Kourtney Kardashian loves breastfeeding

For once in a blue moon, this post is devoted to saying how great Kourtney Kardashian is for revealing that she breastfed her baby Mason for 15 months before weaning him. The Daily Mail reports that she wrote:

Kourtney wrote: 'My love affair with breast feeding has come to a sad end.

'I seriously could cry just thinking about it being over. I love what a beautiful experience I had with my son and just wanted to share it.'

She says she gained 5lbs since stopping breastfeeding.

When did you wean your baby?

Miranda Kerr: first photo

How gorgeous is Miranda Kerr and her new bub? Miranda recently posted this beautiful photo on her blog that she is enjoying motherhood and that her natural birth was no cake walk.

"On the 6th of January I gave birth to our beautiful little son Flynn. He weighed 9lb 12 ounces (a very healthy and big baby boy). I gave birth to him naturally; without any pain medication and it was a long, arduous and difficult labour, but Orlando was with me the whole time supporting and guiding me through it. I could not have done it without him."

I love that she has chosen to be honest and say that natural birth is beautiful but it's not easy....AND she's showing the world that she is breastfeeding!

Pregnant women banned in Vegas

Talk about hypocrisy!

Bravado, the manufacturer of cleverly designed breastfeeding bras, has recently run into some trouble when it comes to showing off their wares. Since 2008, the company has been entering trade shows in order to expand their market. Their 'booth' at the trade show features a runway with pregnant models wearing the bras. The 'models' however are not 'models' in the traditional sense; they are the company's typical customers at various stages of pregnancy. In an interview with the NYT, Kathryn From, chief executive of Bravado, noted that every so often a small percentage of people complain about their decision to feature pregnant women. Ironically, the company was recently prohibited from staging their runway show in Las Vegas at Blush Boutique Nightclub, owned by Wynn:

“We did not feel it appropriate to feature a very pregnant model in a nightclub, at midnight, where alcohol was being served,” Jennifer Dunne, a Wynn spokeswoman, wrote in a statement responding to questions. “Our team made a judgment call which we feel was correct given the environment and circumstance.”

In a city where day and night collide, where prostitution, gambling and inebriation are the orders of the day, one wonders how on earth a nightclub in the city of sin could possibly get on their high horse about a few pregnant women flogging some maternity bras.

I am consistently amazed by the ways in which pregnant bodies continue to cause moral panic in spite of the fact that it would appear that we are so inundated with naked female bodies in general.

Say bye bye to bras?

OMG. So I went to Phuket, Thailand in 2008 for a story that I writing for a magazine here in Melbourne. I watched some Aussie mums have post-baby breast implants and, let me tell you, it looked pretty gosh darn painful.

Apparently, there's a new surgery using Breform which is a breast enhancement that functions like a sports bra under the skin or as the manufacturer says it's an 'internal bra system' (yikes, a 'system'...sounds like a machine from the future). The benefit of this new technology is that it prevents the skin from stretching or sagging unlike traditional implant surgery. The Breform is made of a special mesh which, upon being placed underneath the skin, will over time become incorporated into the breast tissue.

The Breform has been licensed in Europe but the USFDA says it will be about 10 years before Breform is approved; it needs to undergo lots of testing but preliminary studies show that it's pretty safe thus far. In spite of the good results, some experts are concerned that the Breform will be dangerous or present a cancer risk for pregnant or breastfeeding women whose breasts might outgrow the internal bra.

Hmm. Impants that leak or mesh that you can potentially outgrow? Can you think of anything worse?

Photo credit: www.Breform.com

Babies, breastfeeding and parenting gadgets

The recession getting you down? Well, we can all be thankful for one thing: economic hardship is a prime time for encouraging mothers to breastfeed. "You can save $1,000 to $3,000 a year just by breast-feeding," says Gina Cicatelli Ciagne, director of breast-feeding and consumer relations for Lansinoh, which sells breast-feeding accessories.

Speaking of breastfeeding, has anyone out there used one of those monitors that reminds you when you had your last feed? Well, I came across this new fangled device from Itzbeen called the 'Baby Care Timer' which is "a multi-purpose nursery tool that helps new parents remember the basic details of baby care. The ITZBEEN™ has four timers that count up with the touch of a button, and a host of other helpful features, all designed with the needs of a new parent in mind."

Sounds pretty impressive, eh?

But considering these hard economic times, is $24.95 money well spent on what appears to be a machine from the future?


Do you need all these bells and whistles and beeps to keep track of a baby? I mean it's a baby, not a bomb. The company claims it's made with the 'sleep-deprived' 'frazzled' parent in mind. Sure, it's rough to be awake for the first five years of your kid's life but again, parents get tired, because that's part of the deal. Besides, babies are pretty good at telling you what they need. Crying, after all, is one of the most strategic adaptive mechanisms that has told mothers and fathers since the beginning of time that a baby needs something.

What ever happened to good old fashioned parental instincts!?

Kim and Kendra: From nobodies to sort of somebodies

Stop what you're doing! Breaking news!

Kourtney Kardashian and Kendra Wilkinson want to breastfeed in spite of having breast implants!

"I was so scared that I wasn't going to be able to nurse that when I saw stuff come out of my nipples the other day, I was like, I can breast-feed?

Yes, Kendra, you can. Although it actually depends on how your implants were inserted. If the incision was made in the armpit or under the fold of the breast, you are generally okay. If the implants are inserted through the areola, breastfeeding can be difficult As long as the milk ducts and nerves were not cut, most women with breast implants can breastfeed.

In a completely unrrelated note: THE BABY BUMP PROJECT IS NOW ON TWITTER!

Boobs and bras

Confused about maternity lingerie? Khali Whatley, our good friend at Ma Mere is on board to give you some advice and the chance to get a free copy of her guide to choosing the right undies.

By the way, have you entered the caption contest to win a free maternity set?

The importance of a good maternity and nursing bra

There’s so much to consider when you first fall pregnant that the last thing on your mind is your underwear. However most new mothers don’t realise that wearing a bra with an incorrect fit or support system can cause complications during the later parts of pregnancy and into the nursing period. Therefore the beginning of your pregnancy is an important time to make sure that you have the right bra.

During your first trimester a network of lymph glands and milk ducts will start to develop in your breasts and a well-fitted maternity bra can make sure this happens correctly. Its important to be aware that bra underwires can affect the development of these ducts and glands inhibiting circulation, causing discomfort and even leading to infection. Maternity and nursing bras don’t have underwires for this very reason.

So what’s the difference between a maternity and nursing bra?

When it comes to features, they are basically the same. The primary difference is that a nursing bra has clips that allow breastfeeding. If you buy a nursing bra at the beginning of your pregnancy thinking it will last you until after you finish breastfeeding you will probably be disappointed.

Most women’s breasts increase in size during pregnancy and increase again after their baby is born and mature milk is produced. Their ribcage also expands as their baby and belly grows larger and retracts again once the baby is born. These changes affect both the cup and band size – and therefore the bra that should be worn.

The lack of natural muscle support in the breast increases the chance of sagging or changes to the breast shape at this time, so the right bra can provide the necessary support to maintain your breast shape.

With all of this in mind, you should be prepared to purchase several different bra sizes during and after pregnancy. You’ll probably buy fewer maternity and nursing bras than regular bras, which means they will be washed more frequently and therefore stretch and wear out faster. Hand washing and line drying (in spite of care instructions to machine wash) will prolong their life and make sure you get the support you need.

Would you like more information? Send Khali an email for a free copy of her Guide to Maternity Lingerie: khali.whatley[at]mamere.com.au

Angie's milk bar creepily immortalised

Straight from the man who brought you a sculpture of Britney Spears sprawled out on a rug on all fours giving birth to Sean Preston while holding a lion's head and Suri Cruises' bronzed baby poop, New York-based artist Daniel Edwards has decided to commemorate Angelina Jolie's tandem feeding in bronze based on her W magazine breastfeeding cover from last year.

The piece is called 'Landmark for Breastfeeding' and is meant to sit on a park bench. Edwards has depicted one of the babies to be of African descent in light of Brangelina's adoption efforts and humanitarian work.

"Hopefully, my sculpture inspires an increase of wetnurses to assist women who have concerns about mastitis, or passing HIV to their infant," he says of his vision for the creation.

Very deep. *rolls eyes*

Breastfeeding baby doll

Oh man. Goodbye Barbie, Hello 'Glutton Baby' (Bebe Gloton, in Spanish).

Now it's no longer good enough for children to pretend to play house with a baby doll: children can now have a doll that they can breastfeed (and I assume this is targeted at little girls). The child wears a bra-like halter-top with daisies over the nipple area. When the doll is lifted to the flowers, it makes a suckling motion and sound.

Um...I don't know...The doll is supposed to spread the message that breastfeeding is natural...I can't help thinking that the daisies on the halter top look like pasties.

Ikea: Breastfeeding not on the menu

All together now: "BREASTFEEDING IN PUBLIC IS LEGAL"

Hear that Ikea? I think you're looking at a boycott.

Mums of the month

The Rugby Breastfeeding Cafe, a Warwickshire-based support group where local mums can meet up to feed their babies and chat in peace, has found an innovative method for fundraising: a calendar featuring mums breastfeeding from all walks of life in order to 'challenge views people might have about breastfeeding'. A recent article in the Telegraph describes the photos as 'provocative'. Rosie Evans, 28, organised the calendar and says "It shows that you can be young, trendy and sexy and still be a breastfeeding mum."

I'm not so sure. While I'm all for empowering women to feel comfortable to breastfeed and to feel sexy when they are doing it, I think this premise is problematic. I get annoyed when people say that 'you can still be a mum (or breastfeed) and be sexy' as if the two things are always going to be mutually exclusive. Maybe I'm an idealist, but I just don't like the thought that mothers today will always have to worry about 'proving' that motherhood isn't the end of their sexual lives. While it can do nothing but good to get more images of women breastfeeding in daily life, at the same time, why should we have a calendar to prove that?

Thoughts?

*Interesting, the Rugby Breastfeeding Cafe has already complained about the tone of this post, apparently I'm not being supportive enough. I don't see any place here where I'm not being supportive of breastfeeding, of a woman's right to breastfeed in public or the breastfeeding support group.

If you read closely, my criticism is not about any of these things, it is about the over-sexualisation of women's bodies and the quite complex struggle women have in trying to negotiate being mothers and sexual beings in a culture that implores that women be sexy all of the time. I don't think publishing a calendar remedies this, sorry!

One of the organisers seems to suggest that I haven't talked to breastfeeding mums so somehow I just don't understand. If anything, I think I've built my academic career on talking to women about being mothers. I always try to be thoughtful and sensitive on this blog in between being funny with moments of smug every so often. I thought about deleting the post but changed by mind. This is an open forum, if you disagree with anything I have to say, you are most welcome to leave comments, as always. In saying that, this is an open forum for me too. It irks me that the person from the Rugby Breastfeeding Cafe that bothered to comment actually didnt provide a contact name or email address for me to respond to her directly and appropriately. I've removed the images that were originally posted (which I thought would be only be a boon for calendar sales or at least direct traffic to the site).

Breast is not always best

I can feel a controversy brewing.

Joan Wolf, an American academic, examines the medical studies on breastfeeding in painstaking detail in her forthcoming book.

Her conclusion?

“The evidence to date suggests it probably doesn’t make much difference if you breastfeed.”

And the many of the world's leading experts agree. While breastfeeding is beneficial for babies, some of its benefits have apparently been 'oversold' to new mothers. Wolf, herself a mother and one that did breastfeed her babies, says she was shocked by the information that she found. One of the major problems she says is that it is very hard to separate the benefits of the mother’s milk from the benefits of the kind of mother who chooses to breastfeed. In the UK, for example, the highest class of women are 60 per cent more likely to breastfeed than the lowest, so it is not surprising that research shows that breastfed infants display all the health and educational benefits they were born into. In effect, breastfeeding studies could simply be showing what it’s like to grow up in a family that makes an effort to be healthy and responsible, as opposed to anything positive in breast milk.

Michael Kramer, professor of paediatrics at McGill University, Montreal agrees. He has advised the World Health Organisation, Unicef and the esteemed scientific body, the Cochrane Library, and been conducting research into the health effects of breastfeeding since 1978. “The public health breastfeeding promotion information is way out of date,” Kramer says. The trouble is, he said, that the breastfeeding lobby is at war with the formula milk industry, and “neither side is being very scientific ... when it becomes a crusade, people are not very rational.”

Thoughts?

Drunk breastfeeding

"A North Dakota woman accused of breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby while drunk has pleaded guilty to child neglect. Stacey Anvarinia, 36, could face up to five years in prison when she's sentenced on the felony charge in August."

While I'm no advocate of drunk breastfeeding, am I crazy in thinking that a potential sentence of 5 years is just a little bit harsh? How about rehab? Who will look after her baby? It seems counterintuitive to me to take a mother who did something stupid away from her baby and put her in prison instead of getting her help. Not clear if she made drunk breastfeeding a habit but what if it only happened once?

Cover your mammaries with a breastfeeding hat...*gag*

Well folks. I've said it once, I think I'll say it a thousand times:

I have seen the future... and it is not good.

Case in point: MoBoleez 'breastfeeding hats' (WTF?!).

In case you were wondering, these are also called 'Modern Bonnets for Breastfeeding Babes'.

These are supposed to be 'fun' hats that you are supposed to stick on your baby during feeding. What kills me the most, aside from the fact that the inventor uses the word 'fun' (somewhat inappropriately) in every other word of the product description, is that it is claimed that these hats are not meant to shield a woman's breasts from public view:

"The "stay on head sideways" design means that once the hat is on, it'll stay on, and no more fussing with dropping blankets or awkward, bulky 'nursing covers'. While the big brim gives mom a little privacy, it doesn't cover up the breastfeeding, it celebrates it in a fun sort of way!"

Okay, this description makes breastfeeding sound like a trip to an amusement park.

I don't know about you, but I don't see how a creepy looking oversized baby hat 'celebrates' breastfeeding.

Even more annoying is this:

"MoBoleez hats come with illustrations for the top of baby's head (visible when breastfeeding of course!). The cute pictures on top with their lighthearted messages ("Milky Way", "Bee-licious", etc) all convey the message that the MoBoleez mom is a proud breastfeeding babe, with a sense of humour and style!"

Right, so I'm seeing some contradictions here: 1) In my mind, calling a mother (or any woman, for that fact) a 'babe' invokes sexuality (e.g. a 'hot' or sexy woman). Yet, the product itself completely and utterly desexualises women's breasts by firstly covering them up and secondly by shielding them with a hat that has cartoon figures of teddy bears and kittens and other infantilising statements

2) The outside of the brim of the hat is printed with "YUMMY MUMMY". As we all know, that phrase has very specific, highly sexualised connotations in the media when it comes to mothers and particularly celeb mums. Therefore, to throw this around on a baby hat is weird. The creator says this:

"Is MoBoleez part of the “glamourization of motherhood” that the term ‘yummy
mummy’ signifies? At MoBoleez, we like to think of our products as contributing to the idea that that term needs to be re-appropriated by real mums, not the glamourized perfect bodies, perfect lives, sex-ification that is sometimes implied by the term. At MoBoleez, our products are about the “real meaning of Yummy Mummy”: breastfeeding."

If this product was all about 'reclaiming' the term YM for everyday mums then women wouldn't have to feel like that needed to cover up their boobs when they were feeding their babies. The implicit association of breasts with sex/sexuality is fundamentally why socially, people still think it is inappropriate to see women's breasts outside of sex. Thus, merely stating that by shoving 'yummy mummy' on a breastfeeding shield is going to de-sexify motherhood is absolute rubbish. After all, the creator, Diane Sam goes to great lengths to say that her product 'covers the breast, not breastfeeding'...Well, what's feminist about that?! So women should be proud to breastfeed but still worry about how their boobs look to other people or whether they can get away with it in public.

I don't think so.

Rebecca Romijn drops baby weight

Surprise, surprise. Rebecca Romijn has lost 60 lbs after giving birth to twins four months ago. Apparently, she says it was all due to breastfeeding:

"It's like you have to eat 5,000 extra calories a day or you can't produce enough food for them. So, that's been fun as well". [You only need a few hundred extra calories, but who's counting, right?)

The actress hasn't been exercising either:

"I think within the first three weeks, I took off like 35 lbs. without doing anything!" says says. "I haven't been able to work out that much because I have twins. It's impossible to get back into a regular schedule."

But she does acknowledge, "I'm not pretending to be back to the shape I was in beforehand anyway. I still have a ways to go. We've got Spanx underneath almost everything."

If only it were that easy for everyone else....

