epidurals and sucking
A new study links epidurals with low breastfeeding rates and suggests that it's the effects of the drug on the baby that are responsible. (Babies initial sucking abilities may be impaired from the chemicals in the epidrual). We're all for investigating epidural side-effects and for breastfeeding for that matter. But the link between epidural use and low breastfeeding surely has something to do with the mother's personal choice in the matter?? It seems reasonable to expect that the woman who does everything under the sun to have a drug-free birth will likely pursue breastfeeding with the same determination. Of course we have no study to prove this, but it seems logical to at least take the priorities of the mother into account. We also know plenty of women who breastfed for ages and ages (and soon) after an epidural birth. Maybe they are all the excpetions? Or maybe they are people who just wanted both epidurals and breastfeeding?
Posted by ceridwen at 2:17 PM | Comments (1)
new moms babble
Check out our new advice column, "PARENTAL ADVISORY" at babble.com, a parenting webiste (for "intellectually curious people') from the people who started nerve.com back in the 90s.
Babble promises to "apply Nerve’s tradition of irreverent honesty to the experience of parenting without the infantilizing, hyper-judgmental tone or acquisitive baby-as-accessory bent of so much of today's parenting fare." We're psyched to be a part of the team. The site launched a couple days ago and looks great. Send us some questions! We'll be answering them every week.
Posted by ceridwen at 12:38 PM | Comments (1)
mother mary cheney
Everyone's been trying to figure out: What are we going to do with this foul-mouthed (fowl-hunting) self-loathing pregnant lesbian? The other night I caught a glimpse of sex columnist and gay adoptive father Dan Savage FUMING over this subject on a talk show. I tuned in just as he was being cut off by one of those impenetrable (smiling) conservatives who may or may not have been the lovely Janice Crouse of "Concerned Women for America." Sad to have missed what he was saying, I went online and found an amazing and tangential tirade against Ms.Crouse right in the middle of a Savage Love advice column about a cross-dresser. He makes all the great political points with characteristic spice: "...they're condemning Cheney for creating a 'fatherless' child, a child that will have no masculine role models. Have you gotten a good look at Heather Poe, Mary Cheney's partner of 15 years? My son has two fathers, but Heather's left labial lip is butcher than both of us put together." Over at the Huff Post my other favorite gay rights advocate and blogger extraordinaire, Bill Robinson chimes in,"So that's the big objection? No father? Perhaps Concerned Janice and those like her are worried something awful might happen to the fatherless child.... like becoming a lesbian."
Posted by ceridwen at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
