Breast is Better than Doing Science to it...

So...this happened, and at least one person came to the wrong conclusion from the information given.

The above two links are for information on the correlation of toxins in breastmilk and autism rates and a blog post citing said information as a good reason to not breastfeed your children (that is not the entire point of the post, but it is mentioned).

I understand how the conclusion is reached.  The problem is that by the same logic we should also reach the conclusion that babies should be grown in test tubes rather than in their mother's womb.  How do I make the connection?  What's in your breastmilk is also in your blood, so saying that a woman shouldn't breastfeed her baby because of chemicals is also saying that a woman shouldn't grow her baby because of chemicals.

The proper conclusion to come to from the above information (in my humble opinion) is that we need to stop using so many damned chemicals.  Haven't we proved the saying 'better living through science' wrong yet?
Sure, science does wonderful things, but science is not so wonderful that we can just replace everything natural with it.  I get trial and error, and on more than one occasion I've said - quite enthusiastically - "LET'S DO SCIENCE TO IT!" but isn't it time we dropped all the chemical nonsense.

The problem is how entrenched we are in big-ag *coughmonsantocough* and subsidising shoot-yourself-in-the-foot farming methods.  And for everyone out there who says farming organically is unsustainable in practice, I read a fantastic point about that on a paleo blog saying that our current reliability on oil-based products is not sustainable either.

Do I have the answers?  No, and I don't pretend to know them either.  What I can do is turn my front yard into a garden rather than an ornament.  I can choose to clean my home with things like white vinegar, enzyme cleaner and vodka.  I can make my own chemical free laundry soap and dish detergent, and my own chemical free shampoo.  I can live as cleanly as I have the means to live (which turns out to be more about my personal energy levels than financial means, because clean living is actually cheaper).

I can't ask anyone else to do it, but I can try to lead by example.  Not everyone is a fan of the way I like to live or the way I'd like to live in the future.  A lot of people (and I mean a lot) think I'm pretty well off my rocker for doing things like avoiding soy (and now gluten thanks to some post-partum thyroid shenanigans).  But that's okay.  I'm happy this way, and I think a good number of people could be happy this way as well.

If only we could stop falling into the trap that is Man vs. God.  We're not God, we're meant to be keepers of the life around us.  We should start actually keeping it.

Cloth Everything! Except at Night.

I'm the kind of person who scrapes every last bit of peanut butter from the jar I possibly can (and then endeavors to wash all the remaining stuff off for recycling): I don't like to waste things.  While this weirdness is strongest with foodstuffs I try not to waste material goods as well.
That is why I'm trying to cloth diaper.

I say "trying" because I'm still not using cloth at night.  The only reason for this is that I like sleep more than I hate wasting.  I'm not sure I'm up for the commitment of changing the little one's diaper every two hours through the night; he doesn't even wake up that often.  And when he does, I can just roll over and feed him.  Sometimes I wake up and he's latched already, which amazes me since I feel like I'm still learning how to breastfeed.

At any rate.  I like cloth diapering a lot.  The only thing about it is I'm afraid of the pins.  I know you can use the covers as a way to secure the diaper, thus making pins obsolete, but I like the extra security that pins provide for the diaper itself.  With pins, I know the diaper is going to stay put.
So what that meant was I tried not using pins and I didn't like it.
Since I am a total noob at cloth diapering, I looked up a video on youtube:

Then I promptly ordered a Snappi.  I'm still waiting for it to arrive, and I can't wait!
Yep, I feel like a total loser now; I'm excited about a diapering tool.

I've learned through doing that cloth diapering is really not as hard as I thought it would be.  Or as difficult as people talk it up to be.  It even taught me something about my laundry machine: how to use the prewash option.  I'd never used it before, so I actually had to bust out the manual and look up how to activate the thing.


Another thing to consider making cloth: nursing pads.  I go through a lot of these right now, so the cost would be tremendous for me if I used disposable.  I did try some disposables that we got on accident (the packaging was not immediately helpful in discerning re-usable vs. disposable) and I found that the wee one would not latch until I cleaned my nipple off.  So I had my mom take them back and K-Mart actually refunded her (which was super awesome!).  She brought home some cloth ones by the same company - who knew Philips electronics made nursing pads, btw.
Cloth nursing pads are more comfortable and they don't leave any weird residue that baby can taste.  Also, they are saving me a ton of money right now.


