I recently had the opportunity to do an interview with Sara Chana, IBCLC. She is a a New York based, international board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC), classical homeopath, herbalist, lecturer, author, wife and mother of seven children. She is a wealth of helpful information and advice. Enjoy!

1. What are some of the most prominent breastfeeding myths that you encounter?

It is amazing how many myths seem to circulate among new moms. One of the most common is that moms need to “drain” their breasts. It is true that some women will feel very full, nurse their babies, and then feel “empty” afterwards, but that is not necessarily true for most women. Some women never feel full, and never feel “drained”, yet their babies are satisfied after they have been fed. The truth is that a breast is never really “drained” because when milk is drawn out of a breast the brain receives the message to refill the breast again with milk. Therefore, rather than worrying about feeling empty or drained, a woman should give her baby the amount of milk the baby needs to feel satisfied and to produce six to eight wet diapers within a twenty-four hour period. If this basic guideline is followed, then the healthy mother’s breast and brain will learn how to adjust to the baby’s needs, regardless of the mother’s own sensations.

2. What tips do you think will help women overcome most breastfeeding obstacles they come across?

Some women give birth, plop their baby on the breast, and the mom and baby breastfeed happily for years without any problems. Unfortunately, that is not the typical scenario and most women and babies take a while to learn the art of breastfeeding. There are women who get sore nipples, while others have babies who do not seem satisfied, and some moms get engorged breasts. In general, the remedy to most of these problems is twofold. First, make sure that the baby has a good deep latch onto the breast, and then see to it that the baby is swallowing milk and not just hanging out. If this simple but essential advice does not produce the desired results, the good news is that most breastfeeding problems can be overcome with a competent lactation consultant, patience, and a good sense of humor.

3. Can childbirth affect the breastfeeding experience?

After twenty years of working with mothers and babies I can safely say that the birth experience does have an impact on the breastfeeding experience. Medication used during labor does seem to affect most babies, often making it more difficult for them to coordinate the suck-swallow-breath pattern that is necessary for a baby to master breastfeeding. This is not to say that some women who have fabulous labors and deliveries won’t have babies that don’t nurse well, or in the reverse, that women who have horrible labors and deliveries can have the best nursing babies. However, a woman should know that a baby usually needs to be very alert in order to learn how the breast works, and that both the medications given during labor, as well as the position of the woman during childbirth can impact upon that learning process, making it easier or more difficult for the newborn to breastfeed.

4. Does diet have an effect on breastfeeding?

It is fascinating to know that breast milk stays consistent in its vitamin and mineral content across the world, no matter what a woman eats. This means that if you were to test the breast milk of two moms whose babies are the same age, the vitamin and mineral content of their breast milk will be practically the same, even when the mothers’ diets are completely different. This is true because the body produces breast milk to match the needs of the growing child. Therefore, it is safe to say that it doesn’t really matter what the mother eats because the breast milk will be consistent and healthy according to the developmental needs of the infant. That said, many babies are, nevertheless, affected by what their mothers eat due to individual health issues. Some babies will get blood in their stools if the mother consumes dairy, while others will cry horribly if their mother drinks orange juice. Although each mother-baby dyad is different, as a general rule-of-thumb, it is best for moms to stick to a high protein and vegetable diet, with fruits and whole grains mixed in. (And please try to limit the dairy products. You don’t need to consume milk in order to produce milk.)

5. What advice would you offer to busy moms you have to juggle breastfeeding and an outside job?

Juggling breastfeeding and an outside job is definitely challenging. Some women are advised to rent a hospital-grade pump to leave at their work place, in order to pump while being away from the baby. This may work for some women, but not for most. Although there are women who are fabulous pumpers and can mechanically express ounces of milk while at work, there are others who cannot manage to pump at all, which leaves them majorly depressed. However, it should be known that the success of pumping depends on several factors. One of the factors has to do with the location of the milk producing ducts which are within the breast. Some women’s ducts are so far back into the breast that they are never properly compressed while pumping. Another factor to consider is how well the flange of the pump part fits the particular woman. The majority of flanges available fit only a very small percentage of the population, resulting in only a small number of woman who can properly pump. Finally, one must take into consideration the power of the pump itself. And there’s no way around this one, it’s just that same old story, the more expensive pumps do work better. So, my general advice to women is this: if you pump well, then pump when you are at work, but if you do not pump well, then just give your baby formula while you are at work and don’t stress yourself over it. But, still the most important advice is breastfeed and talk with your precious baby as much as you can when you are not working.

