Nursing Our Future - HMN does me proud!

Once again, I am proud to be a mom. A holistic mom. A nursing mom.

This beautiful video made me cry when I watched it. I am so pleased that moms can and do nurse freely without concern for what others may say. It is clear from these pictures that you have to know what you are looking for to see that a mom is nursing in most instances. I have given a waiter my order while nursing and he never had a clue. With my second baby, it is so automatic to just nurse when he needs to eat - I continue with whatever i am doing and can get him into position and feed him with one hand. I do remember early on with Peanut how I looked around to see if anyone was watching me when I "had" to nurse her in public. I was not concerned enough to stop nursing, but I can see how the pressure from others might force a new mom to throw in the towel and switch to formula or a bottle before they may otherwise choose to. When I see a mom nursing a looking a little timid, I always try to give her a smile or some words of encouragement. I will truly rejoice once breastfeeding becomes all about feeding and not so much about the breast. Hopefully this is a step towards making that happen.

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 12, 2010
CONTACT: Nancy Massotto, Executive Director
PHONE: (877) HOL-MOMS

HOLISTIC MOMS PROUD TO BREASTFEED
New Video Highlights Nursing Mothers

Caldwell, NJ – Inspired by a recent article in the Herald Sun (Australia) reporting that young women are reluctant to breastfeed their babies due to fear of public embarrassment, the Holistic Moms Network has launched a new project to highlight the beauty and confidence of breastfeeding women. HMN members from across North America submitted photos of themselves proudly breastfeeding their children – everywhere from the Eiffel Tower to the Brooklyn Bridge – for the Nursing Our Future video featured on the organization's website.

"Breastfeeding is one of the greatest gifts a mother can give to her child," says Executive Director Nancy Massotto, Ph.D. "Nursing offers babies enormous health benefits – physically, psychologically, emotionally, and sustainably for the planet. We want young women to embrace a culture of breastfeeding and to become informed about the benefits for moms, for children, and for the planet."

The Herald Sun report indicated that more than half of the Generation-Y men and women polled did not want their children breastfed in public for fear of embarrassment. Despite the World Health Organization's recommendation to breastfeed until at least six months of age, 75 percent of the study's young women stated they were unlikely to do so.

"It's such a shame!" says Dr. Linda Folden Palmer, author of The Baby Bond and new Holistic Moms Network Advisory Board Member. "I actually never saw a baby breastfeed in my 37 years before I nursed my own. I suppose my Chiropractic training helped me to feel comfortable displaying myself breastfeeding, though I almost never saw another nursing mother. One day a nervous mom sat beside me and my 10 month old nursling and started breastfeeding her own child. After several minutes, she turned to me and said she was so excited, she felt so free, that she had never done this before and I gave her the courage to breastfeed publicly! From that point on, I was on a mission to let others see and learn about nursing, everywhere I went. HMN's new effort is aligned with that passion."

Empowering mothers is a cornerstone of the Holistic Moms Network's mission and through the non-profit organization's Chapters, parents gather to offer one another support and advice while also learning about holistic living options from local practitioners and guest speakers. "Being involved in this organization has made me feel accepted in so many ways, and has helped me grow as a person and a parent," says Laurie Cunningham, a member and Co-Leader of the Northern Virginia Chapter.

Breastfeeding is one of the many interests shared by the organization's members, although not all members nurse their babies. "We are a very diverse population and we each make a variety of health and parenting choices," states Dr. Massotto. "We encourage holistic and natural choices, such as breastfeeding, but understand that not all options are available to all parents." The health benefits of breastfeeding are clear and widely supported in the scientific literature. Organizations, health care professionals, and government agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are "committed to increasing breastfeeding rates across the United States."

"One of the barriers for many young mothers is a lack of awareness about breastfeeding as well as a culture that is not particularly breastfeeding friendly," argues Dr. Massotto. The Holistic Moms Network hopes to raise awareness by showing young women images of breastfeeding and to help them find the support and encouragement they need to continue.

To view the Nursing Our Future video, visit the Holistic Moms Network's website at http://www.holisticmoms.org/category/news-events/nursing-our-future or on their YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/HMNNational. Breastfeeding mothers are also encouraged to share their personal breastfeeding photos on the organization's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Caldwell-NJ/Holistic-Moms-Network/87293135584.

Special Thanks
Our thanks and gratitude to the many Holistic Moms members who shared their inspiring and tender breastfeeding photos for this project; to HMN National Team Member Julie Wagner for putting them all together in a beautiful montage; and to breastfeeding mom Catherine Marie Charlton for her moving music.

