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Breastfeeding Menu – Lactivist slogan design on t-shirts and more!

Lactivist pro breastfeeding slogan MenuBreastfeeding menu, when all course are Boobs and house left or house right is an excellent vintage. This slogan is available worldwide on Cafe Press and Zazzle on many different products including mugs, hats, t-shirts for adults and a lot more!

Lactivist at Zazzle

Lactivist on Cafe Press

Ask Aunty Lactivist – Depressed only at the start of breastfeeding

Aunty Lactivist is all of us, mums who can help with experience, advice or links to websites they have found useful.

Please leave a comment below if you can help.

Dear Aunty Lactivist

I’m currently feeding my 4month old son who is my second child (my first was booby fed until she was 20 months) and I LOVE breastfeeding with a passion! Mummy milk truly does rock. 

But I have a secret…Every time I have ever fed either of my babies, breastfeeding has made me feel depressed :-(

I know what you’re thinking, how can I love it and be depressed at the same time? Well I only feel depressed for the first 30 seconds – 1 minute of each feed. I also feel nauseous and excessively thirsty. These feelings overwhelm me when I begin feeding. They literally hit me like a ton of bricks. But then after a minute they start to go away gradually and I can enjoy the time with my baby. At the beginning of each feed I can feel a variety of feelings from depression and anxiety to anger and frustration for no apparent reason! I often find myself just closing my eyes and breathing deeply until it passes. I also experience this right before each spontaneous let down. But I have nothing to feel upset or depressed about! I am generally quite a happy person.

What is wrong with me? Am I alone? 

Why is this happening and can I fix it? Or am I just a freak of nature?

Please help!

Online Breastfeeding Baby Games

www.kiddiesgames.com/en/games/breastfeed_dress_baby.swf

This is what the Kiddies games site has to say about these brilliant games for small children.

“Babies, with their special newborn reflexes, usually pick up breastfeeding very quickly, especially if they nurse in the first hour after birth when they are in a special period of alertness. These games are not for teaching breastfeeding to babies!

Paraphenalia and images about babies these days usually involve bottles, diaper pins and pacifiers for sucking. A more natural and lovelier image however is that of breastfeeding.

The following games practise fun concepts and with their beautiful happy images of breastfeeding babies, they also present more natural images of babies than what they may see in mainstream media or products.

Many babies are breastfeed these days. However, with the amount of research into the overwhelming amount of breastfeeding benefits, educational levels and availability of information in our societies, it is surprising that many babies are still not breastfed, or are not breastfed for very long.

Perhaps some people and their entourage still find breastfeeding not quite natural or convenient.

KiddiesGames.com is making its small contribution to this situation by featuring breastfeeding games! Children will see breastfeeding in the decor of these games, as if it is a natural every day activity, which it is.

Or, you can ignore the above musings. Just put your infant on your lap and have fun clicking colors and learning left and right!”

There are games to teach colours in English, French and Spanish and one to teach left and right in different languages too. Great idea!

Lisa

Does your Little Lactivist have a picture in the Hall of Fame?

It makes me so happy to see pictures of little Lactivists wearing their t-shirts and hats. I’ve been collecting customers pictures for a long time now, though I lost hundreds of them when my last computer died a tragic death.

Can you see your little Lactivist in the gallery? I’ll add more as I can and if you want to send in any others please just email them to me at moomum@lactivist.co.uk, or post them on the Lactivist Facebook Page – I always check for permission to use images on the Lactivist websites but if you have changed your mind that is no problem, just let me know and I’ll remove any you want me to.



Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Breastfeeding is the food of love – organic fairly traded t-shirts at Lactivist.

Breastfeeding is the Food of Love t-shirts at LactivistThis wonderful design is by the very talented Kate Evans who wrote The Food of Love

Professionally screen printed in pink and black ink on 100% unbleached cotton long sleeved fairly traded t-shirts with envelope shoulders.

Allowing for slight variations they are like this:

The size 3-6mth long sleeved lap t-shirt measures:

  • 50cm (20 inches) around the chest
  • 24cm (9 inches) from back of neck to hem
  • 68cm (27inches) from cuff to cuff

The size 6-12mth long sleeved lap t-shirt measures:

  • 54cm (21.5 inches) around the chest
  • 28cm (10.5 inches) from back of neck to hem
  • 73cm (29 inches) from cuff to cuff

The size 12-18mth long sleeved lap t-shirt measures:

  • 64cm (25 inches) around the chest
  • 29cm (12 inches) from back of neck to hem
  • 83cm (33 inches) from cuff to cuff

These T-shirts should be washed at 40 degrees and tumble dried on a low heat setting.  Since the t-shirts are not coated in anti-shrink chemicals, sizes are large to accomodate possible shrinkage of 5%. 

