La Leche League International (LLLI) has added 11 new podcasts to its library. The recordings actually date from the LLLI conference in Chicago in July 2007 but the topics are still quite relevant.f you’ve never been to a conference then it’s worth checking out one or more of these talks to see what kinds of things you can learn at one. If you have been to a conference then you know how valuable the information is! Among the new 11 podcasts you can hear LLLI founder Marian Tompson, pediatrician and author Dr. Bill Sears, author Nancy Mohrbacher, and lawyer Jake …read more

I have liked Alyson Hannigan from How I Met Your Mother ever since her days as Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and now I like her even more! Today on the red carpet at the Emmys she was asked how she got back into such great shape after giving birth to her daughter Satyana Denisof (her husband is Alexis Denisof also of Buffy) less than six months ago.
The secret to her post-partum weight loss?
Breastfeeding, definitely breastfeeding!
While not everyone loses weight so easily with breastfeeding, many women do and it is wonderful to hear Alyson talk about that benefit of …read more

As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health Subcommittee, Senator Edward Kennedy played a crucial role in the 1978 Senate hearing on the marketing of f*ormula in developing countries. In his opening speech, Senator Kennedy asked:
Whose responsibility is it to control the advertising, marketing and promotional activities which may create a market in spite of public health considerations?
In the hearing itself, Senator Kennedy put a Nestlé executive through a very pointed line of questioning on the company’s social responsibility in countries where poverty and the lack of a sanitary water supply make f*ormula-feeding particularly dangerous. Watch this fascinating clip:
Patti Rundall, Policy …read more

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was a physician who became a well-regarded American poet in the 19th century. I can tell he was a smart man just by this quote from one of his books:
We are willing to give Liebig’s artificial milk when we cannot do better, but we watch the child anxiously whose wet-nurse is a chemist’s pipkin. A pair of substantial mammary glands has the advantage over the two hemispheres of the most learned Professor’s brain, in the art of compounding a nutritious fluid for infants.

– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894), p. 276 of Medical Essays
A “pipkin” is a …read more

This rather shocking quote affirms everything I have always felt about breastfeeding. You can’t replace breastfeeding with formula, or even breast milk with formula; they simply aren’t equivalent. That doesn’t make formula “bad” nor should it make formula-feeding mothers feel guilty. It acknowledges that breastfeeding is part of an intimate relationship between mother and child.
To reduce breastfeeding to milk is like reducing sex to semen.
– Rachel Myr, Lactnet list facilitator, named “Midwife of the Year 2008″ in Norway, as quoted in Lactnet

You know how when you are trying to get pregnant, suddenly you see pregnant women everywhere? Well, it’s the same way when you write a breastfeeding blog — suddenly you see references to breastfeeding all over the place. Today I read an interesting MSNBC.com article entitled “Recession F-Bombs: Why Cursing Feels Great” by Diane Mapes. Not exactly a place you’d expect to see a reference to breastfeeding, right? But Mapes spoke to Thomas Jay, professor of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, who said:
“Swear words are almost always about sex or religion in every language,” says Jay. “It …read more

When a book requires a page of the family tree to illustrate the relationships of all the characters, that raises a red flag that it might be a little complicated for me right now! However, the community of women described in The Red Tent by Anita Diamant fascinates and inspires me. The novel is a re-telling of the biblical story of Jacob and his sons through the female perspective.

It’s a complex and somewhat disturbing book that is more like four books in one. The thing that keeps me reading though is the relationship of the women. In the red tent …read more

I watched Jerry O’Connell co-host Live with Regis and Kelly the other day. It was cute to see how excited he is about his newborn twin girls with wife Rebecca Romijn. He could hardly contain his excitement and it was very sweet to see. Apparently he still had the same enthusiasm when he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show today. O’Connell said:
I don’t know why I’m getting nervous saying this — I’m not saying anything dirty, it’s natural but [Rebecca] does what we call the double football – which is just incredible, because it’s like three beings attached. It’s like …read more

Actress Toni Collette, known for her roles in Little Miss Sunshine, Muriel’s Wedding, and The Sixth Sense, gave birth to her first child one year ago. In last weekend’s Parade magazine feature, she was asked how she got back in shape after giving birth.
“I do yoga and Pilates, but the body itself knows what to do,” she said. “When you’re breastfeeding, the body has its own way to shrink.”

According to The Breastfeeding Answer Book, a paladai is a feeding device used traditionally in India. It is a “low bowl with a spout, shaped like ‘Aladdin’s lamp.’” It has advantages over cup feeding in that it helps babies take a higher volume of milk in the least amount of time, and it reduces milk spillage.
Counseling the Nursing Mother: A Lactation Consultant’s Guide mentions this supplemental feeding technique:
The paladai — a cup feeding device — has been used to feed babies in India for many years. It is gaining recognition in the Western world as a helpful lactation device (Sideman, …read more