Best for Babes

Last Tuesday (October 6th) I attended the Big City Moms‘ Biggest Baby Shower Ever, held at the American Girl Place in New York City.     It was an awesome event and the line to get in went down the block.   All three floors were chock full of vendors, delicious treats, and fabulous moms-to-be chatting, checking out the goods, and asking questions about baby car, safety and sleep habits.

Seminars on a variety of topics were held on the first floor every twenty minutes or so.   I thought Big City Moms did a great job addressing subjects that moms are interested in; including sleep, feeding, and safety.    As fun as it is to shop and prepare the nursury it is so important the new mothers have the information they need to make healthy decisions!

The first seminar that I did not want to miss was Dr. Alan Greene speaking about “Feeding Baby Green:  Teaching Your Baby to Love Healthy Foods.”   Boy is this guy excited about babies eating!!   He talked about how babies’ tastebuds are actually most sensitive in utero, and that they practice swallowing before they are born, drinking up to 3 cups of amniotic fluid per day!   Dr. Greene explained that not all nutrients pass through the umbilical cord, and that the baby is actually bonding with and getting to know his mother.    I really appreciated his non-judgmental style of speaking that addressed the concerns of mothers who were planning to breastfeed as well as those who were not.   He talked about “imprinting” and how babies who are breastfed get thousands of different flavors from mothers’ milk, exposing their tastebuds early on, and suggested that formula feeding moms switch brands a few times to change things up.   Dr. Greene doesn’t go for a lot of the standard feeding advice given by many pediatricians, especially as far as allergies and feeding schedules, and he explains why in his book, which was included in the gift bags.   I found his lecture to be super interesting and informative and well, really intuitive!   As a mom I always wondered why introducing solids had to be this highly controlled experiment, when really, babies have been reaching out of the sling for millenia to grab a bit of what’s going into mama’s mouth.

Me and Dr. Alan Greene at the Big City Moms Event

I was fortunate to get a chance to speak with Dr. Greene before his talk . . . I knew about his great work with Healthy Child, Healthy World and was excited to meet him.   I told him about what Best for Babes was doing and right off the bat he bubbled over with enthusiasm and fired off some recent breastfeeding research studies.   It was clear that he is very pro-breastfeeding and very knowledgeable about lactation science.   I told him I thought it was great that the Born Free bottles were BPA-free and hoped that the company would become WHO Code Compliant.  Dr. Greene shared that his wife is a breast cancer survivor (like my business partner, Danielle Rigg), and we talked about how strange it was that the big breast cancer organizations didn’t jump with joy over a recent study showing that women with a family history of breast cancer can reduce their risk by 60% — yes, 60% — if they breastfeed their babies.  We see eye to eye on a number of things and I was thrilled to meet him.

Kelly Rutherford & Me (Bettina Forbes, Co-Founder, Best for Babes)

The last seminar of the evening was actress Kelly Rutherford speaking about “Socially Conscious Mothering.”   She is incredibly down to earth and warm and spent most of the time answering questions from the floor.    She has a very nurturing style and made me feel like we’re all in this together, trying to do our best as parents, picking ourselves and each other up when we fall.   She talked about some of the personal decisions she had made, including tandem nursing (see our interview with her) and her choice not to vaccinate.   I appreciated that she was very open as a mother who is trying to parent in a socially conscious way, and shared her own experience.   I think she is an awesome role model and all the expecting moms really enjoyed talking to her.  Best for Babes is very lucky to have her as a Champion for Moms!

All in all it was a great evening and a great resource for moms-to-be.   Everyone left with a huge gift bag filled with gorgeous items, and better prepared for motherhood!

Best for Babes  had a chance to catch up with busy mom and author Andi Silverman to talk to her about her personal experiences that led her to write Mama Knows Breast:  A Beginner’s Guide to Breastfeeding, for sale on Amazon.com.    We give the book a “thumbs up” for hip design, engaging and witty prose and ”no holds barred” honesty.  It’s a great little introductory book to get you pumped up and psyched up, and a super baby shower gift for a chic mom.  We especially love “From the mouths of moms”:  quotes from real moms that tell it like it is, and will leave you laughing and feeling connected. 

Did you always know you wanted to breastfeed?   If so, why?  If not, what changed your mind?

