Breastfeeding Mums Blog

Antibiotics and Breastfeeding

SHE magazine is currently working on a feature aimed at women in their 30s-40s who have had a negative experience following a course of antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection. The article focuses on the fact that as more and more of the same antibiotics are prescribed by GPs, the more ineffective they are becoming and subsequently they do not work after someone has had one or more courses of them.

Doctors have been told to stop prescribing antibiotics for colds, coughs and many chest and throat infections as their overuse is ineffective and is fuelling the spread of fatal super bugs. 

Since antibiotics are commonly prescribed to treat mastitis their researcher, Sarah, is interested in speaking to any breastfeeding mothers who have had a negative experience with antibiotics whilst breastfeeding.

If you would like to share your story, please email sarah.barnard[at]natmags.co.uk

Breastfeeding Mums in the News!

How cool is this! I made today's copy of The Newry Democrat, one of our very popular local newspapers. What more need I say... except Thursday's Newry Reporter is also covering the story :-) Read the article below to find out all about my smash hit and don't forget to visit www.BreastfeedingMums.com! (By the way, the surname should read Hoben, not Holden!)

I'm a Google Page 1 Breastfeeding Mum!

Look at this!!!! Quickly, look at this:

Tax Refunds for Parents

I've just received this interesting news from Hannah of TaxRebateNow.co.uk and thought it may be of interest to many of my UK visitors with children between the ages of 3 & 21.

Designer Breastfeeding!

Those clever researchers at my old University have been busy helping new mothers in Northern Ireland to breastfeed for longer! What it basically boils down to is giving couples much more breastfeeding support before, during and after birth and additional training for hospital and community midwives.

I'm so excited by this project and hope it becomes widely integrated...

Here's the Press Release they published:

Ulster Researchers Develop Designer Breastfeeding Programme

A programme devised by researchers at the University of Ulster has been shown to significantly increase the length of time new mothers breastfeed their infants.

Ideally mothers should breastfeed their children for the first six months of life, but only a negligible percentage of mothers persist for that duration.

Northern Ireland has both the lowest initial take up of breastfeeding and the poorest duration. According to the Infant Breastfeeding Survey 2005 63% of Northern Ireland mothers began breastfeeding in hospital, compared to 78% in England, 70% in Scotland and 67% in Wales.

At six weeks the rate of exclusive breastfeeding was 22% in England compared to 13% in Northern Ireland. At four months the Northern Ireland rate had fallen to 4% compared to 8% in England.

However a clinical trial of the programme devised by Ulster researchers – called Designer Breastfeeding - showed that dramatic improvements are possible.

A total of 144 women who had their first baby took part in the trial at the Ulster Hospital maternity unit. They were split into two groups – one taking part in the Designer Breastfeeding programme and the other using the normal support services of the “Baby-Friendly” maternity unit.

The results showed that 82% of those taking part in the new programme began breastfeeding, compared to 70% in the other group.  On discharge from hospital 64% of those on the programme were still breastfeeding exclusively compared to 44% in the other group and at three weeks the figures were 53% and 20% respectively.

The Designer Breastfeeding programme – which was devised after five years of research funded by the Northern Ireland Research and Development Office – consists of four parts:

• A breastfeeding book covering all aspects of breastfeeding instruction.
• An electronic version on CD-Rom.
• Breastfeeding antenatal workshop for couples
• Breastfeeding postnatal support which involved additional training for hospital and community midwives.

Researcher Professor Marlene Sinclair, Professor of Midwifery Research at Ulster, said: “Designer Breastfeeding is an unique, home-grown breastfeeding programme that closes the gap between what women want to know about breastfeeding and what health professionals think they need to know.

"Using existing NHS structures, Designer Breastfeeding takes a 360 degree approach to increasing women’s commitment to breastfeeding by providing them with what they need to take control over their individual experience”.

She pointed out that while the percentage of mothers who begin breastfeeding in hospital continues to rise, around a fifth will stop breastfeeding before they leave hospital.

Professor Sinclair added: “We know the preventative health benefits of breastfeeding are dose-related and the longer a mother breastfeeds, the better it is for her health and the health of her baby. Therefore, helping women find the motivation to breastfeeding has immense potential for health gains that will directly impact on the mother and baby and, indirectly, on the overall health of the nation”.

“I have no doubt that we will see the further success of Designer Breastfeeding evidenced through visible reductions in the incidence of childhood infections, obesity, diabetes, eczema and asthma. It is a great pleasure to be recommending this home-grown research undertaken by a local midwife, Dr Janine Stockdale for dissemination and implementation.”

Dr Stockdale said: “I would like to thank the NI R&D Office for funding the research and staff at the Ulster Maternity Unit for their support in carrying it out”.

