Category: APtly Said

Feeleez – An Empathy Game for Children

This summer my boys (4-1/2 and 2 years old) and I had the opportunity to play with a wonderful game titled “Feeleez”, from the Natural Parenting Center. The game was so much fun and appropriate for AP families that I wanted to share my thoughts about it with you.

Anxiously we opened the small metal box, and found 25 pairs of 2×2″cards. Pairs of cards sport drawings of children, each expressing different emotions. Some emotions are very clearly conveyed and others are a bit ambiguous. The ambiguous cards allowed my children to creatively identify what they saw in each drawing. The ambiguous cards foster creative expression and leave room for my children to grow with the game as their vocabulary, intellect and emotions mature such as this online Team Murder Mystery Game for kids and teens.

It was helpful that the Natural Parenting Center does not leave their consumers without direction. They included a list of various games that can be played with just this one little box of cards. We played the “Matching Game”, and “What’s This”. To play “What’s This” we all took turns stating what we thought each person on the card was feeling and what might have made the person feel that way. It was intriguing to learn what my children felt might make someone else sad, happy, frustrated, sick etc. This opened the opportunity to ask them if they had felt those feelings and in what situations.

This created a terrific opportunity to learn more about what their emotional triggers were and what situations and events affected them in a positive, negative, ambivalent, or confusing way. We also sorted the cards into more general categories, which my youngest enjoyed the most. These were only three of the many games that the “Feeleez” insert outlined. They also suggested playing Charades, Body Sensations (where you pick one of the cards and then you all take turns describing what the feeling might feel like, where it might live in your body, what color it is, etc.), Conflict Resolution, Offering Empathy, and Mirroring.

When you purchase “Feeleez” you not only gets nine games for $20.00 but it creates an amazing opportunity to teach and learn with your child about empathy and understanding. The part I loved the most was hearing from my children why they thought some of the little people were happy, sad or frustrated etc. “Feeleez” elicited emotion in us that ranged from poignantly introspective to downright comical.

Feeleez is directly compatible with API’s Principles “Respond with Sensitivity” and “Practice Positive Discipline”. It is also highly complimentary for those who practice non-violent communication. Another appealing aspect about The Natural Parenting Center garnering my support is their socially conscious business practices. A couple of examples related to “Feeleez” is that the cards are made from recycled materials and printed with soy based ink.

I am pleased to say that I would highly recommend this game to other AP families and feel that it is a much needed tool when it comes to learning about empathy and compassion in a fun, engaging and enlightening way.

Feeleez – An Empathy Game For Children
$20.00 if you purchase from the Natural Parenting Center
Appropriate for ages 2+

Cobathing

Bath time in our house is a social event. Since becoming the parents of a demanding toddler (armed with a growing vocabulary), my husband and I can hardly remember the days when taking a shower added up to a) showering alone, and b) getting in, washing up, and getting out.

In our childhood, my husband and I both remember bathing and showering with our siblings and mothers, probably out of convenience and because bathing together equaled more playtime (does anyone else remember playing with tub town toys?). However, once we reached a certain age, our parents designated separate bathing times for each person; co-bathing became something special that only small children could do, and bath playtime was all but lost.

Fast forward a few decades to the present. Nowadays, showering is a two-person activity and sometimes a group event. When Annabelle was a newborn and even a baby under age one, we bathed her in our tub or placed her in a toddler tub with natural bath products. This worked swimmingly so far as getting her clean was concerned; however, she howled with disapproval whenever mom or dad tried to sneak off to the tub by their lonesomes. Eventually, being the swift thinkers that her parents are, we realized that our little one might be more content if we simply invited her to bathe with us. And well, she is.

On a typical day, Annabelle likely showers twice in the morning, once with my husband and another time with me; and if it’s been a particularly messy day or we’ve been at the public swimming pool, she showers yet again. Most of the time, she sits down in the tub and plays with her toys while one of us focuses on the business of washing up. My husband tends to shower first, so he takes care of soaping Annabelle and getting her clean. By the time I make my way to the shower, Annabelle is eager to join me for a second round of tub fun (though this time I shower and simply let her play with toys, collect dripping water with a cup, and splish and splash).

