Welcome to the August Carnival of Breastfeeding in celebration of World Breastfeeding Week August 1-7, 2009! The theme for La Leche League’s celebration is “Breastfeeding: Prepared for Life.” Breastfeeding prepares mothers and babies to deal with life’s emergencies: a natural disaster, war, epidemic, or time of political and economic unrest. Breastfeeding provides vital protection for infants in an emergency. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports:

A Chinese policewoman who recently gave birth is helping the earthquake disaster relief in China by breastfeeding eight infant quake victims in addition to her own baby. The Citizen reports:
A newspaper in Chengdu, the capital of quake-hit Sichuan province, devoted a special page to the 29-year-old woman, calling her a “hero.”
The woman from the quake-ravaged town of Jiangyou has just had a child herself, the Western Urban Daily said.
She is nursing the children of three women who were left homeless by the quake and are too traumatised to give milk, as well as five orphans, the report said.
The babies who …read more

In honor of Red Cross Month, blogs in the b5media Science and Health Channel discuss emergency preparedness today at the theme day hosted by Tris Hussey of Homely Scientist. What is the protocol for feeding an infant during an emergency, whether your child receives breast milk or artificial baby milk? (Sorry folks, I have to use the term “artificial baby milk” because if I use the “f” word, so to speak LOL, I get lots of advertisements for artificial baby milk on the breastfeeding blog.) Also I’ll link to the following, since I know the mention of the Red Cross …read more