Neriyah's Birth Story

Months of preparation finally became real on the morning of October 2, 2009. Nyokabi had a restful night and was ready for the day. After Morning Prayer with Jonathan, she decided to call Baby Depot to check on the special delivery of a hutch that she ordered for the nursery. After being on the phone with them for 15 minutes and not getting anywhere she started to get frustrated when she felt her first contraction. She knew right away that labor had started so she ran to tell Jonathan that her contracts had started at 10:56AM. After experiencing irregular contraction for about 30 minutes Jonathan calls Persis, their doula, to let her know today was possibly the day. Nyokabi told her that she saw part of the mucous plug and the contractions were not in any real pattern yet. However, 20 minutes later, Jonathan calls Persis again to let her know Nyokabi has a heavy show off blood. At this point Nyokabi starts to worry so Persis decides to come to the house just in case the labor was going fast.

Pediatricians- Not a Good Resource for Breastfeeding Information

Pediatricians’ Practices and Attitudes Regarding Breastfeeding Promotion
Richard J. Schanler, MD*; Karen G. O’Connor‡; and Ruth A. Lawrence, MD§
Pediatrics 1999;103;e35

ABSTRACT. Objective. Public awareness of the benefitsof breastfeeding is expected to increase during and after the national,federally funded Best Start BreastfeedingPromotion Campaign. It is anticipated that this will resultin more breastfeeding-based interactions between families and pediatricians. The American Academy of Pediatrics conducted a survey of its members to identify their educational needs regarding breastfeeding to assist in the design of appropriate information programs. Method. An eight-page, self-administered questionnaire was sent to 1602 active Fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Results. The response rate was 71%. Breastfeeding, as the exclusive feeding practice for the first month after birth, was recommended by only 65% of responding pediatricians; only 37% recommended breastfeeding for 1 year. A majority of pediatricians agreed with or had a neutral opinion about the statement that breastfeeding and formula- feeding are equally acceptable methods for feeding infants. Reasons given for not recommending breastfeeding included medical conditions with known treatments that did not preclude breastfeeding. The majority of pediatricians (72%) were unfamiliar with the contents of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. The majority of pediatricians had not attended a presentation on breastfeeding management in the previous 3 years; most said they wanted more education on breastfeeding management. Conclusion. Pediatricians have significant educational needs in the area of breastfeeding management.

This study is one that is actually quite humorous to those of us who work with women who are nursing and have an issue that takes them to the average pediatrician. We understand not only the lack of information or education a pediatrician has regarding breastfeeding, but also the level of influence they still have on the breastfeeding relationship. Ironic that a non medical issue is one that parents still seek out medical opinions for.

This study cited that even though the big boy club of the AAP themselves promote breastfeeding as the best form of infant nutrition and encourage the infant to be fed that way, the very members of this association are failing miserably at conveying correct information to their patients parents. If the hospitals are not screwing up the relationship fairly quickly in the postpartum period, then the doctors then do their own lack of encouragement.

This study was timed to ascertain the physicians influence on breastfeeding as federally funded Best Start Breastfeeding Promotion Campaign was launched. “This campaign is targeted initially at 10 states to raise public awareness of breastfeeding through pre- and postnatal parent counseling and media promotion. Increased public awareness is expected to increase breastfeeding-related interactions between families and physicians.” They wanted to know how many of the doctors in the areas were going to be supportive of this endeavor and if they needed to do anything to help make this more likely.

The good news is this study was to “to assess breastfeeding attitudes, knowledge, and management skills of pediatricians, as well as awareness of their hospitals’ breastfeeding promotion activities. Results from this survey are expected to help in the design of appropriate breastfeeding education programs for physicians.” The bad news is the majority of the doctors definitely need more education in this area!

The conducted this study by first giving a survey to the physicians- mostly located in urban areas. The solo and group practices had better breastfeeding initiation and continuation than the clinic physicians. Tragically, only 65% of the pediatricians’ recommended exclusive breastfeeding to new parents during the early weeks of their infants’ births. 13% recommended formula supplementation while actually 2% said formula feeding was ideal. Although the AAP takes a stand on duration of exclusive breastfeeding being recommended for at least six months only 63% made any recommendation regarding duration. And only 31% made the recommendation that AAP suggested. But to be commended are the 61% who suggested the ideal time of at least one year.

