Breastfeeding has been a gift, not only to me and my daughters, but to my greater community. I look at it this way. Every time someone sees me breastfeeding I plant a seed. Every time I blog about breastfeeding and a new reader comes across my blog, I water the seed. Eventually, there are blossoms that are nursing mothers everywhere, being noticed by men and women, grandparents and children. Frequently people pass us by, but every once in awhile someone comes along and plucks our breastfeeding blossom and takes it home with them, framing us in their minds, being inspired and encouraged by our actions to do the same. Moms like me and including me are helping to normalize breastfeeding for generations to come.

I’m proud of the fact I am raising daughters who will likely breastfeed. I am proud that I have given them both such a great start in life and have used breastfeeding as a parenting tool to ease their many transitions through early childhood. We have a book called The Best Gifts by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. It is a book about how the best gifts are not the ones that are bought but the ones that are given from the heart, a person’s time and love. It begins and ends with a mom nursing her baby.

Breastfeeding truly is the best gift. It has been for me as a mom, my kids, and whether they know it or not, for everyone who has ever witnessed it. It truly is a gift that keeps on giving.

Please take time to read the other carnival participant’s blog posts.

The gift of life: Breastfeeding during a time of war at Motherhood Actually

The intangible gifts of breastfeeding at Massachusetts Friends of Midwives

Gift of confidence at Blacktating

The 12 gifts of breastfeeding at Momma’s Angel

A gift I never expected at The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Breastfeeding: My baby’s gift to me at The Milk Mama

No related posts.

Now she is offering her breast milk for sale on Kijiji at $1.50 ounce, which is just enough to cover the costs of pumping, sterile storage and shipping.

Becca is a surrogate mother of twins due in the next 4-6 weeks. Her breast milk will go to them for the first month and after that she wants to provide it to a parent in need.

Health Canada and U.S. health officials caution moms against buying or swapping breast milk on-line, and while I agree some semblance of screening needs to be done, can we not start treating grown adults as people who are capable of making their own decisions?

If I couldn’t breast feed my baby I would still want her to have breast milk, and it would be a blessing to find a generous woman offering hers for free or even for the price Becca is now asking. I would talk to my donor in depth about her health background and I would request notes from her doctors to validate it. If this woman is already a surrogate, surely the parents of the children she is carrying have already done their own due diligence. This woman would expect the same from any other interested parties. And if she didn’t, I wouldn’t accept milk from her.

Breast milk  is the best source of nutrition for an infant, followed by donor milk, then milk from a milk bank, and then formula. If you can’t offer your child the very best then why not second best? Why do officials make it so difficult for women to do what they feel is best for their kids. We don’t need a license to parent, but we need the health authority breathing down our backs if we want to share our breast milk?

Mothers across the country share breast milk, mostly behind closed doors, but it happens. Nelson, B.C. mother, Camara Cassin, has been relying on the generosity of other mothers to provide breast milk for her 15 month old daughter who suffers from Krabbe Leukodystrophy, which is a rare, degenerative brain disorder. Milk banks charge $2 ounce for breast milk. But the cost isn’t the only barrier to moms. Priority goes to babies in neo-natal intensive care units. All other moms, even the ones with sick babies need to wait in line. So this gift that Ms. Shears wants to bestow upon a needy family is one of the best gifts a person could ever give. I hope she finds a family to give it to. A part of me thinks she probably already has.

Related posts:

1. Blogger Needs Your Comments to Help Get Fed Ex Sponsorship For Breast Milk Donations
2. Foodie Fridays: Vanilla Breast Milk Cupcakes With Strawberry Frosting
3. Review: Honeysuckle Breast Milk Storage Bags

It’s hard to beat the 8th edition of La Leche League’s The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

On July 13, 2010 the new edition of LLL’s infamous book was released. I was honoured to receive an advance copy for review. While during reading the book I have been inspired twice to write about things I’ve read, here and here, this is my formal review.

• LLL, as an organization, has finally recognized that there is diversity among breastfeeding families and has respectfully started using the term “partner” instead of “husband” or “father.” I am very happy that single and lesbian parents are getting the recognition they deserve.
• LLL now respectfully recognizes that some breastfeeding mothers have to work and without passing judgment provide a thoroughly updated their section on pumping and other aspects of mothering that directly relate to being in the workforce.
• LLL has changed their tune about latching. They now recommend self-attachment and baby-led or laid back breastfeeding as opposed to directed breastfeeding. Of course there is still a bit of a tutorial on how to do the basic holds, but this section is less pronounced than it used to be.
• As always, LLL stays on top of current research. In the new edition you will find new research on the dangers of swaddling, the benefits of co-sleeping, and more.
• There is a tear-sheet toolkit in the back on everything from keeping a diaper log, a door sign for hospital or home, guidelines for milk storage, and information sheets for grandparents and child care providers. If you don’t want to tear sheets out of your new book you can find online copies at www.llli.org.

What I liked best about this book is the tone that it is written in. It felt like I was reading a well-crafted blog. There are voices I relate to – the moms are my own age and they talk like people I know and about things I know about. In fact, it was like being at a La Leche League meeting, being surrounded by community without actually having to be there.

As well, the photos have been updated. Goodbye 80′s haircuts. Hello modern mamas! Further kudos for new references to the benefits of using on-line media sites for support and information like the forums at llli.org and kellymom.com.

