API Blog – Page 36

Motherwear Podcast: Heather Cushman-Dowdee, creator of Hathor the Cowgoddess

Thanks so much to Tanya Lieberman of The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog for the following guest post in honor of World Breastfeeding Week. This post originally appeared on The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog.

My guest for this recording is Heather Cushman-Dowdee, creator of Hathor the Cowgoddess, shown to the left nursing and drawing in her kitchen.

This was a very fun interview. I got to ask Heather about how she draws, the inspiration for Hathor, and the time she baked breastmilk bread with 150 college students. Bonus knock-knock joke at the end!

This one is a bit long, but I just couldn’t bear to edit it down more. It was such a fun and interesting conversation.

You can listen right here using the player below, or download it.

Heather’s new book, Hathor’s Zines, Slings, and Do-it-Yourself Things, (cover to the left) is now available for pre-order!

Be sure to check out a few past posts featuring Hathor:

The Zoops (video)
Hathor on covering up to nurse in public

Hathor on Applebee’s breastfeeding policy

You can also check out more Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog podcasts.

World Breastfeeding Week- Supporting Nursing Mothers

World Breastfeeding Week starts on August 1, and runs through August 7th. The theme of this year is “Mother Support- Going for the Gold.”

Supporting a mother who is breastfeeding is so important. There are so many other demands that a new mother faces when nursing, having support can be invaluable to the mother and new baby to establish breastfeeding.

But did you know that nursing a baby past six months and has many health benefits for the baby and the mother? Sadly it seems that once a baby is nursed passed six months and beyond, support often turns to opposition?

Nursing mothers who continue to breastfeed past six months, a year, a year and a half, two years, three years, and even four years and beyond also need support. Likely they have heard negative comments about nursing their older child.

I am happy and proud to say that I nursed Ryan (my first son) until he was 26 months old. I wanted to nurse him longer but I was seven months pregnant with my second son, Cole, and my milk had gone, and it was incredibly irritating to me- pregnant hormones and all. I am still nursing Cole, mainly before nap time and bedtime, but he has shown no interest in weaning, and I don’t have any interest in forcing him to do so. In fact, it is a very nice bonding quiet time for us at the end of the day.

So many mothers who nurse a baby older than a year, feel like they have to hide it, and not talk about it. Sometimes mothers are made to feel like they are doing something wrong, or potentially stunting their child’s development, but that is not the case at all.

In honor of supporting breastfeeding mothers, who nurse their babies of all ages, I am posting one of my favorite pieces about breastfeeding, by Diane Wiessinger, MS and International Board Certified Lacatation Consultant (IBCLC). Perhaps you will learn something you didn’t know about breastfeeding, or maybe it will inspire you to support a breastfeeding mother to keep nursing a bit longer if she wishes to do so.

I think it would be great as a a society if we supported ALL nursing mothers, whether they were nursing a newborn, infant, toddler, pre-schooler, etc. It truly is one of the single best things a mother can do for her child, and that should be supported and celebrated.

What if I Want to Wean My Baby?

by Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC

Breastfeeding your baby for even a day is the best baby gift you can give. Breastfeeding is almost always the best choice for your baby. If it doesn’t seem like the best choice for you right now, these guidelines may help.IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR JUST A FEW DAYS, he will have received your colostrum, or early milk. By providing antibodies and the food his brand-new body expects, nursing gives your baby his first – and easiest – “immunization” and helps get his digestive system going smoothly. Breastfeeding is how your baby expects to start, and helps your own body recover from the birth. Why not use your time in the hospital to prepare your baby for life through the gift of nursing?IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR FOUR TO SIX WEEKS, you will have eased him through the most critical part of his infancy. Newborns who are not breastfed are much more likely to get sick or be hospitalized, and have many more digestive problems than breastfed babies. After 4 to 6 weeks, you’ll probably have worked through any early nursing concerns, too. Make a seriousgoal of nursing for a month, call La Leche League or a Lactation Consultant if you have any questions, and you’ll be in a better position to decide whether continued breastfeeding is for you.IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 3 OR 4 MONTHS, her digestive system will have matured a great deal, and she will be much better able to tolerate the foreign substances in commercial formulas. If there is a family history of allergies, though, you will greatly reduce her risk by waiting a few more months before adding anything at allto her diet of breastmilk. And giving nothing but your milk for the first four months gives strong protection against ear infections for a whole year.IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 6 MONTHS, she will be much less likely to suffer an allergic reaction to formula or other foods. At this point, her body is probably ready to tackle some other foods, whether or not you wean. Nursing for at least 6 months helps ensure better health throughout your baby’s first year of life, and reduces your own risk of breast cancer. Nursing for 6 months or more may greatly reduce your little one’s risk of ear infections and childhood cancers. And exclusive, frequent breastfeeding during the first 6 months, if your periods have not returned, provides 98% effective contraception.

IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 9 MONTHS, you will have seen him through the fastest and most important brain and body development of his life on the food that was designed for him – your milk. You may even notice that he is more alert and more active than babies who did not have the benefit of their mother’s milk. Weaning may be fairly easy at this age… but then, so is nursing! If you want to avoid weaning this early, be sure you’ve been available to nurse for comfort as well as just for food.

IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR A YEAR, you can avoid the expense and bother of formula. Her one-year-old body can probably handle most of the table foods your family enjoys. Many of the health benefits this year of nursing has given your child will last her whole life. She will have a stronger immune system, for instance, and will be much less likely to need orthodontia or speech therapy. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends nursing for at least a year, to help ensure normal nutrition and health for your baby.

IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 18 MONTHS, you will have continued to provide your baby’s normal nutrition and protection against illness at a time when illness is common in other babies. Your baby is probably well started on table foods, too. He has had time to form a solid bond with you – a healthy starting point for his growing independence. And he is old enough that you and he can work together on the weaning process, at a pace that he can handle. A former U.S. Surgeon General said, “It is the lucky baby… that nurses to age two.”

IF YOUR CHILD WEANS WHEN SHE IS READY, you can feel confident that you have met your baby’s physical and emotional needs in a very normal, healthy way. In cultures where there is no pressure to wean, children tend to nurse for at leasttwo years. The World Health Organization and UNICEF strongly encourage breastfeeding through toddlerhood: “Breastmilk is an important source of energy and protein, and helps to protect against disease during the child’s second year of life.”(1) Our biology seems geared to a weaning age of between 2 1/2 and 7 years(2), and it just makes sense to build our children’s bones from the milk that was designed to build them.

Your milk provides antibodies and other protective substances as long as you continue nursing, and families of nursing toddlers often find that their medical bills are lower than their neighbors’ for years to come. Mothers who have nursed longterm have a still lower risk of developing breast cancer. Children who were nursed longterm tend to be very secure, and are less likely to suck their thumbs or carry a blanket.

Nursing can help ease both of you through the tears, tantrums, and tumbles that come with early childhood, and helps ensure that any illnesses are milder and easier to deal with. It’s an all-purpose mothering tool you won’t want to be without! Don’t worry that your child will nurse forever. All children stop eventually, no matter what you do, and there are more nursing toddlers around than you might guess.

Whether you nurse for a day or for several years, the decision to nurse your child is one you need never regret. And whenever weaning takes place, remember that it is a big step for both of you. If you choose to wean before your child is ready, be sure to do it gradually, and with love.

1.) Facts for Life: A Communication Challenge, published by UNICEF, WHO, and UNESCO, 1989
2.) Katherine Dettwyler. A Time to Wean. Breastfeeding Abstracts vol 14 no 1 1994

By A Mama’s Blog

Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7, 2008

Today is the first day of World Breastfeeding Week, and so it is with great pleasure that I kick off API’s World Breastfeeding Week celebration with API Speaks’ very first giveaway! Read on for contest entry details!

Why Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week?
I believe that the breastfeeding support I received when I was a new mother from the wonderful women of Peaceful Baby and Cherished Children API, and great online resources like attachmentparenting.org, La Leche League, Kelly Mom, and AskDrSears, was critical to my breastfeeding success.

I started out, like so many new and expecting moms, with very little knowledge of breastfeeding. I was breastfed for about six months, and the few things I’d read indicated that trying to nurse for a year was an admirable goal. So that was my intention–to make it to a year–when Gabriel was born four years ago. Then I met someone who was breastfeeding a toddler, and talked to someone else who had tandem nursed her children for quite some time, and I started to think maybe I should adjust my goal.

I was one of the lucky folks who had no problems nursing beyond some very mild cracking, easily rectified with self-care, in the first few weeks after Gabriel was born. Even my emergency c-section did not affect my milk supply (despite dire warnings from my OB). So Gabriel’s first birthday came and went without any thoughts of weaning.

Then along came Lily, and again, I had my goal in mind. I’d nurse her for two years, as UNICEF recommends. By this time, Gabriel had weaned (never a comfort nurser, he was pretty put off by my lack of milk during pregnancy and only nursed occasionally after Lily was born and my milk returned), so I never really experienced tandem nursing in the true multiple-feedings per day for both children sense of the word.

In May, Lily’s second birthday passed, and again, no signs of weaning 😉 We have some boundaries set around night nursing (so mama can get some sleep) and around nursing in public, but for the most part, she has full access to the breast and still nurses 4-6 times per day, more when she’s teething, overstimulated, sick, growing…

Now I’ve been nursing more or less continuously for what will be four years at the end of next month. I feel so grateful for the women who have taken this journey with me (thanks CrunchyDomesticGoddess, A Mama’s Blog, Feeding Time at the Zoo, and many others who are not bloggers!), and know that I wouldn’t have made it through Lily’s marathon nursing sessions without that support.

So celebrate World Breastfeeding Week because we already know breastfeeding gives children the best possible start in life. Celebrate because public perception of breastfeeding makes a huge impact on a new mom’s personal decisions about breastfeeding. Celebrate because we have come so far from the formula craze that began in the 1950s. Celebrate as a confirmation of your commitment to creating a breastfeeding-friendly world.

And celebrate because you never know what just a little bit of support might mean to a new mom. In my case, it helped me become a committed extended nurser and breastfeeding advocate.

How to Celebrate

La Leche League provides the following tips on how to support a breastfeeding mama:

Give a mother the phone number of an LLL Leader.

Tell a first-time breastfeeding mother she is doing just fine.

Bring the new mother a nutritious snack and a big glass of water.

As an employer, accommodate a mother’s need to pump with a private comfortable space.

As the baby’s father, intercede with family and friends so that mother and baby can feel confident.

Write to legislators to support the enactment of laws supporting paid maternity leave and mother-friendly workplaces.

Contact an emergency relief organization and request training to help in emergency situations, especially in breastfeeding support.

Take care of your health and nutritional needs during pregnancy and lactation.

Set up or join a network of lactation experts in your community.

Provide transportation to a mother to attend an LLL meeting or visit a lactation consultant.

Advocate for legislation that enacts the provisions of the WHO/UNICEF Code of Marketing.

Ask for support and offer support to others.

Check back all week long as API Speaks features guest bloggers and other breastfeeding-related posts during World Breastfeeding Week! And don’t forget to visitor API Speaks Contributing Editor, the Crunchy Domestic Goddess’s great WBW giveaway for more chances to win great breastfeeding books!

And finally, the Contest Rules

Simply comment on this post and you will be entered to win a copy of LLL’s seminal book on breastfeeding: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. If you’re a blogger, give this contest a mention, note that in your comment and you’ll get an extra entry in the prize drawing. Non-bloggers can get an extra entry by going to API’s home page and subscribing to our monthly eNewsletter–make sure you mention that in your comment! Winners will be announced in Friday’s WBW Wrap-up! Don’t forget to check out the other great giveaways on Bloggy Giveaways.

🙂 Julie

The Attachment Parenting International Forums

As part of the Attachment Parenting International site redesign that was launched earlier this year, a new forum section was also created. I volunteer as the forum administrator and wanted to dedicate my API Speaks entry this month to introducing you to the API Forums. For those that have visited before, maybe you’ll learn something new. For those that haven’t, I invite you to join us in the lively discussion on the official API Forums.

Forum Statistics
The forums were launched at the beginning of April and in the few short months that we’ve been live, over 700 people have registered and created almost 2,000 threads with nearly 12,000 posts. Many new forum members have found their way to our site from Google and others from their local support groups.

Age-specific Forums
In addition to the general discussion area, the API Forums also have forums dedicated to practicing the Eight Principles of Attachment Parenting with children of a variety of ages. Whether you are just now planning to start a family or are watching your young adult child go out and start a new life, the API Forums have an area dedicated to these discussions.