Many thanks to Sara Chana for taking the time to answer some questions!

October is attachment parenting (AP) month. You may or may not be familiar with this style of parenting but many green, natural, crunchy, granola parenting types are. It seems to mesh really well with lots of the other things we hold dear. A group of green/natural mom bloggers have recently gotten together to form a weekly column called Green Moms Weekly and the first question that was posed to the group honors attachment parenting month. The question is “How do you balance your busy lifestyle and manage to keep a focus on attachment parenting?”

For me, AP it is about letting my mommy instincts direct my actions. As a younger mom I loved to hold my babes close to me and breastfeed. I let them do this until they were ready to stop, to honor their need for this closeness and because I knew that breastmilk was the best nourishment for them. My mommy instincts also told me to go to my babies when they cried and that is what I did, ALWAYS. I never listened to mainstream advice that babies need to be on schedules and that letting them cry alone will teach them independence. I let them sleep with me as long as they wanted because it was easier on both of us. Mainstream advice that declares you will never get kids out of your bed once you let them in is just a bunch of hogwash.  When my kidlets cried and wanted to be held when I needed to make dinner of do some other chore, wearing them on my back allowed me to meet their need for attention AND get my work done. When they misbehaved I knew that deciding I didn’t want to strike them wasn’t going to result in a brat… despite what all the “spare the rod, spoil the child” folks had to say. For me AP is all about listening to my instincts and my heart.

So why the question about how to balance a busy lifestyle and still be an attachment parent? Well, AP is “get off your butt parenting” in my mind. The contrary advice to let kids cry it out, stick them in bouncing seat when you need to do dishes, spank them when they run into the street, and give them a more convenient bottle is all a way to make parenting easier for us, but not necessarily better or easier for the child. An attached parent will likely create a family bed so that everyone can sleep together. They will wear their babies in a wrap or hold them instead of delegating that duty to a swing or bouncy seat. They breastfeed and/or pump well into the toddler years because it is important to their child and it is the best source of nutrition. They will be supervising their child closely so that the running into the street moment can be used to gently teach and coach. In fact they anticipated that moment because they have gotten good at reading their child. Because they always use their words instead of their hands… their kids respond well to reasoning. Hitting becomes a senseless and irrational choice.

Attachment parenting is very involved parenting, and for that reason it can sometimes conflict with the more hurried pace of lives today. I don’t know that what works for us will work or other attached parents but I know we have made many very conscious decisions to slow our pace of life and give our kids the attention they need and desire. Being too busy for attachment parenting isn’t an issue when you simply make sure you are never too busy. We wanted to stay attached at the heart AND live our best lives. I became a stay at home mom so that I could be the primiary caregiver for our kids. This allowed me to breastfeed exclusively and for extended periods of time. I chose natural childbirth for my last two births and we kept interventions to a minimum so that bonding and breastfeeding could happen immediately after birth. I wore two of my babies in slings and wraps and all of them slept in bed with me. My 5 year still does quite often. We decided early on to always try and use positive discipline methods and to respect our kids. We tried to find ways to meet everyone’s needs simultaneously and sometimes that was a lot of work.

Balance was much harder when our kids were young because very often we had to compromise and make sure their needs were met first and foremost. Their need to co-sleep trumped my need for not getting kicked in the stomach at night. Their inability to handle the excitement of traveling meant we had a staycation instead of a vacation. My husband’s need for a sane, well rested wife was trumped by the needs of a small infant who who used me as an all day milk buffet, which meant I was often hormonal and tired. I guess I feel that when our children are young they should be the priority. Aka breast feeding even if your dog tired or co-sleeping even when you’d rather have your husband all to yourself. As my kids get older I think they benefit more from seeing parents who love themselves, take care of themselves, and have varied interests that they actively pursue. I also think it is important for them to see that their parents prioritize each other too. As they get older they benefit less from having a shadow to meet their every need and more from seeing good examples of others doing and living for themselves. We don’t tell them how to live, we just live, and we let them watch. So in terms of priority for the first five or so years of their lives it was all about them. Now the priority list looks somewhat different but it works well because the foundation was so well laid, they are happy independent kids that are accepting of that much needed shift.