Why buy organic? Apart from the benefits to the environment with no chemicals being used in production, organic cotton feels great. It is incredibly soft as the fibres are plumper than normal cotton, It’s difficult to describe in words the ‘wow’ feeling you get when you see these t-shirts in the flesh and can feel how soft and gentle on the skin they are. Try one, in the unlikely event that you will not like it I offer a non quibble money back guarantee.

www.lactivist.co.uk

Nursing Bra Bargains if you pre-order from BoobieMilk in Feb 2013

The lovely Karen who runs Boobie Milk (who are fantastic Lactivist sponsors) emailed me to say

“There are a few end of season styles available from BoobieMilk right now from the Hotmilk range and I thought I would share it with your followers as I will be placing orders Friday at noon.

£20 for the nursing bra and £25 for the set (not all sizes are available) in the following styles -

In the Spotlight – A 3/4 cup nursing bra with side sling in a pale pink 32-38 B-F, Bikini S-XL

Angel Divine – A full cup nursing bra with side sling in a pale pink satin and cream lace 32-38 C-G, Bikini S-XL

Dusk, Chic and Show Off are available at £25 for the nursing bra and £30 for the set if pre-ordered.

This price is only available on pre-orders, email karen.mccully@gmail.com to place your order.

The link to the images on my facebook page is  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.437350469675471.101034.133056260104895&type=3

 

New Animal Jingle Nursing Necklace at Lactivist

Nursing Necklaces at LactivistThe Animal Jingle Nursing Necklace  is the latest addition to the range of breastfeeding jewellery handpicked and specially chosen for www.lactivist.co.uk.

It consists of brightly coloured beads of many different colours, sizes and textures including animal and bells! (Your necklace may vary from the photograph shown due to the availability of beads.)

This necklace would make a fantastic gift for an expectant mum, a baby shower or for your own baby

Babybeads necklaces are specifically made with safety in mind from fun colourful and attractive non-toxic acrylic beads.
The necklaces are strung on ultra strong waterproof cord (not fishing line like some other necklaces on the market) tested to 100lbs (approximately 45kg) breaking strain and are knotted to minimise loss of beads in the unlikely event of a breakage. The necklace is secured very strongly using a unique knotting method.

For a much larger range of breastfeeding jewellery please visit www.lactivistbling.co.uk

Boobcakes! Pancakes the Lactivist way!

This is how Lactivists celebrated pancake day last year! Pancakes that look like boobs!

Boobs, mums and babies made out of pancakes! Pancakes in a bra! Strawberry aereolas and nipply bits! One mum said her daughter looked at her boob pancakes and said  “not your boob though mummy. Thanks for making my boob food!”

Thank you to everyone who sent in pictures for the Lactivist Facebook Wall!

Names for formula feeders v names for breastfeeders

names people call formula and breastfeeding mumsThe list of names that breastfeeding mums get called was taken from the media, from recent articles, in the 21st Century. The only derogatory term I could think of for a formula feeding mum was a DFF – a Defensive Formula Feeder and I haven’t seen that in the press anywhere.

Now much as I like to take a ladder to get up on my high horse and view my moral highground I really wish the imbalance of names wasn’t true. It’s really truly awful being linked to the Holocaust, it’s unneccesary and it’s disrespectful to those that lived and died through it.

I wish that names were not called and we could just get on with it.

Media, listen up and stop being nasty little children, play nice.

Are you the Breastapo?

1 point for each yes answer

  1. You only breastfeed to annoy other people
  2. You only breastfeed because it might make people feel guilty or bad
  3. You only breastfeed to embarrass people
  4. When you breastfeed you get as much flesh out as possible because you like showing off your body
  5. When you see a formula feeding mum you point and shout ‘witch, witch, burn them’
  6. When you see a formula feeding mum you shout at them and tell them they are abusing their child
  7. When you breastfeed you like to take all your clothes off and get as close to nature as possible to proove your earth mother credentials no matter where you are
  8. When you see a formula feeding mum you tell them they should be ashamed to call themselves a mother
  9. When you see a formula feeding mum you assume they cannot read
  10. You force your baby to breastfeed
  11. You breastfeed because you are trying to keep your toddler a baby longer

How many did you answer yes to? None? How many would the most millitant Lactivist answer yes to? None? Maybe we are just too busy getting on with our own lives to make our feeding choices about other people.

