Hello Dear Boobjuicers and Friends!
I'm composing an email to a family member who thinks I'm crazy for letting Kiddo choose when to wean (I'd be upset but it's such a prevalent attitude that it would be a waste of energy) and it occurred to me to share some of these websites with my beloved boobjuicer friends.
Here's Dr. Jack Newman's website. If you only use one breastfeeding resource, use him. That said, I didn't find his latching instructions particularly helpful from afar - latching is really something best taught in person, so if you are having latching challenges there really is no substitute for a visit with a lactation consultant or at least another boobjuicing mom. But, he's got really helpful articles on pretty much anything else you could want to know about breastfeeding, including thrush (yes, I really will write that entry one day - it's just not a fun topic, you can see where I would be more excited about some of these other topics). Dr. Newman's website is facing funding challenges, so if you find him helpful, I would encourage you to follow the website's instructions to donate some money. I gave the same amount that my lactation consultant charges for a half-hour phone consult - except it's Canadian dollars, so I'm curious to see how many greenbacks 50 Loonies cost on that day. If he were actually charging me by the hour I've spent on his website, I'd owe him a lot more.
Here's a list of state laws regarding breastfeeding. We West Coasters have it good, although notice Louisiana's laws regarding child care centers. Interesting!
Here's the World Health Organization's website about breastfeeding. Mostly they are focused on developing and economically challenged countries, but they have information about the health benefits of breastfeeding too. They are another worthy organization if you are motivated to reach out with your wallets to your fellow boobjuicing mamas across the globe. Their babies need food. What mama doesn't have a visceral, emotional reaction to a baby needing food? Which actress was it a year or two ago who got into the tabloids for breastfeeding a stranger's baby while touring in Africa? I completely understand that impulse. Of course if I did it the poor thing would get thrush. And I don't really know the circumstances of the situation - was the mama gone? Did the mama ask her to do it? Did she just pick up some random wailing infant and whip out the girls? I don't know, I just know that reading the story, I felt an overwhelming urge to nurse my kiddo. But I digress.
Here's a great, somewhat hippie granola flavored website on breastfeeding and other parenting topics, Kellymom.
Notice I have not cited La Leche League. We owe a debt of gratitude to LLL for their lactivism in this country, but I and many other moms find their tone a little hard to take. Perhaps they have changed since they made my mom feel guilty, I don't know. I do know that The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding made me want to slap someone, and was not as informative as The Nursing Mother's Companion.
If you have a low tolerance for hippie granola-ness, you should stick to the medical websites (Dr. Newman, American Academy of Pediatrics) and the NGOs (WHO, UNICEF). I would encourage you to try to turn on your granola filter, though, and try some of these other websites. We are, as a country, still recovering from the formula companies' success in convincing women that we are inadequate to feed our children and that big multinational manufacturing companies with (mostly male) scientists in white coats can do better than God and Mother Nature. So the most open, unapologetic breastfeeding resources are still a bit on the fringe at this point. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fringe once, too, as were the suffragettes. Think of yourself as cutting edge cool and keep nursing!!!
Much love!
Suzi
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