Tag Archives: moms

World Breastfeeding Week 2016

You may have noticed that the Week of Giveaways and this site’s launch coincided with World Breastfeeding Week. If not, then your social media algorithms are probably less attuned to breastfeeding and mom-based themes than mine. Huh, go figure.

What is World Breastfeeding Week?

This week, much like other social awareness campaigns, is a week set aside to promote and create awareness around breastfeeding. Sadly, in the United States this can seem like a promotion of privilege, as we know through research, and feedback from women, that access to resources, returning to work, support at home, and even the birth you have as well as the facility you choose to deliver at, can all directly contribute to breastfeeding outcomes. We’ll discuss each of those themes later, though, and how we can help other families overcome those barriers.

This year, World Breastfeeding Week is themed towards Sustainable Development.

Ok, that sounds super broad. The more direct breakdown of that reads:

“how breastfeeding is a key element in getting us to think about how to value our wellbeing from the start of life, how to respect each other and care for the world we share.”

In addition to supporting breastfeeding, then, this week is geared towards the more global and social perspective of promoting health, respect, and care for each other as well as for the babies we feed and the mothers who are caring for them.

So I challenge you.

  • Take the WBW Pledge.

By taking the WBW Pledge, you will list your location as a place that supports WBW, as well as “an event” which we’ll define in this post as individual actions you can take.  But that’s only the start.

  • Support

I challenge you to compliment, support, share, and honor families taking care of  babies and small children. Whether mothers have breastfed for 3 days or 3 years, wanted to breastfeed and couldn’t, exclusively pumped, or are breastfeeding now, one thing is certain: we want the best for our babies. We love our children. The action goals which you will read below acknowledge the early benefits that breastfeeding, and the larger awareness of early wellbeing, can have on our communities. This is something that the United States uses in our own Healthy People goals.

You can support a family or mother by providing a meal, paying for a coffee for the family in line behind you this week, or even walk up to someone feeding a baby in public and say thank you. In fact, below is a printable that you can hand to someone or use to tag them online. It is the little things that give us cultural messages of normalcy; we can make someone’s day by speaking positively to them.

GET EXCITED! (2)

  • Take Action.

You can take a look online at the action folder and choose to take action in any of the ways to make this mission statement a reality:

  1. nutrition, food security and poverty reduction
  2. survival, health, and wellbeing
  3. environment and climate change
  4. women’s productivity and employment
  5. sustainable partnership and the rule of law
  • Donate.

In your own home there may be resources that can be passed on to support a family with their baby.

Donate sterilized bottles directly to a family versus goodwill. Donate pumped milk to a local milk bank for at risk babies, or even directly to a family, as long as you’re also willing for them to do a home visit and get medical test results from you. Nursing bras, tanks, covers, simple supplies, which are tax write-offs, make a difference when it comes to financial access for many.

Starred Pick122

I’m going to thank you in advance for participating in World Breastfeeding Week 2016, because I know that even if you do just one thing on this list, that means there will be a domino effect your community.

A Week of Launch Giveaways

This Week of Giveaways, August 1-7, 2016, is Over!

Scroll down to see the AH-mazing things people won, and subscribe to the newsletter to be a part of the next one!


Welcome to the new Modern Breastfeeding + Education! This new site is a way to get easy access to prenatal education classes, in person individualized lactation support, and community resources such as our All Moms postpartum group series.

But first, it’s Giveaway Week to celebrate the launch of the site!

Normal online rules apply:
* Must subscribe to the Modern Breastfeeding + Education Newsletter
* Have to like and follow on Facebook AND Instagram. (PinterestTwitter, and Linked-In are optional, but have a ball.)
* Then, subsequently comment and/or share me on one of the above platforms for **that day’s** prize. You don’t have to comment or share on both, just one, Facebook or Instagram.
* Giveaway promotion starts **Monday, August 1st**, with prizes announced each day on Facebook AND Instagram, along with the winner from the previous day. I don’t want to clog up feeds too much.


ETA (Edited to Add): I’ve received questions on how I’m choosing winners and whether or not someone who has previously won can win again. The answer is YES. I’m pretty anal and love excel spreadsheets, so I’m doing this old school. Names are entered into a list once you share or comment on the post. Each day’s list starts anew. Then, after I double check that you’re following me on both facebook and Instagram, as well as subscribing to the newsletter, I ask my older son to pick a number between 1-however long the list is. I know, it makes me sound like a luddite, which I secretly am. I hope that helps, sounds truly anonymous and fair to all!

DAY ONE: Monday, August 1st

DAY  ONE


 

DAY TWO: Tuesday, August 2ndDAY TWO


 

DAY THREE: Wednesday, August 3rdDAY THREE


 

DAY FOUR: Thursday, August 4thDAY FOUR


 

DAY FIVE: Friday, August 5thDAY FIVE


 

DAY SIX: Saturday, August 6thDAY SIX


 

DAY SEVEN: Sunday, August 7th

GET EXCITED!

Day Seven IS announced! Because it’s fun and big and for parents AND little ones.

