Some women end up with a bountiful stash of frozen breast milk — be it from oversupply, a baby in the NICU, or an infant who turns out to be allergic to something in the milk pumped so far. Some of those women are moved to donate the excess milk to a non-profit milk bank. In the past few days, I have heard two women express (no pun intended) frustration at the restrictions posted on women who wish to qualify as breast milk donors. One, whose oversupply and dairy-free diet could certainly have benefited a milk bank, was turned away …read more

It is hard to believe it has been more than 18 months since Breastfeeding 1-2-3 launched in October 2006! Yesterday’s post on free banner ads for World Breastfeeding Week 2008 marked the 600th post. Readers have left 1,937 comments (thank you so much!) and spammers have left 74,259 filtered comments (boo hiss!)
Reader contributions make all the work worthwhile. Thanks for sharing your breastfeeding stories and answering the Mom-to-Mom questions!

Do you support breastfeeding in public? What does “public” include? The mall, the park, a restaurant? What about in church (or any house of worship)? That last category seems to be really problematic. Some churchgoers feel very strongly opposed to babies breastfeeding in church. Apparently babies belong in the nursery or the “cry room” (what an awful name). Personally, I think people should focus on the sermon and not on the nursing mother and baby. I can’t imagine nursing is so distracting (certainly not any more so than a crying baby being rushed out of the service). Furthermore, it can …read more

Grace from Kids Health Notes is pregnant with her second child. In this guest post, she reflects back on what she learned from breastfeeding her first child. Now knowing her family history of allergies and her first daughter’s allergy to cow’s milk products and other foods, she can eliminate the allergenic foods from her diet and provide her next child all the wonderful benefits of breastfeeding. Grace says:
I’ve always known.
Even before I became pregnant I knew I wanted to breastfeed. There was no question that breastfeeding is best for me and the baby. And so I thought, knowing how …read more

Today’s guest post comes from Kate at Babylune. She tells the beautiful story of how she has found creative and loving ways to identify and meet her daughter’s needs throughout the weaning process.
Now I Just Cuddle on Demand
Weaning. I’ve wanted to do it for almost a year, but I am just getting around to it now. My daughter is almost 2 years-old.
Weaning, many women will tell you, is completely unnecessary. Children, they maintain, stop when they want to. Which, in my experience of watching children left completely to their own devices, is when they are 4 or 5 years-old. Others …read more

Kathleen Huggins, RN, MS, IBCLC is the author of The Nursing Mother’s Companion: Revised Edition and The Expectant Parents’ Companion. She’s also the co-author of two other books The Nursing Mother’s Guide to Weaning and Nursing Mother, Working Mother, revised editions of which were released last week. Ms. Huggins is a registered nurse, certified lactation consultant and early childcare expert. For many years she worked as the director of a breastfeeding clinic in California. In an email interview with me, she starts off by sharing her recent history.
KH: Four years ago, in addition to directing the breastfeeding clinic, I opened …read more

I happened to catch the Oprah show today about siblings. The first guests were the Harris sextuplets, the only set of African-American sextuplets to survive. Their mother Diamond Harris explained how she and her husband used intrauterine insemination to conceive. At first they were told they were having twins, then a subsequent ultrasound showed five heartbeats, and during the birth they got an additional surprise–a sixth baby had been hiding behind the placenta!
Oprah applauded Diamond for breastfeeding the sextuplets. The interview wasn’t entirely positive but it was amazing to hear Diamond say that she breastfed the six babies until they were six …read more

A reader shares her experience breastfeeding triplets! Enjoy this Q&A with Julie:
Tell us a little about yourself and your three children!
I am 23 years old and active duty Navy. I’ve been in the Navy for three years. I’ve been married for four years, and my husband just graduated from college in December. We were told we were expecting twins when I was seven weeks pregnant, and were ecstatic and surprised and a little scared. I experienced some bleeding a few days later, and it continued on and off for the next two weeks, so I …read more

My two-year-old is feeling much better today. Yesterday she couldn’t keep down any food in spite of her interest in solids. I told her that she could have food again once she stopped spitting up and in the meantime she could nurse. She was alright with that but told me that she’d be all better the next day, “I promise!” (She learned that phrase when I made her promise not to stick any more pieces of cantaloupe up her nose!)
So I could monitor her throughout the night I co-slept with her until my own violent coughing threatened to wake her …read more

As we look forward to Valentine’s Day, this fourth Carnival of Breastfeeding presents several variations on the theme “Baby Love.”
Perhaps breastfeeding is helping you bond with your child after a traumatic birth (Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog) or you’re first meeting your son after a cesarean (Cairo Mama). Maybe you’re just finding out that love makes you do crazy things? (The Lactivist).
Starting to lust for another baby (My Baby and More) or already preparing for another one to arrive (Breastfeeding 1-2-3)? Find out whether for part of your preparations you should read the book “Babyproofing Your Marriage” (Mama Knows Breast).
Hopefully you’re celebrating …read more