Bathing together serves many purposes for our family. As most folks in the western world do, we bathe for cleanliness. But now that our toddler insists (and I’d say rightly so) on bathing with her mom and dad (and sometimes both at the same time), taking a shower or running a bath invites play, allows us to bond, and offers the opportunity to relax and heal after difficult days. Additionally, cobathing allows breastfeeding mothers, like myself, to nurture their babies, soothe engorged breasts, and to enhance milk production. A La Leche League article recommends that parents of adopted babies nurture their breastfeeding relationship by bathing together. Another La Leche League article suggests that breastfeeding mothers of newborns who have had a difficult time establishing nursing try cobathing as a natural way to soothe mom and baby, connect with each other, and relax into the breastfeeding relationship.

For our family, cobathing is more often than not, a positive way to spend time together, to play, and stay clean and healthy. To establish a safe and fun bath in your family, you may want to check out Dr. Sears’ Bathing with Baby tips. What are your thoughts about cobathing? Does your family enjoy showering together or is bath time a sacred ritual for spending some time on your own?

Something New

To celebrate World Breastfeeding Week on my personal blog, I challenged myself to come up with seven breastfeeding stories – one for each day of WBW. This one was the most popular.

Happy Hump Day!  Today marks the halfway point of the exciting holiday week known as World Breastfeeding Week.  Only a few more days to get the holiday shopping done.

And here I am, still plugging through with this challenge of coming up with seven breastfeeding stories – one for every day of WBW.  At the time, it seemed like a good idea, but sometimes when I sit down at the computer I wonder what words are going to pour from my nimble fingers.  To add to the insanity, this isn’t a challenge I read about anywhere, but something I just came up with on my own. I never claimed to be the smartest breastpump in the maternal care aisle.

So on this hump day, I thought I’d recount a humorous story from my breastfeeding days.  It is my opinion that breastfeeding mothers have to come equipped with a sense of humor; you can’t spend months and months with bodily secretions spraying everywhere without having a good laugh.

The problem however, is that a lot of the funny things that happen are situational in a you-had-to-be-there sort of way.  So it’s difficult coming up with a funny story that stands on its own.  I’m not sure this fits the bill, but its the best I could do.

It all starts with me.  I startle really easily. Really easily.  As in, my husband can be home, and I KNOW he’s home, but then he walks into the room I’m in and I look up and see him and get the pants scared off me.  I threaten to put cat collars on my family so I can tell they’re within 15 feet of me.  Still, he has a sadistic obsession with setting me up.

My daughter was a couple of months old, so my son was three.  I had just taken a shower, during which unbeknownst to me, my husband had told my son to stand right outside the bathroom door to scare me when I came out.  What a great, supportive family I have.

I opened the bathroom door, naked as a jaybird, and there stood my little son. Holy cow, seeing him right there when I opened the door scared the bejeepers out of me.  Which of course, was the effect my dear husband was going for.

So I opened the door, Son said boo, I screamed, and then…Niagara Falls.  Just when I thought I knew everything about breastfeeding, something new happened.  I learned that a huge scare, when preceded by a nice hot shower makes the milk GO!  Uncontrollably.  From both sides.  Shooting across the room.

A little trick about lactating is that if the flow starts an inopportune time, all one has to do apply pressure, and the flow will stop.  In public this can be discretely accomplished by crossing your arms.  The trick however, is that you have to remember this little tip.  Which I did not.

I was laughing so hard at the completely physiological response to being scared witless that I couldn’t do anything that involved common sense.  Instead, I just leaned over the sink and sprayed about ten gallons down the drain, which just caused me to laugh even harder.  Which of course, didn’t help matters.

My husband came in then when he heard the commotion, thinking that his cruel little plot had been successful.  When he saw the incredible direction his trick was going, (and was still going…and going…and going) I’m sure he felt quite proud of himself.

Several minutes later (still pouring into the sink) I finally did manage to turn my brain on and get everything stopped.

So here’s a tip that’s not in any breastfeeding resources – don’t get scared!

Breastfeeding while pregnant: trying at times, but ultimately worthwhile

Originally posted on May 25, 2008 on Crunchy Domestic Goddess

When I became pregnant with my son, my daughter Ava was about 20 months old and still nursing regularly. While I had friends who’s children had self-weaned when they became pregnant, I had my doubts that my “na-na”-loving kid would consider weaning for a second, even if my milk dried up.

At that age, Ava was still a comfort nurser, and still woke at night to nurse. After finding out I was pregnant I worked towards gently night weaning her by letting her know she could nurse as much as she wanted during the day, but at night the na-na had to sleep and she had to wait until the sun woke up in the morning to have mama milk.

By 22 months, miraculously (or so it felt) she was sleeping through the night. (Can you hear the angels singing? I thought I could. 😉 It was wonderful.) She was still happily in our bed, but no longer waking for na-na, and I was able to get the sleep I needed while growing a baby.

Of course, night weaning her did nothing to reduce her desire to nurse during the day, even when my milk dried up (somewhere around 16 weeks I think). However, as my pregnancy progressed, I decided that I wanted/needed to cut down on the number of nursing sessions per day for a variety of reasons. 1) My nipples were becoming increasingly tender. 2) My hormones were all kinds of crazy and the feeling of her nursing when there was no milk to be had sometimes honestly made my skin crawl. 3) I had my qualms about tandem nursing a newborn and a toddler.

The negative and skin crawling feelings were very much a surprise to me and I admit I felt guilty about it. I felt fortunate that I had a group of friends to bounce these feelings off of and was happy to learn that while all pregnant women don’t feel this way, my feelings were certainly not out of the ordinary and others had experienced similar feelings as well.

I used distraction to help reduce the number of times Ava nursed and my husband Jody helped out a lot too. We would ask Ava, “What else could we do to make you feel better instead of having na-na?” and often sang silly or happy songs together rather than nursing. It wasn’t always easy and sometimes I let her nurse even though I didn’t want to, but eventually (about a month or two before Julian was born), she was down to nursing only 1 time per day – before bedtime.

Before Julian was born we talked a lot with Ava about how he would be a little baby and need a lot of mama milk to grow up big and strong like his big sister. We really wanted to get the point across that he would be nursing all the time. And we talked up how she was a big girl and got to do lots of things that Julian was too little to do. I was also sure to let her know that we’d still have our “special na-na time” every night before bed. It honestly worked pretty well.

There were a few weeks towards the end of my pregnancy that I seriously considered weaning her all together. Like I mentioned earlier, my hormones were wreaking havoc on me and nursing her, even only once per day was hard because I had some seriously strong negative feelings that were hard to control. There were a few times that I had to tell her that I was feeling frustrated and needed a break and I would have to take a minute to calm and center myself before letting her latch back on. I think keeping the lines of communication open like that and being honest with her was helpful.

Part of the reason I didn’t wean her completely then was because I felt like it’d be harder to try to do that, than it would be for me to just suck it up and muscle through the last few weeks. I know that sounds horrible, but I knew that when my milk came back in and my hormones weren’t so crazy, nursing her would not affect me so. And I was right. It got easier, much much easier once Julian was born and the milk started flowing freely again.

At the end of my pregnancy, I remember every night I would lay down for some quiet, cuddle time to nurse Ava before bed, she would hold onto baby (put her hand on my belly), and I would wonder if it would be our last night together just the two of us before her baby brother would join us.

In retrospect, I’m glad that I didn’t wean her, despite my strong feelings because I think tandem nursing has been a nice bonding experience for the two kids. On the somewhat rare occasion that Jody is traveling for work and I’ve had to get both kids to bed by myself, we’ve shared some pretty special (though definitely awkward) times together with both of them at the breast, holding hands or giggling at each other, and it’s moments like that that I wouldn’t trade for the world. 🙂

I want to add that this is my experience only. Just because it was trying at times for me, does not mean it will be for everyone. It’s impossible to know how pregnancy and breastfeeding will go for each woman until she experiences it for herself and then can decide what is best for her and her family.

Amy @ Crunchy Domestic Goddess

Breastfeeding Twins?!

“Are you still breastfeeding?”

Every woman who breastfeeds her children will, without fail, at some point be asked that very pointed question.

“Are you still breastfeeding?”

It almost doesn’t matter how long you’ve been nursing for: someone is going to ask. At three months? Six months? A year? Doesn’t matter. Someone will ask you.

Sometimes the subtext is awe: “Wow! You’re still nursing your babies! That’s great!“ Most times, however, the questioner asks in a most impatient manner. As if there’s a deadline to meet and you’re missing it. “What are you doing still nursing those babies?”

