Family History of Breast Cancer? Breastfeed Your Babies!
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: August 11, 2009
Yet more research has been done confirming the protective factors of breastfeeding for women. This time, it was done in the at-risk population of women with a family history of breast cancer. [Full article]
What kills me about this particular article is that it clearly illustrates how the study was performed, why it is better than studies of the past, and the conclusions you can draw from it; then at the end, some breast cancer doctor says that women can’t be expected to upend their lives in order to breastfeed their babies.
Uh, I would think, given the choice of breastfeeding my children, or having my breasts prophylactic-ally lopped off, I’m going to choose breastfeeding thank-you-very-much. I’d be willing to do just about anything to avoid being butchered. The study even concluded that women benefit from as little as 3 months of nursing their babies. 3 months and they can cut their risk in half. Imagine what a year could do!
If our doctors, hosptials, and birth centers focused on breastfeeding as preventative medicine and really worked toward helping mothers and babies reach their greatest potential, so many women would not have to suffer the agonies of cancer and cancer treatment.
But God forbid we should ask women to challenge themselves in the short term for long term gain. That’s just asking too much.
Mixed Messages
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: August 10, 2009
I’m trying to understand why young women today have such a hard time keeping their clothes on. Yet another young lady in Hollywood is having to sic her legal eagles on the vast reaches of the Internet to keep compromising photos of herself from being published. Certainly, she isn’t the first, and she won’t be the last.
But why is this such a difficult task to accomplish? If these photos (or videos, as the case my sometimes be) get out, your reputation is demolished and your career possibly ruined. At least, any legitimate career for a Hollywood star that has the word “Oscar” in it. Who is telling these sometimes underage girls that sharing their lovelies with the world will get them somewhere? It makes me sad.
On the flip side, Hugh Hefner still has hundreds of Bunnies taking their clothes off with little trouble. Even more recently, a few of them are becoming famous simply because they’ve strutted around in the buff. And there is really no talent to being naked.
I’m not sure I see the difference. Either way, you’re taking your clothes off for money. I worry about the kind of message this will send to my little girl. I want her to feel confident in her body and beauty, but I also want her to be able to retain the fullness of her dignity and respect. If we are constantly rewarding public figures for this kind of behavior, what’s a mother to do?
Does Decent Customer Service Still Exist?
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: August 9, 2009
I find myself frustrated today. We took our kids to get their pictures taken at a chain photography place that shall remain nameless. We have been taking the babies here since my daughter was two weeks old. They take great portraits and I get a huge variety for my money’s worth.
My gripe is this: Each and every time we make an appointment, we have spent around an hour or more waiting for out turn in front of the camera. Today, it was over an hour. At one point we asked the store manager why they were so behind. We knew that they were scheduling appointments every ten minutes. There is no way you’re going to get a family’s pictures taken and processed in ten minutes. No way at all. Even if you’re only taking pictures of a newborn. The manager told us that it wasn’t up to him; that corporate headquarters sets the appointment blocks and he has to listen to people like us complain to him every single day about the exact same thing.
You know what I’m thinking? If you’re getting the same complaints from your customers day in and day out, maybe it’s time to make a name/number available for said customers to contact headquarters so we might lodge our complaints there. This would re-direct customer frustration and hopefully, after enough complaints, inspire the powers that be to change things on a broad scale.
I understand that they are in the business of making money. Eventually, they are going to lose business if the people they are serving are constantly irritated by their business practices.
Once again…idiocy prevails…
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: August 6, 2009
Apparently, people are up in arms over babydolls. A recent Fox News article claims that a doll designed for little girls that encourages breastfeeding is going to cause early pregnancy and teen sex.
Breastfeeding is not sex! Nor is it related in any way to alcoholism or ending up in prison. However, some moron referenced in this piece of “news” implies that getting your little girl a breastfeeding doll will do exactly that.
No one says that babies with bottles encourages young motherhood. Yet most young mothers in this country bottle feed their kids. Where is the outrage? Where is the shock and horror over baby dolls with rubber nipples in their mouths? For what it’s worth, they also make other rubber body parts for sexual pleasure, but no one seems to equate those as the same. Hmmmm….
The Key to Parenting: Sacrifice
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: August 4, 2009
I’ve often had trouble putting into words how I feel about parenting. People are often “turned off” when I say that I come second behind my kids, that I will do anything for them. While they are young, I ride in the backseat, guiding where necessary.
Well, I recently read the most apt description of parenting I have ever found. And that’s saying something, because I read a lot 
Oddly enough, I didn’t find it in a parenting book or magazine, but in Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God. While he is referencing something else entirely, this particular section struck me to the core:
Children come into the world in a condition of complete dependence. They cannot operate as self-sufficient, independent agents unless their parents give up much of their own independence and freedom for years. If you don’t allow your children to hinder your freedom in work and play at all, and if you only get to your children when it doesn’t inconvenience you, your children will grow up physically only. In all sorts of other ways they will remain emotionally needy, troubled, and overdependent. The choice is clear. You can either sacrifice you freedom or theirs. It’s them or you. To love your children well, you must decrease that they may increase. You must be willing to enter into the dependency they have so eventually they can experience the freedom and independence you have.
