Would you like more Whole Milk?

I've noticed that there have been quite a few hits on my Whole Milk posts.   Listen up, people.  If you would like to read the rest of the story and see how it ends, PLEASE "like" Whole Milk on Facebook.  You can also "friend" me if you have questions.  Get the word out there!  You are the biggest contributor to making this happen!

I will keep you apprised of the latest happenings so that you can know what to expect.

Thank you for your support!

BKB

http://www.facebook.com/#!/betty.knowsbreast

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Whole-Milk/243375679124124

Whole Milk - Introduction

I had actually sat down to write this book several months ago, but the timing was all wrong.  My initial plan was to write a serious how-to book with the intent to show mothers how to protect themselves in a society where breastfeeding still hasn’t been embraced the way it is in most societies.  Along with that intent, I wanted to stick it to the man for being so ignorant and not recognizing the benefits of breastfeeding; for not acknowledging the consequences of not only failing to create an appropriate environment for women who breastfeed and pump, but for essentially pressuring women to quit early or forgo the opportunity altogether by their neglect of the matter.  Looking back, I can now say my initial intentions were fueled by 3 things: 1) the stress caused by my post-partum work environment, 2) post-partum depression, and 3) reading Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series while I was battling the aforementioned numbers 1 and 2.  It may seem amusing, but this combination of elements had me reeling!

After a lot of self-reflection (and ultimately concluding that such a book would be difficult to write and boring to read), I changed my direction and decided to simply journal my feelings and experiences during the times that I was pumping breast milk.  At the time I was spending a minimum of 75 minutes per day in this position, so I had a lot of time to think about the craziness of it all.  Picture this:  me nestled on the comfy Mother’s Room love seat, or the glider in the nursery at home, my shirt hiked up to my neck, my left hand holding the breast pump guard in place, and my right hand hastily scribbling my internal madness on a worn-out Moleskine notebook.  I’m sure I looked like a lunatic, and there were days when I definitely felt like one.  I often ended the day with two cramped hands and the two voices inside my head arguing about why I shouldn’t just spend my pumping time stalking people on Facebook, rather than developing carpel tunnel by spending so much time doing this ancient activity called writing-by-hand.

So, what is my new intent?  Will it be good enough for people to continue reading this book once they find out what it is?  I’ll let others be the judge.  Women talk… a lot.  But when it comes to the topic of breastfeeding, it seems like many women walk on eggshells, which means that they won’t readily divulge as much information as might be necessary in order to help out a fellow woman who may be struggling with breastfeeding (I don’t, however, believe this to be intentional or malicious.  It’s simply that no one knows where to draw the line with regard to spilling their guts).  So, my new intent is to give people—the expecting mother, the currently breastfeeding mother, the “next time I want to try breastfeeding” mother (be careful when using quotation marks here!), the genuinely interested father-to-be of a potential breastfeeding mother, the genuinely perverted man who will inevitably read this book for no reason other than to read the word “breast” over and over (because these weirdoes do exist)—a real open and honest view of breastfeeding.  WARNING: The content of this book may occasionally be graphic in nature.

Anyone who isn’t already leery about broaching the subject will probably become so. On the other hand, by the end of this book, I believe readers will have the desire to birth 10 children and nurse them all until they are 48 months old.  If my belief does not hold true, I am hoping people will at least have a better understanding of why so many women choose to breastfeed their children, and all that women must endure in order to uphold their conviction that, for them personally, breast is best in mom-eat-mom U.S.A.

So sit back, latch on, and suck this book down!

Woohoo for Yahoo!!!

No recent news has made me happier than reading about Marissa Mayer becoming the new, and PREGNANT, CEO of Yahoo. Ok, that's not true. I was happier when that little 3 year-old Columbian boy was pulled to safety from the sewer he fell into. I literally cried uncontrollably about that.  But besides sewer rescues, I was just thrilled to hear about a pregnant woman becoming CEO of such a large, high-profile corporation.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/marissa-mayer-yahoo-ceo-pregnant/story?id=16791606
 
I really don't have any expectations about what will happen; I only have hopes. I don't expect that this is going to change maternity-related issues and attitudes in the workplace as a whole, but I hope that it is a start. What am I saying? It is a start!! This is truly a really big deal, and it's about time that a woman's brain and positive contribution looks bigger than her ever-growing belly. I don't believe that being pregnant makes a woman weak. I never felt stronger or healthier than I did when I was pregnant, and the day after I gave birth, I looked down at my legs, amazed at how toned they were-- from carrying all that extra weight.  It seems that once a woman conceives she is viewed as "delicate" until the baby arrives. But pregnant women are freaking workhorses! They train and grow for 9 months in order to labor for sometimes days on end (marathons typically only last a few hours!).  How, exactly, is that considered delicate?
 