I also ordered some cloth pads for postpartum bleeding.
I have always hated disposable pads.  Even pantyliners.  They never stay in one place and I always end up with a sticky paper wedgie an hour or less after putting one on.  I'd been thinking about "going green" with my period stuff ever since reading Dyno-Mom's post about it, I'd just been lazy about actually doing it.  So I finally ordered some and I am super impressed.  I will never use a disposable again and I'm planning on never using tampons either.
These are super comfy and, again, it's easier to do the maintenance than everyone thinks it is.


So the moral of the story - for me - is to try things for myself before being discouraged.  Also a determined stubborn streak is helpful if you should fail once or twice at the get-go...like I did with cloth diapers (hence the youtube video).

Book Reviews

While this little one sleeps so much I figured I'd work on the book reviews I'd mentioned earlier.  These aren't going to be terribly in depth because there are so many and because I'm kinda lazy.  So, here they are.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth - Henci Goer
What I liked:
 This book contains in depth descriptions of the practices you might encounter when having a hospital birth.  The information is unbiased and informative rather than fear based.  When I finished I felt as if I'd learned something rather than feeling like everything in the world could go wrong with my birth.
What I disliked:
Some of the information is out of date (episiotomy rates) and there's not much mention of why women should decline Cytotec (Misoprostol) as an induction agent.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.
Should you read it?
Absolutely, particularly if you're going to be having a hospital birth because I feel that you should be informed about procedures by someone who is not affiliated with a for-profit hospital/practice.

Special Delivery - Rahima Baldwin Dancy
What I liked:
 The author does a good job explaining her point of view (homebirth is best) in such a way that does not lambast the opposing viewpoint.  There is some information about potential complications, how to handle them, and when transferring care to a hospital would be necessary.
What I disliked:
When I finished it, nothing; but after reading others I realized it was not quite as comprehensive as I had thought.  However, the information I found in other books was generally minor things.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.  It was ridiculously hard for me to find information about complications specifically related to homebirth that wasn't extremely biased toward the medical industry.  Also, it helped calm some of my worries.
Should you read it?
Yes.  Even if you're not considering a homebirth you might find it calming to read a book about birth outside of a medical setting.

Homebirth - Sheila Kitzinger
 What I liked:
Generally the same things about the above book apply to this one.  This book was more informative and less personal, but had the same general information.
What I disliked:
Uh...
Was it helpful for me?
Yes, it helped calm my mind even more.
Should you read it?
Yes.  Especially if you're planning a homebirth.

The Pregnancy Book - William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N.
 What I liked:
It is sectioned by month and has information about how you might be feeling, concerns you might have, and how baby is developing in each section.  Some of it was helpful and some of it was redundant for me.
What I disliked:
I can't really put my finger on it, but some of the stuff I read in it was off-putting.  You can definitely tell it's written by a medical professional.
Was it helpful for me?
Kind of, but by the time I got to it I had read almost all of the information elsewhere so most of it was review.
Should you read it?
Eh.  If you have a choice of this book or What to Expect When You're Expecting, please read this one.  Otherwise my recommendation goes either way, I don't feel like it's a must read, but it also has a bit of helpful info.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth - Ina May Gaskin
 What I liked:
 The beginning of this book is stories from women about birth.  There are good stories and bad stories.  The second half is full of information about birth (home or otherwise) and has some helpful things in it.
What I disliked:
The stories were making me cry because I was reading it while in the later half of pregnancy and I was more emotional in the later trimesters.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.  The stories - while they did make me cry - gave me some confidence in my own ability to achieve the task in front of me.  And the information was helpful, though redundant because of the other books.
Should you read it?
I think so.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding - La Leche League (Seventh Revised Edition)
What I liked:
This book is super helpful.  There's sections about the various breastfeeding complications and how to correct them.
What I disliked:
It was nice to read descriptions of proper latch technique and how to hand express your milk, but the best way for me to learn that is by seeing/doing or with hands on instruction.
Was it helpful for me?
Yes.
Should you read it?
Absolutely.  The eighth edition is now out and I hear that it's better than the seventh (and I hear it's not as good).  I can say that the seventh was super helpful for me.

Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding - Ina May Gaskin
What I liked:
It has some really interesting anecdotal chapters as well as the information it contains.
What I disliked:
Hrm...
Was it helpful for me?
It was more interesting than helpful, but that's only because I read The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding first.
Should you read it?
Absolutely.  It is a great supplemental book to the one above.  If you have to choose which to read, however, I would opt for The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and maybe pick this one up later if you can.

