Posts by Category: breastfeeding

Babywearing = freedom + empowerment

Posted by on April 27th, 2013 | 0 comments »

We loved reading these vivid, touching details of babywearing from day 4 of parenting on through 18 months!  Read how this babywearing mama has woven the art of wearing her baby into a journey of parenting with great confidence.

This was written by a fellow Parenting Enthusiast at Nurtured and an organizer of the local HRM babywearing group.   Whitney’s shout out to Nurtured as a local Shop Hop spot was much appreciated of course too!

Enjoy!

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On day four of my on day four of my daughter’s existence, we planned a day trip to the Public Gardens….

I was sore, bruised and mentally drained, having spent ninety percent of the prior 80 some (or seemingly 8million) hours teaching myself and my daughter how to breastfeed, with some small, but excruciatingly sore success. Yet I knew the sun would do us all some good, so we wrapped that precious little bundle up in a cozy little wrap, and we waddled our way to freedom. Or I guess I should really call it the nearest bus stop.

Then and there, we were hooked. For all the self-doubting I had done, for all the paranoia and anxieties I had as a new mother, holding my baby close was something I was certain felt right. There was a sense of empowerment and pride in wearing her, as I was able to prove to myself, above all others that I was going to make this work. That I could slowly incorporate bits of normal life back into my routine, and that we could all cope with the adjustments.

She was cozy and content. I was ecstatic. Later in the day, my partner and I both found ourselves peed, pooped and spit upon, while taking turns wearing her through the Gardens, but the overall feeling of success of that day could never be touched.
For me, baby wearing is my expression of who I am. It is my art.

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You can read more from Whitney on babywearing and shopping local at Shop Hop.

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Breastfeeding Community of Practice

Posted by on January 1st, 2013 | 8 comments »

I sat down at 1pm AST today and I nursed my baby.  We didn’t make the news.

Though I was in a retail setting while feeding my baby I wasn’t at a nurse-in (nor was I asked to leave for doing so).

Though I run a small business and brought my child to work today I’m not the owner of an Italian restaurant (nor was I served a complaint by a health official).

I am closing out the year feeling blessed to raise my child in an uplifting environment encouraging of and nurturing in my relationship and care taking of my baby.  I live and work in Halifax Regional Municipality.

I fed my child at Nurtured today.

 

I fed him while customers were milling about boxing week specials and in my place of business.  I fed him in our breastfeeding friendly area, outfitted with signage and lounging furniture (including a specific armless chair purchased through a government grant in fact) in an area filled with resources for parenting (both breastfeeding and bottle feeding friendly mind you).   There is a plaque hanging nearby stating this place of business is a proud member of the Breastfeeding Community of Practice.  There is a sticker on the door with the international symbol for breastfeeding.  My customers and coworkers likely saw my chest.  The way my toddler feeds he likely exposed my breast.  Heck, he put his hand down my shirt.

I also fed him at the grocery store this week while I was buying eggs and again at the checkout.  We didn’t make the news then either or receive any complaints.

Yet twice in the span of a week two mothers in HRM and their breastfeeding babies made national news shining light on the discouragement of our province’s breastfeeding community.  In a recent opinion article by the Chronicle Herald’s Lezlie Lowe she cited the “wretched” 12% breastfeeding rate for babies in Nova Scotia still nursing after 6 months.

Indeed public places are also for babies  as we’ve seen in other media of 2012 and a message from our Minister of Health.

But are they for babies in HRM?  Lezlie Lowe’s article this past year questioned that. This week’s news questioned that.   If your jaw didn’t drop over the news this past week perhaps it did over the fact these mothers are still nursing their eight month olds.

Congratulations to Kendra-Ann and Hannah for continuing their breastfeeding relationship past our province’s “norm”.

Alas, that part didn’t make the news.

Nursing your baby at your place of business while clearing a table or in a busy retail setting while sitting down shouldn’t make people pause for questioning whether this is in or out of place, convenient, healthy or good for business. The past week’s unfortunate events wouldn’t have happened were we a true utopia of a breastfeeding community.  To contrast, Mongolian mothers will commonly lift their shirts, grab their breasts and wave them at their hungry child [from birth to 6 years and up].  I know this isn’t Mongolia nor do I particularly want it to be.  However, I do wish we supported women breastfeeding publicly as if they could unabashedly charade such intentions. Call me a lactivist. I wish all mothers could breastfeed.   I wish expecting and adoptive parents knew more about the possibilities of lactation. I wish there was a local milk bank. I wish someone higher and mightier than me would realize the health stats for mothers and children of our province would be better simply by an increase in our breastfeeding rates.   Rest assured you don’t have to be able to breastfeed to be pro-breastfeeding.

