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Baby Cafe hosts 'Celebration of Breastfeeding'
I knew when I got pregnant that I wanted to breastfeed. I just didn’t expect it to be so hard. I took a class. I read a book. I met with several lactation consultants at the hospital. I bought gear (I will spare you the details). And I still wanted to quit -- the first day, the second day, and a lot of days after.
Baby Cafe gets this. And it has managed to make the experience better for 450 moms.
Funded by the Healthy Start Coalition, Tampa’s Baby Cafe links certified lactation consultants with new mothers. Some have babies in the NICU and need breast pumps so they can provide their infants with breastmilk when they’re not there. Some struggle with latching and holds. Some have babies with the scary diagnosis of “failure to thrive” and need to know how to make sure their newborns get enough milk and start putting on weight.
Check out their website here for all they offer. It’s all free, too. ... Read more
Breastfeeding moms aim to break world record Saturday
This is World Breastfeeding Week and to mark it, breastfeeding moms will meet up at Largo Central Park and Wiregrass Mall in Wesley Chapel for The Big Latch On, a worldwide effort to celebrate and promote breastfeeding by trying to break the record for the most women breastfeeding simultaneously.
There have been several coordinated events over the years, and in October 2010, 9,826 nursing mothers were recorded at 325 sites in 16 countries, according to The Big Latch On's website. For World Breastfeeding Week 2011, the group is working with the support of La Leche League USA to bring the event across the country.
Saturday, Aug. 6 at 10 a.m. at Shelters 5 and 6 at Largo Central Park, 101 Central Park Drive, and at the Wiregrass Mall by the Mochiberry Frozen Yogurt shop in Wesley Chapel, nursing mothers will gather to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week and try to break the record for the most women breastfeeding simultaneously. ... Read more
No tax break for breast pumps
The health care bill added a lot of new medical items you can add to your tax-free medical savings account, but as this story by the New York Times notes, expensive breast pumps aren't one of them.
New regulations stemming from the health care overhaul take effect in January for flexible spending accounts, which allow millions of Americans to set aside part of their pretax earnings to pay for unreimbursed medical expenses.
On the list: A tax break for denture wearers who buy adhesives and a tax break for acne sufferers who buy creams. But nursing mothers who may have to invest in breast pumps will not get any help under the plan. That is because the Internal Revenue Service has ruled that breast-feeding does not have enough health benefits to qualify as a form of medical care. ... Read more
Mommas to stage "nurse in" at park
In this day and age, you would think this kind of problem would not pop up. And yet, here we go again.
Some moms were breastfeeding their children at an Apopka park, sitting in a circle so no one could see anything, when a pool lifeguard told them to stop because he thought they were exposing themselves.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that the women told the lifeguard that what they were doing was legal. He passed the buck and told them to take it up with a manager.
It wasn't until after the women vowed to have a "nurse-in" at the park that officials began to respond. ... Read more
Mom told to stop breastfeeding in school lobby
Here we go again, it's another breastfeeding-in-public debate. This time it's a mom who was waiting in a
school lobby for her older child who breastfed her 2 year old in the lobby. The school is not happy. ... Read more
Health care bill has perks for adoption, breastfeeding moms
We've been inundated with stories on the health care bill that President Obama signed into law (and here's a good explainer from our friends at Politifact), but some little-known facets of it are getting attention from mom bloggers.
Workplaces will have to provide “reasonable” break time and a private location — other than a bathroom — for breastfeeding mothers to pump breast milk for one year after the birth of a child. If the company has less than 50 employees they can opt out if they show it causes undue hardship. This is something working mothers have long fought for.
Postpartum depression will get more attention with expanded funding, worker training, public education and research. ... Read more
Kid not sleeping? Maybe you are the problem
I ran across a very interesting study in Today's Parent about this whole idea of co-sleeping vs. "training" a child to fall asleep on her own. While many studies look at methods to deal with night waking, few looked at how these methods effect parents. It turns out, if you don't buy into what the doctor is selling, chances are very good it's not going to work for you.
According to this: ... Read more
Do breastfeeding moms deserve a special break from jury duty?
A bill now making its way through the Florida House of Representatives would allow women who are breastfeeding to be excused from serving on a jury. If it passes the House and the Senate and gets
signed into law, Florida would be the 13th state to have such an
exemption. ... Read more
Wendy Williams flips her wig over breastfeeding -- or rather not breastfeeding
You may not have had the chance yet to see the Wendy Williams Show It airs at 2 p.m. weekdays on WTOG Ch.l 44, and it's also on BET at 11 p.m. Joel McHale of The Soup said it's like "two sad clowns in a knife fight." Williams, described by one writer as a "talk show glamazon," basically says whatever pops into her wig-wearing head -- like on a recent show, where she told the audience about how she couldn't breastfeed her baby. ... Read more
Couple get parking ticket as mom breastfeeds baby
We're not trying to milk this subject too much but ... remember the woman who was trying to drive while breastfeeding? Remember all the trouble she got into?
Now it seems you can also get in trouble for pulling over, according to this New York Times story. ... Read more
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THE AUTHORS
E-mail Sharon Kennedy Wynne:
wynne@tampabay.com
E-mail Kate Brassfield:
katedaphne17@gmail.com