Breastfeeding Made Simple Goes Hollywood

On April 14, Breastfeeding Made Simple was featured at the star-studded celebrity event held at the home of actress Jenna Elfman, star of TV's Dharma & Greg.  Actress Kelly Preston, married to A-lister John Travolta, and Laila Ali, former boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali, partnered with Elfman to host this event.  Its purpose was to raise awareness for the not-for-profit organizations Best for Babes and (L to R) Bettina Forbes (Best for Babes), Jenna Elfman, Kelly Preston, Danielle Rigg (Best for Babes), Laila Ali. Photo courtesy of Best for Babes.Healthy Child Healthy World.  Best for Babes’ purpose is to "give breastfeeding a makeover" and inspire and educate millions of moms on how to navigate the “booby traps” so rampant in our culture, so they can achieve their personal breastfeeding goals.

Jenna Elfman hand-selected Breastfeeding Made Simple as one of her favorite products.  In an earlier interview with Best for Babes, Elfman shared that Breastfeeding Made Simple was instrumental helping her meet her breastfeeding goals with her second child, Easton.  She spent ten-and-a-half months pumping and bottle-feeding her first child, Story, who never made the transition to the breast.  Elfman recommended Breastfeeding Made Simple as one of her top three Photo courtesy of Jessica Pettyjohnbreastfeeding preparation tips.  The stack of Breastfeeding Made Simples in the photo on the right was taken in the "nursing lounge" in Elfman's master bedroom.

At the celebrity event, Kelly Preston spoke about her passion for helping families across the world teach their children about toxin-free living, before confessing to being late because she was nursing her 16-month-old son, Benjamin, with enough milk to “feed a small country.”

Preston revealed in her earlier interview with Best for Babes:

“I am still breastfeeding Benjamin and it has been incredibly rewarding and healing.  It gives me so much joy to breastfeed him and I am so grateful that I am able to do it. He loves it too!  Mother’s milk is loaded with so much vital protection that your child will never get anywhere else.   I know that not all moms can breastfeed but anyone who wants to do it should get educated, be able to make an informed decision about what is best for themselves and their babies, and get all the support they need.

"I’ve been learning from Best for Babes that too many moms are not getting the right help from their hospitals and doctors, and are having to fight for their right to pump at work or be able to nurse on the go.  I’m also sad to hear that so many moms are being discouraged from breastfeeding past a few months when there are clear benefits to nursing much longer.  I’m proud to stand up for the rights of moms and babies to have the best start in life, through breastfeeding and toxin-free living!” 

Laila Ali admitted that although she was normally a very private person, when it came to breastfeeding, she didn’t care what anyone thought—if her baby was hungry she was going to nurse.

Celebrity guests included a pregnant Vanessa Lachey (married to Nick Lachey) who was reported to be Photo courtesy of Jessica Pettyjohn“glowing.”  Bettina Forbes, one of Best for Babes' founders, told me she personally made sure Vanessa received a copy of Breastfeeding Made Simple at the event.  The photo on the left shows well-known environmental expert Danny Seo holding the book aloft.

I’m thrilled that Best for Babes so successfully used the “celebrity card” to highlight the importance of breastfeeding.  This event was publicized on Time.com, FitPregnancy.com, and many other high-traffic websites.  When Best for Babes encourages trend-setting celebrities to speak openly about breastfeeding, this sends the message to mainstream America that breastfeeding is cool, hip, and acceptable.  As Elfman said, “Education and awareness are the first steps.  No one can do everything, but everyone can do something, and every action counts.”

Protesting One of Breastfeeding's 'Booby Traps'

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself face-to-face with a common breastfeeding "booby trap," unnecessary formula supplementation in the hospital.  What was different this time was that I was not the lactation consultant but a family member of the newborn, which gave me more leverage than the lactation   professionals who work there.  For this reason, I felt obligated to write to the hospital's director of mother-infant services, and, yes, even the CEO.  When parents and other family members speak up, this is taken seriously because hospital administrators consider "patient satisfaction" high on their priority lists.  The letter below describes what happened.  Please feel free to borrow from it if you need to send a similar letter to your own hospital.  --Nancy

I’m writing to make you aware of an incident that occurred on March 6 in your newborn nursery after the birth of one of my family members, Baby LR, and to ask for your response. 

