including:

“yet again a bunch of do gooders wanting to make a point-do they not realise that in this day and age with all the perverts that get off on this are going to be attracted to this kind of crap. get a life-i am a women with 3 children and beleive that this should not be done in public-if they need to go out then express it and put it in a bottle. I think they are a bunch of perverted women who get turned on by a baby sucking on a tit in public and men watching and when they are still letting the baby suckle at 1 year plus should be classed as paedophilia”

and

“Well said Dan. I do not object to breastfeeding,i do object to seeing it when i am walking through a park though. What next….. Sex in public in front of children because it is a human right???? Oxfords bored overpaid hippies need to really recognise what they are doing to this city in the long term.”

and to top it all

“What about my rights - I want to be able to have a swift one off the wrist on a bus - masterbation is a natural act so why am I discriminated agianst

make you voice known vist wankingonthebus.com

and vote to petition governemnt
”

dickheads!

Lisa

Nursing Matters - www.nursingmatters.org.uk
..advocating for breastfeeding babies.
.. everywhere

Nursing Matters is an advocacy organization working on supporting, protecting and aiding breastfeeding infants.

Breastfeeding is a global issue and we recognize that whilst much of our direct work is within the UK, breastfeeding priorities and issues cannot be dealt with solely at local levels. Therefore we work where, and when, and in whatever way, infants need us to.

We campaign directly on behalf of all breastfeeding infants; to ensure their human rights are upheld by all agencies, statutory or otherwise, who deal with the infants and their families.

We will support any and all other breastfeeding support agencies in furthering awareness and support of breastfeeding priorities.

We offer practical support on breastfeeding matters for breastfeeding infants whose mothers, or mothers to be, are disadvantaged economically and politically, by immigration and asylum policies.

We do not provide lactation support for individual mothers and their breastfeeding babies, but will liaise with the organizations which do so, in order that each and every breastfeeding baby gets the practical help and support they and their mother require.

We are a voluntary organization and as such are dependent on donations and fund raising in our work. We adhere strictly to The WHO/UNICEF International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, and will not work, liaise or enter into sponsorship with any company or individual that breaks Code in any way.

If you are a mother in need: contact us for help and advice.

If you are interested in donating supplies and/or money: contact us here.

If you wish to join our organisation and help mothers in need: contact us here.