Word: motheral
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...intriguing paper published in July in the journal Medical Hypotheses, Gordon Gallup, a professor of biopsychology at the University of Albany, posits another upside to sticking with the breast: a mother's decision not to breast-feed may unwittingly mimic child loss, evolutionarily speaking. Given that bottle-feeding technology did not exist for the last 99.9% of human evolutionary history, Gallup reasons, the likeliest reason a mother of yore would not have breast-fed is the death or loss of the child. He suggests that the consequences for the bottle-feeding modern-day mother could include an increased risk...
...pumping mothers may be protected, he says, since the pump simulates a baby's suck and stimulates the flow of milk. Still, since lactation has a lot to do with the mother's direct hormonal response to her child, for some women, Gallup says, pumps may not be as efficient as the real thing. "When you just have a relationship with a pump instead of with a baby, the milk supply can dwindle because the mother may not be secreting the hormone oxytocin that aids in a mother's milk letdown," he says. For those mothers, he suggests staying near...
...Leche League, the world's most active breast-feeding support and advocacy group, insists that breast is best for mother and child. "We would encourage mothers to feed their babies from the breast to promote bonding," says Loretta McCallister, a spokeswoman for the organization. But she concedes that using expressed milk exclusively does not contradict La Leche League's core message: "Women who choose to pump are still providing breast milk for their babies, while doing what is best for their families," she says. "And that is much better than turning to formula." (See how to prevent illness...
That's about as much support as pumping mothers get, they say. When Byrd decided to stop breast-feeding her first child, she says doctors suggested formula as the only alternative and never once mentioned pumping. Private lactation consultants typically do not offer pumping as an alternative either, as their goal is to get the mother to breast-feed. Williamson was so frustrated by the lack of available information about pumping from her doctor and elsewhere that she created a website, Got Breast Pump!, in 2004, after having fed her second baby exclusively with expressed milk...
...never culturally prepared from my time at Harvard how extraordinary and mind-bogglingly fabulous being a mother and running a family would...