I was asked to come to the hospital as a support person when Baby LR was born because of my training as a lactation consultant.  When I arrived outside the newborn nursery where Baby LR had been brought after her birth by cesarean, the first thing I saw was the Patient Care Technician (PCT) explaining to Baby LR’s father, RR, that she would be feeding Baby LR a bottle of formula.  I saw RR tell the PCT that they were planning to breastfeed and ask her not to give the formula.  According to him, her response was “We know what we’re doing,” which was patronizing at best, followed by her assertion that she was following hospital policy.  She told him that because Baby LR was large-for-gestational age (9lb 6oz), she was required to be fed within one hour after birth and since her mother was not yet in her room and ready to breastfeed, Baby LR would be fed formula.

I saw no clinical justification for this practice.  Baby LR was full term, healthy, and completely asymptomatic.  No blood sugar test had been done, and she was at her mother’s breast within two hours after birth.  Because there was no obvious medical reason for this supplementation with formula, I went to the lactation consultant office for clarification.  The LC called the nurse in charge and was told that indeed this baby’s blood sugar had never been tested and that it was “policy” to give formula at one hour if she had not gone to breast.

Are you aware that two years ago The Joint Commission released a Perinatal Care Core Measure on exclusive breastmilk feeding?  Both The Joint Commission and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this best practice during the hospital stay and consider unnecessary supplementation with formula problematic because it leads to more negative health outcomes.  Hospitals are judged and rated by these organizations on how well their policies support exclusive breastmilk feeding.  If this is indeed a policy in your hospital, please explain its rationale.  Also, if you consider it vital for a baby to receive her first feeding no later than exactly one hour after birth, why did no one help put baby to breast right after delivery?

Even one bottle of formula changes a newborn’s gut flora, and it takes two to four weeks of exclusive breastfeeding to return it to normal.  During the most vulnerable period of life, this puts the infant at increased risk of gastrointestinal infection.  It also interferes with the immune system priming that occurs during the early weeks and exposes a newborn to the most common allergen (cow’s milk protein) while her intestinal walls are at their most permeable and she is at greatest risk of allergy sensitization.  This is a far-from-harmless practice, and if this baby suffers from any of these health problems, I will consider your hospital legally responsible.

I was told that your hospital’s goal is to become Baby Friendly.  If you are indeed considering applying for this important designation, please know that your worthiness for certification as Baby Friendly will depend on your staff giving formula supplementation only “if a medical indication exists.”  It appears to me there was no medical indication in this case.

I would appreciate receiving a response from you about this incident.  Obviously, it is too late for Baby LR to have the normal early feeding experience her parents had planned, but my hope is that you will reconsider this practice.  At the very least, I'm hoping that by speaking up I can help prevent this from happening to other families.

As a Board member of the Chicago Area Breastfeeding Coalition, I am often asked by parents for hospital recommendations.  Until this practice is changed, I will be unable to recommend St. Alexius Medical Center to parents seeking a breastfeeding-supportive hospital.

Sincerely yours,

Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FILCA

A Shout-Out to the World

Today I received a communique to La Leche League (LLL) Leaders from the La Leche League International’s (LLLI) Board of Directors and Executive Management regarding The Breastfeeding Answer Book, which I co-authored.  It said:

 "The Breastfeeding Answer Book continues to be the recommended and dependable resource for LLLI Leaders who need to address more complicated questions regarding breastfeeding…Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple, while an additional excellent resource for PL Administrators, should not replace The Breastfeeding Answer Book for Leaders….The Breastfeeding Answer Book is slated for revision and Executive Management is working to identify authors or persons who can coordinate the new edition….In the meantime, LLLI is preparing an update sheet which will provide references to the 8th edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and online resources to address the most important changes in breastfeeding information since The Breastfeeding Answer Book was published. We expect this Breastfeeding Answer Book supplement to be ready in early 2012 and it will be available on the LLLI website."