In the wee hours

I hear a rustle, a few little coos, another rustle. The clock says 3:30am. I look over and my little man is wriggling around. After a few minutes of thinking "maybe he will settle back down again", "I just can't move", "is it really 3:30?", the coos become caws and I know he is wet and hungry. Decision time. Will he scream if I choose to change him first? Will he (and I) fall back asleep if I feed him first and thus make it harder to get up to change him afterwards? I get up, change him, he yells a little but mostly smiles, happy to be dry and with mom at our alone time this early in the morning. We've been up and down all night - well, I've been awake but Honey has been the one to go in to Peanut's room to settle her down. We've finally discovered that she is teething her huge molars which is why we have 2 year old madness time 875. As we settle back into bed to nurse, I hear a little rustling in the other room. This is now become a routine - as I begin to nurse Pumpkin, Peanut wakes up calling for me or daddy. No need for half the family to be awake - we should all be up really. Goodness - it's 4 am - the day is getting away from us! So we tend to babes, and snuggle in, explaining to the older that it is still nighttime and she needs to go back to sleep. Time to roll over and switch sides, but Pumpkin is having none of it. Now that he has his sugar rush, he is wide awake and ready to play. He smiles and wriggles, rolls and complains that I am not an active participant. Daddy takes him and lays him on his chest and I go back to sleep for a blissful few hours. As tired as we are, I wouldn't trade these times for anything.

The Chipotle Incident

We should know better. But these things happen, what are you going to do? When I was nursing Peanut, we went to Moe's and the poor girl pooped all night and was absolutely miserable. That was my first taste of how food eaten by me can affect a nursing newborn. Then, sometime this past year we all went to Chipotle and Honey was really ill afterwards. We looked up the ingredients online but found nothing we could point to and the issue was forgotten. This past weekend, we were out and decided to stop for lunch - that's right - we chose Chipotle. A nursing mom of a three week old who already has reflux, and a husband who is supposed to be cutting all kinds of things from his diet...went to Chipotle.

I know! It is owned by McDonald's - why would we do that? Anyway, poor Pumpkin was so blown away by whatever I ate that we had absolutely no sleep on that night. He was up and uncomfortable, wanted to eat and then didn't, spit up and pooped, and just generally was a sick puppy. If that doesn't whip your diet into shape, I don't know what will. Clearly food is medicine and if you don't believe the profound effects food can have, then talk to a nursing mama. And Honey was sick too - that's what made us remember the last time we had Chipotle. Ugh.

After the Chipotle Incident, my little man is back to normal - he even started to play, smile and have some fun again once it all cleared his system! Thank goodness, I had begun to think we were really in for it with the reflux, but we have raised the head of the co sleeper and that has helped greatly. We even let him sleep on his belly and side sometimes which makes a huge difference. *please do not flame me for not adhering to the "back to sleep" stance of the AAP... Having Pumpkin sleep on his belly has been a well thought out decision.

I had been thinking that my very calm, cool dude was beginning to be a little more fussy and "needy" than I had first thought. I know that we had some sleepless nights with Peanut, and there were things I couldn't eat while I nursed her, but it was so long ago that it all gets fuzzy. Something that occurred to me yesterday is that I was barely moving when Peanut was three weeks old, and now I am raring to go. I spent a lot of time with her at home, holding her and meeting her every need. I think she was really "easy" because of that and perhaps my perception of Pumpkin's routines is totally off. If I wasn't trying to chase a toddler, walk the dog, wash millions of diapers, and generally keep the house running I might be sitting still more often and paying better attention. I guess that is the deal with a second child - someone is always waiting for you...

My milk machine!

So little (big really) Pumpkin weighed in at 8 lbs 8 oz at the hospital. He started out nursing like he'd been doing it forever, and has kept me awake every night so far! Of course, he was getting colostrum for the first couple of days until the milk came in full force, and like all babies he lost some weight. Well, the pediatrician was concerned because he had lost a little more than a pound by day three (he weighed in at 7 lbs. 6 oz), and he wanted me to supplement with formula. I was sure the milk was coming in soon, but agreed I'd try it. I figured there was a slim to none chance he's even take a bottle since Peanut didn't want any bottle or plastic nipple at all until she finally took a bottle at 4months. Even that was an emergency situation - we were caught in traffic on the way to NY and we couldn't stop, so I held the bottle back for her and she ate.

So anyway, we nursed as usual and tried the formula afterwards for two feedings that afternoon. He gave me a look like he thought I was crazy, and let the food flow and then made a face and pushed it back out. At about 3pm, I noticed that he had some milk running down his chin when he was nursing - woohoo! Milk is in! Happy day - all that nursing every hour for the past two days had kicked it into high gear.

That night was really tiring - he ate every hour or so, and had two stretches of eating nonstop for almost two hours at a time. When he did take a longer snooze in the wee hours of the morning, he woke to eat and got so frustrated because it was so hard to latch on since I was so engorged. He and I finally figured it out after trying a million different nursing holds and positions and extra pillows and whatnot. He continued on the feeding frenzy and I continued to lose sleep.

We have our weight check the next day at the pediatricians, and lo and behold - my man has gained 10 oz in less than a day! Go breast milk go!