Want to guess? Think: coffee. Mmmmmmmmm

DAY SEVEN

 

With Fun Ahead, Gillian Foreman

 

 

Open Letter to the Client who Didn’t Want to Breastfeed

An Open Letter to the Client Who Didn’t Want to Breastfeed,

This story is a long time coming, because at the time I was a newly trained doula. I was only in your apartment two minutes for an interview, your toddler enjoying her nap, when you looked at me with worry, and said “I don’t want to try to breastfeed this baby. Is that OK?”

I’m sure the pause that followed was perceived as me struggling to answer, but in truth it was my mind reeling (selfishly, with unknowing) on my own journey, my own struggle of breastfeeding, the things that inspired me to do the work I was doing now, here. You didn’t know my goal was to one day become an IBCLC, that breastfeeding defined my birth journey. Nor did I want to give you a blanket statement. So I leaned towards you, met your eyes intently, and said what was in my heart, “Of course. It’s your decision.”

But the look on your face was unsettled . . . 

So, perhaps too quickly, my mind racing ahead of my better judgement, I asked “Have people told you that’s not OK?” It came out incredulous; it was probably too much. And you cried. You told me of the multitude of providers and doulas you had interviewed, who all immediately tried to encourage you otherwise. You knew they meant well, but because of your own awful experience with your first child it was heartbreaking for you.

I never asked you why you didn’t want to, it honestly didn’t matter. In those moments, we switched from interviewer and birth professional to two moms, two women, devastated at a loss so simple – that of people respecting your decisions about your own body.

After hiring me, you went on to have such an incredible experience, and honestly, I can’t remember when it was that you told me of your reasons: a botched breast reduction as a young women in Europe, a complete restructuring of the breast, giving birth in another country years later where they said breastfeeding would be no problem, watching your baby lose weight for weeks as you pumped, and fed, and struggled, bouts of masitis as the milk was unable to leave your breast. It sounded horrific. It sounded like a physical barrier to breastfeeding.

But those reasons aren’t what mattered. They are irrelevant against a backdrop of personal experience, a loss of enjoying those weeks with your first newborn, the fear of not feeding the baby you loved, and of course, the judgement you already knew you’d face with this pregnancy.

To self: Exhale.

I see your face sometimes, in my work now.

It inspires me to remember that what you were truly asking for was real support – the kind that doesn’t ask why’s, or look for justifications. The kind of support that says – “OK. You’ve made a decision for you, OK.”

I see it when a lactation client calls and says she just can’t anymore, or when writing a care plan for a client, I’m reminded to make it realistic. I see when women feel guiltly for a choice they know is better for their family, but is one they already know they’ll be judged for.

So I just wanted to write you, and tell you thank you.

Thank you for such a wonderful lesson. Thank you for sharing your birth with me. Thank you for the years of photographs of your girls, who also remind me that one day they’ll need support too. Real support, the kind that doesn’t ask why’s or look for justifications.

The kind of support that says – “OK. You’ve made a decision for you, OK.”

 

Comprehensive Childbirth Education Series

Virtual Classes:
Thursday evenings, September 10th – October 1st, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM 
Thursday evenings, October 15th – November 5th, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM 
Thursday evenings, November 19th – December 17th, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM*

*skips Thanksgiving


Gillian uses her background of teaching various modalities of childbirth education for the past decade, combined with a strong love for current research, to look beyond method-based approaches and instead bring something completely focused on actual education.

That’s right. Childbirth Education that’s about educating you.

What is a Comprehensive Childbirth Education Series?

In this comprehensive class, we explore the myriad of topics you expect, including: nutrition, positions, labor stages, anatomy, coping skills and strategies, breathing, and partner support.

Then, we also delve into the intricacies of mental imagery, the emotional (i.e. hormonal) component of birth, as well as postpartum preparation and recovery.

This includes exploring what the difference is between an intercession and an intervention. That is, we’ll explore epidurals, inductions and augmentation, and family-centered cesarean births.

Therefore this class is appropriate for homebirthers and planned natural births alongside planned medicated or high-risk births. You’ll make friends in a supportive environment without judgement to birth labels and instead focus on your birth outcome.

You can also add a 5th class, the Breastfeeding Basics Class.

The Breastfeeding Basics class has also been designed based on research into best possible outcomes, with a great amount of input from years of students, by an IBCLC (Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant).

Please contact me about pricing, no family should go without education during this time.

Virtual Classes are 2 hours each, and are $150 for the 4 week class. Breastfeeding Basics is an additional $45.

In-person classes are 2.5 hours each, and the $275 price reflects including the Breastfeeding Basics 5th class.

 

Register for Comprehensive Childbirth Education Series

The four-week Virtual Childbirth Education Series costs $150. (Class #5, Breastfeeding Basics can be added separately, or not at all.) A $50 deposit is due upon registration. You will be directed to Paypal after clicking on "Register" below

Name (required)

Email (required)

Telephone (optional)

Please indicate which date you are signing up for:

additional info