The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding Quotes

“Accomplish one small thing a day. Maybe it’s cleaning that counter, maybe it’s writing one thank-you note. Don’t make the task too difficult. For the rest, you’re healing a uterus; adding millions of cells to your baby’s brain (though it might sometimes feel as if they are being siphoned off from your own); developing his liver, heart, and lungs; boosting his immune system; and maintaining the integrity of his intestines … you’re a busy lady! All while sprawled comfortably on the couch. Multi-tasking raised to an art form!”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“Breastfeeding doesn’t give you brownie points. It’s simply the normal way to raise a baby.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“A father from New Zealand, Harry Parke of Cambridge, told a group of fathers, "My wife and I figured that by nursing our first son, Christopher, we saved considerably in the first year by not using formula, sterilizers, early solids, electricity, birth control means, etc. Raewyn immediately decided that the money saved was to be a deposit on a freezer, and now it stands in the hall.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“We ought to add one more Keep: Keep in touch with someone who really understands breastfeeding, someone whose approach you respect”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“You can hand-express into a plastic spoon and tip the drop(s) into your baby’s mouth.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“have good help. Your baby WILL get it, but it might take some time. A full-term, healthy baby does not need any food or liquids for at least twenty-four to thirty-six hours.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“Researchers tickled both breastfed and formula-fed babies with feathers under their noses while they slept (very low-tech). The formula-fed babies were much less likely to wake up in response to this gentle stimulation, and the researchers speculate that this might be one reason that formula-fed babies are at a higher risk of dying of SIDS: they just don’t wake up as easily when something goes wrong.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“Only the World Health Organization (WHO) weight gain charts reflect these normal changes1 in the weight gain rate of breastfed babies, so if your doctor raises a red flag about weight gain, check to make sure she’s using the right chart for your breastfed baby.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“One of the most helpful things a partner can do is to be a buffer between you and other relatives and friends who may be uninformed or even opposed to breastfeeding. If your mother or mother-in-law didn’t breastfeed, or tried to breastfeed for a short time but ended up weaning early, she might feel that your decision to nurse your baby is a subtle way of criticizing her choices and decisions. If breastfeeding was difficult for her, she may want to protect you from the pain and struggles she went through. Or she may feel that a longer breastfeeding relationship than hers is not only long but wrong.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“3. Keep Your Baby Close Your baby’s bare skin against your own bare skin really helps encourage breastfeeding in a baby who’s still getting himself organized. With a covering over the two of you that keeps you warm, your baby will be just as warm. He won’t burn valuable calories trying to stay warm on his own (research shows the most expensive high-tech warmer or incubator in the world”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“TEN WAYS A PARTNER CAN HELP Before the baby’s born, help stock the freezer with meals that can be eaten with one hand. Find a good phone number for help and call it as needed. (La Leche League’s website, llli.org, and U.S.-based phone line, 877-4-LA LECHE (877-452-5324), can both lead you to your closest local group, and that’s a fast route to anything else you might need.) Buy the grocery basics, and keep easy, healthy snacks on hand. Get dinner—any dinner! Nights can be tough at first. Be flexible about where and when everyone sleeps. Going to bed early helps! Do more than your share. You may be what keeps the household running for a while. Everything won’t get done. Talk about what’s most important to her—a clean kitchen? a cleared desk?—and do that first. Get home on time. You’re like a breath of fresh air for mother and baby both. Helping out means helping emotionally, too. Remind her how much you love her, how wonderful she looks, and what a great job she’s doing. There she is, holding your child. She really is beautiful, isn’t she? Remind her that this part is temporary. Most women feel it takes at least six weeks to start to have a handle on this motherhood thing. Life will settle down. But it takes a while.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“Breastfeeding is a connection as well as a food source, a baby’s first human relationship, designed to gentle him into the world with far more than just immune factors and good nutrition.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“The newborn baby has only three demands. They are warmth in the arms of [his] mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breastfeeding satisfies all three.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“LONG AGO, BEFORE there were baby food manufacturers or even spoons, babies ate what their parents ate. Not the nuts and tough meats, of course, but whatever family foods they could handle. Most likely no one had the time or interest to feed a baby who wasn’t already reaching for someone else’s food. Long ago, of course, all babies were breastfed. During the first half of the twentieth century, there was a dramatic shift away from breastfeeding. Mothers were given a recipe for making “formula” for their babies, but let’s face it, those formulas were pretty crude. Babies sometimes showed signs of malnutrition after just a few weeks, and doctors realized they needed to provide some supplements.