Links To Some Great Breastfeeding Posts

I have read some amazing, well-written, interesting, thought-provoking and inspiring breastfeeding-related posts this week. They have been such a pleasure to read I wanted to share my top favorites with you.

Do toddlers still need to be given formula milk (a.k.a.Breastmilk v. Formula? by Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom. Jenny discusses the advertising in the Philippines for “formula milk.” In the Philippines it is common to continue to feed toddlers formula, in fact, Jenny says “formula milk” is marketed to almost everyone! In this post she attempts to bust the formula health benefits myth that is rampant in her country. A very eye-opening post to the formula culture of Southeastern Asia.

Less Breastfeeding = More Babies by CaveMother. In this post she reminds us that “breastfeeding suppresses a mother’s fertility so that she is less likely to conceive another child soon after she has given birth.” She goes on to discuss how formula has become directly correlated with an increased rate of pregnancy in the Third World. Population explosion is just one more good reason to stop marketing formula in poor countries.

Tongue Tie, A Second Look by Rosemary at Sufficiency. Rosemary discusses her puzzlement at the high incidence of tongue tie in babies and shares a chilling theory that the endocrine disruptors in our environment “may be leading to increased birth defects - particularly the “midline” defects that involve glitches in formation along the long axis of our body during the first trimester of pregnancy. Tongue-tie is a midline defect…”

In defense of those darn breastfeeding zealots by Katie at Mama Pundit. In this post Katie points out that if it wasn’t for the loud and proud breastfeeding moms of the past decade, who many people in our society consider “too radical,” the very women who complain about them would not have the breastfeeding freedoms or benefits that they do today. Here’s an excerpt.

“The current breastfeeding backlash is a reaction to a certain intensity surrounding the issue of breastfeeding that did indeed gain currency over the past decade or so. But what today’s mothers – the ones who are fueling the breastfeeding backlash with their criticisms and complaints – don’t appreciate or maybe even realize is that the activism and advocacy they are slamming was actually an important, grassroots women’s health movement that managed to fundamentally change the way our culture views and treats breastfeeding within only about ten years (!!!). And any time you have a movement that erupts out of a sense of frustration and oppression, and manages to turn that frustration into the kind of power it takes to create meaningful change on a big issue, that movement is going to have to be both pushy and loud.”

Just like we don’t always consider the work of the feminists of the 60′s and 70′s as being beneficial to the kind of social freedoms women have today, we need to stop and think and recognize the outspoken women of our culture who have and continue to make positive social change for women. Katie also tells us her personal story about health care professional ignorance she suffered at the hands of in the late 1990′s! It’s pretty mind blowing!

Misogyny of denying milk-making moms mental health medication by Arwyn at Raising My Boychick. My career background is as a psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner so this particular post hit home with me and I was in agreement throughout. Arwyn discusses how many times breastfeeding moms are told that they need to wean before they can be prescribed any medication for their mental health issue. She points out the problem with psychiatrist ignorance, authoritarianism and moral ineptitude and how this is rejects the purpose of increasing client mental well being.

I have worked with psychiatrists who haven’t considered ways to incorporate their client’s needs into their treatment plan and I have taken over that part and counseled  many clients on this general subject. Psychiatrist like many regular doctors don’t usually have specific training in breastfeeding. They’re trained to deal with brain chemistry impairments and are rather inept to deal with anything else. Breastfeeding would seem to them to be a trivial barrier to giving clients the best medications for their condition. Doctors who aren’t trained in one of nature’s most basic functions need to own their ignorance and look for ways to accommodate client wishes. It is for this reason I believe all doctors MUST have a copy of Dr. Hale’s Medications and Mother’s Milk: A Lactational Pharmacology. I would strongly recommend to any breastfeeding moms who have any medical condition to also own a copy.

Do you have any thoughts on any of these posts that you would like to share?

Related posts:

1. Do Breastfeeding Posts With Pictures Require Warnings?
2. Monday Musings: How Hospitals Contribute to Lower Breastfeeding Rates
3. My Top 10 Most Commented On Posts of 2009
4. Breastfeeding, Formula Feeding and Social Oppression
5. February Posts That Inspire and Inform

Tags: feminists, formula, lactivism, mental health