Maybe when we see a formula feeding  mum who says she couldn’t breastfeed we think that the system has failed, not her and it’s a shame there is not more funding around to help them because 99% of mums can physically breastfeed.

Maybe when we see a mum who has chosen to formula feed we can understand that there are many reasons why people choose not to breastfeed, though we believe that some people assume that formula is as good for the baby as breastmilk and that is the fault of the heavy marketing campaigns the formula companies spend millions on.

A lot of the answers to the quiz above were taken from real insults and assumptions thrown at breastfeeding mums on Facebook. Lactivist was started in response to negative comments about breastfeeding, comments I would never feel ok about bouncing back to a formula feeding mum as I have in the not so funny quiz here.

I’m not the Breastapo, I’m merely fighting my corner against huge cultural criticism, lack of acceptance and assumptions about what I believe.

I don’t breastfeed to make anyone feel bad. Get over it.

Lisa

 

 

Do you think sexual images in magazines have an effect on breastfeeding rates?

I am writing to you as I am currently researching the effect that sexual images in magazines has on breast feeding.

I have a campaign called Child Eyes which aims to remove sexual images from children’s sight. During this work I have noticed that images such as The Sun page three are widely available and I wonder how this makes women feel.

Personally, I have a four month old daughter. I tried to breast feed but during the first two weeks we had constant visitors and I was constantly trying to hide my breasts. I stopped breast feeding at one month. I think that if attitudes were different in this country I may not have been so conscious.

As I am aware consciously and subconsciously that some men ogle breasts and this is acceptable. I wonder if there is a way of asking breast feeding mother’s what their view is on page three and other publications that are widely available. The kind of material that depicts women’s breasts as sexual objects. Could Lactivist help with this research at all.

Kind regards Kirsty Hopley

ChildEyes@ChildEyes1 on Twitter and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Child-Eyes/146813545474207

You can email Kirsty on yourchildeyes@hotmail.com or leave a comment on the Lactivist Blog or Facebook page. Or tweet her.

 

Penkridge Breastfeeding Support Group

Penkridge Breastfeeding Support Group meets every Thursday Morning

Penkridge Children’s Centre, Saxon Road, ST19 5EP.

Thursdays 9.30 – 11.30

like us on facebook, follow us on twitter

penkridgebuns@aol.co.uk

penkridgebuns.moonfruit.com

 

This group has been set up to give help and support to breastfeeding mothers and mothers-to-be in and around Penkridge.

 

The group is ran by peer supporters with support from the health visiting team and an NCT breastfeeding counsellor who is present most weeks.

 

A library is available, along with a cup of tea and a friendly face!

 

We are on facebook, too:  Penkridge Breastfeeding Support.

Breastfeeding is so much more than just milk by Amanda Rayment

These words “breastfeeding is so much more than just milk” are words I read on Jack Newman’s face book posting, straight away my thought was I couldn’t of said it better. Such simple words, there is more to breastfeeding than just milk and yet to me they are profound. Why because whenever I hear the word “more” it activates a sign post if you like to come to the presence we all share within ourselves our true nature, Love. It reminds me that there is another way to see this; yes of course breastfeeding provides milk for the child, to enable the infant to grow in terms of the physical body. So what is the more and is the more needed?

For me the more is like a doorway into another awareness, that there is something more in this instance than the survival needs of the body. Breastfeeding can be an opportunity to encounter and experience a well known saying of truth in the giving we receive. When a mother surrenders to the needs of her child in a way that takes her out of comfort zone in terms of daily and nightly routines, also sometimes her physiological and emotional patterns, a tenderness arises in her that she may not have fully recognised before. This willingness to see the needs of another as equal to her own needs can be the opening to the recognition of shared interests. When we are willing to look for joinings with others rather than differences we discover true shared interests are all of love. If we peel the layers off all our desires and needs be they bodily, emotional or spiritually, the bottom layer is always the same for everyone our yearning to know we are loved, loveable and capable of loving others.