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“When I was in transition with my second, third, and fourth babies, and coping with really intense contractions, I’d tell myself, “It won’t be long until you have that feeling again.” I was thinking about the overwhelming feeling of love and joy that came from looking into my newborn baby’s eyes. It was all worth it, just to experience that. —Jade”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“Babies squeeze through the birth canal with only about two-thirds of their blood, which makes them a smaller package. The rest comes “on board” afterward through the cord. By waiting until the cord stops pulsing,13 the baby gets his full supply of blood.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“All medications, including those in epidurals, reach your baby through the placenta, affecting his ability to find the breast, latch, and suck effectively after he’s born. Depending on how long the epidural was in place and the drugs used in it, these effects can last from a few days to a few weeks. Pain-relieving drugs reduce your own endorphins, which may increase your baby’s discomfort, both before the birth and after the birth, when more endorphins are passed on through your milk. Your baby may cry more. Or, without your natural endorphins, you and baby may feel “flatter” emotionally, making it harder for you to respond to each other. Epidurals can cause your temperature to rise, which raises your baby’s temperature. He may be sent to the nursery for observation and antibiotics in case he has an infection. And if an epidural or induction included hours of IV fluids, your normal breast and nipple shape may be distorted, making latching difficult even with skilled help. This can be hard information to read, but it’s what the research very clearly shows. As childbirth educator Linda Smith, IBCLC, comments, “If your friend tells you how she ‘loved her epidural,’ ask her how her first month of motherhood went.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“But there are a gazillion ways to bond with a baby without bottle-feeding—in fact, partners have the key role of teaching the baby that love sometimes comes without food. Some partners take over bath time. Your partner might like to let the baby have daily “tummy time” by leaning back on the couch, baby on chest, or by wearing the baby in a wrap or sling (tummy time doesn’t have to be horizontal!).”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“TEN WAYS A PARTNER CAN HELP Before the baby’s born, help stock the freezer with meals that can be eaten with one hand. Find a good phone number for help and call it as needed. (La Leche League’s website, llli.org, and U.S.-based phone line, 877–4-LA LECHE (877–452–5324), can both lead you to your closest local group, and that’s a fast route to anything else you might need.) Buy the grocery basics, and keep easy, healthy snacks on hand. Get dinner—any dinner! Nights can be tough at first. Be flexible about where and when everyone sleeps. Going to bed early helps! Do more than your share. You may be what keeps the household running for a while. Everything won’t get done. Talk about what’s most important to her—a clean kitchen? a cleared desk?—and do that first. Get home on time. You’re like a breath of fresh air for mother and baby both. Helping out means helping emotionally, too. Remind her how much you love her, how wonderful she looks, and what a great job she’s doing. There she is, holding your child. She really is beautiful, isn’t she? Remind her that this part is temporary. Most women feel it takes at least six weeks to start to have a handle on this motherhood thing. Life will settle down. But it takes a while.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“The newborn baby has only three demands. They are warmth in the arms of [his] mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breastfeeding satisfies all three.” —Grantly Dick-Read, MD, from Childbirth Without Fear, 1955”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“The Four-Month Fussies Your baby’s growing awareness has its temporary downside. At an LLL meeting a while back, a mother arrived with a four-month-old, saying he had begun “nursing funny.” Another mother in the room said, “My baby’s four months old, too, and she’s started nursing funny.” And another mother spoke up with the same age baby and same concern. We dubbed it the “Four-Month Fussies” but didn’t have a perfect solution for them beyond nursing in a quiet room, minimizing distractions, time, and nursing in whatever position the baby seemed to need. The group concluded that by around four months, babies had gained enough intellectual ability to tune in to the room around them but didn’t yet have enough gray matter to tune in and nurse well.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“As childbirth educator Linda Smith, IBCLC, comments, “If your friend tells you how she ‘loved her epidural,’ ask her how her first month of motherhood went.”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“Tilting Your Nipple”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“unless you’re very long-breasted or wide-breasted,”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

“TEN WAYS A PARTNER CAN HELP Before the baby’s born, help stock the freezer with meals that can be eaten with one hand. Find a good phone number for help and call it”
― La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding