Lara Croft look-alike says yes to extended breastfeeding

Real-life glamour model and official Lara Croft look-alike, Nell McAndrew, has said that she will defy the 'dirty looks' and continue to breastfeed her 2.5 year old son.

"I get negative comments all the time, but that's their problem," she told the Daily Mirror.

"Breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world - and it's so good for my son that I don't see any reason to stop.

"I would never tell other women they have to breastfeed because it's down to individual choice.

"And by the same token if a mum wants to carry on breastfeeding until their child is five, six or seven that that's fine too."

As a fomer undies model and former Playboy centrefold, McAndrew knows that getting your boobs out in this culture is often encouraged if it is for the pleasure of men. She says, however, that now her breasts have a different purpose:

"Now they have a different function, to feed my baby - you suddenly realise that's really what they're there for."

Source: Real Life Lara Croft Defends Her Right to Breastfeed

Thanks to Cherryskin for the tip!

Baby Bump Project makes top 100!

Well, we all have a reason to celebrate. Thanks to all of your insightful comments and my extraordinary talent for succumbing to the pleasures of the internet on a daily basis, The Baby Bump Project has been named ias one of the Top 100 Healthy Mom Blogs by RNCentral.com

Check out the list of other great blogs here:
http://www.rncentral.com/nursing-library/careplans/top_100_healthy_mom_blogs

Milla J: one hot mama

It's been 16 months since Milla Jovovich had her first baby, Ever Gabo. If you remember, the model turned actress turned fashion designer gained 70 lbs in her pregnancy. She's been back to her pre-baby weight for awhile now but thankfully, she reveals that it has not been an easy road and dropping the weight certainly didn't happen with yoga and drinking 3 litres of water every day.

“Diet and lots of exercise, I worked my big, little butt off,” Milla reveals. “It’s been a lot of work and I’ve been working with Harley Pasternak and his 5-Factor program, they actually have diet food sent to my house. At one point I just ate oatmeal, salmon and artichokes everyday for a week. It was definitely a lot easier putting it on!”

Milla wants another baby but not yet because of all of the hard work she has done:

"I do want another baby but not for a little bit," she says. "I’ve only just lost all the weight so I want to enjoy my old body for a while before I have to become a crazy alien again."

Source: http://www.okmagazine.com/news/view/12277
http://www.theinsider.com/news/1775569_Milla_Jovovich_On_Losing_70lbs_Of_Baby_Weight

Lust and the lactating mother

Salon has an excerpt from a new book called "Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding," edited by Dana Sullivan and Maureen Connolly in which Rachel Sarah details how she went from breastfeeding her daughter to breastfeeding her blind date.

Check it out: http://www.salon.com/mwt/excerpt/2009/03/02/rachel_sarah/index.html

Come on admit it, how many of you out there have shared your powers of lactation with anyone other than a baby? Are nipples off limits just because you're nursing? After all, it's no secret that there exists a whole genre of lactation porn...

Image via Salon

The myth of the maternal instinct

A University of Warwick study suggests that many women feel ill-equipped for pregnancy and childbirth because of the demands of modern life and more specifically, because it is now routine for women to move away from their hometowns and families when they get married. Thus, women have less support and advice from female relatives in their new environment. Upon interviewing 90 women, Dr Angela Davis, Leverhulme Research Fellow in the Centre for the History of Medicine, also added that most women are in some ways disadvantaged going into childbirth because they often have never had the experience of birth (in terms of seeing one and participating in delivery) until they have their own children. Interestingly, Dr. Davis believes that there is still a lack of appropriate education for women around sex and parenting and this is a long-standing problem since the 1930s in the UK. One of the most salient points to arise from this study is that mothering is not viewed to be instinctive and that women struggle with feelings of unpreparedness.

Did you feel prepared for motherhood? Is there such a thing as a maternal instinct?

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090302120104.htm

Homebirth going underground down under

Speaking of homebirths, it looks as thought homebirth in Australia is likely to go underground as a result of new policies for health care professionals under the Rudd government. From the middle of next year, midwives will have to hold professional indemnity insurance. This is a problem because no insurance companies in Australia are yet willing to insure independent midwives so when the new regulations come into effect, it will no longer be legal for independent midwives to attend homebirths.

Although less than 1% of all births in Australia take place at home, more than 50 % of submissions to the federal Government's recent maternity services review came from women calling for greater support for homebirthing services, which according to The Australian claims up to a 10-fold greater share of births in some overseas countries such as Britain.

This is devastating and dangerous. Women who are committed to have homebirths will do so anyway and many obstetricians agree that it is much more reasonable to support midwives in the provision of quality care to women wherever they choose to give birth, rather than knowingly risk the lives of women who make choices outside the medical model.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25124579-601,00.html

Epidurals on the way out in the UK

In Australia, it is no secret that medicalised birth is increasingly becoming the norm. With a greater push for less intervention and more one-to-one care, maternity reform is a red hot issue on the national agenda. Nevertheless, while the prospect of having wholly funded home births and more accessible birth centres throughout the country is exciting, should less intervention mean no intervention?

In the UK, doctors and patients are struggling over new regulations surrounding the use of epidurals during birth. As new guidelines have characterised the use of epidurals and caesareans as 'unnatural' in a bid to reduce interventions by up to 40%. The goal of the new guidelines is to ensure that more women are having 'normal' or 'traditional' birth. Obstetricians, however, have problems with this.

Kim Hinshaw, a consultant obstetrician at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: ‘I have major concerns with this. I don’t think we will ever reach a figure of 60% normal delivery using this definition. For example, in Sunderland we have an epidural rate in first labours of 60%.

‘This definition implies that if you ask for an epidural for pain relief, but go on and deliver normally after a six-hour labour, your birth was not ‘normal’. That is a disgrace.’

And Professor James Walker, a consultant obstetrician at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust added: ‘This is a very rigid definition of what normal birth should be. Epidurals should not be done without reason; they should be kept to a minimum. There are some women, however, who require an epidural because they cannot cope with the pain in any other way.’

I have to agree. While I am fully in favour of supporting national guidelines that seek to minimise the unnecessary interventions, at the same time, I bristle at the thought of women giving birth in pain and not being allowed to have relief if they ask for it.

Would you be happy with this model of care in your own country?

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ccz8vh