http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25124745/
Its true. Every once in awhile there will be great nurses and great LC's, but if you're not very knowledgeable about nursing already, it will be a battle at some point in the hospital. The next battle is with pediatricians. So many OB's and Ped's say they support breastfeeding but then give old (and wrong) information or make it seem harder than it has to be (huge lists of food and drinks to avoid). I see the damage done to breastfeeding relationships by hospitals all the time. The good news is that almost all of the issues can be fixed with the help of a good LC, a good book like "The WOmanly Art" and just taking the time.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
American Attachment Parenting vs. The Old Stuff
For thousands of years the Continuum Concept http://www.continuum-concept.org/cc_defined.html was just the way babies were treated. They were never out of sight of the caregiver, usually the mother, and their needs were met quickly and without a big fuss. The baby joined the parents world and fit into their scene. Its classic Attachment Parenting, the crucial first 3 years and more with minimal separation, close contact and quick response to baby.
These days if you say that Attachment Parenting is your parenting style people often think you might be a lunchbox, one of "those" parents whose kids are all over everybody and everything with no self control. I've seen those kids too, I've seen little kids hitting other kids, knocking them down, and parents saying sweetly "Oh, lovie, I'm sure you didn't mean that?" True AP out in the world outside of here is kind of pre-modern parenting that's most often done in places where breastmilk is the only option and babies have to be on mama's back for her to get all of her work done. In the US both stay at home moms and working moms that practice AP (American style) are in a unique position of enjoying the ease of the older stuff, like babywearing (making life easier) or breastfeeding, when its going well, keeping things simple. But its easy to let the child become the center of the AP parent's revolution. In outside world AP, the parents are adding a baby to their revolution that's already going--not revolving around the baby. Putting baby in the center of the scene is not good for anyone.
There's so much more to say about this, and I'll come back to it..its really an overall attitude of responding to babies and not expecting things that they are not ready for in a developmental or evolutionary sense. Its not a checklist or an exact science, just going back to basics and keeping it simple.
These days if you say that Attachment Parenting is your parenting style people often think you might be a lunchbox, one of "those" parents whose kids are all over everybody and everything with no self control. I've seen those kids too, I've seen little kids hitting other kids, knocking them down, and parents saying sweetly "Oh, lovie, I'm sure you didn't mean that?" True AP out in the world outside of here is kind of pre-modern parenting that's most often done in places where breastmilk is the only option and babies have to be on mama's back for her to get all of her work done. In the US both stay at home moms and working moms that practice AP (American style) are in a unique position of enjoying the ease of the older stuff, like babywearing (making life easier) or breastfeeding, when its going well, keeping things simple. But its easy to let the child become the center of the AP parent's revolution. In outside world AP, the parents are adding a baby to their revolution that's already going--not revolving around the baby. Putting baby in the center of the scene is not good for anyone.
There's so much more to say about this, and I'll come back to it..its really an overall attitude of responding to babies and not expecting things that they are not ready for in a developmental or evolutionary sense. Its not a checklist or an exact science, just going back to basics and keeping it simple.
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