World Breastfeeding Week: Breastfeeding and Family Foods
Health e-Learning is pleased to join with the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action and all its affiliates, organizations, groups, hospitals and individuals in 120 countries around the World to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week.
This years theme is "Breastfeeding and Family Foods: Loving and Healthy", drawing attention to the importance of introducing nutritious foods to the breastfed baby from 6 months of age while continuing to breastfeed to 2 years and beyond.
For ideas on how you can promote this theme and to obtain resource kits and promotional materials visit the WABA website.
One of the ways the Australian Breastfeeding Association, and individuals, are supporting the theme is to write to their politicians, lobbying them to promote change to the baby food labelling laws in Australia and New Zealand, raising awareness of the importance of all baby food labels showing the starting solids age as six months, as opposed to four to six months.
Health e-Learning is also keen to promote awareness of this breastfeeding issue and others. We're doing this by making education on lactation issues even more affordable!
Our SPECIAL OFFER for the month of August is to receive one BreastEd course for free when you enroll into 3 or more BreastEd courses at the same time. This is a great offer for everyone wanting to ensure their practice is evidence-based and reflects the best of care for mothers and babies.
Go to the Health e-Learning website now and enroll. Don't forget to tell your colleagues!
Falling in Love and Mothers and Babies
"For neither birth, nor wealth, nor honors, can awaken in the minds of men the principles which should guide those who from their youth aspire to an honorable and excellent life, as Love awakens them." Plato (428 BCE - 348 BCE)
And men, and women, should first find this Love which leads them to an 'honorable and excellent life' immediately after birth.
Read this interesting paper found on the Health e-Learning website on the chemistry that causes mothers and babies to fall in love at birth.
The Chemistry of Love: Could the first opportunity to fall in love influence our ability to love for a lifetime?
Book Review: Sex & Intimacy After Childbirth
by Dr Martein Snellen, Published by: The Text Publishing Company, Sydney.
Dr Martien Snellen is a practising psychiatrist in Melbourne, Australia who specialises in mother-baby psychiatry. When we read that "... a recent study found that around 50% of first-time parents described their sex lives as 'poor' or 'not very good' eight months after the birth of their baby", then the appeal of this book for those of us working with families and their infants becomes apparent.
The style of writing is easy-to-read and in a chatty style. It is amusing in parts, which is a bonus when you are reading about potentially challenging subjects like foreplay, body image and orgasm! However, there is also a good mix of academic references and medical evidence for those interested in factual information. The chapter on the hormones of sexuality and childbirth make for interesting reading.
"Sex & Intimacy After Childbirth" contains real-life scenarios and quotes from new parents who were experiencing difficulties in their sexual life and role-adjustment post childbirth. So the content is very topical and would resonate with many of our clients. It is divided into two parts: Pulling it Apart, and Getting it Together and so could be read from cover to cover, or dipped into as the topic interests the reader.
Breasts and breastfeeding are mainly covered in the second chapter, "The body as a battlefield". The common areas of contention are discussed and include the potential dual role that breasts have, i.e. nurturing and/or sexual, the potential for sensory overload, mixed emotions and a discussion of breast vs bottle.
Overall I found this area a little unbalanced, with detailed descriptions of women's negative experiences of breastfeeding, i.e. 'matronly' bras, desexualising of their breasts, pain, emotional distress, spurting milk and sensual 'animalistic' nuzzling, but little discussion or examples of women who found breastfeeding to be a very positive experience - notwithstanding spurting milk!
While Dr Snellen appears to be supportive of breastfeeding, there is really only the token 'breast is best for the baby' message, followed by the 'don't feel guilty if you can't' discussion. The needs of the baby are certainly not a priority as evidenced by the lack of support or practical ideas to incorporate co-sleeping or room sharing into family life.
Having said that, the audience and potential readers that the author is trying to help are women in the postpartum period and their carers. For them, I think this is a fabulous book and perhaps it is difficult to promote the needs of the baby when helping women who have sought help for significant postnatal problems.
In the second half of the book, Getting it Together, there is lots of information and descriptions of helpful activities as well as useful suggestions for getting any relationship back on track. If you haven't got time to read it all (or it's a relationship emergency!), all the suggestions are summarised in two pages at the back. There are also chapters on contraception and postnatal depression, which could be useful for new parents and health professionals alike.
A great book on a topic about which there is a dearth of reader-friendly and practical, useful information. The by-line to Dr Snellen's book "Sex & Intimacy after Childbirth" is rediscovering desire in your relationship - and this is where the extra worth of this valuable book is. There is much to be learned here for anyone in a relationship, whether post childbirth or not!
Reviewed by Trudi Szallasi, BNurs, IBCLC
Available from:
The Text Publishing Company
The Lactation Resource Centre
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Denise Fisher, MMP, BN, IBCLC
Director, Health e-Learning
Health e-Learning is well-known for providing excellent, high-quality, evidence-based online courses on many lactation-related subjects. Our students appreciate the quality of our courses while saying "I love learning like this!".
Many of our courses offer CERPs and CEUs - see our website for details, then join the hundreds of health professionals studying with us today.
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