Establishing breastfeeding and bonding time with the infant in the early hours after birth is a known factor in helping to increase breastfeeding success. Yet the doctors varied in their initial recommendation to do so. Only 44% recommended that the mom initiate breastfeeding in the first half hour after the birth. Only 59% suggested that demand feeding be established. Almost a quarter of the physicians were not opposed to formula or water be given to the breastfed infant. And keeping the mom and baby together by rooming in was equally divided in the study.

The use of pacifiers was only discouraged by a fourth of the doctors until breastfeeding was established. And the introduction of solids was not at the AAP recommendation either. Many recommended solids at a much younger age than 6 months. As this study states, “These infant feeding practices are known to impede successful breastfeeding and may be unnecessary.”

It was no surprise that in an office several people could be called on for phone consultations to assist new parents with breastfeeding questions. Only 76% of the time it was the doctors- who have proven they were not following suggested guidelines. Fewer than a quarter actually had lactation consultants. And few even knew how or if the staff that supplied information had ever been trained in the area of breastfeeding. Is it no wonder that misinformation was being handed out?

Only 58% of the actual physicians themselves had ever had any education regarding breastfeeding. The younger physicians (under 45 years of age) were more likely than the older physicians. And the female physicians had more training than their male counterparts. And yet although they mostly said they wanted to learn more and had not had sufficient training, 77% said they felt competent to manage common breastfeeding problems. Based on their lack of training or education in the area, it makes you wonder other areas they feel competent managing where they may also lack training and expertise.

It is no wonder that only 60% of the pediatricians had children of their own who were breastfed! Those with no personal experience were more likely to not recommend breastfeeding if the moms had common problems like breast or nipple problems- this was at 37%!

It is also no wonder that few hospitals are meeting the standard of Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative since 72% of the doctors were unfamiliar with this initiative as well as the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding statement. How can they be supportive and help promote these ideals if they are unaware of what they recommend? More then half of the doctors were unsure if there was a written policy regarding breastfeeding and if there was one what was stated within it.

The study stated, “These data suggest that the lack of clear recommendations may lead to confusion when parents question physicians about breastfeeding.” I find this an understatement. It also uncovered that very few pediatricians were even seeing their patients’ parents prenatally- where good information regarding breastfeeding could be conveyed.

The study was effective in uncovering the strong need to get the pediatricians on board with promoting breastfeeding. Helping parents prepare, initiate, be successful and continue to breastfeed is certainly an area where pediatricians can make a huge difference. But we need to get them up to speed on how to do this and it begins with more education.

Teresa Howard, CD (DONA), CLD, CLE, CCCE (CAPPA), CHBE

Does Income Affect Breastfeeding.... Does a Mom's BMI?

Maternal Variables Influencing Duration of Breastfeeding Among Low-Income Mothers
Anne Chevalier McKechnie, RN, IBCLC, RLC, Audrey Tluczek, PhD, RN, and Jeffrey B. Henriques, PhD
ICAN: Infant, Child, & Adolescent Nutrition June 2009

This is my review of their study….

Who breastfeeds longer? The study was performed on low income moms. The lack of long term breastfeeding is highest in this group. What the findings showed was that moms who had a high body mass index also fed for a shorter period of time. And the moms who fed longer were also moms who breastfed more exclusively. Younger moms did not nurse as long as the older moms in this study as well.

The study was done in hopes to figure out how to improve the outcomes for breastfeeding moms to nurse for a longer period of time. It stated, “US Department of Health and Human Services established the following goals for breastfeeding by the year 2010: a 75% rate of initiation, a 50% rate of breastfeeding for 6 months, and a 25% rate of breastfeeding for 12 months.“ They set a goal to lengthen the duration of breastfeeding and to help moms exclusively breastfeed.

So, let’s look at this study. It makes sense that if you begin weaning- and weaning meaning putting anything in the baby’s mouth besides the breasts- that the breastfeeding duration will be shortened. Many mothers do not realize that sucking needs are normal and should be met at the breasts as often as possible as to increase milk supply. Instead they begin using a pacifier too quickly and too often and wonder why their milk supply dwindles. They also think that just one bottle will not make any difference to their breastfeeding relationship. It does. One bottle quickly becomes more and soon others are feeding the baby and we are trying to pump to keep our supply going when nursing would automatically do that.

Poor women are more susceptible, I suspect, since often they are forced into the work environment to survive and our government assistance offers them free formula in order to feed their baby instead of a stipend to stay home and nurse. When my own daughter qualified for the WIC program I was amazed out how often she was encouraged to take the formula they offered and start supplements sooner. So, I was not surprised to find this study also showed, “Many mothers in low-income populations participate in Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs, and numerous studies have shown that these mothers are less likely to breastfeed as compared with nonparticipants of WIC programs.”