Pill popping/Milk stopping

Just when we thought we were making in roads in convincing women that breastfeeding is by and large very good for babies, the Daily Mail has announced that some mothers in the UK have been resorting to the HIV drug called Cabergoline, which is marketed as Dostinex, in order to stop lactation. This drug is specifically made for women who have HIV so that they quite sensibly won't risk passing on the virus to their babies through breastmilk. Nevertheless, the off-market uses are interesting. Cabergoline is used by women who don't want to breastfeed for whatever reason (because it is painful) or because they don't want to wait until their milk dries up naturally. Some of the important off-market uses of the drug are also for women who have traumatic first births or for women who have still born babies and quite legitimately don't want to be reminded of their trauma.Women are also using it for 'social reasons': some women are taking the drug because they are worried that breastfeeding changing the shape of their breasts (which pregnancy does anyway). The drug takes effect very quickly (just 2 doses over 12 hours) and some obstetricians freely administer the drug to women who ask for it. Kevin Harrington, an obstetrician with a private practice at London's Portland Hospital, said that he offered cabergoline to women who could not or did not want to breastfeed.

'The breastfeeding police frown on the use of cabergoline. But for some women their breasts are an important part of their sexuality and they don't want to use them to provide milk. There is not enough difference between breast milk and infant formula to make a fuss about it.'

I don't know how I feel about this. I know that breast isn't best for everyone but it makes me a bit sad to think that women wouldn't breastfeed solely because they have been misled to think that breastfeeding is bad for your breasts. It also makes me sad to remember that we live in a world where women's breasts have solely become the play things for men.

Totally Tori: dieting sucks (duh!)

Tori, seriously. You are taking over my life!

In one of her typical moments of profundity, Tori had an epiphany at the offices of Us Magazine, realising like every other woman in the developed world that 'It sucks to diet and exercise'.

My god. And she's also a raging hypocrite: "I read all the magazines -- I know how all the actresses look great weeks after having a baby, and that doesn't happen [to me].

Um, Tor? Did you forget that you lost 22lbs (10kg) 4 months after your first birth and then lost all of the baby weight by 7 months (40lbs)?

So you say there was less pressure with your second baby? "The pressure came off. The weight came off a lot quicker when I wasn't like, 'Oh, I have to follow this diet regime!' It was just easier doing it the natural way," continued Spelling.

Um, Tor? Did you forget that you stopped breastfeeding Stella 3.5 months after she was born so you could start to diet? Since when is denying your baby the boob so you can lose weight 'natural'?

For shame.

Pryor Parenthood

Hey, just found Rain Pryor's (Richard Pryor's daughter/comedienne/actress) blog about motherhood. She talks about her experiences with miscarriage, pregnancy and breastfeeding. Rain even watched her own caesar:

"I decided to look up, I could see the entire surgery in the light. I kid you not. There were my insides being taking out and moved this way and that. Lots of blood. I was in total disconnect. I knew it was me but, due to the numbing sensation I really couldn't connect. I was just laying there watching every thing as if I was in a hospital viewing booth."

Read more: Pryor Parenthood

Good Night Milk? Say bye bye to breastfeeding

Experts in the UK are warning parents of dubious claims by companies such as Hipp Organic that 'Good Night Milk' formulas help babies settle better. The formula has a heavier concentration of cereals so it takes longer to digest and therefore, claims to help babies sleep and is gentler on the stomach. The UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition claims to find no such evidence to support these claims and in fact, argues that the use of these kinds of products (and formula in general) undermines breastfeeding. Similarly, as red-eyed, sleep-deprived parents are often desperate anything to get a few hours of shut eye each night, the availability of settling milk formulas encourages parents to think that young babies should be sleeping through the night when in fact it is quite normal and expected that babies wake up every few hours (as hard as it may be on mums and dads). It is of great concern that parents will replace night breastfeeds with these milk formulas.

Read more: Concerns raised over milk

An Australian first: 24 hour breastfeeding helpline

Australia's first 24-hour toll-free helpline for breastfeeding mothers will be officially launched today.

1800 mum 2 mum (1800 686 2 686) is run by the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) and utilises the real-life experience of over 200 trained volunteer counsellors each week who help other mums with issues including the early days with a new baby, expressing and storing milk, weaning, supply and what to do when baby simply says no.

The Australian Breastfeeding Association is a voluntary organisation established in 1964 to encourage and support mothers who wish to breastfeed their babies. There are 300 ABA groups nationwide with over 17,000 members.