New Year Resolutions
Welcome to 2007!
How are your New Year Resolutions holding up? I've been making the same ones every year - you know the type... more exercise and a healthy diet. This year is THE year for me to achieve it!
Fortunately one 'healthy lifestyle' factor I don't have to add to the list is 'have fun'. My work is a lot of fun, and I hope yours is too.
If your New Year Resolution is to keep up-to-date with your breastfeeding education it couldn't be easier. We're here to make getting knowledge about breastfeeding easy and enjoyable for you.
This month I want to tell our about our January Special Offer. It's already off to a great start with lots of people taking advantage of the great offer already. You'll receive a BreastEd course FREE when you enroll into 3 or more BreastEd courses at the same time. If you're sitting the IBLCE Examination you'll really appreciate this great discount on a top quality ILEAC-accredited course; and those wanting CERPs will love the ease of getting them. (PS: We also have a 5 E CERP Ethics course.)
BIG excitement for us and L’Associazione Italiana Consulenti Professionali in Allattamento Materno (AICPAM) is the release of our first BreastEd courses in Italian. This is scheduled for February 1. Let your Italian-speaking friends know today!
In our review of relevant research this month we've looked at prenatal interventions that make a difference to breastfeeding statistics.
In view of this we've also reviewed a recently released book for parents that you could use as a resource in your discussions with women prenatally.
After reading the research papers, if you don't already, I hope you'll add a prenatal breastfeeding consultation to your New Year Resolutions to be implemented in your practice or hospital.
Until next month,
Enjoy those mothers and babies,
Denise Fisher, IBCLC
denise@health-e-learning.com
Relevant Research Reviews
Mattar CN, Chong YS, Chan YS, et al. (2007) Simple antenatal preparation to improve breastfeeding practice: a randomized controlled trial. Obstet Gynecol. 109(1):73-80.
In this randomized controlled trial women attending a Singapore hospital clinic were assigned to either the control group receiving routine antenatal care, or a group that was given printed educational materials about breastfeeding and watched a video about breastfeeding, or a group who received the printed materials, viewed the video and had a 15-minute consultation with a Lactation Consultant to ask questions, etc. Exclusive and predominant breastfeeding at 3 months and 6 months was the outcome measured.
This very simple intervention, which could easily become routine care, was shown to have quite remarkable results.
At both time periods more women in the consultation group were exclusively or predominantly breastfeeding than women in the educational materials only group, who were more likely to be exclusively or predominantly breastfeeding than women in the control group.
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This outcome is to be expected when read in conjunction with the following paper...
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Lu MC, Lange L, Slusser W, et al (2001) Provider encouragement of breast-feeding: evidence from a national survey. Obstet Gynecol. 97(2):290-5.
1229 American women responded to questions about whether their care provider encouraged them to breastfeed during the prenatal period. Three-fourths (73.2%) of women reported having been encouraged by their physicians or nurses to breastfeed; 74.6% of women who were encouraged initiated breastfeeding, compared with only 43.2% of those who were not encouraged. Women who were encouraged to breastfeed were more than four times as likely to initiate breastfeeding as women who did not receive encouragement.
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However, the support for breastfeeding must be overt. Being a supporting breastfeeding without making it known to the mother and discussing her concerns has little effect, as we see in this paper...
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Taveras EM, Li R, Grummer-Strawn L, et al. (2004) Mothers' and clinicians' perspectives on breastfeeding counseling during routine preventive visits. Pediatrics. 113(5):e405-11.
According to interviews with 429 breastfeeding mothers, few discussed breastfeeding duration with their obstetric clinicians during their prenatal visits (15%) or with their pediatric clinicians during their infants' 2-week preventive visit (24%). Among 164 mothers whose obstetric providers said they usually or always discuss breastfeeding duration during prenatal visits, only 26 (16%) of the mothers reported that the topic was discussed with them.
Book Review
Breastfeeding with Confidence by Sue Cox
Meadowbrook Press, Minnesota.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, so much that I finished it in 2 days because I found myself struggling to put it down. Compared to other books on breastfeeding, this one flows with ease of readability. I enjoyed the common sense and practicality of suggestions offered throughout the topics. For instance, one section discussing nighttime feedings gave the scenarios of actual hours with a breastfeeding baby that were portrayed realistically for the expectant parents to really comprehend what the nights were going to be like. The whole book taught that learning about breastfeeding during pregnancy was the favorable time to learn instead of after the baby’s birth.
In my practice, I’ve championed meeting mothers-to-be during pregnancy and preparing them then, rather than waiting for problems to occur and then choosing to seek professional help at the time of the crisis. So, this aspect of Sue’s direction in breastfeeding education is very commendable to me.
Despite a few implications of Sue’s Aussie viewpoint, such as “stout”, I’d highly recommend this book for breastfeeding moms in the United States. Sue obviously makes an attempt to create this book for an American readership with tactics such as referencing the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation for the duration of breastfeeding for 12 months. However, some areas still portray her Australian background in regards to birthing policies in general. But the readability and perfection in accuracy of most of the book is so commendable that I was able to overlook these points-of-view easily, and I feel mothers reading the book would likewise comprehend the key points of material for its outstanding worth.
I recommend this book for all expectant parents to read, and also to be used by the health care provider as they discuss breastfeeding during the prenatal period.
Reviewed by
Carol Chamblin, RN, APN, IBCLC
Breast ‘N Baby Lactation Services, Inc.
St. Charles, IL 60174 USA
Available from:
Hale Publishing
Meadowbrook Press
Simon and Schuster
Finch Publishing
and Amazon.com and all good bookstores.
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Planning your New Year!