To keep things balanced and attached now, we mostly just have to listen. We listen to them daily, carving out certain times that are distraction free, and we stay attached by staying in the loop. We help with homework and we stay connected to teachers. We homeschool when or if we need to. We put our family before “things” and “stuff” so this means we work as little as we can and make do with less. Our kids may have fewer toys and electronic gadgets than the kids next door but we have more time to spend with them. We have a neighbor child who is always bragging about her toys and video games, trying to goad my children but then every weekend this same child looks at us longingly as we pull out of the drive to go apple picking, to a Pumpkin Festival, to a movie, or to some other local event that her own parents don’t have time for. I know how lucky we are and I think our kids do to. Balance is about spending time doing activities with them and yet allowing them to pursue their own independent activities when they need and want to. For us it is also about knowing which child needs a bit more attention and giving it to them. Since we have two a-typical kids… one with some severe developmental and speech delays and one with high functioning autism, it is helps greatly to be flexible and unhurried in our daily lives.

For us, life during these years of their development is less about balance and more about figuring out how to stay tuned in to them as we ALL become more independent and find new priorities and interests. I am sure it will be no less exciting than the baby and toddler years. In fact I am sure it will be even more so because with older kids it really does feel like we are all in this together… this wild and crazy journey called life.

Leave a comment to tell me how you stay connected to your kids in this fast paced life and be sure to visit the other Green Moms Weekly to read about how they answered this question. Enjoy!

“Today most OB’s are very responsive to the mother’s plan for delivery,” MYTH

“Women should be permitted to make decisions regarding their care, but should also be informed of all risks, benefits, and alternatives to their selected treatment.” TRUTH

These are a set of quotes from an e-mail I received from a doctor-friend of mine concerned about my choices for childbirth. I had chosen, for my second childbirth, the same as my first, to have a water birth at a local birthing center in the care of a group of midwives.

This friend of mine was concerned for me, as his wife was due on the same day and she had previously had a cesarean section. His concerns were of potential life-threatening situations that may arise and having no “medical” staff nearby.

While his concerns may be valid, as birth is inherently risky, he has been mis-informed about the culture of birth in hospital settings. Hospitals are in place for a good reason and they can respond to serious situations quickly, but what is not a serious situation is often being treated as one. In my case, I had two very low-risk pregnancies (a requirement to be a patient at the birthing center) and felt that the birth center would be the least risky place to deliver my baby. In fact, with my first pregnancy, I did what most newly pregnant moms do and found a local respected OB to see for my routine visits. Once I began learning about the birthing process through my Bradley Method Childbirth classes and speaking to the OB about my wishes, she was not respectful AT ALL of my concerns. I was told in a matter of words that if I wanted a natural childbirth I should seek other care.

Does this sound like someone who is responsive to a mother’s plan? That’s just it though, most mother’s don’t have a plan and trust their doctor to do what’s best for her. I came in with a plan and the doctor did not like what I had to say, so I left and found a caring, loving, embracing birthing center to deliver my babies. I have had many friends and family who have had experiences in a hospital that have led them to look back and try to make a choice that more suited their situation for subsequent births. These mothers, although planning to deliver naturally in a hospital setting were confined to their beds without being allowed to move around to deal with their pain. Who wouldn’t want some medicinal relief if this were the case? Birthing in hospitals has become medicalized and what applies to one woman applies to all. All women will be confined to their beds, all women will receive pitocin at the same time, all women will get an epidural when ready. Frankly, this is sad and women should be appalled.

The good news is we DO have a choice, and we can choose better options for our births. A hospital option may be okay if your provider is understanding and willing to stick to your birthing plan. A birth center is a wonderful middle ground for those concerned with choosing a homebirth. I feel that the birthing center was as close to a homebirth as I could have ever asked for.

I felt that the midwives at the birthing center gave me the best care I could have ever asked to receive. The midwife, nurse and my husband were by my side throughout my entire labor and birth. It was quiet, dimly lit and peaceful for me and ultimately my baby. I was trusting that since the midwife was constantly by my side, she would have a better understanding of what was going on with my body and my baby than any hospital OB would, who rushes in just for the delivery. If something were to have gone wrong in my birth the midwife would recognize it immediately and we would head to the hospital.