In the action of breastfeeding the mother can allow love to unfold by recognising giving and receiving are one. That by the mother learning to offer her self through the breastfeeding, the needs of the child are fulfilled both in terms of hunger for the body’s nutritional needs and at the authentic level of our yearning for love. This fulfilment comes full circle in that by the mother offering love this begins to be recognised within her. How could she offer something she doesn’t already have within her, it is not possible? In the giving we receive, another way to say this could be to know love give love.

In my experience it is not easy to learn of love through anything other than direct experience. What I have found to be of assistance is to recognise what is not of love, and to let go of any of  these thoughts through using the practice of forgiveness and then love reveals itself as having always been there. How does this relate to breastfeeding? For the breastfeeding mother to notice when it feels hard work, feels like sacrifice and feels hopeless. To stop for a moment, reassess why she is breastfeeding, to be as honest as she can be with her self. There is no right or wrong answer here, just a loving answer. If we do not want to breastfeed or it feels beyond our means in this moment how can it be love to force our selves? To suffer for another is one of the many myths of what love is.  So  may be the loving answer is sometimes, to let go of breastfeeding, to remember the more that is available with breastfeeding is also available with bottle feeding equally . Nothing about love is partial, love is whole and complete and includes everyone all of the time. So we can conclude that love is not just available to breastfeeding babies and mothers.

It sounds  as though I am contraindicating myself after saying there is more to breastfeeding than just milk and then to suggest to let go of breastfeeding in some encounters. What I am saying is the more that is available to breastfeeding is not exclusive to breastfeeding. If it is, it is not love. So yes I am a committed fan of breastfeeding and overjoyed to assist women who desire to breastfeed and support the ethos of breastfeeding in our culture. This commitment is always as a means of expressing and extending love so this has to include mothers who do not breastfeed.

Yes there are going to be times when most breastfeeding mothers experience tiredness, overwhelm and sometimes symptoms of discomfort, often these come and go in the journey of breastfeeding. In these instances the mother may notice her commitment to breastfeeding stays strong and assistance arises in many different forms maybe a dear friend or practitioner, a cup of herbal tea or spending time doing something that makes her heart sing. In other words the mother comes back to herself after recognising her mistaken thoughts of difficulty. Or sometimes the mistaken thought grasps a tight hold and the returning to her self is more challenging. Again there is the opportunity to return home within her self.

The more is always the opportunity to return to love, the love for the child, the love for her self , Love. So yes our children have nutritional needs which if we listen to our hearts we will be shown how best to fulfil such needs, but let us not miss the true blessing of what our children bring to teach ourselves and our children that love is what is real. For me this what the sign post of more is directing me to what is true what is real what is natural what is Love.

Amanda Rayment

www.welcomeworldcafe.com

 

Big Sale of nursing bras at Boobiemilk, prices from £5!

Karen from www.boobiemilk.co.uk who are lovely Lactivist sponsors is off to Texas for Christmas so she is  having a clear out of stock,

All of the bras, tops and briefs that are end of season or end of my stock are listed on the website with prices starting at only £5. Take a look and bag a bargain.

http://www.boobiemilk.co.uk/featuredproducts.php?p_id=120

Sale Nursing bras in sizes -
30 B/C/D
34 C/D
34 G
38 F
38 D
42 C

Hotmilk Luminous and Eclipse styles are £37.50 for a matching set of nursing bra and bikini briefs.

Please use TEXAS to remove the shipping on your order at checkout.

Gift ideas from Lactivist – Mugs promoting breastfeeding, babywearing and cloth nappies!

Lactivist mugs are nicely sized and dishwasher proof – they are made in Eastern Europe and printed in Bristol.
The images are heat pressed so the artwork is embedded into the ceramic mug. They won’t fade and they are dishwasher safe. They have been tested for months in a dishwasher with no deterioration in quality.

Stock levels are pretty good at the moment but I’m unlikely to get more printed before Christmas so get them while you can! I’ve got the ever popular Breastfeeding Bingo in stock as well as the classic Keep Calm and Carry on Breastfeeding or for babywearers Keep Calm and Carry your Baby.

There are very small quantities of the Kate Evans special mugs in stock too which along with her book ‘The Food of Love‘ would make the most wonderful present for any breastfeeding mum.

Mugs are £9.50 including postage and the come packaged in sturdy post proof boxes.

www.lactivist.co.uk

Lactivist Sponsor of the Month – Nov 2012 – The Birthing Shirt Company – Wheat Bags to give Comfort

The Birthing Shirt Company, featured Sponsors on Lactivist.netEach month we will be putting the spotlight on one of the fantastic Lactivist.net sponsors.

The money they pay to advertise their breastfeeding friendly businesses on www.lactivist.net keep the site running and help us keep supporting breastfeeding mums. If you have a breastfeeding friendly business that would be of interest to Lactivist.net readers please check out the advertising rates and contact me if you are interested. Rates start from a mere £5 a month and reach thousands of breastfeeding mums through this site, the Lactivist Facebook Page and Twitter.

The featured sponsor for November 2012 is the Birthing Shirt Company

How to use a wheat bag to give comfort during pregnancy and after childbirth when breastfeeding.

Warmth brings a deep reassuring feeling to the body and provides a sensation that is also extremely therapeutic. A wheat bag can be used in pretty much the same way as a conventional water bottle is used. However with a wheat bag there is no need to heat up water and then fill it with the water. All one needs to do is put it in the microwave oven for a couple of minutes to heat it up and then it can simply be applied to the problem area on your body. And that is not where the therapeutic use of the bag ends. It can also be used for cold treatments as well as hot treatment. If you place a wheat bag in your freezer it is then ready to be used for cold therapy as well.

The “drug free” healing properties of a wheat bag for a mum-to-be on pains, aches, the after effects of labour and breastfeeding are outlined below.

For late pregnancy and labour…

  • Use a wheat bag whilst pregnant and during labour as a warm compress to help alleviate backache, aching limbs and labour pains on the lower back.

For after-birth and breastfeeding…

  • To ease the after-birth pains from a contracting uterus, pop a warmed wheat bag on your tummy.
  • For blocked ducts and Mastitis apply a warmed wheat bag to the sore area of breast.
  • Engorgement – If breasts are really sore, hard and feel too full, then putting something cool on the breasts after a feed helps reduce what feels like hot swelling. A cooled wheat bag from the freezer can give relief.
  • A warmed wheat bag is also great for shoulder pain associated with breastfeeding.

For pain relief the wheat bag is both a natural and drug free answer. They are a flexible and very easy to use heat pack or chill pack that actually mould to any particular body part to give complete therapy to that area.

With all this in mind we at The  Birthing Shirt Company decided to create a perfect sized wheat bag designed to be used during late pregnancy, labour and as relief & comfort to sore breasts.

Created in a rectangular shape of a pillow, our versatile and pliable wheat bag is handmade in the UK with a supersoft, removable organic cotton/hemp fleece cover and is filled with a cotton pouch of cleaned & graded whole organic British wheat grain. – £19.99

All wheat bags are sent out with heating, cooling and washing instructions and a freezer bag for cold applications.

For more information and to buy one of our wheat bags please visit

http://www.thebirthingshirtcompany.com/organic-wheat-bags

 

 

More 4 Mums – New Lactivist Sponsors and Nursing Wear Experts !

Can I give a warm welcome to More 4 Mums who are the latest lovely small business to advertise on www.lactivist.net. It’s the advertisers that keep this place running so please take a moment to check them out. All the businesses who sponsor Lactivist are breastfeeding friendly and you can see a list of them on the Sponsors page, as well as their ads around the site.

More 4 Mums in an online business run by Lynn Hogg, a mum of 2 and Breastfeeding Supporter.  More 4 Mums aim to offer a great range of Affordable Maternity & Breastfeeding Bras, Tops and Accessories.  When Lynn was Breastfeeding she found many of the nursing products available were uncomfortable, unstylish and expensive.  She decided to source quality products at a great price and started selling in 2008.  She is proud to support UK based businesses and working mums.  Some of the smaller brands featured include Mama Feels Good Tops, Bellebelly, Breastvest, Glamourmom, Mummy Darling and more.

The site has a wide range of Nursing Tops from Basics such as vest tops and tshirts to Funky Nursing Tops from Mama Feels Good.  Prices start at under £20 and most are under £30.  The newest addition to the site is the Bare Minimum Nursing Top, attach to any nursing bra to create a nursing vest to wear under any top – extend your wardrobe in a flash.

Nursing Bras are another item that can be expensive and uncomfortable.  The new seamless range from Emma Jane is a best seller – at only £11 it covers a cup size from B-F and is perfect for the early days of breastfeeding when cup sizes fluctuate on a daily or hourly basis!  The Bravado bras are the Rolls Royce of Nursing Bras – comfortable and great quality with the Body Silk Seamless being a favourite.