No matter what I wish, let’s agree in the new year a mother’s arms are the safest place for a baby to be.

I have a resolution for 2013 I’d like to suggest:

On the eve of a new year as a business owner, a breastfeeding mother, a member of the Breastfeeding Community of Practice and a resident of Nova Scotia, Canada,

I’m resolving to consider a child feeding or being comforted as a human right.  I hope you’ll try the same. I’d like to think Nova Scotians are ready for it.

Your baby or your neighbour’s baby  may not file taxes yet or vote, but he is the future of our province.  He’s a stat in the health, the educational well being and economic outlook of the province.  I don’t feel a sense of entitlement in pointing this out.  Frankly, I feel ignorant I didn’t put more weight into this fact any earlier.

I sat down at 1pm today and I nursed my baby.  So what?

I feel like the immediate community nurturing my breastfeeding relationship is newsworthy. Free drop-in breastfeeding support with Pampered Mamas Doula Services was at 1:30pm AST today at Nurtured. I met a brand new mother that I hope is well on her way to a great start after today’s meet up. Personally it’s fourteen months going strong; I’ve surpassed where I my first weaned. My child is healthy.  I’m healthy.  His immunity benefits in this second year of breastfeeding are now higher than those in the first.  My rates for developing breast cancer continue to lower.  I am privileged to bring him to work with me and I nurse him in plain view of my coworkers and customers without much thought, air of arrogance or complaint.

Generally I am caught off-guard by the community of well-wishers while I am nursing.  Let’s make that the news in 2013.  Let’s promote the health of our children and the support we receive from HRM and Nova Scotia.  Become a community cheering on breastfeeding goals be they learning a proper latch while still in hospital or just when your milk has come in, establishing a healthy supply during maternity leave or returning to work.  Continue a community of encouragement as you watch these babies reach milestones and live a healthy lively life well into adulthood and parenting their own tiny Nova Scotians.

For 2013 when you notice a mother feeding her child just walk on by or give her a thumbs up.

Happy new year.

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The learning curve

Posted by on May 3rd, 2011 | 0 comments »

“Of course I plan on breastfeeding my baby” I confidently proclaimed to my mother in law one day on the phone.

Breastfeeding was something I was committed to from the start of pregnancy. Although it was not my mother in law’s cultural norm, it was mine.

I’ve had the opportunity to attend a focus group on Nova Scotia breastfeeding initiatives.  It was interesting to hear the many facets of internal structures inside the medical field, hear how breastfeeding can further be supported, learn about the World Health Organization standards, and then talk about the trickle down effect of what is seen and experienced at the by new and expectant mothers.   It will be very interesting to me to read the final research later this fall.

One bunny-trail discussion I found particularly insightful was talk about cultural exposure to breastfeeding.  This struck home for me.  If my only support group had been my mother in law, I might not have chosen to exclusively breastfeed.  My background and personal research allowed me never to waiver with my initial decision.

Cultural norm or not, what really impacted my decision to learn how to breastfeed and commit to it was discovering that the breasts’ final development and a follow up to pregnancy was the end result of lactation!  My husband laughed at my commenting that being pregnant made me feel like I was part of a science fair project. So many things were developing.  The fact my breasts were changing was more difficult for me to understand than my expanding abdomen.  However, any strangeness I had felt about using my body to feed my baby was simply overcome by this single piece of knowledge that this was a natural and intentional development.

As a woman, this set of tissue was designed specifically to provide for a baby’s growth, digestion,metabolic and developmental needs and a built-in pathogen-defense system! It was an aha moment that I wish I had come to earlier on!

Learning the role of breastfeeding is not purely textbook but it should be accessible. I do recommend reading Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding as one book I leaned on.  And in all honesty, I will never judge a single person because breastfeeding didn’t work for them and their baby. But I will always encourage, advocate and support the mother who is gritting her teeth in those early days and trying to learn.

The amount of support you will find at Nurtured for breastfeeding is something I know April MacKinnon focused on building because of her own cultural norm.  Having a local doula, Jen Hammond, volunteer her time to provide breastfeeding support groups every Thursday at 1:30pm is instrumental to new moms in the HRM community.  I wish I had similar access in my early days of cracked nipples and balancing out supply!

Robyn Berman’s Breastfeeding 101 workshop is also approaching in 2 weeks and has space! Whether breastfeeding is your cultural norm or not, attending a workshop like this led by a passionate doula provides the education, troubleshooting and positive thinking for a head start in the learning curve.

