Good news for West Kentucky

After meeting with the Head Nurse at one of our local hospitals, I am glad to report that she says the recent statistics say that 75% of the mothers delivering there choose breastfeeding over bottle feeding. This is excellent news for all babies!

What is a normal birth?

Today women are inundated with mixed messages about the birth experience. Obstetrics, which was once reserved for the complicated labor and birth are now used routinely for the uncomplicated birth. This trend has raised our infant and maternal mortality rates instead of lowering them. Lamaze International has developed a set of tips promoting normal birth which are listed in La Lcche League's book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

• Choose a place that supports normal birth, a place where you will be comfortable. This may be at home, in a birthing center or in a hospital
• Choose a health care provider who supports the practices that promote normal birth. Many women find that the care provided by midwives includes more labor support and less intervention
• Don't request or agree to induction of labor unless there's a medical indication for doing so. Allowing your body to go into labor on its own is usually the best sign that your baby is ready to be born. Allow you labor to find its own place and rhythm
• Plan to move around freely during labor. You'll be more comfortable, your labor will progress quickly, and your baby will move through the birth canal easily if you stay upright and respond to the pain of your labor by changing positions
• Consider hiring a doula or other professional labor support person to give you, your partner, and any other support person continuous emotional and physical support
• Ask that your baby's heartbeat be monitored intermittently instead of all the time so that belts, cords, or wires do not tie you to a machine or specific place
• Eat and drink as your body tells you. Drinking plenty of fluids during labor will give you energy and keep you from getting dehydrated
• Use non pharmacological pain management strategies. For may women, warm baths and showers give powerful pain relief. Practice using birth balls, massage, hot and cold packs, aromatherapy, focused breathing and other comfort measures learned in childbirth classes.
• Don't give birth on you back! Upright positions (sitting squatting or standing), on all fours or on your side are more comfortable, increase the effectiveness of your contractions and enable you to work with gravity. Push when your body tells you to, and ask that support persons give only quiet encouragement. Simply work with your body's own cues and rhythm.
• Keep your baby with you after birth. Skin to skin contact keeps your baby warm and helps to regulate your baby's heartbeat and breathing. Staying in the same room helps you to get to know each other, and it lets you respond to early feeding cues and get breastfeeding off to a good start.

What about breastfeeding in public?

Most of the time the nursing mother is so discreet that no one realizes that she is actually feeding a baby. Now that our apparel has become casual and allows mothers to wear stretchy knit tops and pants, the shirt can be pulled up to allow the baby to latch while the baby covers the mother's midrif. A light blanket can be thrown over the shoulder to cover even more of the baby and mother. However. sometimes we hear of a situation where someone is very publicly feeding their baby. So the Kentucky Legislature has made it illegal to prohibit anyone from feeding their breastfed baby as long as it is a place where the mother and child would normally be admitted.

Breastfeeding is not "just like bottle feeding"

There are several reasons why breastfeeding is misunderstood in our society. One of those is that we tend to view breastfeeding as simply a way to get nourishment into our baby's tummy. Breastfeeding is much more than just feeding your baby. It develops his/her brain and pysche in ways that have far reaching affects. What are some of your experiences as a nursing mother?