News

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Latest news will be available on a fresh page as I get round to it - check out March 2011.

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Figures from the 2010 infant feeding survey are due out in June 2011.
Infant Feeding Survey 2010: Early Results
To be published: June 2011. Delayed from February 2011 for technical reasons.


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 Success for Peer Support:-
in Wirral area (Home-start Wirral have had BfN help to train Peer Supporters, and their initial results have been excellent, so they have confirmed an extension for 2 years.)
Also a South Wales group of Peer Supporters & Midwives have won an award.
Congratulations!

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 An online webchat with a BF "guru"... turns out to be rather disheartening,
whilst a spot on Daytime TV about Breastfeeding is a wasted opportunity.

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Review in the BMJ is poorly reported by almost all of UK media

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Question asked in Scottish Parliament about breastfeeding support.

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Huge Fail
Miliband advertising a brand of ABM on the BBC News
(and what really happened that day...??!)

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Midwives disappointed (Nov 2010)

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New blog post on a Myth about Breastfeeding, by a guest writer who is a Peer Supporter from a neighbouring County!
New blog posts about Cabbages, Shoulder Tension, and Jaundice.

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Excess of Milk at the moment at the Human Milk Bank of the Countess of Chester
Hospital.
Lynda Coulter (the manager there) has asked to be told of any current case of
need, so please do - otherwise they may have to discard some, apparently.
http://www.chestermilkbank.org.uk/

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November 2010: Webchat with staff from the UNICEF UK Baby-Friendly Initiative - pick of answers here on the blog which covered Peer Support.

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Liverpool launches a breastfeedng friendly scheme with support from Natasha Hamilton, an Atomic Kitten, October 2010. (BBC news)

Liverpool was bottom of the charts in 2007, only 48% of babies received any breastmilk. (Plymouth was at the top.)

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Discussion this week (Oct 2010) about the upcoming vote for increased Maternity leave, between Mary Honeyball MEP & Rosie Dodds of the NCT - on Womens' Hour, Radio 4 (iPlayer link here).

The directive means fully paid maternity leave for 20 weeks, and for fathers to have two weeks paid paternity leave.

At the end, the MEP confirms that they will be voting in favour of an amendment which also gives the right to breaks for breastfeeding women whilst they are at work (2 separate hours during the working day, to feed or to pump). This would bring the UK into line with many other countries.

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A non-milk bit of news:-  an article about talcum powder....ecological & health problems.

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Analytical Armadillo: Give cow's milk to newborns, you're having a giraffe... 

Discussion on some research into the way allergy to cow's milk can be avoided (by not giving cow's milk products to anyone under 6 months).

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Denise Van Outen camera-shy about breastfeeding.  Good helpful quote from LLL at the end.

What a lot of good she could have done by being photographed breastfeeding in public. But such celebrity images are extremely rare, I'm sure she needn't have worried.  Many follow-up articles, including this one, making an example of her in a very "overpersonal" way.

 
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Article by Zoe Williams, (thought to be more dangerous for BF then the blunder by Kathryn Blundell)

And a response defending BF by the marvellous Kate Evans.

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Mother & Baby Magazine, July 2010

Read about it in the Mail, Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, or the New York Times.

The blog Analytical Armadillo analyses it line by creepy line.

Oh my goodness, what were they thinking?
Perhaps they are thinking of the potential sales for their formula advertisers, or their magazine sales after such a inflammatory piece.  Certainly they weren't thinking of how they could celebrate breastfeeding Awareness Week!
Here are some particularly well-thought out comments & replies found online.

"The truth is that there's almost nothing creepier than a culture in which breasts are reduced to fun-bags."

An American writes: "Regardless of her motivation, several of her deal-breakers are factually inaccurate. First, it's scientifically proven that breastfeeding does not cause your breasts to sag. The factors for sagging breasts are age, smoking, and how many pregnancies the woman has had. Also, you can definitely have *some* wine while breastfeeding. For safety reasons, I don't think anyone with a newborn should get drunk, regardless of how they're feeding the baby.

And yes, it's creepy that she thinks breastfeeding is creepy. She's just perpetuating society's current message which is that breasts can only be seen and used in sexual situations. If you're exposing most of your breast in a tiny bikini, you get a pat on the back. Even hint that you might expose a centimeter of your breast by nursing in public, and you get dirty looks. If she truly wants to support mums, she can find another way to inject humor. This mum isn't laughing."