Once I collected my thoughts and responded to my doctor-friend with why I made the decision that I did, he was still unwilling to accept the fact that hospitals may not always be the best place to give birth. I told him that my local hospital has a c-section rate of 45% and he suggested that it might be due to advanced maternal age, expectations for pain relief and obesity/diabetes. He never gave in to the fact that many hospitals just aren’t respecting women’s wishes and the time it takes to generally labor and have a baby naturally.

In the end, it makes me realize that we have a long way to go to change the minds of the general public about the birthing options out there and that women’s safety in childbirth isn’t generally better in hospitals. Women do have a choice and a hospital is just one of them.

Rachel McFadden, the Author of Happy Green Babies shares her experience with natural childbirth and the obstacles one can encounter from those who are unfamiliar with the safety of various birthing options.

House Cleaning has got to be one of the most repetitive and thankless jobs on the planet; it has to be done, but who wants to do it? What’s more, who has the time?

Our schedules are so hectic these days that it seems we hardly have time for the important stuff; let alone daily housecleaning chores. So is there a solution? A few months back I heard someone taking about once a month cleaning and it was a light bulb moment. We HAD to try and see if this helped us in our home. I actually don’t dislike cleaning but with 3 messy kidlets and a husband who works long hours outside the home I was getting burnt out. Plus I work to, I just do it at home. That cutesy saying about rocking your babies instead of sweeping your floors isn’t so cute when your kids are getting older. Also my aversion to having company when the house is untidy was being challenged with the arrival of new neighbors who are always over at our place it seems. Thankfully there is a way that you can reduce your housecleaning to just once a month; mind you it is going to take a little advance planning, but it can be done.

Steps to Once-a-Month House Cleaning

Reducing your housecleaning to just once a month entails a good deal of organization and advance preparation, you are also going to have to enlist the cooperation of the rest of the people in your house, because it really will take everyone working together to make it work. It goes much easier if you come prepared to make it worth their while in the allowance department. I know some don’t like the idea of allowance but we use it primarily to teach money management and they know that helping out is required whether there is payment or not. Everyone who lives in our house has to contribute to its management.

Before you start your once-a-month housecleaning there are a few preparations that you are going to need to make. The first is making a list of the housecleaning chores that you normally do on a daily or weekly basis. Once you have made this list, split it up into chores that HAVE to be done on a daily basis (such as washing dishes, picking up toys, feeding the pets, etc. ) and chores that do not have to be done on a daily basis.

If you look at the list, chances are that you are going to find things like “cleaning the bathroom” and “mopping the kitchen floor” and things of that type. Let’s use cleaning the bathroom as an example: it is quite feasible to clean the bathrooms just once per month PROVIDED that the rest of the individuals in the house are willing to take steps to keep the bathroom from getting messed up before the month is up.

This means that towels will need to be hung up; that everyone who uses the sink will need to wipe it out with a sponge when they are finished (which will be under the sink) and that the last person to use the shower in the mornings needs to wipe it down. Clothing removed before showering needs to be tossed in the hamper (which is in the corner) and anyone who accidentally sprays the mirror needs to clean up their mess (rags are under the sink too).

As you can see, while it will take cooperation, there are also some things (such as having the right equipment in the right places) that will make the job much easier. Go through each of the housecleaning chores on your list like this and find ways that you can keep the chore from NEEDING to be done more than once a month. For things that need to be done daily or weekly we have the back bone of our cleaning system which is our 15 clean-up that every member in the house does daily. We do it together, turning on some music, and then assigning sections of the house. This means that main rooms are picked up and swept daily, dishes are done, plants and garden are watered, laundry is brought down to the basement, etc. Due to the once a month cleaning schedule we don’t assign bathrooms anymore with the exception of once weekly when the trash is collected and the toilet is cleaned in both bathrooms. We also don’t require any mopping unless the floors are really dirty. We actually have gotten lax on these cleanups since we moved into this house last September but part of our once a month cleaning plan was reinstating those sessions and making a chart to keep track of jobs more specifically.