In my case, the fact that I decided to nurse the twins in the very first place was a big surprise. My doctor (For whom I have the greatest respect.) made it very clear that by nursing the twins full time, I’d be off in some exotic land where few women in our area had ever tread. Then again, I was apparently setting records for birth weights and length of gestation, so perhaps she wasn’t too surprised with my decision to breastfeed.

Nursing hasn’t always been Easy Street, either (See my rant from the first month if you don’t believe me.). Don’t get me wrong: once you’re in the groove, nursing is easy. It’s finding your groove and staying in it that are the hard parts.

When I started out, I wanted to tandem nurse the twins, get them on a schedule and possibly get a little more sleep. Well, it turned out that the twins had a touch of reflux and were tiny geysers of vomit on a very regular basis until they were about four months old. Thus, instead of tandem nursing, I was serially nursing twins to avoid at least some of the puke headed my way.

I’ve been bitten, pinched, pulled, vomited on, gotten plugged ducts, swollen and inflamed breasts from missing nursing sessions, Emma developed thrush, and Logan developed a preference for one side over the other.

Even with all of that, nursing has still been one of the best things I have done for the twins and for myself. Also? I produce a helluva lotta milk.

Now that we are tandem nursing, I get a bit more sleep at night. The weight loss aspect has been fabulous (I gained 65 lb for the pregnancy and by 7 months postpartum, it was gone. No exercise, just nursing and normal life with twins. I imagine that if you exercised, the weight would whip off even faster. I’m just lazy.). The twins are very snuggly when cuddled up and nursing together. Sometimes they reach over and pat the other twin. Of course, they also sometimes poke and pinch the other twin or attempt to steal the opposite breast, but life is tough around here.

Emma nurses more than Logan does, so when he finishes first, he sits up and smiles at me and we get a little extra bonding in: nose kisses, baby hugs, giggles. When he tires of me, I let him slide off my lap and crawl around the room. Emma and I then snuggle up together. She will finish off Logan’s breast (Because there’s always more milk in there.) and then crawl all over me like a puppy. She also engages in Nurse-robatics: standing up while nursing, twisting around, getting into Down Dog position, attempting to climb over my shoulder all while still engaged in lip-lock. Ouch! She also pats my tummy, plays with my hair and checks my teeth.

You know, just to make sure they’re still in there.

I respond by nibbling on her fingers and chewing on her neck, so I think we’re even.

Let me leave you with some of my hard-earned twin feeding tips:

5 Tips for Successfully Breastfeeding Twins

  1. Get a good book. I highly recommend Mothering Multiples: Breastfeeding and Caring for Twins or More! Read it. Ideally before the twins arrive.
  2. Be prepared to supplement with f*rmula. The biggest secret to nursing twins is to keep in mind that you may not have milk enough for two on the day they’re born. It took me a few weeks of pumping and supplementing with formula until my production increased enough to feed both of them fully. Be prepared to supplement and don’t beat yourself up over the fact that this, too, is another area where having twins is decidedly different from having a singleton.
  3. Herbal supplements are your friend! Herbal supplements like Alfalfa, Blessed Thistle and Fenugreek will help increase your milk production significantly. Trust me! Or if you don’t trust me, read up about it at KellyMom.com.
  4. Eat well. When breastfeeding twins, you’ll burn up about 1000 extra calories a day. You need to eat well to support your body’s ability to do that. Now is not the time to go on a diet to lose the pregnancy weight gain. It will come off. Be patient!
  5. Drink water. A lot of water. I’m not kidding. Why aren’t you drinking some water? Go get some!

Now when someone asks, “So are you still breastfeeding those twins?”

We’ll answer, “Hell yeah!“

Keeping a-breast…

It began when you were very small,

No other source of food at all,

every hour, sometimes less,

you would suckle at my breast.

Everywhere we went they’d smile

supportive of us all the while,

You were young and cute and small

of course I breastfed, after all.

Strangers told me they were proud

in voices strident, voices loud,

that I chose to bare my breast.

They told me it was for the best.

Now that you walk, and run, and play,

our nursing support has become dismay!

Though you are still a babe to me

a big kid and breasts is all they see.

Despite the heads that shake away

We still nurse all night and day!

You are still my little one,

we will nurse until you’re done.

(Support breastfeeding, celebrate World Breastfeeding Week!)

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

copyright ©1997 Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC

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