Did you know...

...that it is Pregnancy Awareness Month?


http://www.pregnancyawarenessmonth.com/

Breastfeeding "Helps to Boost IQ"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new study provides some of the best evidence to date that breast-feeding can make children smarter, an international team of researchers said on Monday.
Children whose mothers breast-fed them longer and did not mix in baby formula scored higher on intelligence tests, the researchers in Canada and Belarus reported.

About half the 14,000 babies were randomly assigned to a group in which prolonged and exclusive breast-feeding by the mother was encouraged at Belarussian hospitals and clinics. The mothers of the other babies received no special encouragement. Those in the breast-feeding encouragement group were, on average, breast-fed longer than the others and were less likely to have been given formula in a bottle.

At 3 months, 73 percent of the babies in the breast-feeding encouragement group were breast-fed, compared to 60 percent of the other group. At 6 months, it was 50 percent versus 36 percent. In addition, the group given encouragement was far more likely to give their children only breast milk. The rate was seven times higher, for example, at 3 months.

The children were monitored for about 6 1/2 years. The children in the group where breast-feeding was encouraged scored about 5 percent higher in IQ tests and did better academically, the researchers found. Previous studies had indicated brain development and intelligence benefits for breast-fed children. But researchers have sought to determine whether it was the breast-feeding that did it, or that mothers who prefer to breast-feed their babies may differ from those who do not. The design of the study -- randomly assigning babies to two groups regardless of the mothers' characteristics -- was intended to eliminate the confusion.

'MOTHERS WHO BREAST-FEED ... ARE DIFFERENT'
"Mothers who breast-feed or those who breast-feed longer or most exclusively are different from the mothers who don't," Dr. Michael Kramer of McGill University in Montreal and the Montreal Children's Hospital said in a telephone interview. "They tend to be smarter. They tend to be more invested in their babies. They tend to interact with them more closely. They may be the kind of mothers who read to their kids more, who spend more time with their kids, who play with them more," added Kramer, who led the study published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

The researchers measured the differences between the two groups using IQ tests administered by the children's pediatricians and by ratings by their teachers of their school performance in reading, writing, math and other subjects. Both sets of scores were significantly higher in the children from the breast-feeding promotion group.

The study was launched in the mid-1990s. Kramer said the initial idea was to do it in the United States and Canada, but many hospitals in those countries by that time had begun strongly encouraging breast-feeding as a matter of routine. The situation was different in Belarus at the time, he said, with less routine encouragement for the practice.

Kramer said how breast-feeding may make children more intelligent is unclear. "It could even be that because breast-feeding takes longer, the mother is interacting more with the baby, talking with the baby, soothing the baby," he said. "It could be an emotional thing. It could be a physical thing. Or it could be a hormone or something else in the milk that's absorbed by the baby."

Previous studies have shown babies whose mothers breast-fed them enjoy many health advantages over formula-fed babies. These include fewer ear, stomach or intestinal infections, digestive problems, skin diseases and allergies, and less risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that women who do not have health problems exclusively breast-feed their infants for at least the first six months, with it continuing at least through the first year as other foods are introduced.

ILCA Releases Position on Breastfeeding and Work

The International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) announced today the release of its official position paper, "Position on Breastfeeding and Work," calling on employers, policymakers, and organizations that serve new families to improve the support that new mothers need to continue breastfeeding.
According to Rebecca Mannel, president of the ILCA Board of Directors, "The benefits of breastfeeding have been widely known for many years now, which has resulted in the majority of women now making the choice to breastfeed. Yet many mothers struggle to continue breastfeeding once they return to work. Some mothers quit within their first few weeks back at work because of challenges within the worksite itself such as no privacy or break time for expressing milk. Other mothers quit before they even return to work because they assume they cannot continue breastfeeding due to their job. ILCA believes that a woman’s right to work should not interfere with her additional right to provide optimal nutrition for her children."
According to Mannel, the steps to creating a supportive environment are simple and include allowing women to take needed breaks to regularly express milk every 2 or 3 hours, and a place to do so in privacy. Providing support and information to employees, along with information and access to International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) if concerns arise, has also been proven to make a difference.
"The benefits to employers are significant," says Mannel. "The research is very clear that because breastfed infants are healthier, their mothers are not absent from work as often. The healthcare savings to the company and the savings from having workers stay at work can be significant to the business," she says. In addition, employee retention is higher as breastfeeding mothers who are supported in the workplace are more likely to return to their jobs after maternity leave ends.
Several studies of companies providing corporate lactation programs have confirmed the cost savings. For example, one company, CIGNA, studied the impact of their lactation program which enrolled 343 employees, and found the program saved their company $240,000 in healthcare costs, $62,000 savings in prescriptions annually, and an annual savings of $60,000 in lower employee absenteeism rates.
Mannel says that a growing number of companies are beginning to implement similar programs. Yet the practice is not widespread. Mannel believes that with greater education about the benefits, more employers will establish policies and practices that
allow breastfeeding employees to continue breastfeeding as long as they wish. Many state and national governments (including a dozen U.S. states) now provide laws that encourage or require employers to provide workplace accommodations for breastfeeding.
ILCA’s position on working and breastfeeding is available as a free download at their website at: http://www.ilca.org/BreasfeedingandWorkPP.pdf.

Planned Cesarean Surgery Is No Safer for Breech Births

Despite one study's conclusion that planned cesarean surgery results in superior outcomes for babies and equivalent outcomes for mothers, flaws in this research indicate otherwise. In "When Research is Flawed," obstetric research expert Henci Goer finds several problems in how the Hannah study—a randomized trial to compare planned cesarean surgery vs. planned vaginal birth for breech births—was conducted and its interpretations of the results.
Other studies, based on a good selection of patients, contradict these findings and report that with a good selection of patients, properly trained medical staff and careful management during labor, vaginal birth is safe for breech babies.
"When Research is Flawed," developed by the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth, provides brief critiques of some of the most influential research studies published on topics that shape and affect policy and practice in maternal-child health care, such as breech birth. These research study critiques help childbirth professionals evaluate the quality of evidence and communicate that evidence to expectant parents, who may be misled or confused by information they receive from the media.
Read the complete critique on the Hannah study on breech birth, as well as critiques of studies on epidural analgesia, home birth, induction of labor and vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) at "When Research is Flawed" on the Research page of www.lamaze.org.

Day 18

The books all say that the baby hummingbirds learn to fly and leave the nest at about 21 days. His (or her) feathers are all in and we know our time to watch this sweet baby is almost over.

Day 17

What a difference a day makes...we were gone yesterday and look what we found today! At first, I thought it was the mama, but it is Humphrey!

Day 15

A new view!