johncsnider

Pumping at Work There is no doubt that some working women find it hard to schedule breast pumping into their schedules. It is important to talk to your employer (ideally before you have your baby) and to find out your state's laws. When I took classes, I had to pump in a corner of a hallway but I did it. My mom in the 1970s was one of the minority who breastfeed. She used to sit in the corner of her company's break room and hand-pump -- thanks mom! Section 4207 of the law amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.Code 207) to require an employer to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express milk. The employer is not required to compensate an employee receiving reasonable break time for any work time spent for such purpose. The employer must also provide a place, other than a bathroom, for the employee to express breast milk. If these require...

Nursing Tank from Target $20 After your new baby arrives, it will feel great to be out and about when you are back in the swing of things. Then there is the moment that every new mother dreads: a hungry baby.  Oh no, the baby is crying and you don't want anyone to think that YOUR baby cries!  You want to get milk in the baby as fast as possible.  Luckily you don't bottle feed and have to get all that stuff in order.  All you have to do is sit down and give the baby a breast. My friend Melissa (and fellow Holistic Moms Network Co-leader) wrote all the details out to  Breastfeed Your Baby in Public with Confidence . Like Melissa, I don't think that the solution is to pump then bottle feed! She has great tips. I don't recommend a cape or cover-up for nursing. They are scary for most kids and confusing for the mom causing stress and a possibly stressed out baby. Most of the time in public, I put a receiving blanking near the baby's face after a latch if I want ...

There is an extremely small percentage of women who cannot breastfeed. Sadly most women who I have met who claim to have not been able to breastfeed, were not evaluated by a professional lactation consultant. I hear things like "I didn't have enough milk," "it didn't feel like my milk came in," "the baby seems hungry," "it hurt," "the baby wouldn't latch properly," "the baby has digestion issues with my milk," and much more! Please, please, please, have a good reference for a lactation consultant at your fingertips BEFORE you give birth. That way, if you have any questions or issues, all you have to do is pick up the phone. Most consultants will come to the hospital or your home. Ask on your local mom boards or your local Le Leche League leader. It is still shocking to me that babies are not born knowing how to breastfeed but they must be taught. And us as mothers, have to learn how to breastfeed and how to teach...

I am excited that G.W. has shared her two birth stories with us.  Her first birth was with an inattentive OB and her second was with a caring and respectful midwife. It is amazing to read these two births that both occur in a hospital setting but with such different caregivers and how the lifelong memories are so different. Thank you G.W.! **** G.W.'s Second Birth: The Midwife **** This is the story of my second birth. Feeling the way I felt about the [first] birth - that it was great DESPITE the OB and not because of her, I decided to go with a midwife. I asked for some recommendations and decided to go with a two-midwife practice in Park Slope/ Williamsburg [New York City]. Their names are Joanne and Janet. While it was Joanne that eventually delivered my baby girl, Janet was just as awesome throughout and as the due date was approaching I had no real preference because both of them were so very great.  I felt the difference between a ...

J.B. is an American ex-patriot living in Kenya. She is the only person that I know who came into this world via home birth (one of five kids her mother homebirthed!) so she is very aware of birthing world.  I always post my favorite birth first so her second birth is first below. Her first birth was medically induced and ended in a caesarian also below and is the second story below. I love J.B.'s use of the bath to recharge herself during early and late labor. I had no idea about laughing gas during labor. Supposedly it is incredibly safe and effective during contractions but too much exposure by medical staff can be dangerous so it is not used in the U.S. Let me know if you have more info on it. **** J.B.'s Second Birth: A Laughing Gas VBAC  **** It was a beautiful, sunny morning.  I was getting ready to go to my acupuncture appointment, when I started to feel a strange feeling in my lower abdomen (aka. the part of my tummy that I could no longer see).  It...

H.H. in her birth story below shares how hard it was for her during the rough transition phase of birth not to choose the opiate that the medical staff was pushing on her. Thanks to her inner strength and the support of her doula and spouse, she was able to stick with her plan for a natural birth that resulted in a fast and easy delivery. **** H.H's Natural Birth **** So I woke up on my birthday August 22 with what I thought were contractions. I thought this is my birthday gift, the birthday of my first daughter.  I remember making a wish the year before blowing out my candles wishing for a new life and new chapters, well I got my wish, a new chapter was unfolding. My birthday was the day that I was to have my first prenatal massage, what a luxury that was. My husband picked me up from my massage and we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner where I had some of the most amazing pesto ravioli that I have ever had. It was a warm night and it was about an hour walk home. I felt good...

Below J.S. has shared her birth story with us. I applaud her for realizing that there was too much medical intervention that caused her to have a caesarian for her first birth so this is the story of her second birth. She followed her inner feeling that her body could do it and she did. Sadly she lives in a State that does not allow the type of birth that she wanted even though home births are proven SAFER than hospital births! **** J.S.'s Illegal Home Birth **** It was a Thursday. I had my 38 week appointment that morning.  Everything looked good. It seemed that we still had another  couple of weeks, which was nice, considering that was only the  second time I had met my midwife. Little did we know, I would  see her again in less than a day’s time. Our son would be born  before sunrise. His birth was the easiest part of this story. The pregnancy of my older son, about three years earlier, ended  with an unwanted and unwarranted c-section. Althoug...

When I was pregnant for the first time, a new mom was talking to me and shared the story of her beautiful and happy birth. I had always thought that birthing was a negative experience that you had to go through one way or another (except for the exception of my mom who had me drugless 30 minutes after entering the hospital). This friend loaned me some books and I began asking other moms about their experiences. What I found was that, the women who went into birthing well prepared and educated with all of their options were the ones who can out HAPPY with their birth experiences even if it did match their birth plan because they were empowered. This posting is the first of several postings where actual moms share their birth stories with you.  I am the first to share, so here are the stories of my first two births: **** My Second: The Easy Midwife Birth **** My second birth was easy (a relative term of course) and I admit it! It was also fun and exciting! Yes I was lucky but I set ...