Mid-Week Links
Freedom to feed: It's our cafe too!
More than 200 breastfeeding mothers descended on a cafe in Bristol earlier this month in support of one of their own who claimed she was verbally abused by a waitress for suckling her baby in public. When word spread about her ordeal, a Facebook page set up by mothers calling themselves ‘lactivists’ and ‘mother suckers’ called on like-minded women to take a stand by deliberately breastfeeding there.
Lauren Jimeson tells a lovely story of how she was praised by a total stranger for breastfeeding her daughter in public. “I wish there were more people like her in the world. Ones that look beyond what some might deem “inappropriate” and look at it for what it is; natural and beautiful,” she said.
1-7 August is World Breastfeeding Week 2012. Launched by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), the theme of this year’s 20th World Breastfeeding Week Celebrations is Understanding the Past – Planning the Future: Celebrating 10 years of WHO/UNICEF’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding.
In a quietly worded statement released this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recalibrated the national dialogue on breast-feeding, deeming it a “public health issue and not only a lifestyle choice.” The recognition on behalf of the group’s 60,000 pediatricians that breast is best for mom, baby and the nation’s general well-being is creating buzz in the breast-feeding community.
Breastfeeding moms may be able to regularly exercise without hindering their babies’ growth, a study suggests. “Based on what we know at the moment, babies of mums who exercise do not gain less weight than babies of mothers who do not exercise,” lead researcher Amanda J. Daley, of the University of Birmingham in the UK.
The Indonesian government is going to implement more stringent regulations on exclusive breastfeeding. A newly-issued government regulation on exclusive breastfeeding requires both health workers and health care facilities to support mothers to breastfeed. It also imposes tougher rules against the use of infant formula for newborns unless there is an emergency situation.
Kids who were breastfed as babies may have better lung function, and a lower risk of asthma, than those who were formula-fed, two new reports suggest. The new research say that babies with asthmatic moms may get just as much benefit from breastfeeding, if not more, compared to those with asthma-free mothers.
Whether breastfed or bottle-fed, babies who are fed on demand do better academically than those who are fed on schedule, although their mothers may be more exhausted and grumpy, new research has suggested.