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Welcome, and Goodbye

Posted by on March 6th, 2011 | 12 comments »

In 2005 I was a new mom cloth diapering a tiny baby and feeling very isolated from my existing friends and was having a hard time connecting with new ones. I had faced significant challenges with breastfeeding and didn’t know anyone who could relate to my situation. I started thinking about the path of my life, the impact of every choice I made for my little girl on the world around me, and how I could use the information I learned as an engineer to connect with other parents who, like me, wanted to make a difference for their children, and for our environment.

By April 2006, Nurtured was born. Those first few months were full of planning, research, ordering, building and learning a whole new world of retail and e-commerce. The original Nurtured Products for Parenting website launched in August 2006 and was supported by friends, family, and a few loyal local customers. In those early months I met many women with whom I instantly shared a connection and who have become life long friends. At this time, I was pregnant with my now four-year-old and looking forward to making Nurtured my new career.

Through “word of mom” and networking opportunities locally, Nurtured hit critical mass in the spring of 2007 with a sudden upsurge in growth, which coincided with the birth of my son. Those early months were challenging, and I burned the midnight oil building a business between feeding an infant for weeks and months on end. I also participated in the “My Fair Baby” shows hosted by the Midwifery Coalition, gave cloth diaper workshops throughout HRM at yoga studios, stores owned by friends and acquaintances, and in my own home on a weekly basis. Babywearing workshops followed, initially in collaboration with my friend Tory at her (now closed) shop, Next In Line, and then, after an invitation from local doula Robyn Berman, at Uncommon Kids in Halifax and Pillars of Health in Dartmouth.

In 2008 another customer became not only one of my best friends but Nurtured’s first part-time employee when Becky Keen joined the Nurtured team one or two days a week. This was following a significant home renovation to move Nurtured from my dining room table to the basement. By the end of 2008, Nurtured had won the SavvyMom Mom Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Atlantic Canada, was still growing very quickly, and it was evident that Nurtured had outgrown its home-based location. That Fall, a lease was signed for our Halifax location.

With many late nights renovating, tag-teaming with my husband while we set up shelving and juggled child care, the Nurtured store opened on April 1, 2009 with a staff of four: Gillian (now Manager), Karen, Annie, and myself. This was incredibly rewarding but also took its toll as I was working 6 days (and sometimes nights) to get the business up and running. I can never thank Gillian, Karen, and Annie enough for their help in those early days.

2009 truly left its mark on me as a business person with the media attention we gained for opening a boutique store in the middle of a global financial recession, and for the legitimization moving to a retail store provided for the Nurtured brand. I also acquired Anointment Natural Skin Care from Anastasia Manolakos, a favourite of mine and MANY others from the Halifax Farmer’s Market, and began working on improvements and marketing strategies Anointment products, which stood out to me for their natural ingredients, lack of unnecessary “stuff” and high quality.

In 2010 Nurtured won the Small Business of the Year Award (Silver) presented by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, was nominated in the Better Business Bureau Ethics Awards, Was 2nd Best Eco-Conscious Business in Halifax as voted by the readers of The Coast magazine, grew from a staff of four to a staff of eight, and essentially outgrew our retail store. I am very proud of all these accomplishments.

Also in 2010, I learned we were expecting our third child and both my father and my husband’s mother suffered significant health issues. With reality setting in of having a child in school, one in pre-school and an infant, we were faced with some difficult decisions. Having worked so hard while my son was a baby to build this business and the resulting burn out it caused, I had to consider carefully if this was the path my family wanted to continue to follow. My husband was also provided with the opportunity to transfer his job to another office, which would allow us to move closer to both of our extended families. With a deep breath and a lot of discussion, we decided it was time to let someone with fresh eyes build Nurtured while we cheer and watch from the sidelines.

The search for a buyer began and concluded with a lovely husband-and-wife team, Eric and Jolyn Swain along with their five-year-old son. Eric is a Nova Scotian who was longing to come home, and Jolyn, with a business background and a birth and post-partum story not unlike my own, was very excited to be part of a business with such a strong sense of environmental ethics and community. I have been working with Jolyn for some time now and I am very impressed with her knowledge, kindness, and desire to continue the community that Nurtured has become.

Over the next few weeks you will see Jolyn and I together frequently as she learns the fine details of what makes Nurtured tick. Of utmost importance to me was that the staff also be retained, and I’m happy to say that Gillian, Karen, Simone, Sarah, Jessica and Melissa will remain at the store, so you can be sure that the customer service you have been accustomed to will continue.

Jolyn has many fantastic ideas for making the great things about Nurtured even greater, and the team will remain strong and focused on the natural parenting ideals that makes Nurtured special.