As author of both The Breastfeeding Answer Book (BAB) and Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple (BAMS), I'd like to weigh in on this issue.

Although BAB’s copyright is dated 2003, I finished writing its third edition—the book  recommended in this communique--in 2002, exactly 10 years ago.  My co-author Julie Stock and I revised only about one-third of this book at that time.  The same process occurred with the second edition (finished in 1995), which was a revision of the first edition (finished in 1990), which we also wrote.  In other words, much of the information in BAB’s third edition is as old as 1990.

No matter who published the next version of this book, it needed to be entirely rewritten to bring it up to date.  Also, significant information was missing from BAB.  For example, it has no chapter on milk production, which I added to BAMS.  Plus, in the eight years between BAB and BAMS, even the most basic breastfeeding information such as latch and positioning had undergone a huge paradigm shift.  I believed that revising BAB piecemeal, as I had done twice before, would not do it justice.  BAB needed to be completely rewritten, which is how I created BAMS.

It saddens me greatly that LLLI, which was founded to support breastfeeding mothers, seems to care more about money than about its reason for being.  Granted, I am not entirely unbiased, as I do not receive royalties from BAB sales.  As should be true for any author, I do receive the usual royalties for BAMS.  However, my motivation for rewriting this book was not entirely financial.  I spent two years laboring on BAMS primarily because I am committed to giving all breastfeeding supporters access to the latest information.  This passion of mine has not changed.  If anything, it's grown stronger.

The underlying message of today’s statement from LLLI seems to be that the money it earns from sales of BAB, an outdated resource, is more important to its decision-makers than keeping its Leaders current.  LLLI, please be reasonable here.  Note that I said it took me two years to rewrite BAB as BAMS.  And I had written this book three times before.  The soonest you could hope to have a rewrite ready—assuming you can find someone to take on that gargantuan task—is several years.  Do you really expect your Leaders to continue to use such an out-of-date reference in the meantime?

Please rethink this decision!  By announcing publicly that your Leaders are expected to use a decades-old book to help mothers undermines their effectiveness and in the process breastfeeding itself.  It may also make those outside the organization think twice about referring mothers to LLL Leaders.  And some Leaders may reconsider their commitment to an organization that would make such a questionable decision.  This announcement is like a shout-out to the world that LLL has lost sight of its fundamental purpose.

Electronic BAMS Now Available

Good news comes with the New Year for those who have asked for my large and heavy book, Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple (BAMS) in an electronic format.  Your wish has finally come true. 

Available in two formats, one for the Amazon Kindle and one for all other electronic devices, BAMS can now be ordered directly from the Hale Publishing website: http://www.ibreastfeeding.com/catalog/Digital-Books/c34/index.html   If you have questions or would like to order by phone, call 806-376-9900.  You can also e-mail books@halepublishing.com

Also in the works, a pocket-sized edition of BAMS for those without an electronic reader who would like to have a smaller, lighter book to carry with them when helping mothers.  I am currently in the process of finishing this project.  The pocket guide version will not contain the references and the lengthy explanations.  Instead, you'll find in its pages only the recommended helping strategies to remind you of what to try next.  This pocket guide version should be available for purchase this summer.  Wish me luck!

Biggest BAMS Discount Yet in December

Because so many have asked me how to get a discount on my book Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple: A Guide for Helping Mothers, I wanted to let you know that during the month of December, Hale Publishing has lowered its price by $30.  Usually $79.95, until the end of the month BAMS' sale price is $49.95, which is 37% off, its deepest discount to date.  This applies to orders of individual copies, eliminating the need to wait for a conference or coordinate large orders for a quantity discount.  To take advantage of this sale price, call 806-376-9900 or click here for the Hale Publishing "Specials" webpage.