Once you have made the necessary preparations to prevent the need of the chore being required more than once a month (and made sure that everyone is aware of what they need to do) you then need to make a housecleaning list of the chores that you can do once a month and estimate how much time will be required to do each one. Chances are that if you can complete all of your household chores in 1-2 days depending on the size of your house and the number of people in your household. Our once monthly jobs are mopping all hard floors, shampooing our carpeted areas with Dr. Bronner’s soap, cleaning and organizing closets and dressers, cleaning garage and basement, finishing laundry, washing windows, sweeping the porch and deck, cleaning walls and baseboards, scrubbing the kitchen and bathrooms, and all the bigger jobs that you don’t need to do weekly or that are much more manageable due to everyone being required to keep things cleaner on a daily basis.

Now, choose one weekend a month that you can devote to cleaning. Start early on Saturday morning and simply clean your way down the list, top to bottom. Now you have three weekends at your disposal – not to mention all your free evenings (minus 15 minutes for us); time you can use for the important things in life!

Now your turn. What cleaning method works best for your family?

This is not a book I would typically review here but It has been so helpful to me I thought I would. A couple months ago I started running again.. after over a decade long hiatus. When I did take it up again I was wearing Skechers Shape-Ups and at first I liked the extra work that the shoes seemed to heap on my calves but then my feet and legs started to hurt badly after each run. After I was forced to take several days off due to this I decided to go to the library and see if they had any running books and low and behold this baby jumped off the shelves at me. If there is a way to make running even more natural, then this is the way… Barefoot Running.

It first goes into how the author was badly injured while roller blading and how he could not run anymore without great pain. Not being able to run, when you are a runner is hard to explain but it is kind of like a druggie not be able to get his drugs. Bad analogy I know but running gives you an all natural high that has no equal. Run in the morning and you can be riding a natural high all day long. Its an amazing mood booster.

Anyway the author found that he was able to run again by running barefoot. The book contains all the research he has done on this subject since and he makes quite a compelling case. Right from the beginning many natural parents opt to buy their babies soft sole shoes because so many pediatricians tell us that it is better for foot health if their feet can feel and grip the surfaces they are walking on. We see first hand how they walk like Frankenstein when we put heavy, clunky shoes on them. Yes, they eventually learn. We all do. But there is certainly some compelling evidence for why barefoot is better.

Now that said I am not running barefoot now. I still prefer some sort of shoes so I jumped on the minimal shoes bandwagon and got some shoes that are as close to barefoot as you can get while still having the outer protection of a shoe. It hadn’t escaped my notice how popular these types of shoes are getting either. The primal/paleo diet crowd have been fans for awhile and their idea is that barefoot shoes bring us closer to the caveman days. One of the primal blogs I read has a header photo of the blogger wearing the shoes I opted to get… Vibram Five Fingers sprint shoes, in bright blue.

Yes, they look a little strange but they are VERY comfortable. You can hike in them, run in them, swim in them… just about anything. You feel close to being barefoot and yet they are sturdy and offer a lot of protection. Many other runner’s have stopped me to ask me if I am having knee pain wearing shoes with no support but I just explain that my feet are meant to be natural shock absorbers. Our feet have lots nerve endings, fewer only then our hands and genitals, and the reason for that is because they sense our environment and automatically make needed adjustments so that we step with care. Shoes can mess that all up and even weaken our feet because we aren’t using them the way we should be.

My husband laughed when I bought these shoes and then purchased a second pair of Shape-ups for himself. He laughed even harder when he saw me wearing them to the gym (yeah they look kind of silly, I admit that) but now he has been dropping hints that the Shape-Ups aren’t so great for his own workouts. If only I were a “told you so” kinda gal. And they do get a lot of attention at the gym and from other runner’s but its good attention.

This book has a lot of good info in it and it supports the general idea that we really do have a super computer (our body) at our disposal that can help us take each step in a healthy and safe way. But we are putting padded shoes on our super computer consoles kind of like putting boxing gloves on before we type. It makes a good case for barefoot running and just going barefoot more often in general… adults, kids, even the elderly who seem to have balance issues as they get older. Also has information on the spiritual and sensual aspects of going barefoot as well as exercises to get you ready and advice on cold weather running (think snow on the ground). There is something for everyone. I highly recommend it.