Two Sleepy Mommies have some extended postings about breastfeeding in public. I will say that this is a topic on which I wish those who have not raised children would shut up. I have a lot more to say but not the time to say it right now - I think I do have some earlier postings, if anyone wants to use the search function.
I also strongly suggest that those who object to breastfeeding on demand read Sheila Kippley (of CCL)'s book Breastfeeding and Natural Child-Spacing to get an idea of just how God designed this part of parenting and marriage to work.
Technology is wonderful - in its proper place. Bottle feeding is a technology that has saved some babies' lives (and, sadly, ended many others'). But it takes second place to the way God designed us to work. Sometimes it is necessary, and thankfully it is usually safe (these days) - but it is less than ideal.
Public breast-feeding does not have to be flaunting - and usually is not even obvious. But I would (and did) refuse to feed a baby in a room designed for excretion - unless all infant feeding should be deemed unsuitable for public view.
Midwifery: November 2003 Archives
International ranking of Infant Mortality by country
Link via The Edge of the Precipice, a site I intend to add to the links if and when Blogrolling recovers from being hacked.
Like Smockmomma, I am grieved that so many young women today are disinterested in preparing for the upcoming birth of their children – but I am even more grieved that so many of them have opted for “Birth American Style” as portrayed on TLC’s The Baby Story. It seems that they honestly expect the time from first contraction to the actual birth to be 15 minutes or so (the interval on most episodes of Baby Story). And, many of them ‘just know’ that they will ‘need’ induction, epidural anesthesia, a cesarean or whatever – before they even get to term!
I’ve been involved in the childbirth movement since I don’t know when. My first exposure was in various novels – I remember reading birth scenes in books as far removed as Michener’s Hawaii and Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. I vaguely remember reading about the caudal (an early form of epidural anesthesia) in some Reader’s Digest Condensed book around the age of 8 or 9. As the oldest child in a large family, I was very familiar with the idea of pregnancy as a part of life – even though my mom was critically ill during her third pregnancy and was hospitalized for several weeks before and after giving birth, she still had 3 more children after that.
Babies born as early as this rarely survive. 22 weeks.
Link from Lilac Rose.
Elective Caesareans Judged Ethical
My opinion:
This is another example of choice trumping good medicine.
