Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Breastfeeding News weblog is back! I stopped maintaining this breastfeeding news 'blog back in the spring while I concentrated on a political campaign here in Alberta. The campaign is over, and I'm back posting again. -- Jodine

Monday, December 11, 2006

BCNG Portals Page: "Banking on mother's milk Hospital gives moms a healthy alternative
By Martin van den Hemel, Staff Reporter, Richmond Review
Dec 09 2006

New mothers in Richmond will now be able to make healthy withdrawals from a bank of donated breast milk.
For the past 30 years, B.C. Women's Milk Bank has been providing pasteurized donor milk to high risk and ill children when their moms are not able to provide enough breast milk.
"Entering into this partnership with B.C. Women's Hospital means that we, at Richmond Hospital, can offer our new moms more options and more support at a crucial time in the lives of their children," said Richmond Hospital spokesperson Viviana Zanocco.
The pasteurized milk is provided with a doctor's or a midwife's prescription. Recipients outside of B.C. Children's Hospital or B.C. Women's Hospital are charged a processing fee.
Milk is collected from donors who are healthy moms who have completed an extensive screening process and who are able to produce more milk than their babies need." (Entire article)
[Congrats to the BC Women's Milk Bank on this new partnership, a significant development as Canada's only milk bank. - JC]
Raisingkids: News - Daily Parenting News: Do epidurals affect breastfeeding?: "Do Epidurals Affect Breastfeeding? December 11 2006

Survey suggests women twice as likely to give up breastfeeding
Here's another survey statistic that seems designed to make women feel bad about their pain-relief decisions during labour. A report out by the International Breastfeeding Journal suggests that women who elect to have an epidural during childbirth end up paying for that decision with greater difficulty in breastfeeding.
The survey of 1280 women found that women who had epidurals were more likely to experience difficulty breastfeeding in the first few days after giving birth than women who didn't have an epidural. Six months on, women who'd had an epidural were much more likely to have given up on breastfeeding with only 53% still breastfeeding as opposed to 72% of women who hadn't had an epidural."...

Sunday, May 07, 2006

abc11tv.com: Breast Milk For Sale: "Breast Milk For Sale" By Amber Rupinta
(05/07/06 - RALEIGH) - Did you know that you can buy breast milk on the Internet? It's perfectly legal, but is it safe? Mothers, health experts and lawmakers all have opinions and many find it shocking and downright dangerous. Margie Mould runs the Mothers' Milk Bank at WakeMed and knows the risks that can come with stranger's milk. 'Babies could get very sick if they're exposed to viruses or even HIV& things like that can be passed through breast milk because it is a body fluid.' The bodily fluid often called the perfect source of nutrition for babies is now a booming business at milk banks like WakeMed's. 'We send out about 8 to 10 thousand ounces a month,' Mould explains. ..."

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Article: Money - Human milk now for sale in O.C.: "Human milk now for sale in O.C.
With help from a Southern California company, breastfeeding mothers can donate extra milk to feed premature babies.
By BLYTHE BERNHARD
The Orange County Register
A whole new market for breast milk
"Every Friday morning, Dani Dawson brings her baby boy to a Mommy and Me class along with their gift for other babies - a few extra ounces of her breast milk....Dawson donates her milk at the Birth Connection in Fullerton, which houses one of two new milk depots in Orange County. At the depots, breastfeeding moms can donate milk to feed premature or sick babies whose own mothers are unable to nurse. "It's the least I can do," said Dawson, 28, of Placentia. "I would encourage other moms to do it. Jakob can share," she says of her 2-month-old.
he milk depots, financed by Prolacta Bioscience, a Monrovia-based human-milk processing company, represent the first time human milk has been sold in Orange County...."
Parents in Northwest in 'Natural' Panic Over Shortage of Organic Baby Formula Now That Horizon Organic(R) Is Off the Shelf: Financial News - Yahoo!
Finance
: "Parents in Northwest in 'Natural' Panic Over Shortage of Organic Baby Formula Now That Horizon Organic(R) Is Off the ShelfMonday May 1, 5:21 pm ET
According to media reports, the recent discontinuation* of Horizon
Organic Infant Formula with Iron has Northwest moms flooding the Internet
to buy up the last scoop-fulls of the company's organic formulas that are no
longer in stores. The reports have some moms paying as much as $80 per can on
eBay and other sites...."