All that to say, it's about time someone recognized that there should be no plausible reason why pregnancy should hinder a woman's proven ability to perform her job.
 
Now, let's consider my favorite pregnancy related topic: breast feeding.  If Marissa Mayer decides to breast feed and pump at the office, how will this affect the way pumping at work is viewed? Will she even choose to take on this challenge? Will she be able to stick to a regular pumping schedule? Will she remember to drink the appropriate ratio of coffee and water, AND eat those 500 extra calories each day in order to maintain sufficient milk output? Will the whole thing be a cakewalk for her, and will she make other women seem like sissies about their struggles in finding a proper balance? Or will she struggle, too, and create more awareness about the challenges of being a breast feeding working mother?
 
No matter what happens, this is all a step in the right direction. Marissa Mayer is free, just like the rest of us, to experience this amazing and life-changing time in her own unique way. No one can tell her how she should feel, think, or behave.  The one thing we should all do is watch.  I’ve only been to Vegas once, and I don’t think I spent more than $7 total in the casino (in nickel slots, mind you), but I’m willing to bet that Marissa Mayer will have an interesting impact on the way America sees the working mother. 

Now, I need to get back to work.  I just finished pumping, and it was a disaster.  I didn’t even get an ounce out of my efforts.  It’s hard to focus on having a letdown while I am focusing on writing.  Yes, admittedly I wrote this while I was expressing milk for my precious little boy.  But hey, we are all given the same 24 hours in our day, and I try to milk them for all they are worth. 

Obviously, my question is:  What do you think about Marissa Mayer coming into this position while pregnant?

Signing off.

BKB

Supply and (Personal) Demands

I am only just now realizing how oblivious I have been to how my normal activity affects breastfeeding.  I've been doing a little science experiment for the past 2 days (so extensive, I know) to see how drinking more water will affect my milk output when pumping at work.  Not surprisingly (and yet I am oddly surprised!), I have already pumped more after 2 pumping sessions today than I pumped after 3 yesterday.  I anticipate that the output will level off at some point, but I suspect that it will continue to rise to that point as I continue to drink more water.

I'm not going to say a lot today (pretty much because I am about to pee my pants from drinking so much water, and I want to reward myself for finishing this post today by using the restroom... gosh, that is strange), despite having much on which to reflect.  Breastfeeding is not a no-brainer activity, even though it has become a very normal and regular part of my life over the past 9 1/2 months.  It still takes a lot of thought and consideration in order to reach a breastfeeding goal.  For example, I have been engaged in an internal struggle about supplementing my Flyweight child's breast milk bottle with some formula.  The reason this has been an issue lately is because I'm watching my freezer supply of breast milk dwindle as I struggle to keep up with the demands of a growing child, yet at the rate I'm going, it looks like I could run out of both frozen and fresh milk before he turns a year old.  I am vehemently opposed to this happening!

So... I decided to do something about it.  And that is why I am about to pee my pants... because I am doing the obvious before I resort to taking more extreme measures.

Stay tuned to find out if the data continues to support my theory.  Well, the theory that I borrowed from someone else’s brain, anyway. 

Signing off.

BKB

Snickering at Snookie

I just read an article which was a commentary on a Good Morning America interview with Snookie.  The commentary was based on the admission by Snookie that she is afraid of breastfeeding because she heard that breastfeeding is painful.

http://www.parents.com/blogs/high-chair-times/2012/06/11/high-chair-times/were-you-afraid-to-breastfeed/?socsrc=pmmfb0611124

I was pretty shocked at the response of the blogger for Parents magazine, because it seemed overly judgmental.  Don’t get me wrong—I am not a Snookie fan.  In fact, I’ve only ever seen one episode of Jersey Shore (if it’s not The Real Housewives of the OC or Kardashians, I won’t watch it.  Ha!), but that was enough for me to know I’d seen enough.  The thing I don’t understand is why this blogger thought it was an appropriate transition to go from bashing Snookie, to then validating her fears of breastfeeding.  I had a difficult time following where the article was going because the blogger makes Snookie seem outrageously stupid, but then in her next breath empathizes with her.

No matter who you are or what you’ve done, of course you don’t know what to expect if you haven’t breastfed.  Even if you have breastfed, there can still be many instances of surprise along the way!  Why would Snookie want to even attempt to breastfeed if people are going to make her feel like she’s already made such bad choices in life, that she will inevitably screw up with breastfeeding, too?  Why shouldn’t she be encouraged to try to breastfeed, because it is a possibility that she could be one of the people who has a rather easy and uneventful go of the experience from the beginning?  And who knows?  Perhaps she might even decide that she’s willing to sacrifice more of herself in the process, in order to be a good mother for her baby.

