It Begins

I am about 98% sure Ansel's front two teeth are about the make their appearance, based on his behavior and the ghostly white outlines of teeth now swelling his gums in front. I have been waiting for this moment with trepidation and fear, wondering if it might turn our happy go lucky 'trick' baby into...

5 Months!

Ansel Jack is five months old! As you can see, he is SUPER happy about it. He was less happy when we put him on his belly: But he's cute even when he's pissed, isn't he? And then he rolled over and was happy again: Ansel is sitting up unassisted for a few minutes at...

Well, I officially know that I can spend a night away from my baby and neither die of sadness nor lose my supply of breast milk. On Monday evening, I bathed and nursed A to bed and then picked up my overnight bag, training supplies and car keys and drove south east to a teeny,...

Shame, guilt and the search for common ground

Breastfeeding Medicine

In the fallout from the breastfeeding sibling study, I’ve been struck by the intensity of conversations about shame and guilt. A colleague and friend posted on Facebook:

This study is for my patients who have taken every tea, herb and drug to raise their milk supply, and are afraid to be seen in public giving their babies formula. They shun the social support they need from other mothers because bottle feeding has become so stigmatized. I see such relief on their faces when I tell them that they are outstanding mothers raising healthy babies, and am glad to have some evidence behind that.

A father commented on the ABM Blog:

I sat in pre-natal class with my wife as a bunch of women were given the implicit message that they were not real women or good mothers if they did anything but breast feed. And a lot of these…

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Just call me ‘Boobs’

Did you know August is breastfeeding awareness month? And the first week of August is National Breastfeeding Week? I mean, it's also National Catfish month (aside: I was going to just throw something random out like, 'I bet its also national catfishing day' but then decided to actually look up what other observances occur in...