Friday, April 21, 2006

Breast-Feeding Duration Linked to Alcoholism in Adulthood: "Breast-Feeding Duration Linked to Alcoholism in Adulthood
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 21 - Early weaning, along with a number of factors, appears to predispose adults to alcohol abuse and hospitalization for an alcohol-related diagnosis, according to data from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort.
Previous research demonstrated a link between short duration of breast-feeding and alcoholism in men, Dr. Holger J. Sorenson and colleagues at Copenhagen University and the US examined this relationship in a larger cohort that included women and took into account other environmental and familial factors."
Breast-Feeding Duration Linked to Alcoholism in Adulthood: "Breast-Feeding Duration Linked to Alcoholism in Adulthood
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 21 - Early weaning, along with a number of factors, appears to predispose adults to alcohol abuse and hospitalization for an alcohol-related diagnosis, according to data from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort.
Previous research demonstrated a link between short duration of breast-feeding and alcoholism in men, Dr. Holger J. Sorenson and colleagues at Copenhagen University and the US examined this relationship in a larger cohort that included women and took into account other environmental and familial factors."

Thursday, April 13, 2006

DailyNewsTribune.com - Local / Regional News: Buying breast milk online is risky business


Buying breast milk online is risky business
By Jessica Fargen / Boston Herald
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Demand for breast milk has hit a 20-year high in the United States, causing some experts to worry that desperate women who can't afford to buy expensive milk to nurse their babies will turn to the Internet, where mother's milk is sold cheap and without regulation.
At $3 an ounce -- about $100 a day -- many moms can't afford to buy from a regulated milk bank, but with a few clicks they can find it for as little as $1 an ounce. Diseases such as HIV and hepatitis can be transmitted through untreated breast milk.
'Buyers should beware that they may even be getting goat's milk from somebody who just wants to make money. That's what's dangerous,' said Lois D.W. Arnold, who teaches at Healthy Children Project in East Sandwich.
"

Monday, March 27, 2006

I've been away from tracking breastfeeding news for quite a while - the reason? Well, it's not just one thing, it's a whole bunch of things! George, who is now 1, is one very big reason. Well, he's still pretty little but he's capable of creating an astonishing mess if I don't keep an eye on him 24/7, and that leaves little time for messing about on the Internet. My family has expanded - I've remarried and acquired four more children. And another dog. Life goes on! I'm currently blogging as we make a trip to California with some of the kids. The extra time I have sneaking away from the family as they sleep in the trailer has me browsing for breastfeeding news and posting to this web site again. I've missed it! -- Jodine
Milk Me
By Emily Bazelon
: "Milk MeIs the breast pump the new BlackBerry?By Emily BazelonPosted Monday, March 27, 2006, at 6:11 AM ET
Ever since the breast pump began to catch on a decade or two ago, the device has been a fault line in the motherhood wars. The pump seems like the perfect have-it-all solution: Women can nurse without taking round-the-clock care of their babies. Other adults (fathers!) can help out with feedings, too. Yet La Leche League, the half-century-old pro-nursing organization, approaches the device with a curled lip. 'Before investing your money in a breast pump, you may want to consider whether it is something you really need,' the group sniffs in its seventh revised edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. 'When mother and baby are together most of the time'%u2014the group's ideal%u2014'a mother may have no reason to pump her breasts.' Likewise, some feminist writers disparage pumps for letting employers off the hook. Instead of bending to the needs of mothers and babies by granting extended maternity leaves, a workplace can designate a little room with an electrical outlet and call it a day."

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

United Press International - NewsTrack - Mixed result in Australian 'dummies' study: "Mixed result in Australian 'dummies' studySUBIACO, Australia, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Giving a baby a pacifier reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, but also interferes with successful breastfeeding, Australian researchers say.

A team of researchers led by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research said repeated studies have found that giving babies pacifiers -- or 'dummies,' as they are known in Australia -- gets in the way of breastfeeding."