What kind of advance preparation did you do?   Had you seen anyone nurse?   Were your husband and family supportive?   How about your ob/gyn and pediatrician?   Did you encounter any barriers to breastfeeding while still pregnant and how did you deal with them.

I actually convinced my husband to take a breastfeeding class with me before our son was born.  What a sport he was! He was the only guy in the room.  We paid attention, asked questions, and even took notes.  But beyond that, I didn’t do much else to prepare.  I wasn’t reading parenting books. I was more focused on the pregnancy and how lousy I felt.  I didn’t even ask my family, friends or obstetrician anything about breastfeeding.  I naively thought that it couldn’t be all that hard.

Did your actual breastfeeding experience meet or differ from your expectations?   How so?

Once our son was born, I soon realized that I didn’t remember much at all from that breastfeeding class.  I had forgotten that babies ate around the clock, every two to three hours.  And because I hadn’t done any advance reading, I was in a bit of shock about the intensity of caring for a newborn.  I was very overwhelmed by the lack of sleep.  I wasn’t using bottles of formula or pumped milk, so it was all mom, all the time.  I remember thinking, “When will this cycle slow down? Will I ever sleep again?”

What was the biggest breastfeeding challenge you faced and how did you handle or overcome it?

I got pretty lucky in the breastfeeding department.  Both of our sons latched on easily and grew well.  My biggest (pun intended) “problem” was that I had very severe engorgement.  With our first son, I was pretty shocked when my milk came in and I got rock hard watermelons on my chest.  I remember standing in the shower and weeping in disbelief.  I had no idea what to do about it, so I had to get advice from a lactation consultant.  She told me to use hot wash cloths to get the milk flowing, pump a little to relieve the engorgement and feed as frequently as possible. And lo and behold, it worked!

What motivated you to write Mama Knows Breast and start your online blog?   What has the reaction been so far?

I looked at the other breastfeeding books on the market, and while there were a lot of great ones, they all seemed fairly serious, and medically oriented.  I didn’t find what I could have used– a practical, concise and hip guide to breastfeeding. I wanted a breastfeeding book that would be fun to read.  So, I set out to write “Mama Knows Breast” and started my blog http://www.mamaknowsbreast.com.  Along the way, I’ve been in touch with moms who have so much to share about their breastfeeding experiences.  Everyone has stories to tell.  Stories about successes, challenges, and even failures. 

Best for Babes Comments: Okay, first of all, we think Andi is awesome!   And so is her husband for taking a class—it’s so important to include spouses/partners.  One of the smartest things Andi did was to get the advice of a lactation consultant.   Getting qualified help early can make the biggest difference in avoiding or solving problems.   For help finding a lactation counselor in your area, check out http://www.ilca.org which lists lactation counselors by zip code.  For engorgement, another alternative is to lower your boobs into a basin or sink of hot water and hand express to relieve the pressure—takes less time than a shower and gentler on the nipples than pumping!  By the way, breastfeeding for birth control is just as effective as the pill (0.9-1.2%), provided 1) the baby is 6 months or younger, 2) is being breastfed exclusively on demand (i.e. not overly scheduled) and 3) is not relying heavily on artificial nipples or pacifiers.   World-wide, more babies are kept from being born (which increases child survival) through breastfeeding than all other birth control methods (Thapa et. al., Nature, 1988)!   

Best for Babes is thrilled to be included in a list of the “Top 100 Blogs for Expecting Mothers.”    Posted by Ultrasound Technician Schools, this list is a handy guide to some great websites and blogs for expecting and new moms and/or parents.    It is the kind of list that I wish I had known about when I was pregnant with my first baby!

Good blogs can help you feel like you are not alone in whatever you are experiencing (and trust us, you are definitely not alone) and connect you to a community of other mothers.   The best ones are inspiring, encouraging, and evidence-based.   This means that the information is rooted in the latest scientific information, which is extremely important with regards to breastfeeding.    All too often new moms are vulnerable to myths and misinformation, so make sure there are scientific references to the material you read!  

At Best for Babes, we footnote and reference scientific studies so that you and your doctors, family members and friends know that you are getting the best, most accurate information. 

Special thanks to Utrasound Technician Schools for featuring Best for Babes!