http://midwiferyramblings.blogspot.com/2009/12/does-end-really-justify-means.html

This has come up quite a bit lately. I always seem to come across someone who touts the old line of “I was/did/had _____ and turned out just fine. My child will too.” You can fill this in with “I was formula fed, and turned out just fine.”, or “I was delivered by cesarean, and turned out just fine.”, or any of the other things that are PROVEN to be less healthy for babies. Why do people justify less healthy choices with completely anecdotal ( and often incorrect ) evidence? Unfortunately, it’s much easier to continue with this mindset, than to admit that you could have done better for your child(ren), or yourself.

Science has shown us that breastfeeding is MUCH better for babies. In fact, being mammals, it is the *only* perfect food for our children up to the age of 1. It literally has every single thing that a baby needs to develop a healthy immune system, healthy brain and neurological function, healthy eyesight and coordination, and it reduces the risk of breast cancer for moms. Breastfeeding also deepens the bond between baby and mom, as it allows baby consistent one-on-one time with mom, next to her heart, smelling her skin, feeling her breathe. We are the only mammals who can choose to give our babies formula, filled with preservatives, and second-rate nutrition. And yet we’re considered to be the most intelligent. Now, as frustrating as it is to have to give a disclaimer, for those who choose not to read between the lines here … I am not speaking of the women who are physically UNABLE to breastfeed. Though extremely rare, there are women who are unable to produce milk. However, those are the extreme minority. We have many, many women who simply CHOOSE to give their babies formula, instead of what is best for them. We live in a very selfish society, where it’s perfectly permissible to put yourself ahead in priority over what is best for our children. We see this in pregnancy ( I can eat WHATEVER I want ), labor ( I’m tired of being pregnant, just induce me! ), birth ( I’m not trying to be a hero! Give me DRUGS! ), and then feeding ( I don’t want to have saggy boobs / be the only one who can feed him / have to deal with breastfeeding in public ).

Why aren’t women being held accountable for their second-rate choices? Because it’s not PC to do so. Because women have every right to *kill* their baby in utero, who are we to tell them that they should eat healthy, have a natural birth, and breastfeed? In the meantime, it’s our children who are getting the short end of the stick.

I wonder if women understand what they put their baby through, when they choose an induction, or allow augmentation? Do they understand what the drug does to their system? Do they understand what the artificial strength of pitocin contractions do to their little body? Do women understand that the drugs in the epidural cocktail *do* indeed cross the placenta? Do they care? Even if baby ends up “just fine”, does it negate what women put them through in the name of convenience or choice?

With my first two, the only thing I had right was the breastfeeding. And even then, I didn’t try as hard as I could have with my first. She was only breastfed for 3 1/2 months. I went back to work, and didn’t have a clue how to keep up my milk supply to pump enough for her. I had a completely intervention-filled birth with her. Pitocin, AROM, Stadol, episiotomy ( which I paid dearly for ), and a vacuum extraction. My poor baby was put through hell because of my ignorant choices. My next baby was put through hell as well. An unnecessary, “elective” ( coerced ) cesarean. He wasn’t ready. Because of my ignorant choice, he spent 9 days in the NICU. He was put through so many tests. He had a spinal tap at 30 minutes old, because of 2 seizures. He was given anti-seizure meds, sedation, had tubes running into several parts of his little body. He went through x-rays, ct scans, eegs, and ultrasounds of his head. There was nothing else wrong with him … he just wasn’t ready. I put him through all of that, because I didn’t know any better.

Before anyone thinks that this is written in a superior tone … I want to assure you that it isn’t. It is written out of heartbreak for babies who are put through so much more than they ever should be, or for babies who are given second best. Most because their moms don’t know any better. I wish that there was a way to get information out there, without being labeled anti-choice or superior. What about the babies?

Posted by Christine Fiscer, Traditional Midwife at 10:03 AM   

I forgot to post this on the 1st… but we’re still going strong!

Let’s see… I haven’t talked about Ayla’s achievements this year, now that I think about it.  Some of Ayla’s milestones over the past few months… she can now get up on the trampoline by herself!  She can get on the counter to get snacks like her big sister, too.  She has almost mastered her tricycle – she needs just a little more encouragement to keep her feet on the pedals.    She can scale the ladder to her slide, navigate the stairs almost the whole way, standing up; she of course has mastered the spoon and fork and eats anything and everything like a champ.  She is “behind” Autumn in talking, but “ahead” of where Autumn was in regards to her physical abilities.  No worries, it all will balance out in the end!

Autumn’s now writing all of her numbers and letters beautifully, writing her name easily and quite legibly, without help.  She will start Kindergarten in the fall of 2010, and I think she’ll be right on track with her skills.  She’s going to do great, I just know it.