There is also a range of Accessories including Minene Nursing Covers & ponchos along with pretty Supersize Muslins for baby.  The cute Ruby and Ginger Nappy Purses are perfect for Breastfeeding Mums who don’t need to carry around bottles, just pop the purse in your handbag and you are good to go.

You can visit them on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/more4mums

Twitter is @more4mums

and the main website is  www.more4mums.co.uk

 

Lactivist Sponsor of the Month – Nov 2012 – The Birthing Shirt Company – Baby’s Day Daily Log Book

The Birthing Shirt Company, featured Sponsors on Lactivist.netEach month we will be putting the spotlight on one of the fantastic Lactivist.net sponsors.

The money they pay to advertise their breastfeeding friendly businesses on www.lactivist.net keep the site running and help us keep supporting breastfeeding mums. If you have a breastfeeding friendly business that would be of interest to Lactivist.net readers please check out the advertising rates and contact me if you are interested. Rates start from a mere £5 a month and reach thousands of breastfeeding mums through this site, the Lactivist Facebook Page and Twitter.

The featured sponsor for November 2012 is the Birthing Shirt Company

A useful tool to getting into a new baby routine and plan your day.

Trying to get into a routine with a new baby can be a juggle and it is hard to keep track sometimes. With our new Baby’s day log book you can say good-bye to bits of paper and post-it notes.

Baby’s Day Daily Log Book, sold exclusively by The Birthing Shirt Company, is a fabulous new journal that can be used to quickly and easily record your new baby’s daily feeding, sleeping, crying, activity patterns and will help you plan the day and feel more confident.

Designed and developed by a new mum after her own experiences, the aim of Baby’s Day  is not to offer advice or prescribe a routine – there are plenty of books out there that do that. It is simply to support whichever method you chose by allowing you to see what your baby’s day is like and see achievements, such as longer night time sleeping, clearly.

By using Baby’s Day you can be confident that all your baby’s needs are being met, whatever your routine.

Baby’s Day uses two A5 pages per day, and splits each day into fifteen minute periods. There are ten columns:

In Bed, Sleeping, Crying, Awake, Eating, Nappy Change, Playing, Out and About, Bath and Blank

These columns pretty much cover everything a young baby does (yep, that’s it)! Using a highlighter and a pen you can very easily mark what your baby has been doing throughout the day.

Babys daily log book from the Birthing Shirt Company

High quality and hard wearing, Baby’s Day is easy to slip into your changing bag or keep to hand around the house. At just £9.99, it is a must have for any parent!

For more information and how to purchase your own book please visit our website:-

http://www.thebirthingshirtcompany.com/#/babys-day/4562754337

Lactivist’s reply to G’s Email – Formula Feeding and Being Made to Feel Guilty

I got this email today but through the contact form on www.lactivist.net which didn’t show me the reply email address.

So I can reply I’ve cut and pasted it here. It was from G.

“With all due respect I cannot believe in the 21st century what a narrow minded view people seem to have regarding formula feeding and the effects that peer pressure regarding breast feeding has on new mums. Many mums, myself included, are well aware of the great benefits of breast feeding and I was lucky enough with my second child to be able to do such a wonderful thing however my first child was unable to breast feed due to a medical problem, and unfortunately I was unable to express enough milk to feed him therefore having to use formula, and despite having no choice I still was made to feel guilty.
 
Many babies are formula fed as their mothers have no other choice due to many varied reasons and to be honest without formula they would not be able to sustain life. I fully support breastfeeding where possible but when you have a tiny new born baby and your only interest is keeping them safe from harm, fed and well loved the last thing anyway needs is to be told that they are hurting their precious new bundle by doing the best they can under their circumstances.
 
Pressure from other mums, midwives and most of all the government is unfair and totally uncalled for, it really is easy to understand why their has been a substantial rise in the numbers of post natal depression in recent years. Quite frankly its about time people learn to back off and let new mothers make their own imformed choices without being made to feel as if they do not have their childs best interest at heart.”
 

This is what I would have emailed back if I had a return email address:

Dear G

Firstly, in my limited experience of mothering (I’m the parent of one 9 year old) I think the whole process has guilt traps throughout. Whatever choices you make, informed or not there will be someone out there who thinks, strongly that you are doing the wrong thing. However, guilt is not something that anyone can make you feel, it is a feeling that we produce ourselves, an inward emotion that we  heap upon ourselves far too often. There is a quick and interesting article about guilt and parenthood on the Psychology Today website that you might find interesting.

