I'm writing a lecture on breastfeeding: anyone got any interesting resources to share?

[FrozenNorth]

I'm putting together an undergrad lecture on infant feeding with a specific emphasis on breastfeeding. I have a good deal of evidence to present to the students already, but was curious to see if anyone had any useful or thought provoking resources to share on this topic. I really want to help the issues come alive to the students despite that fact that most of them are a long way away from having or feeding their own children.

(In particular, I'd like to examine the promotional aspects of breastfeeding (and promotion of breastmilk substitutes) beyond our own country ... so input from anyone with more knowledge of the current Nestle situation than I have would be welcome).

No, but have bf a special needs baby as well as 2 others.

I've heard that Nestle have recently brought out a formula "specifically for caeserean-born babies" in the US. Was a bit GRR about this because breastfeeding must be difficult enough after a c-section anyway, imagine having friends/family/doctors/niggling voice in your head from an advert all telling you "Well they have this special milk for c-section babies now, that must be almost as good"

Other than that I'm not sure. You have seen Baby Milk Action and read the new edition of The Politics Of Breastfeeding, I assume? (Would be a good book for further reading for your students, that one!)

Did you see the recent article in the news where a doctor told a mother that her (premature) baby wouldn't live, and there was no point putting it in an incubator even, because it was that weak, but she placed the baby skin to skin and breastfed it (ie, did kangaroo care) purely on instinct, and the baby lived?

Meltedmarsbars - would you mind telling me a bit more about your experience? On here if you're okay with it, but otherwise I can receive CAT messages or give you my e-mail address?

BB - yes, I've read the Politics of Breastfeeding (brilliant book athough I'm sure it did unhealthy things to my blood pressure at the time of reading). I'm sorely, sorely tempted to put it on the reading list in order that the university library is forced to buy several copies, although I worry it might be a bit too long for all but the keenest undergrads. Maybe I could specify a couple of chapters as required reading though? What do you think? It's hard to pick just one or two bits of such a compelling book.
I get BMA's e-mail bulletins although I haven't been on their website for a while so I'll do that. I saw the news articles on kangaroo care recently - it was incredible (and - I'll be honest - left me blubbing into my laptop in front of my rather confused toddler).

Frozen: The basic outline is this:

3rd baby, (bf the other 2), full term but sleepy, back to hosp at day 5 due to dehydration - just couldn't suck. Tube fed expressed milk and formula in hosp, tried to avoid a bottle, lots of inconclusive tests (failure to bf in an experienced mother seems to be a Paeds warning that there could be something more serious amiss - they were right)

After hours and hours of slowly trying to get her to feed, I did bf till she was 14 months, but 8 years later she is tube-fed and nil by mouth as her swallowing is so poor - repeated chest infections etc. She has Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Deficiency (look that one up!)

I know that my perseverance meant she got the best start in life.

Frozennorth - what are the students studying?

I take it you have a copy of Gabrielle Palmer's book = The Politics of Breastfeeding? Is not you should get it.

Watching with interest.

Okay, if you want to specify a couple of chapters - I can't remember the chapter names now, but on first reading the parts that stuck out to me were the bits about US hospitals actually being designed to jeopardise breastfeeding - nurseries a specific distance from labour department, etc. And the bit about how formula was invented and that it really came about as a substitute for watered down cow's milk etc which was used in the 1960s. It shocked me as an 80s baby just realising that people fed babies with condensed milk as recently as the 1970s, because I just always assumed that formula had been around for decades and was a really carefully studied scientific thing, not modified cow's milk with some vitamins added.

I'll have a look later if I can find the book to see if I can find the chapters.

FrozenNorth - your post has just reminded me that I found an amazing resource the other day.

If everyone printed it and gave it to their GPs/midwives/HVs...

...it is very long though (112 pages)!

It is a Model Chapter for Textbooks for medical students and allied professionals called "Infant and Young Child Feeding".

It was produced by the WHO and it looks very comprehensive.

For info on BF substitutes being promoted outside the UK it's IBFAN that you need.

And for BF culture worldwide there are these videos produced by HCPs from various countries - I have watched one or two in the past.

Have absolutely tons of links on breastfeeding which may or may not be of use to you... www.delicious.com/jemjabella/breastfeeding

one thing i thought was brilliant was in the nct breastfeeding video from bump to breastfeeding,was the bit where in an antenatal classthe teacher uses yogurt squeezy tubes and gets the mums to suck from them in different positions to illustrate the importance of a good latch andhow much less you can extract without a good latch.

I don't know if this is what your looking for but there's a documentary on Youtube vid that shows Formula companys marketing stratagies abroad.

I lecture on breastfeeding - you are welcome to my stuff if you like

IMO the WHO's model textbook chapter which tabouleh mentions is really really helpful. It gives the detail behind the WHO infant & young child feeding recommendations, which is what the NHS guidelines are based on.

Definately the WHO and Unicef baby friendly initiative are useful.

Wow, I'll properly look at all these resources tomorrow (sloping off to bed, DD2 cluster-feeding all evening) but THANK YOU!

The lectures fit into a course on child health psychology within the 3rd year undergraduate psychology BSc syllabus. There's a big emphasis on using data from large, representative, longitudinal studies, feeding into the need for a more natural and evidence-based approach to child and maternal health. Issues addressed alongside this include natural childbirth, paediatric pain, iron intake in infancy, postnatal depression, feeding disorders of early childhood etc. Each lecture lasts two hours and assumes a basic knowledge of statistics and the scientific method but nothing else.

:) Will reply in more detail tomorrow

Have you seen this? Short snappy and amusing.

one-of-those-women.blogspot.com/2010/01/urgent-appeal-for-coca-cola-for.html

Have you contacted the NCT? I found their librarian extremely helpful when I was writing an article about something else related to maternity. They must have oodles of stuff on bfing and they're very keen on making sure their info is evidence based.

I think they have some big crusade on about exam papers and formula companies so perhaps check out the press release section of their website too?

Do you know about donor breastmilk? www.ukamb.org/index.html

On a thread similar to this a while ago someone posted a link to pie-graphs of newborn feeding patterns. I lost my bookmarks a few weeks ago and would love to look at it again.

Does anyone know what I'm thinking of?

and good luck, op, with your preparation and lecture

LeninGrad - that link you posted is such an eye-opener! Really interesting. Almost makes me want to live in Mongolia for a while.