"Women formula feed for plenty of good reasons: they don't want to breastfeed, they don't produce milk, they don't have support at home or at work for breastfeeding, they adopted the baby, they take medicine that interferes with the production of safe breastmilk, etc. I don't sit in judgment of them. But referring to breastfeeding as "creepy" is rude and ignorant. Breasts are designed to feed babies and women like Blundell make the environment for breastfeeding mothers that much more difficult. Also, any doctor will tell you that pregnancy and age make breast tissue sag, not breastfeeding.

I nursed each of my children for 13 months. It often was exhausting and frustrating, but I felt it was important. It would help if formula feeding moms dished out the same respect they expect to get. Don't want to breastfeed? Fine, but painting a picture of breastfeeding as abnormal or unnatural is ridiculous."

The article has been referred to the PCC for it's inaccuracies, and here is the mag's initial response, as reported on Analytical Armadillo.
More response here from Lactivist, quoting a letter from the magazine.

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Protest about Nastle's claim that their milk 'protects' babies.

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More recent research into smoking whilst Breastfeeding. See page on this site about the issue.

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A very sensible letter to the Times - (read it here) - tells us how important it is to have good Milk Donation Services.

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Bumpology on the New Scientist site has several articles now which are of interest to anyone who's ever been pregnant!  The (pregnant, of course!) author to bring the science into the wives' tales. Particularly interesting was the article on 12th May 2010 which examined how babies' feed - watch an ultrasound video here.

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To be, or not to be?
Link here to an article describing the discovery of a factor in breastmilk which has been named HAMLET.  It kills cancer cells.

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A post on a forum about breastfeeding (Bounty) has a disturbing example of a midwife promoting bottles. Thanks to the Mum in the support group who pointed this out to me!

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Mumsnet are following up their recent (very popular) webchat with Gabrielle Palmer by announcing a webchat this week (Friday noon) with Ann Sinnott.

"It's webchat Super-Friday this week (26th). First up, at noon, is Ann Sinnott, author of Breastfeeding Older Children. Then, at 1pm, it's Caroline Lucas, MEP and leader of the Green Party."

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Article in the papers about the survey on breastfeeding older children (and book) by Ann Sinnott.

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March 8th being International Women's Day...
A group on Facebook which is objecting to the censorship of women's breastfeeding photographs is staging an event where each member posts an image for the day. Read more on their pages.

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"In Our Time" on March 4th had an interesting review of what we know about the Infant Brain.  Get your own brain in gear and then click here to hear the R4 programme.

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Those with high blood pressure should not read about these poor lasses who were harrassed while breastfeeding.

The most recent case in the papers was in a Mind Charity shop in Dulwich: read here (or here in the Daily Mail if you promise not to read the comments posted afterwards, it's really not good for your milk ;-)).  And then - Oh my goodness, now we must hear from the calm & balanced Jan Moir?? (Thanks Becki.)

The comments & actions are wildly offensive and the whole situation was unnecessary, but could be put down to the attitude of just one person.  Except that the Area Manager was in the shop and did not correct him, choosing instead to repeat that the changing rooms are not for breastfeeding. Grrr.  I might agree if the child was very young and would need a long time to feed. Or if the shop only had one changing room or was very busy.  But this is a basic principle which need to be understood, accepted & protected, don't you think?

The earlier story this week (February 2010) was from Bristol - covered here in the Metro. Also covered in Amy's local press, and in the Independent, The Sun and Daily Mail.
Breastfeeding supporters everywhere up in arms - Harriet Harman makes a supporting statement...
Ann Widdecombe says, "Our parents' generation got by perfectly well without needing to breastfeed in public. I'm not silly about it. If it's done discreetly, it's not a problem."



And then as a final twist, we see that CCTV coverage seems to prove it was all made up.  More to come on this tale, I'm sure.
Damage done??  Does the initial outrage on Amy's behalf improve the chances of someone else being supported in their choice to breastfeed a child in public?? Or does the fact that it (could have) happened put women off that first feed?

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An article in the Chicago Times from February 2010 (about a mix-up which happened in 2008) has the amazing story of a couple who are suing their maternity hospital...
because they messed up, brought the wrong baby to them, and the mother fed this wrong baby.

They aren't suing because of the mix-up (of course, baby's ID tags in hospitals are very important), or even because anyone was actually harmed; but rather because of the Mum's trauma, and a risk that she may have been infected by the baby.   If I was that baby, I'd want to join in the game & sue them.  But I'm not.

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