• Created on 1/5/12 by Hoyamum

We hear an awful lot about breastfeeding being great for babies and great for moms.  It reduces the incidence of all sorts of illnesses such as ear infections and gastroenteritis in the baby and ovarian cancer in mothers.  Breastfeeding is the biologically normal way to feed a baby, and as such it promotes optimal human development.  But breastfeeding is about more than the milk.  There are some hidden benefits of breastfeeding that researchers can’t quite test or pinpoint with double-blind trials.  I thought I’d name just a few for me, and perhaps you’d like to add... read more

• Created on 12/30/11 by Bunmi Laditan

Two days ago thousands of mothers flocked to Targets across the nation like they do every day but this time, with breasts full & nipples poised to launch a milk attack against the retail giant. The demonstration or “nurse-in” was in response to a lactating female being asked to feed her child in a changing room, away from public view, rather than in a corner of the store days earlier. Upon hearing this news, leaking women from all over the United States descended upon their local Tar-zhays with babies and proceeded to feed them from their private parts as a way of saying... read more

• Created on 12/19/11 by Mothering Editorial

Breastfeeding your baby gives you both so much, and yet it can also leave you with neck and shoulder tension. Here are two poses that help relieve upper body tension. 1. Stand erect. Reach your right arm up and over your head to cover your left ear. Pull your head gently toward your right shoulder as you keep your left shoulder even. Hold your head for a count of 10. Release and let your head float up on its own. Repeat on the left side. 2. Clasp your hands behind the middle of the back of your head with your elbows flared. Bow your head toward your... read more

• Created on 12/19/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Christina RosalieIssue 144 - September/October 2007 His eyes are like a seal pup's, huge and round. He is swallowing the world with them. Drinking the images of my hair, the window frame, the branches I gathered and put in a jar on the dresser, their yellow buds swelling. His small, flannel-wrapped body fits into the crook of my bent knee as I sit hunched at my desk, trying to write. For a few brief moments he is quiet, watching me with his unguarded, two-month-old gaze. Late-afternoon light falls on us through the window, and outside, the first green signs of spring... read more

• Created on 12/19/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Stephanie OndrackIssue 137, July/August 2006 It took a few months of mulling the topic over in the back of my mind before I came up with some reasons. The evidence is soft, even circumstantial, but I think it all adds up. And I concluded that even Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with its progressive left-coast attitudes, embodies the traits of a bottle-feeding society. In some cases, this is only because we belong to a larger community. But still, if the bottle fits... The incidences of bottle homage are often subtle enough that we do not see them. They operate... read more

• Created on 12/19/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Christine Gross-LohIssue 122, January/February 2004 Is mothers' milk harmful for our babies? Recent headlines about toxins in breastmilk might have us think so. Two studies, published in August and September 2003, indicated that American women's breastmilk contained polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), commonly used as flame retardants in many consumer products, at levels 10 to 100 times higher than those previously detected in European women.1 Such information might give mothers pause when it comes to nursing their babies. Is breastfeeding still the best choice... read more

• Created on 12/17/11 by Cynthia Mosher

Until I did it, I had little idea of what tandem nursing involved. It’s possibly an even more hush-hush topic than toddler nursing, and it can be one of the most intense but rewarding experiences of motherhood. It’s not for everyone, and even mothers who do tandem nurse have mixed feelings about it. Tandem nursing or tandem feeding involves breastfeeding siblings of different ages concurrently. For example, when my second daughter was born, my elder daughter was 3 and continued to nurse until she was four. So for a year I was nursing a baby and a toddler. If... read more

• Created on 12/7/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Valerie Barrios Cagle Issue 136 - May/June 2006 I was 24 the first time I was attacked for nursing my baby in public. Waiting in line to board a cable car in Stone Mountain Park, Georgia, I absentmindedly held my daughter to my breast while I stood chatting with a friend. Seemingly from nowhere, the irate face of a woman materialized inches from my own. Loud enough for everyone on top of the mountain to hear, she shouted, “Could you please go do that somewhere else, because my husband does not need to see that!” I looked at her, aghast. I hadn’t meant anyone any... read more

• Created on 12/6/11 by Mama Renew

Dear Mamas, I am delighted to have two copies of the fabulous new book Moon Mysteries to give away.   Please comment below for your chance to win.  Increase your chances by liking our Mothering facebook page and Mama Renew facebook page (and let us know in a comment below).  Contest closes Sunday, December 11th at midnight. ***************** Way back in my twenties as I entered birth work, I experienced a sort of mini-personal revolution learning about the power of women’s bodies – and with it, a discovery of my period as a source of connection rather than dread. And so... read more

• Created on 12/1/11 by Hoyamum

I can well remember the first time I saw a toddler breastfeeding.  It was at a La Leche League meeting, and the child must have been about 2 years old.  I remember feeling surprised and curious.  I had no idea that anyone would breastfeed a child of this age.  Why would anyone want to?  After playing a pushing game with another child where he was the most recent recipient of a shove, the little boy came and sat on his mother’s lap, lifted her top then turned to look at me as he latched on.  I recall that one-eyed stare, and my own feelings of surprise as I watched.  The... read more