NEWSLETTER

June 2010

Please wish the Dads in your life a Happy Father's Day from me. Father's play many unique roles in raising babies. So often I hear," my partner wants to feed the baby too, how soon should he give bottles of my milk?" The answer is mainly wait and see, first breastfeeding should be going well, too many times I have had a baby stop breastfeeding or stop breastfeeding as well after that first bottle from the partner, now mom and baby are upset and therefore so is Dad. Often by the time breastfeeding is going well Dad has realized that he plays many other roles in bonding with his baby; first and foremost supporting the mother, doing baths, changing diapers, going for walks and after a short time playing the best loved games. I also remind them before long baby will be ready for solid foods and then Dad can feed all he wants, as well as clean up the mess :). Ask any experienced Dad who has never given a bottle if he is as close to his children as their mother is, as long as he was involved in other ways he will assure you that in the grand scheme of what children need feeding infants is a small part.

For some more resources for Breastfeeding Fathers visit: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/start/prepare/bf-links-father.html There is also a story below about Fathers and postpartum depression.

Lots more good too. There are two important surveys you can take if you have had your baby already or after you do. Please pass these along to friends as the more data the better. Some new book recommendations, new reasons to avoid c-sections when you can and how to have the best start with your baby should you need a c-section.

Don't forget to join South Jersey Babies and Karen Kurtz, IBCLC on Facebook.

Karen

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding - Preorder the Newest addition revised for 2010.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth

Hygeia Newsletter Special

Buy any Enjoye Pump with an Internal Battery and get a free car charger (plus free shipping). Offer expires July 30, 2010

www.TheBirthSurvey.com

Our goal is to give women a mechanism that can be used to share information about maternity care practices in their community while at the same time providing practitioners and institutions feedback for quality of care improvement efforts.

At the heart of the project is an on-going, online consumer survey, The Birth Survey, that asks women to provide feedback about their birth experience with a particular doctor or midwife and within a specific birth environment. Responses will be made available online to other women in their community who are deciding where and with whom to birth. Paired with this experiential data will be official statistics from state departments of health listing obstetrical intervention rates at the facility level.

There seems to be a shortage of responses from our area, if you have had a baby in the last three years please provide your input so South Jersey moms-to-be can better inform themselves.

Formula Marketing Survey

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is interested in learning about your experience with infant formula marketing. Please take this survey if you have had a baby or adopted an infant in the last four years.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/infantformulamarketing

Another Reason Not to Rush Mother Nature

Babies born at 39 weeks – the point at which most planned caesarean are carried out – are more likely to go on to have learning difficulties than those born at 40 weeks, scientists found.

Researchers analyzing the birth history of more than 400,000 schoolchildren found that babies born at 37 to 39 weeks have a 5.1 per cent risk of developing "special educational needs", while those born at 40 weeks have a 4 per cent risk.

Read Full Article

Read Original Study

This article is great on Two Levels

An OB nurse talks about how she has been able to keep mothers and babies together from birth even when mom needs a c-section. It gives us proof that it can be done and that we need to demand this right. Imbedded in the article is a wonderful trailer of a Norwegian movie that has lots of wonderful breastfeeding information and includes a scene of a baby breastfeeding while mom's surgery is being completed. Watch this and share it widely as we empower mothers to ask for the best possible start to life for their baby no matter what.

Article and Video

This is Something I often come upon in practice even when birth control is started later.

New Rochelle, NY, May 28 – New CDC birth control guidelines could undermine mothers who want to breastfeed.

The new guidelines advise that the benefits of immediate progesterone contraception outweigh the risks, and that by 4 weeks, there is no risk. Previously, progesterone birth control was not recommended for nursing mothers until at least 6 weeks after birth, and combined hormonal methods were not recommended for 6 months. In the new guidelines, combined pills are rated as “generally acceptable” from 4 weeks.

“The new guidelines ignore basic facts about how breastfeeding works,” says Dr. Jerry Calnen, president of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. “Mothers start making milk due to the natural fall in progesterone after birth. An injection of artificial progesterone could completely derail this process.”

Clinically, breastfeeding support providers report a negative impact on breastfeeding when these methods are introduced too early, and one preliminary study found dramatically lower breastfeeding rates at 6 months among mothers who underwent early insertion of progesterone-containing IUDs, compared with insertion at 6-8 weeks postpartum.

Read Full Article

Postpartum Depression for New Fathers

Rare Study Looks at Psychological Effect of Childbirth on New Dads

By JUJU CHANG and GARY WYNN

May 18, 2010

About 10 percent of women experience severe postpartum depression but few have studied its effect on men.

As many as one in four new dads may experience what's called parental postnatal depression, and the problem can be more than just psychological, Courtenay said.

Men can have increased estrogen and decreased testosterone levels after birth. Some biologists say this may be nature's way of keeping men around to care for the baby, but those hormone changes can also cause the blues.