I have experienced a lot of emotions over this huge change in my life, but I can say with confidence that you are all in very good hands. I will still be a regular at the store as I deliver my third baby sometime in the next three or so weeks, and I will be working away on Anointment over the years to come.

I want to thank each and every single person who has shopped in the store, come to a workshop, attended a breastfeeding support group, picked up a card for a local doula, asked for help, advice or just wanting to hear a “I’ve been there, this too shall pass”, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Nurtured is very special to me: like one of my own children, and it is my sincere wish that the Nurtured community will welcome Jolyn to the Nurtured family with open arms.

Cheers to the great circle of natural parenting enthusiasm we have all built together, thank you for allowing me to be part of it, as I will continue to be from the sidelines of my Anointment workshop, the soccer field, or wherever life takes me as I take some time to focus on my children and my family.

With love and gratitude,
April

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32 Weeks

Posted by on January 20th, 2011 | 3 comments »

32 week belly

Probably as many have seen me around the store as have not, but in case you haven’t, here is what I’m looking like these days – in the last weeks of my third pregnancy.

I had planned to chronicle this, my last pregnancy, week by week, detail by detail, but life has literally passed before me with a lot of decisions to be made and a lot of preparations to make in order to accommodate a new baby into our lives.

The first trimester was the longest, with persistent nausea, fatigue and hunger. I can’t really complain, Smith’s Bakery and Fred’s Whet Cafe probably experienced higher than average sales as a result of my hunger. Have you ever eaten a slice of Smith’s Bakery Pizza? Do you realize how large they are? Now, I was eating two of these per day. HUNGRY. Nausea for me is never that bad, and in fact has lessened with each pregnancy, but there were days that it just wouldn’t leave me, which made those particular days long, especially with two other children to care for.

With the thirteenth week came energy – I was super woman, able to take on just about anything, and made good use of the time and energy I had. And just like that, the twenty-eighth week rolled around, and Scotian shook his head, lamenting I needed to ‘hang up my cape and crown’. I’m slowing down appreciably, wanting to be asleep by 7:30 pm. All in all, I feel good, this pregnancy has been easy…and when it’s easy, it is also easy to focus on other things, which is why I haven’t documented this pregnancy at all.

As per usual I’ve gained a significant amount of weight – 40 pounds and counting – everywhere. I’m not too concerned, but just before I found out I was pregnant I had began running, lost ten pounds and really enjoying it. In fact, I ran right up until about the third month, when it just got the better of me.

I’ve been taking better care of myself – just look at this team of professionals:

Which also perhaps helps to explain my lack of pregnancy-related complaints, of which I had FAR more last time(s). I also discovered the Tres Tria co-sleeping pillow, which has worked wonders to relieve the aching pain in my hips at night. This pillow is so comfortable and will come in very handy when the baby comes – we will be co-sleeping if for no other reason that there is no space left in our current home for a crib, and we’re not ready to move just yet! Good to have a barrier so the baby doesn’t roll out of bed, and our son likes to crawl in with us in the middle of the night, so it will help create a barrier between siblings.

I have been on the search for a good nursing bra for the store, and on Melissa’s recommendation I’m trying out some bras that have enough support for pregnancy and room to grow for breastfeeding. So far, I’m very impressed and hope to have them in the store very soon!

I’ve also been devouring books at an alarming rate. I have read lots of pregnancy books, so this time I am moving on to parenting books. I just re-read You Are Your Child’s First Teacher, which has reminded me of the calm, Waldorf approach to parenting that I try to incorporate into our daily lives. It’s a fantastic book that begins at conception and birth to age 6, perfect for the spread of my children!

I’ve been working on Christiane Northrup’s Mother Daughter Wisdom since the store opened in 2009. It’s a long one, and I’m still not finished, but it is truly fascinating and has helped me understand my own mother, our relationship, and my daughter. It’s a great read!

There are several more books still to come, though my time is starting to run out.

I also feel a burst of creative energy while I’m pregnant – part of me knows it will be a while before I get back to my own creative pursuits and part of me feels propelled by the energy of creating a new person. It’s a fantastic time.

You’re probably wondering about diapers? This baby will be cloth diapered from birth, I have a bag of newborn diapers packed for the hospital. After three children my stash varies considerably, but I’ve got:

All in all I’ve probably got about 36-40 diapers. While I normally recommend a minimum of 24 for a newborn, given that I have two other children and have collected a lot of these over the years (I have bought a lot of new though, who can resist?), I’m happy to be able to stretch my diaper laundry a little further!

Don’t even get me started on baby carriers, that’s another post for another day, but I am really, really looking forward to a new ring sling, which is my personal favourite newborn carrier!

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