I highly recommend The 8th Edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding to any pregnant or new mom.

Have you read the new edition? What were your impressions?

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Breastfeeding Older Children
2. Review: Breastpumps and Briefcases CD and Simply Breastfeeding DVD
3. Review: Simply Breastfeeding DVD

Food and Drink

Have You Got A Waston A. Price Smile? at Food Renegade is an excellent read. The basic premise is that people who eat a traditional diet have nice straight teeth while people who eat a modern diet of white flours, refined sugars and processed vegetable oils do not. It’s based on a study. Go see what you think.

Does Your Water have Estrogen In It? at Green Your Way is a fantastic guest post by Katie from Kitchen Stewardship that asks the question: “Is Your Water Causing Infertility?”

Did you know that yesterday was World Food Day? I didn’t. Sheesh, how embarrassing. I would have written something had I known. But instead, I give you Annie at PhD in Parenting’s Think About Food, which just came to my rescue. Since thinking about your food is all I ever want for people myself, if you can pretend that I am really the author of Annie’s post, then I’ll feel like I’m covered. (We’re pretending now okay?) Good.

Health

Moving away from the food genre but not too far from health, I loved Hobo Mama’s Guiding A Child Through Hereditary Illness. My daughter is an anxious little girl and I’m pretty sure she got that from my gene pool. Lauren’s post is a thoughtful and personal musing and I appreciated her self-given suggestions on how to deal with this. I know I will be using them with my own child as we navigate her challenges together.

Flu shot posters are going up in my workplace as we speak. I don’t like to get them, but the push for it is huge in health care in B.C. Here’s a helpful post called Why You Shouldn’t Get The Flu Shot by Modern Alternative Mama. I’m actually interested in your thoughts on this.

Natural Parenting

The always amazing Dionna at Code Name: Mama posted two fabulous pieces that stood out for me. One, The Gift of Anger in Awareness, a guest post by Racheal from The Variegated Life, contains a few simple practices based in self-awareness to help readers anticipate and cope with anger.

Two, Compassionate Advocacy is a reminder to be thoughtful of others while we write. While we all have passions and values we are dying to share with the world, there is no excuse for thoughtless, unkind words and gossip.

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding as Part of The Curriculum by Chronicles of a Nursing Mom is a great post that does more revealing of how uninformed our health care professionals are about breastfeeding. All of Jenny’s breastfeeding posts are great actually. In fact, if you aren’t already following her for breastfeeding information you should. She’s tops.

Nursing Freedom.org had a slew of helpful posts on Breastfeeding While Baby Wearing.

Part 1 is about nursing in a mei-tei.

Part 2 is about nursing in a Moby Wrap.

Part 3 is about nursing in a ring sling.

Part 4 is about breastfeeding in an Ergo.

Finally, a blog that really touched me this week was http://www.healinganaya.blogspot.com

Camara is a B.C. mom of an ill little girl who needs breast milk donations, and she is trying to get Fex Ex to sponsor shipment from moms around the province and even from the States who want to donate their milk. My friend at Little Inkers Naturals is actually one of the moms who will be donating. But she needs comments on her blog to help get Fed Ex’s attention. I am guessing she could also use donations since there is a donate button on her blog. As to why Anaya needs the breast milk, this post explains everything.

Happy last day of the weekend everyone. If you have a post that you especially loved this week and think I might like it too, please leave a link in the comments section. Thanks.

Related posts:

1. Sunday Surf
2. Sunday Surf

Let breastfeeding moms unite to help this breastfeeding mama help her daughter.

This is her blog: http://healinganaya.blogspot.com/

Related posts:

1. Foodie Fridays: Vanilla Breast Milk Cupcakes With Strawberry Frosting
2. Craigslist Removes Mother’s Ad Offering Free Breast Milk
3. Review: Honeysuckle Breast Milk Storage Bags

Birthing.

Placenta still attached.

Breastfeeding.

I bought these dolls to commemorate the breastfeeding relationship between me and each of my girls. I hope they will have them for a lifetime and hand them down to their daughters.

To learn more: Mamamor

Related posts:

1. Wordless Wednesday: Breastfeeding at the Computer
2. Wordless Wednesday: Taking Risks
3. Almost Wordless Wednesday

No matter how much last year’s fifth birthday was a shock to my system (the same way three, two and one also were) I swear that six is the most mind boggling of all of them. Why is six so special? Well, when I came home from work today and saw her for the first time as a six year old, she was wearing a new outfit my mom gave her and she seriously looked a year older. My sweet cherubic faced five year old had the face and body of more mature and worldly six year old. Or maybe it was just the plaid blouse – I don’t know. Whatever it was my heart skipped a beat.

Showing her sister her new cupcake necklace.

I also realized that the day of her sixth birthday marks three years since she last breastfed, which means she breastfed and has not breastfed for exactly half of her life. The knowledge of this left me feeling proud, and yet also sad. Because from today forward the gap will only grow wider.

Her third birthday. Day after last breastfeeding session.

Those breastfeeding years mark a mother’s heart.

I wonder what the next six years will hold?

Happy Birthday my lovely!

Related posts:

1. Monday Musings: Were You Breastfed?
2. A Successfully Breastfed Adopted Baby Via Induced Lactation
3. Behavioural Problems? Yes, My Breastfed Baby.