Of the many points that struck me in this tiny paragraph, the one that stood out the most was the idea that if you push “independence” from the very start, what you will get is a child who is exactly the opposite. The “independent” baby who cries themselves to sleep and holds their own bottle at 6 months may become an adult who struggles to develop roots and wings apart from Mommy and Daddy.
Many people oppose attachment parenting because they believe it makes children “dependent” on Mom and Dad. An author who is not even a parenting expert can see the folly of this belief. A young infant and child, who cannot survive without the love and support of it’s parents, who is reassured and cared for to the utmost of it’s family’s ability, will likely become an adult who knows where they stand and how to properly function in the world.
Discovering you are not the center of the universe comes later. A baby is a baby. Please care for it like one.
World Breastfeeding Week
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: August 2, 2009
World Breastfeeding Week kicks off today! Events are being sponsored all over the world. You can contact your local La Leche League leader or other lactation professional to find events in your area.
Please take some time this week to congratulate, encourage, or support someone you know who is breastfeeding, has breastfed, or is thinking about nursing their baby-to-be.
Any and all breastfeeding questions, as well as practical information and support, can be found and answered at La Leche League International website.
Back to School
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: July 31, 2009
Today, my children got their letters from their teachers to announce the beginning of a new school year and lists of classroom supplies.
The preschool my children attend is part time. I like this schedule because it feels like an easy introduction to a learning environment than just dumping them in kindergarten full time right off the bat. Because of their age difference, they will only be one year apart as they reach full-time school age.
This is also my daughter’s first year. I’m nervous and excited at the same time. I’m going to have two days to myself, 4 hours at a time! What am I going to do? I see piles of books I haven’t read, hours of television I’ve missed…and yet, all I will probably manage is to clean my house and go grocery shopping without interruption.
A small victory, I suppose 
Phthalates may cause Liver Damage in Premature Infants
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: July 28, 2009
Article link here.
Folks, the phthalates discussion has been going on for years. The article references an FDA recommendation from 2002 that suggests not using phthalates containing products on baby boys because of possible damage to reproductive organs.
This stuff is scary. And it is in everything. Baby wash, shampoos, baby bottles…you name it. As a mom, I know I can’t be on top of every little thing the media decides is good or bad for my kids. But I try. I really do. The more I read about certain products/indgrediants, the more freaked out I get.
I want what is best for my kids. Slowly poisoning them is not part of that agenda. It feels so frustrating to be at the mercy of corporate America.
Righteous Indignation Justified Over “Pit to Distress”
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: July 23, 2009
- In: Health| Pregnancy
- 2 Comments
About 2 weeks ago, this phrase “pit to distress” came to my attention. For those who don’t know “pit” stands for the synthetic oxytocin used in labor, under the name Pitocin. This is a very powerful drug that stimulates labor contractions.
Apparently, the term “pit to distress” is an order OBs often leave for nurses to crank the pitocin up on their induction patients to deliver the baby quickly or distress the baby into an “emergency” c-section.
As I said, I hadn’t heard of this until recently. And I can tell you, with tears in my eyes and an ache in my soul, that this is what happened to me and my daughter. My contractions were slow all night during my induction. The on-call doc came in to break my water (with the pit on max) and suddenly, I’m wearing an oxygen mask and my OB is telling me that I’ll be having a c-section in 8 minutes if the decels continue. They cut off the pit and fortunately, my little girl’s heart rate recovered. We didn’t have a c-section, but I had to receive terbutilane after the birth to stop some hemorrhaging.
I sincerely hope that my doctor did not actually order “pit to distress.” I want to believe that she truly was surprised by our sudden dip into fetal distress.
But after all that I’ve read, I’m starting to have my doubts.
Book Burning…the answer to all your problems.
Posted by: 1wmcaw on: July 22, 2009
Check out this article on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/22/wisconsin.book.row/index.html
Hysterically, these parents want books moved around in the public library so that their kids aren’t exposed to them.
1) It’s a public library. Any and all books should be available to those who want to read them. No matter if a particular individual has a problem with the content. Just because I’m not Muslim, doesn’t mean the Koran should be removed from my local libraries.
2) Simply moving them around won’t stop your kids from checking them out, or getting them from friends.
3) As the parent, YOU are responsible for teaching your kids whatever your specific values are. One of the best ways (I believe) to do that is use things like books to illustrate how we do not behave, then explain a better response to the situation.
For example, one of my favorite children’s books is Where The Wild Things Are. Of course, I don’t want my kids running around like wild things. The point of the book is to show that bad behavior can make you lonely and miss out on the things you love the most. By these brilliant people’s logic, I should throw Wild Things out of my house, because my kids will be badly influenced by little Max’s actions.
Once again, proof that the world is full of idiots.
Recent Comments