I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
World Breastfeeding Week is Happening Now!
August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week.
Initiation of breastfeeding within the 1st hour of birth is the first and most vital step towards reducing infant and under-five mortality, by reducing the overwhelmingly high neonatal mortality rate. Save ONE million babies – beginning with one action, one hour support and one message: beginning breastfeeding within the 1st hour of birth!
Why is skin-to-skin contact after birth and breastfeeding within the first hour of life so important?
1. The mother’s body helps to keep the baby appropriately warm, which is especially important for small and low birth weight babies.
2. The baby is less stressed, calmer and has steadier breathing and heart rates.
3. The baby is exposed first to the bacteria from the mother which are mostly harmless, or against which the mother’s milk contains protective factors. The mother’s bacteria colonise the baby’s gut and skin and compete with more harmful bacteria from health providers and the environment, and so prevent them from causing infection
4. The baby receives colostrum for the first feeds – liquid gold, sometimes called the gift of life.
• Colostrum is rich in immunologically active cells, antibodies and other protective proteins. Thus it serves as the baby’s first immunisation. It protects against many infections. It helps to regulate the baby’s own developing immune system.
• It contains growth factors, which help the infant’s intestine to mature and function effectively. This makes it more difficult for micro-organisms and allergens to get into the baby’s body.
• It is rich in Vitamin A, which helps protect the eyes and reduce infection.
• It stimulates the baby to have bowel movements so that meconium is cleared quickly from the gut. This helps get rid of the substances in the baby’s body that produce jaundice and therefore may help reduce it.
• It comes in small volumes, just right for the new baby.
5. Touching, mouthing and suckling at the breast stimulates oxytocin release – this is important for many reasons:
• Oxytocin causes the uterus to contract. This may help delivery of the placenta and reduce maternal bleeding after the birth.
• Oxytocin stimulates other hormones which cause a mother to feel calm, relaxed, and some would say “in love” with her baby.
• Oxytocin stimulates the flow of milk from the breast.
6. Women experience incredible joy with this first meeting of their child! And fathers often share this delight. The process of bonding between mother and baby begins. Overall, skin-to-skin contact and early feeds with colostrum are associated with reduced mortality in the first month of life. They are also associated with increased exclusive breastfeeding and longer duration of breastfeeding in the following months, leading to improved health and reduced mortality later on as well.
Is normal breastfeeding initiation in the first hour all that is needed to guarantee continued exclusive breastfeeding?
Absolutely not! Mothers need continued support to breastfeed exclusively for six months. The family, health workers, traditional healers and others in the community are all important contributors to their network of support. Health providers, health visitors and others need clinical training in assessment of breastfeeding, identification of problems, as well as knowledge and skills for helping the mother to resolve difficulties. Follow-up by a health worker within 48-72 hours after the birth, again after one week, and at appropriate times thereafter provides the opportunity to intervene early if there are problems, as well as to reassure the mother when things are going well.
Here is a small sampling of what is going on around the web in honor of this week.
Mommin’ It Up is having a contest for some cute scrapbooking supplies in honor of Breastfeeding Week.
The Celebrity Baby Blog is hosting a month of raffles with benefits going to the La Leche League.
Liebert Publishing is making Breastfeeding Medicine, the official publication of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine free to read online for the month of August.
Urban Baby Runway is raffling off an Urban Baby Runway $50 gift certificate and a “Breastfeeding Is Not A Crime” t-shirt! for donations to La Leche League.
World Breastfeeding Week
breastfeeding
I nursed all 3 of my boys. The oldest until he weaned himself at 17 months, the middle until he was well over 2 and the third until he lost his suck from his illness so around six months. Did I get them right after birth, just one. The middle one. The other two had meconium and fluid in lungs for the last who was a c-section.
I didn’t realize this was World Breastfeeding Week! I’m going to blog about this later at Gus’ Gang. I wasn’t able to breastfeed my son Gus because he was so sick…I did pump though…with those awful hospital grade pumps that are loud! lol!!
Such good good stuff!