There was just a book published, Your Breasts Are Trying to Kill You, by author Florence Williams. It seems as though she is taking a serious, yet humorous look at what our breasts do and don't do for us. I think there is much truth in this book. I haven't read it yet, just the review, but have ordered it and will read it. More to come on that. That is not what I want to talk about. I want …
General Breastfeeding
Are We Breastfeeding Friendly?
We need to be questioning our baby feeding norm in this country. We are a formula feeding culture right now in the US whether we like it or not. This means that more people feed their babies artificial baby milk then breastmilk. We are also a bottle, not breastfeeding culture. Even if we are interested in the negative health consequences of formula feeding, we want our babies to have …
Being A Parent is Hard!
Parenting is hard! I just read an article on parenting research and had to respond. The article is about a study which found that parenting basically sucks and we are lying to ourselves if we say otherwise. This research paper was published in Psychological Science. Research proves parenting is costing us $193,000 and change per child to raise them, and this doesn't take into account the …
Trying to become more Technologically Savvy!
What do I love about technology? Not a whole lot! I have been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century by necessity. My friends make fun of me because I am such techno phobe. However, it spite of this, I have a website, a blog, a face book page, read the daily posts from my listserve (which I love!), host webinars, and can use word and power point with the best of them. Oh, the …
Diabetes Prevention and Breastfeeding
Why are diabetes cost are going through the roof? According to an article in the New York Times, it is costing us $174 billion dollars a year to cover the health costs of people who have developed diabetes in their life time. More and more of our population is developing diabetes. "“Diabetes is the noninfectious epidemic of our time,” said Dr. Ronald Loeppke, vice chairman of U.S. Preventive …
What One Doctor Says About Breastfeeding Training in the United States
So, why are mothers and babies having such a hard time with breastfeeding? I just received a link to this blog which I thought was very interesting. In the blog, this doctor admits she really knew nothing about breastfeeding until she took a special course on breastfeeding. Is she unusual? I don’t think so. When I think about all of the things a doctor would need to know about a baby, about …
Breastfeeding Rates in the US
What has gone so wrong with breastfeeding in our country? The United States lags behind most nations around the world in our breastfeeding initiation rates. However, more importantly perhaps, is how short our breastfeeding duration rates are. The majority of US mothers are all for giving breastfeeding a shot. The percentage of mothers who “ever breastfeed” after birth is between 48.3% in …
Why do I have a job?
One of the things I think about a lot is why do I have a job? If breastfeeding is so natural, why do people need me to help them get started with breastfeeding or continue when their babies are older. There are many reasons for this in my opinion. (Remember, this is where I get to just say what I think! I may be right or wrong. If there is research to back things up, I'll share that too when …