What to Expect When You're Expecting - Arlene (Afterword by), and Hathaway, Sandee (Afterword by), and Murko Eisenberg
What I liked:
...
What I disliked:
This book assumes no other birthing options except hospitalization.  There's even a whole page devoted to instructing you to lay flat on your back and put your legs up if you're not going to make it to the hospital to have your baby.
Was it helpful for me?
No: it actually freaked me out.  This is the only book that mentions Deep Vein Thrombosis as a pregnancy symptom and at the time my right leg hurt when I got up from sitting down for along periods of time.  I spent a good part of my day worrying that I had DVT and that I'd need to go on blood thinners.
Should you read it?
The one I read was the original apparently, so I can't speak for the new editions, but I would strongly advise against reading this book.  It might just freak you out even though it contains the same information the other books do.  Just the way it's written is sort of alarmist.


So that's it.  I think these are pretty accurate.  It has been a while since I read all of these so I may have mixed up one or two of them (which was missing info, or book structure) but I'm pretty sure I've remembered them correctly.

Also, when I comment on whether or not the book was helpful I am referring to whether it helped prepare me for the birth process as a new momma - someone who had no idea what to expect.  The reason I left it until after little Oliver was born is because had I reviewed them before, I would have been talking out of my bum.  I didn't know if they were helpful for me until after I experienced birth for myself.

Nipplephobia

Potentially offensive content ahead.

 Definition: irrational fear, fascination, attraction, repulsion, guilt, and confusion provoked by seeing an adult female nipple (or even the illusion that one is seeing one).  (266)

I'll be the first to say that I love the female figure.  We're so curvy and that makes us pleasant to look at (for me).  An essential part of the female figure is breasts, big or small.  They are an important part of being a woman and raising a child.

I've always seen breasts in a sexual way; they're fun to look at, to touch.  For this reason breastfeeding raises awkward feelings.  Here is this part of me that I've been practically trained to view as a sexual thing, and I'm supposed to use it to nurture my baby.  I don't know about you, but I don't view feeding a child as sexual, and I sometimes have trouble imagining exactly how breastfeeding is going to make me feel.
I am the product of what Ina May Gaskin calls American Puritanism.  I tend to agree with her terminology (though I couldn't find on which page of the book she states this) and I continue to be amazed at people who react in such a volatile way to mothers who breastfeed their children outside of the home, or at all.  On some level I can understand: breastfeeding is a rare thing to see in our society.  We've been trained to view it as indecent, something you should only do in private.  I had an emotional reaction to it myself when I first saw a friend feed her baby.  I can't recall having seen it prior to that, although I feel like I must have come across it somewhere and just forgotten.  The point is, seeing it made me feel awkward, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself.  If it produced this (pretty strong) reaction in me, I can only imagine what someone else would think/feel given similar circumstances.
Now I see breastfeeding on a regular basis and my emotional weirdness is falling away.  A lot of this is because I'm very soon going to be doing the same thing so my awkwardness is replaced with curiosity.  Even so, some of the stigma around breasts remains in me and I'm left to wonder if my open fondness of them is a subconscious cover-up of a deeper discomfort surrounding breasts as a food source.  It makes sense I suppose.

Image found on page 259, or here.

I think that this kind of view is rather ridiculous.  To be put on edge, or even angered, by such a vital natural function can only be a product of some kind of conditioning.  I might argue that the infant formula industry started it (because I'm on a huge anti-corporation kick right now) but that would be false, unless infant formula dates back to the Civil War period (258). 
In 1910 the pictured device was patented which, frankly, looks to be stupidly uncomfortable not to mention unsanitary.  Apparently we'll go to an awful lot of trouble to make sure we aren't being "indecent." 
According to Wikipedia the first commercial infant formula was introduced in 1912, so I can't blame aggressive marketing for the breastfeeding stigma that exists so prevalently in our society.  The pictured product says that it existed long before commercial industry started manufacturing formula.

This stigma is so ingrained in us that we were the only country to vote against the WHO/UNICEF Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes which recommended that member governments restrict the advertising and sales promotions of breast-milk substitutes as a "minimum requirement" to protecting infant health. (249)  Effectively we decided that infant formula companies are more important to us than the health of our children and, one might argue, the self-esteem of our women.

The whole reason Nipplephobia irritates me so much is because it promotes the view that our bodies are not good enough.  We, as women, are flawed and we need the help of corporations and the medical industry to even function.


All citations are from Chapter 15 of Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding by Ina May Gaskin.