Justus’ new medication dose has changed his life.  He is now a social butterfly!  He’s rarely here anymore, the phone rings until all hours of the night, and he has a girlfriend, Sarah!  Compared to last year, when he only had one friend (who is a carbon copy of him!), this is a welcome change.  I think he may be busier than Brett is!  Now he’s hounding me for a cell phone, which, depending on how often he’s gone, he may just get.  He sometimes leaves in the morning and I won’t see him for 5 or 6 hours or more, as he visits and travels the neighborhood and the neighborhood next to us.  I’m so happy for him, so proud of him, and so thrilled that he’s making so many good friends.  This will make the transition to the new 6th grade school so much easier – and there will be more new friends there to make too!

Brett finished the year on the honor roll – he was on it for every grading period.  I couldn’t be more proud.  He’s enrolled in some college prep courses next year to prepare him for medical school.  He still thinks he wants to be a GP – I hope he keeps that dream alive.  He has been hesitant to study for his temporary license though – I think he’s more nervous than he originally let on.  I’m glad – he SHOULD be nervous, taking control of a 4,000 piece of metal!  The insurance to add him is nominal, I told him I’d meet him halfway on that and he would have to pay for his own gas.  He’s cool with it.  He’ll be driving my van until he saves enough money to go in on a car.  I think he’ll do fine.

And that’s a brief summary of the kids.  All healthy, all happy, all doing well.  Have a great day!

I found this heartwrenching and heartwarming at the same time.  I love those seven words, they hold more meaning than any words I’ve read in a very long time.

 

http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-whole-heart-is-in-that-incubator.html

“My whole heart is in that incubator”

The Motherwear Breastfeeding blog recently featured a fantastic guest post by a woman whose son was born 3 months early and weighed less than 3 pounds. She writes about how breastfeeding was her and her son’s lifeline. Here is an excerpt from her post, My whole heart is in that incubator:

I was 37 years old. I thought I knew what love was. I thought I knew. But I have never loved anyone, anything, so fiercely, so terribly, so wonderfully, so achingly, as I did my little son, my only child, struggling in that incubator….

I loved and still love that boy with all I have. Because I couldn’t hold him much, and felt terrible guilt for not being able to ‘hold him in’ for the entire 9 months he deserved, I was determined to breastfeed. I pumped every 3 hours for weeks on end. That pump and the milk that came out of me was my lifeline. It was somehow the way I was going to make it up to him for giving him such a lousy start in this world. So when I read stuff like “The Case against Breastfeeding” I get so angry. I believe that my breastmilk, and the good care we got at BC Children’s, saved my child’s life. It saved my life. If there is anything in this crazy, crazy world that is really is a gift from God it is the babies we can create and the milk that comes from our bodies.

If anything is pure and natural, and real and true, it’s breastmilk. It made me feel like a mother when my baby was all alone inside a machine when he should have been inside me.

Anyone who dismisses breastfeeding so casually, or by their attitude or indifference creates an environment that doesn’t hold up and encourage and cheerlead a new mom into a successful breastfeeding relationship, has lost touch with something. They’ve lost touch with a sense of what it means to be a mother, what feeding a baby is all about, what it means to nurture, how significant that breastfeeding can be to both mother and child.

Posted by Rixa at Thursday, May 28, 2009  

today… and still lovin’ it.

 

(LOL… someone graciously pointed out that I had a typo in the title and wrote 17 months – I didn’t notice it, I have fixed it!)

http://mothering.com/guest_editors/quiet_place/quiet_place.html

God bless Peggy O’Mara, for articulating and researching what we already knew, that Rosin is just wrong:

In her article, Rosin describes her cursory review of the medical literature on breastfeeding to shore up her personal decision to possibly forgo it, and concludes that all the talk about the benefits of breastfeeding is just “magical thinking.” But it’s irresponsible to imply that such a brief and biased analysis of the medical literature could somehow trump the conclusions of the world’s leading health organizations and medical authorities. By now, the superiority of breastmilk to formula is axiomatic.

Peggy asks us:

This is no time to waver: Powerful economic and political forces are continually undermining breastfeeding progress. Surely, we need state and federal protections for breastfeeding—that’s a given. To achieve our national health goals, we—like our sisters around the world—also need guaranteed health care, paid family leaves, and caregiving credits. Bottle-feeding is an old-school feminist solution to inequality. The equal-rights arena of today is breastfeeding.

Read the article – it’s fantastic.

and counting… I didn’t think we would go this long, but we’re going strong!

I keep forgetting to give a shout-out to the wonderful artist and owner of Mother Art.  Susan is truly talented.  I ordered a beautiful “mother and breastfeeding child” pendant from her a few months ago and haven’t taken it off since.  I receive so many compliments on it – I supposed I should have her send me some of her business cards so I can ensure people can get connected to her!

Anyways, thank you Susan, for your fantastic work, and I hope you continue to share your art for many years to come.

You are stunning in every way anyways, but you are made even more beautiful and absolutely incredible by letting your touching picture be published.  What a fantastic woman you are!

And to those “offended”, please go crawl back under your rock.  How dare anyone speak out against the most natural, nurturing, loving thing any mother can do for her babies.  You truly have issues with YOURSELF, not with the act of breastfeeding.  Get medical help.  Drugs.  Kevorkian.  Whatever you need to get over it.  We’re over YOU.