Circumstance-specific Forums
API understands that there are certain parenting situations which offer unique challenges and joys when it comes to practicing API’s Principles. In order to meet the needs of API members in different situations, API has created an adoption forum, a forum dedicated to divorce and custody, an area to discuss parenting multiples and a section on parenting the special needs child.

API Reads
Book clubs are popular worldwide and API is joining the book club craze with the API Reads forum. Forum members can participate in lively discussion with a new book being discussed every other month. In addition to the discussions with other forum members, some authors have signed on to facilitate a premium forum discussion of their book. August and September 2008 will focus on Jan Hunt’s book, The Natural Child. For a complete list of future books, visit the API Reads Book of the Month Reading Schedule.

API Around the World
API is truly an international organization with forums dedicated to geographic regions within the United States as well as around the world. Connect with other families in your area through the API Around the World forums.

If you’re new to the forum setup, don’t forget to check out the API Forum Frequently Asked Questions page for easy-to-follow directions on getting started. I look forward to “seeing” you on the API Forums!

AP and Grandparents

We moved to another country when I was 6 months pregnant. Leaving all our extended families back home, they weren’t quite aware of our parenting choices.

We had decided to co-sleep with our daughter so we didn’t buy a crib/cot for her. During the early weeks, my mom was quite anxious that we might roll over her. As weeks passed she would ask me, again and again, when we would buy a bed for her. I explained her that we loved her being with us in the bed and they shouldn’t worry. Above the safety measures, they were also worried that she wouldn’t leave our bed once she got used to sleeping there.

We had the chance to go back home when our daughter was 4 months old. During this holiday, mom saw first-hand that co-sleeping was perfectly safe and it was lovely having your newborn beside you. It also made night time feeding easy for us.

Once our baby was 6 months old, she began to ask when we would start her offering solids. My daughter was not interested yet. But mom and grandma were very concerned. They’d ask me every time, as if I was depriving her of food. I’d tell them that, during the first year, solids are only for fun and tasting. As long as the baby is breastfeeding and gaining weight, there’s no need to worry.
During our visits to home, they had the chance to observe our child and our practices.

My mom loved wearing her first and only granddaughter and taking her on walks. We talked a lot about attachment parenting, about why we have to fulfill our little one’s needs during their childhood and how such children turn into well adjusted adults. We talked about extended breastfeeding and why we had the intention of co-sleeping until our daughter feels ready to move to her own bed. I’m very happy that she understands it all and has become very supportive.

Recently mom told me that my cousin and her wife decided to let their baby cry-it-out. Hearing this broke my heart, but after all, everyone has their own parenting choices and unfortunately there wasn’t much to do.

Last week, as I was speaking with my sister (she’s expecting her 1st baby, due in November), she told me that mom had told her to make a decision about the baby’s sleep arrangements. She added that deciding where the baby would be sleeping was very important, as any change to that affected the baby badly. I was glad to hear that she mentioned the family bed, and that she has normalised this in her head.

Now, if only she doesn’t ask me repeatedly when we would wean Defne now that she’s 18 months old!

Wordless Wednesday – Slinging his dolly!

Thanks, Dr. Maria Blois, for this week’s post! Don’t forget to check out today’s other submissions!

Volunteer Spotlight

Each month we like to spotlight one of our fabulous volunteers as a way to recognize their efforts and the contribution they make to API. This month we are spotlighting a volunteer that I’ve grown very fond of over the course of the year. Avril is splendidly witty with many talents and we are fortunate that she shares some of them with us. She adds flair and spunk to each communication she has with me and it’s also evident in Links. Thank you Avril for all that you do to support parents in their journey of attachment parenting, both as the editor of API Links and as a support group leader in New York. I’m sure that the wisdom you share with parents has helped many of them form strong, healthy attachments with their children.

Volunteer Spotlight – Meet Avril

I’ve been with API for the past seven years, first as co-leader and co-founder of API-NYC and now, in addition to my leadership position, as Editor of API Links. When I was offered the spot of Editor a year ago, I was delighted, yet a bit worried. I have a Theatre Arts background along with a writing background, but had never been in an editorial position. It was a clear challenge for my skills, one that I hope I have met. Links is an important publication because it is the “face” of API. It is a way for people new to the organization to get to know us through our stories and information about attachment parenting and it is our way of reaching out to readers to ask them to help us make a change for the better in this world by supporting instinctual parenting.

