The real life stories of the many women suffering with undiagnosed and/or untreated depression go unreported, until one day a desperate mother drowns her five young children in a bathtub. While this is a rare event, it underscores the seriousness of the disease known simply as postpartum depression.

It is estimated that one out of 10 women in the United States take antidepressants, many of them while pregnant or breastfeeding. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 1995 and 2002 the use of antidepressants rose 48%. Antidepressants are among the most prescribed drugs in the U.S. For many…

read more

The day will come when U.S. mothers can truly feel safe breastfeeding their babies and young children anywhere, anytime, anyplace. I likely won’t live long enough to see the culmination of the cultural transformation that is currently underway in America, but I am confident that my children will one day view breastfeeding not as best, optimal, perfect, or ideal, but simply as normal. And I know that ultimately their children, my grandchildren, will reap the benefits.

While many find the slow pace of change frustrating, age confers a level of patience and confidence in knowing that measured, thoughtful change is more often…

read more

Employed by the Red Cross after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, text messaging contributed to record donations. In less dire circumstances but indicative of the popularity of text messaging, millions text their vote for their favorite American Idol. But what can text messaging do for you?

With text4baby, the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) is flipping the text message and using it to help expectant and new moms.

The familiar ping, ding, or ringtone sounds out from your handset:

“Give your baby a good start by not drinking alcohol, smoking or using drugs. For help call 800-784-8669 (smoking); 800-662-4357 (drugs & alcohol).”

“Feeling…

read more

Both you and your baby are going to sleep terribly, possibly for months, so you might as well get used to the idea.

But don’t freak out—this is totally normal. All you have to do is make sure everyone lives through this tumultuous time. Pretend there’s a zombie war going on outside and your priority is basic survival. Do whatever it takes to stay alive. Believe that this too shall pass.

For those of you in the midst of intense sleep deprivation, you would probably like to take your computer and throw it at my head right now. No one wants to…

read more

First Lady Michelle Obama put eliminating childhood obesity at the top of her To Do list with the launch of Let’s Move, her much anticipated anti-obesity campaign. Mrs. Obama is hoping to reverse a dangerous and costly trend. Currently, one out of three U.S. children is overweight or obese. Among black children the rate is even higher, affecting one out of two children. For the first time since 1968, life expectancy is projected to decline.

Several high profile organizations and industries have agreed to join forces with the First Lady. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced that from now on its…

read more

New York Governor David A. Paterson announced last week that $6.98 million awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will “fund policy, system and environmental changes to improve nutrition, increase physical activity and cut tobacco use in New York.” Only five initiatives are part of the new wellness funding, and one of them is breastfeeding.

Increase physical activity at elementary schools; educate the public about high-calorie foods; decrease tobacco use through advertising and free cessation service—all pretty typical point sources to improve health. But there is one more on the list: “Improve support to new mothers to promote breastfeeding,…

read more

The expression, “You are what you eat,” takes on new meaning, given the results of a recent study linking soy formula in babies with uterine fibroids in adults. Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors of the uterus that commonly cause pelvic pain, vaginal bleeding, and fertility problems. Approximately one-fourth of women develop uterine fibroids which are the leading cause of hysterectomy (removal of the uterus).

Method
Twenty thousand white women between 35 and 59 years of age participated in the study. The women were selected from a larger group of 50,000 white women who are part of the Sister Study, a long-term review of…

read more

Breastfeeding keeps babies healthy, but breastfeeding can also make babies sick. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2008 estimated that 430,000 children under the age of 15 were newly infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Most infections were transmitted from mother-to-child during pregnancy, labor, birth, or while breastfeeding. It is estimated that breastfeeding may account for one-third to one-half of all cases of mother-to-child-transmission.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that HIV-infected women in the United States not breastfeed. However, in countries where safe alternatives to human milk are scarce and the risk of infant death from…

read more

Stephanie Sanders and Alex Bligh both had trouble with their milk supply in their early weeks of breastfeeding. After trying everything else, both turned to a drug called domperidone and found their supply quickly increased. Both were able to continue breastfeeding their children.

The difference? Alex lives in Dunedin, New Zealand, where she got a prescription from her doctor and had it filled at the pharmacy. Stephanie lives in northeast Georgia and had to sneak around, ordering her supply from the internet—from a company in New Zealand. The pills subtly arrived in an unmarked box.

FDA: Not okay
Stephanie and other American women…

read more

Long Chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) have generated considerable interest in recent years. Early animal studies suggested that low levels of docosahexanoic acid (DHA) could interfere with brain development in unborn and newborn babies. However, findings from studies in children were inconsistent. A Cochrane review found that use of enriched formulas in term infants had no proven benefit regarding vision, cognition, or physical growth.

Research methods
Aiming to dispel the myth that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) makes babies smarter, researchers from the United Kingdom (UK) followed 241 children from birth until four years of age. The children were divided into three groups: those that were…

read more

Haiti needs a lot of things right now. But for some, nothing is more important or more needed than human milk.

The Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC), International Lactation Consultant Association/United States Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA/USLCA), and La Leche League International (LLLI) are jointly issuing an urgent call for human milk donations for premature infants in Haiti, as well as sick and premature infants in the United States.

A press release announcing the need for milk noted that this week the first shipment of human milk from mothers in the United States will be…

read more

In an effort to encourage hospitals and birthing facilities to select exclusive breast milk feeding as one of their performance measures, the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) recently published guidelines to aid hospitals and birthing facilities in collecting the data needed to ensure compliance.

baby gooroo previously addressed the addition of “exclusive breast milk feeding” to the Joint Commission’s new Perinatal Care core measure set. The perinatal care measures are one of 10 sets of measurements which hospitals select from as part of The Joint Commission’s ORYX performance measurement initiative. Introduced in 1997, the ORYX initiative was designed to integrate outcomes and other…

read more