I believe these women are also often encouraged to start solids sooner. The concern I am sure may be that the women themselves have poor nutrition, thus breast milk is compromised. But instead of providing the mom with better nutritional guidelines, the suggestion is made that she offer her infant something that is less nutritious than nursing her baby. This study indeed showed how, “the highest risk for poor health, tend to have the lowest breastfeeding rates.”

The other part of this study looked at how the B.M.I. of women affected their breastfeeding relationship with their babies. “Obesity may also adversely affect breastfeeding in several ways. First, mothers with a BMI at or above 30 kg/m2 may experience hormonal patterns that interfere with milk production.30-32 Second, the infants of obese and overweight mothers may have physical difficulty latching onto the breast.31 Finally, an elevated BMI may indirectly interfere with the initiation and duration of breastfeeding because obesity is also associated with complications of pregnancy and delivery, cesarean delivery, poor maternal self-esteem, maternal depression, and low socioeconomic status. A recent study34 found that mothers with a BMI ≥25 kg/m2 were more likely to have discontinued breastfeeding before 6 months than normal-weight mothers.”

I tried to think about how this factored into the relationships of moms and babies I had worked with over the years. Indeed I saw more women who were considered overweight having complications with their pregnancies. These complications did lead to more surgical births as well as inductions and the edema that inductions sometimes caused in the moms causing latch issues initially. I have not seen the hormonal shift issues but certainly can see where an out of balance hormonal issue can cause milk production issues as well. But recently I had a client who is obese have real issues with her third baby. She found herself unable to successfully breastfeed outside of her own home environment due to how she had to work to latch her daughter onto the breast. It was not something she could do easily or even the least bit discretely.

New moms are concerned with body image as their breasts are larger but their bellies are still on the post pregnancy form- and therefore they want to hide their bulges and are learning to manage the new larger breasts. This makes them uncomfortable initiating breastfeeding in many situations outside of their home. Part of this is how we make women feel about their bodies in general in the USA and how we make breastfeeding a sexual act instead of a natural one. But certainly not feeling good about our bodies makes us not feel good about some of the natural body functions we may have as well. Our environmental support systems are certainly lacking in regards to support for breastfeeding.

This study had a hypothesis of, “Mothers within a low-income population who chose exclusive breastfeeding would likely (a) continue breastfeeding longer than mothers, who chose partial breastfeeding, (b) be of an older age than mothers who chose partial breastfeeding, and (c) have a lower BMI than mothers who chose partial breastfeeding.”

The other factor that was mentioned in this study was age. The younger moms seemed to lack the support of their community in breastfeeding and therefore initiated breastfeeding less as well as length of time of breastfeeding was limited.

The study concluded with this statement, “Breastfeeding is a complex issue with lifelong consequences for both mother and infant. This study found that factors, such as exclusive breastfeeding, older maternal age, and lower BMI, were associated with longer breastfeeding duration. These findings move us closer to understanding the unique needs of low-income, WIC, breastfeeding mothers and support the notion that maternal readiness and capacity for breastfeeding are influenced by dynamic biopsychosocial processes.”

I wonder if we had more pictures of younger moms nursing their babies in ads, women who overweight were nursing their babies, and moms in general nursing in more public areas in ads and government promotional materials, if we would increase these numbers for both initiating breastfeeding as well as duration of nursing exclusively. I wonder if we increased awareness to the communities of the benefits of breastfeeding if we would see the support change in the communities to support all women and babies in breastfeeding.

When as a lactation educator I am still counteracting the negative and detrimental things that are being done in the hospitals to sabotage breastfeeding, in the WIC offices to undermine the moms and in the communities that still want to banish women and their nursling to the bathrooms to nurse, if BMI and socioeconomic conditions are just a drop in the bucket as to why breastfeeding numbers are dwindling in the US.

Teresa Howard, CD (DONA), CLD, CLE, CCCE (CAPPA), CHBE

Melia Gives Birth

Melia had her first baby using pain medication- I can't remember the details- hopefully she will share them in the comments... She then took my childbirth class and hired one of the LOL doulas and had a home birth. This time she hired a local doula- an excellent one I might add- and took the Birthing Again classes that I teach. They chose to give birth at Athens Regional using the wonderful midwifery group that supports women there. I read her birth story and asked if we could please post it here to share with you. She happily agreed!