Parenting in general is a challenge, but API helps give the support we need to meet those challenges. Giving something back to such an important organization may seem daunting at first, but in the end it is the giver who receives the most from the relationship. The experience I have gained from API is solid gold, and I recommend, whatever your talent or skill, to come and join us–You won’t regret it!

Volunteer Position Highlight – Bookkeeper
API is in need of a reliable bookkeeper that will work to keep and record accurate financial records for API. Hours are flexible and minimal and can be done from your own home.

If you believe in the value of our mission to educate and support all parents in raising secure, joyful, and empathic children in order to strengthen families and create a more compassionate world, please join with us today.

Check out API’s other volunteer positions. Please know that this list is not comprehensive. If you have talents and experience that you feel would further our mission, or are interested in the position listed above, please email Brandy so that we can chat about the possibilities!

Warmly,
Brandy Lance
API Volunteer Liaison

Moving House

Over the last few weeks, the Half Pint Pixie household has been busy moving house and settling into our new home, thankfully we’ve had help from the brisbane removalists. During this time, Littlepixie has taken quite a stretch both physically and developmentally. She has so many words now, only yesterday she ran out into the garden, then promptly ran back to the path exclaiming “grass cold”, yes Irish summers are amazing, cold wet grass is quite normal!

I do, however, have a point to my little tale of moving house, and it is this, I really think that out of all of us Littlepixie found the move the easiest as we also went as far as looking solutions online on how to get rid of fleas so the moving will be comfortable and nice. I think our parenting style had a lot to do with that. By listening to her, watching her reactions and respecting her little self, we could see things from her point of view.

Sometimes that meant one of us taking her off to play elsewhere, other times it was an acrobatic nursing session on the floor surrounded by bubblewrap and newspaper and frequently it was as simple as popping her up into a sling to watch all the action.

She was a little distressed to see all the boxes getting packed, so we made her an area where she could safely climb on the packed boxes, et voila, an instant adventure play centre!

The day of the move, Mr. HPP went ahead with the movers to take out his pool table, actually he found a great Pool Table Removals that did all the work for him, and then set up our bed in our new bedroom. But before that, the wise thing he did was to apply for a u.s. mail address change, because he knew that the process was lengthy. When myself and LP followed later we showed her our big family bed with the familiar blankets and we all sat on it and played games for a while. Then she was happy to see the rest of her new house.

Moving can be exceptionally upsetting in the event that you don’t have the correct skill to deal with the bundling and emptying of significant things. The moving procedure can transform into a bad dream without the help of a dependable and reasonable trucking organization. You have to discover an organization like Reliable Packing Material Services that are respectable trucking organizations and the best organization that will suit your necessities. Ensure you don’t engage in a moving trick by contracting some other organization as there is a great deal happening these days.

After a full day of exploring and moving houses with the house movers, LP slept soundly that night, and why wouldn’t she? New house, but mama and dada were still there beside her at bedtime. Even though so much was different, she knew the important things were still the same.

Since we’ve moved there are days when LP goes through little periods of needing to be held more. I’m sure many people would dismiss this as a clingy phase, but I think she just likes to know that all is still safe in her little world even though the wider world around her looks all different. f you are looking for a cheap man and van company in London to help collect, deliver or move items in and around London then look no further! We have a fleet of man with a van drivers waiting for your call. We have a range of different size vans and a fleet of van drivers to give you the right solution for your needs. We can supply helpers as well as the van and driver and we can load and unload your belongings. We are happy to move single items or complete home / office moves and are thankful to the LA Movers who helped us alot in moving, we are really grateful we hire them.

So we hold her more, we leave the buggy at home and I take her to the shops on my back. We hang out the laundry while she sits in the ring sling. We walk around the house and back garden while she sits in a hip carry, latched on and drinking her milkies.

She’s only small and she derives so much security from being close to us, I know that while she’s snuggled close to me or Mr. HPP she can observe the world and formulate her plans for exploring it in a few minutes time, but for a few moments she can just snuggle there in the sling, all cosy and safe.

So what I’m trying to say is that while moving house is supposedly one of the most stressful life events ever, it’s a lot easier if you’re a cosleeping, nursing, slinging toddler, even if your new garden has cold wet grass in the middle of summer!

Now would anyone like to call around and unpack some boxes for us?