I know there are many perfect people out there.  After all, Jesus went back to Heaven because there were enough perfect people here on Earth that he could wipe his hands and say, “My work here is done,” right?  Sorry about the sarcasm…  That was ugly.  My point is that Snookie deserves a chance, just like anyone else to do something good for her child.  Let’s encourage her, not tear her down before she even gives it a shot.  Perhaps this is the exact reason why breastfeeding often fails in the U.S.A… because we take every opportunity to tell you why you can’t, rather than why you should.

My one question to you is:  Does Snookie’s reputation change the kind of advice you would give her about breastfeeding?

Signing off.

BKB

Proper Breast Support

Although the end date of my breastfeeding goal is still 3 months away (exactly 3 months to the day, as a matter of fact!), I know this time will pass more quickly than I can imagine.  Because of this, I need to start preparing mentally for how I am going to transition my baby and myself into this new realm.  This is a new concept to me:  I will have a child who will no longer view me as his own personal dairy cow. 

I was talking with my best friend last night about why she decided to stop breastfeeding when she did. She told me that it wasn’t actually she who decided, rather the children.  She said they just didn’t seem to need it anymore, so she basically let them wean themselves.  I thought that was really interesting, because in my mind I have been imagining this being a really tough process where I will be consoling my crying child as he is trying to unsnap my bra against my will.  That didn’t sound ideal, but since I am new to this whole motherhood thing I usually have no idea what to expect.

If I achieve the goal I have set for myself, I will actually be a statistic on the opposite side of the actual U.S. statistics for mothers reaching their breastfeeding goals, according to a recent article I read.  As stated in this new study, most mothers don’t reach their goals, despite having said that they intended to exclusively breastfeed for X months.

http://m.cbsnews.com/fullstory.rbml?catid=57447515&feed_id=5&videofeed=41

What stood out to me in this article is the fact that regardless of whether it was one month or 24 months, most mothers didn’t reach the breastfeeding goal.   Furthermore, most mothers actually said that their goal was to exclusively breastfeed, yet many of them didn’t even make it out of the hospital before they gave up.

This article brings me back to the concept that in order for women to have success breastfeeding (regardless of the length of time they plan to do so), they need to have support from all aspects of the community.  If many women don’t leave the hospital still breastfeeding, that tells me that the support needs to be heavily focused during those first few days of the baby’s life.  When I had my child, my nurses knew that I planned to breastfeed, and let me tell you—they were on me like a fly on a turd!  That was a totally gross word picture.  Anyway, my nurses saw to it that I took every opportunity possible to foster good breastfeeding habits as long as I was in their care. 

Not only did the nurses encourage me, but my husband did as well.  Despite my mother not having breastfed me, she also encouraged me, and was even fascinated with the whole concept, which made me in turn more enthusiastic about it.  I have friends who were more than willing to answer any of my off-the-wall questions regarding breastfeeding, since they had plenty of experience. 

Now, when I imagine what my experience would have been had I not had the amazing support system those first few weeks of my child’s life, I feel really sad.  It makes me sad because I know that it is reality for many American women.  In this fast-food nation we live in, it probably just seems more convenient to go the formula route, rather than taking the time to properly train mother, baby, and everyone else in their lives to be a supportive part of breastfeeding. 

So my question is:  Did you feel that you had sufficient support to learn to breastfeed while you were in the hospital, and then to continue thereafter?  If not, what do you believe could have changed your experience in a positive way?

Signing off.

BKB

Old Enough to Know Better, Still Too Young to Care

A dear friend of mine sent me a link to Pinterest which shows some basic trends regarding breastfeeding in the United States versus 79 countries surveyed from the rest of the world. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/14918242486104075/  

The thing that caught my attention is the variance between the U.S. and the rest of the world.  Although many U.S. citizens claim to support breastfeeding, most have an “age limit” that they believe is appropriate to stop breastfeeding.  For some people that “age limit” is an actual age, and for some people it’s a milestone (for example, when the child learns to walk or to speak).  I’m curious as to where we come up with this “age limit”, since the variance between the U.S. and the rest of the world is so great.  Why are 56% of babies still breastfed at 2 years of age in the countries surveyed, when only 24% are still breastfed at 2 years of age in the U.S.?  A variance of 32% is a pretty big gap!

I’m interested to know if this gap is the result of mothers returning to the workplace, as I know that the U.S. typically has shorter maternity leave benefits than other countries.  Or, is it simply a cultural issue where mothers just feel judged if they continue to feed their children after the perceived “age limit” in the U.S., and it is just too tiring to justify to the inquiring minds why they breastfeed longer than that point?  Personally, I wasn’t sure how to respond to my boss when he asked how long I planned to breastfeed my child.  He let me know that, in his opinion, it was normal to be finished breastfeeding by the time a child turned a year old.  I thought that was interesting.

So, my question of the day is:  How long do you believe is too long to breastfeed a child, and why?

Signing off.

BKB