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Showing posts from July, 2015

Why is the U.S. so stuck up about breastfeeding?

There always seems to be a new story popping up about a woman breastfeeding her baby in public and someone asking her to cover up. A recent story out of Moorhead for example. Reading this story it sounds like the issue is resolved and the employees at the pool where the incident occurred have been reeducated and now know it is a woman's right to breastfeed her baby in public. I LOVE the response that nursing mothers have to these types of incidents. A NURSE-IN! I can just hear the conversations. "Ladies, I was at the pool yesterday and they told me to cover up. Let's show them we are a force! Everyone bring your hungry baby to the pool tomorrow and prepare to sit and breastfeed that baby and DARE them to make us all cover up." These types of active protests make me wish I was still nursing my kid. I would love to have participated in a nurse-in full force. Breastfeeding is an amazing experience and I encourage any mom I meet to do it. Granted it is a lot of hard

British study promotes home birth

NPR has had a series of childbirth related stories recently. And this one is great: Should More Women Give Birth Outside The Hospital? There is an excellent quote by Dr. Neel Shah that I believe really sums up the care in the U.S.: "We're taking excellent care of high-risk women," he says, "and leaving low-risk, normal women behind. We're the only country on Earth with a rising maternal mortality rate." Can you believe that?! A rising maternal mortality rate in the U.S.? And yet it is true with our intervention heavy birth process and high cesarean rates, which average 33 percent in the U.S. compared with 26 percent in the U.K. They interview another obstetrician and he reveals his arrogance. And that is what I have come to believe is the root of the criticism of alternative care sought by pregnant women in the U.S. We have been conditioned to think that we should seek an obstetrician care giver for the best care. When in reality, these doctors are tr