I fought hard to breastfeed, it wasn’t easy for me, it hurt, I was exhausted…….. I started Lactivist as a result of being criticised for breastfeeding my 4 month old, in a playgroup of all places.  I also had health visitors suggesting topping up with formula (which I knew would mess up the breastfeeding relationship I worked so hard at). So I made my small son a tiny t-shirt with a pro breastfeeding slogan on it. The negative comments stopped and people started to ask me where I got the t-shirt from. Many people felt the same way that I did. We had all worked hard to do what we felt was best for our children, despite pressure to formula feed from peers, parents, health visitors, friends…..etc. We were all proud of our achievement despite the multitudes of people telling us we were doing the wrong thing.

If you see it from the Lactivist point of view, we have often felt pressure from other mums and midwives, and what about the enormous consumer pressure from companies who sell bottles and formula. The majority of us make our choices based on what we are familiar with,  aisles of formula bottles are more often seen than public breastfeeding.

Infant formula is not as good as breastmilk, no one is trying to make you feel guilty by stating that fact. Infant formula is a substitute to keep babies alive when there is no way that they can breastfeed. The NCT gave a figure that less than 2% of mums and babies have a medical condition that prevents them from breastfeeding. Many mothers who didn’t breastfeed believe that they couldn’t but with support and help it is highly possible that they could. Unfortunatly the funding for that sort of support needed is just not there in many cases, and the last resort formula is seen as the only option.

I think we all have to do our best, and learn to deal with our guilty feelings the best we can. Lactivist.net has helped thousands of people over the years by giving them a place where they don’t feel like weirdos for breastfeeding. Before I die I would dearly love to see a world where places like Lactivist don’t need to exist, where we all tolerate each others decisions, where choices are properly informed (not just by product placement) and where support is in place to give babies what they were designed to have.

Lisa

www.lactivist.co.uk

 

 

Lactivist Sponsor of the Month – Nov 2012 – The Birthing Shirt Company – Increasing milk with skin to skin contact

The Birthing Shirt Company, featured Sponsors on Lactivist.netEach month we will be putting the spotlight on one of the fantastic Lactivist.net sponsors.

The money they pay to advertise their breastfeeding friendly businesses on www.lactivist.net keep the site running and help us keep supporting breastfeeding mums. If you have a breastfeeding friendly business that would be of interest to Lactivist.net readers please check out the advertising rates and contact me if you are interested. Rates start from a mere £5 a month and reach thousands of breastfeeding mums through this site, the Lactivist Facebook Page and Twitter.

The featured sponsor for November 2012 is the Birthing Shirt Company

How kangaroo care and skin-to-skin contact can increase breast milk supply.

Kangaroo care is a method of holding a baby, either premature or full term, that involves skin-to-skin contact immediately after giving birth and beyond, that will soothe and calm your baby and will aid in their development.

Straight after birth the baby is placed directly next to the mothers skin, on their bare chest upright between their breasts with a baby blanket or mother’s clothes covering his or her back.

This snuggling of the infant inside the pouch of the mother’s clothes, experiencing her  warmth, smell, and familiar heartbeat will feel like a warm “womb with a view” to the baby much like a kangaroo’s pouch, hence the term “kangaroo care.”

What are the benefits of kangaroo care / skin-to-skin contact?

Results from studies on mother-Infant skin-to-skin contact suggest that this type of contact has several benefits to both mum and baby.

The benefits of kangaroo care / skin-to-skin contact to your baby include:

  • A happier baby
  • More successful initiation of breastfeeding
  • Better regulation of their body temperature
  • Elevation in their blood sugar
  • Stabilization of the baby’s heart and respiratory rates
  • Improved oxygen in their blood
  • Spend more time in deep sleep
  • More rapid weight gain
  • Decreased crying
  • Earlier hospital discharge

The benefits of kangaroo care / skin-to-skin contact to the mum include:

  • Improved bonding
  • Feelings of closeness with their babies
  • Increased breast milk supply
  • Increased confidence in ability to care for their babies
  • Increased confidence that their babies are well cared for
  • Increased sense of control

With all this in mind Bamboo Birthing Shirt from The Birthing Shirt Company has been designed with a convenient extended pop down front especially for the purpose of skin-to-skin with your baby post birth.

For more information on the many benefits to a bamboo birthing shirt for pregnancy, labour, breastfeeding and bonding please visit our website:-

http://www.thebirthingshirtcompany.com/#/benefits/4552979884