I participated in a Blog Blast on behalf of Mom Central for Urbini. I received information from Urbini to facilitate my post as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation.
August is national breastfeeding month in the United States. Did you know that only sixty percent of American women breastfeed their babies? I didn’t, until I checked out an article on Urbini’s website Mom Voyáge and learned that the domestic statistic pales in comparison to, say, Scandinavian countries where the rate exceeds ninety percent. In fact, most of the countries profiled have higher breastfeeding rates than the U.S.
As a mother of an almost one year old nursling, I have found it beneficial to surround myself with other mothers. In absence of hyper-local family or an actual tribal village, I’ve had to create my own in order to wade through the trials and tribulations of new parenthood. I found part of my village at a breastfeeding support group hosted by a local north Dallas area cloth diaper store, The Nappy Shoppe. There, crunchy moms gather to swap tales and offer advice on the uses of coconut oil, baby wearing, family cloth, and other topics that were previously way off my radar.
I recently participated in a #boobolution celebration at the Nappy Shoppe, in honor of Breastfeeding Awareness Month. The event sought to #NormalizeBreastfeeding and #FreeTheNipple in an effort to remove the social stigma that has likely been a root cause of the dipping rates of breastfeeding in America. Surrounded by nursing mothers, I found myself grateful for my contrived village and the collective wisdom it provides.
In the absence of a local network, and in fact, in addition to it, virtual communities allow parents to reach out and understand how other parents parent. Babies don’t come with instruction manuals, so advice and differing perspectives from those who’ve gone before you can make all the difference. You never know which one tidbit will finally get you past that one parenting hurdle. Mom Voyáge is a one of those virtual communities – a global network of mom bloggers who share the ways pregnancy and parenting differ around the world, featuring topics ranging from pregnancy and childbirth to baby names and maternity leave. In celebrating these differences, Urbini’s site allows new moms to feel connected to the global parenting community and learn from a world of wisdom.
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Although I agree with your enthusiasm for breastfeeding and believe the statistics for the Scandinavian countries are accurate, I wonder where Urbini got the statistic of 60% breastfeeding in the USA. What breastfeeding rate are they referring to: total breastfeeding (breast and formula) or exclusive breastfeeding? The rate at hospital discharge or the rate at 3 months or 6 months? The rates in the USA are truly worse than many other countries but there is no place I can find a rate of 60% from any reliable source. According to the CDC, the most recent overall breastfeeding initiation rate was 79% (that includes women who breastfeed exclusively and those who supplement with formula) and the exclusive rate at 3 months was around 45%. The exclusive rate at hospital discharge is not given. In New Jersey, about 1/3 of all breastfed babies leave the hospital supplemented with formula, so the exclusive rate is about 53% (2/3 of 80%). Not sure what the exclusive breastfeeding rate is nationally at hospital discharge. It may well be even less than 60% but I think we need to be precise about what statistics we are discussing.
dermeribclc those particular stats were provided to us by Urbini. They state that they came from OECD, as far as I can find on OECD’s website here is their research specific to breastfeeding: http://www.oecd.org/els/family/43136964.pdf
elysaellis dermeribclc
Thanks for the reference. It appears on the OECD paper that the graph there does reflect a US rate closer to 75% which makes sense for 2005. Not sure how the numbers got changed. It appears like the same kind of bars but the numbers are off.
It is indeed hard shopping for maternity clothes. In terms of a swim suit, I will suggest Prego Maternity’s line of swim wear. You can get something that will cover (such as the halters) or grab a tankini from Maternal America. If you are 5’2 Japanese Weekend has some pretty flexible designs. If you plan to go lower cost go with empire waist or smocked dresses. For the women searching for plus size, you just have to know what to look for in maternity clothes! Sometimes an XL will gladly fit an 18. You want the spandex content to be at least 3% for maternity clothes. The more spandex, the better the give. Cute plus size maternity exist, stores do not buy it because they do not have a high enough demand for plus size.
Schultzy @ http://www.mommyliciousmaternity.com/