Note to editors:

The other member of the Ulster research team was:

Professor George Kernohan, Professor of Health Research.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office, Department of Communication and Development
Tel: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk

Breastfeeding Mums Forums

I'm thrilled to announce that Breastfeeding Mums has just added forums to the website. I haven't always been a fan of forums as some of you know... but this one will be a different because I'M running it tee hee!

Seriously though, Breastfeeding Mums Forums will be a friendly, helpful and responsible place for mothers to chat about pregnancy, breastfeeding and parenting. And, in due time, there'll be other forum topics added!

Please pop by to check it out and help get things rolling :-) (I'm lonely here all on my own!)

See you there!

PRWeb Outage?

Anyone know what's going on with PRWeb.com?

My latest press release about BMums was scheduled for posting yesterday, but after checking my stats a few times the site went dead around 1.00pm GMT. I've been trying to logon ever since but with no luck whatsoever.

Yesterday evening there was a brief message on their site saying they were working on an unexpected problem but I've heard nothing at all since then and just keep getting a page not found.

I haven't even got an email from them which is very frustrating as the PR cost me almost £200! And there appears to be no way to contact them... I searched online to try to get to the bottom of it but no-one else seems to have noticed. I know it's not my connection as I can access lots of other sites and I've even had my hubby try to access the site from his workplace...

So what happens next? Will I get a new time/ date slot? Will I get a refund? (I know that's probably highly unlikely!)

BUT you'd think a big company like PRWeb could at least let their customers know what's going on...

The Online Visibility Company - maybe they should change it to the Online Invisibility Company!

*** UPDATE***

Following on from my complaint yesterday about PRWeb, I take back all I said. Within an hour of my blog post appearing I was contacted by a very nice representative named Jiyan who fully explained what the problem was, apologised for the problems I'd been having logging on and promised to fully refund my payment... whilst leaving the press release running!

Now that's what I call great customer service.

So thank you Jiyan for restoring my faith in PRWeb... I'll have no hesitation in using PRWeb for my next Press Release nor will I have any hesitation in recommending the service :D

Brain, Child - The Magazine for Thinking Mothers

When I received this message, from Ruth Cleaveland Candler, the Marketing Director of Brain, Child - The Magazine for Thinking Mothers in my inbox I couldn't help but be inquisitive:

"Have you read Brain, Child?  Brain, Child isn’t your typical parenting magazine. We couldn’t cupcake-decorate our way out of a paper bag! 

We leave the tips and professional experts to the traditional publications. What Brain, Child does offer, are words from women in the field:  mothers (who also happen to be great writers) like Barbara Kingsolver, Jane Smiley, Alice Hoffman, and Susan Cheever.  Each issue is full of essays, features, humor, reviews, fiction, art, cartoons, and our readers’ own stories."

Since the distribution of Brain Child is pretty global, I was surprised I hadn't yet come across the magazine and was delighted when Ruth offered to send me a couple of copies.

I must say, I was very impressed. The quality of writing is incredible with some amazing women sharing their real life stories, thoughts and beliefs.

One essay in particular really moved me. Entitled, Private Ceremonies, by Patricia O'Conner, it tells what it's like to work in an abortion clinic. As one who is fervently pro-life, I've often wondered how people who work in such places cope with what they hear and see all day; this story really opened my eyes and left me feeling both shocked and tearful for a number of reasons.

Another section called Motherswit varies with each issue. Made up of short witty stories, one which was entitled A Mother's Prayers by Tracey Mayor suggested humorous prayers for parents - such as asking God to please not let the children disturb mom and dad when they're doing you-know-what and another seeking help to recall what to buy on a weekly shopping trip without a list!

Brain, Child is a great read and is unlike any magazine I've come across before (not half as much advertising for one thing!)

I recommend it highly and it's available on subscription too...

To test Brain, Child out for yourself some of the content can be read online here: http://www.BrainChildMag.com

BMums - Social Networking Exclusively for Mothers

Visit BMums

Meet the very first BMums!

We only went live a few days ago but already 18 mothers have joined up!

Why not join us and help make this one social networking site that mothers will really love?

By the way BMums will never ever ever delete or ban breastfeeding photos... in fact we positively encourage them ;) If that's not reason enough to join up then I don't know what is!

BMums - Social Networking for Mothers

Visit BMums

I've just started a new social network... exclusively for mums!

It's not entirely polished yet; there are lots of special widgets and new features going to be added over the next few weeks and months, but I'd love you to drop by, join up and start meeting other mums.

I've already created a few groups which are just waiting to be populated! And if you want, you can add your own photos, music, videos, widgets and backgrounds to your page.

You can also add some fun gadgets, start your own groups and forums... all the usual stuff you'd expect from a social networking site really.

The difference with BMums is that it's all about being a mum!

So if you're about to become a mum, a pregnant mum, a breastfeeding mum, a SAHM, a WAHM, a blogging mum, a mum with a passion for cooking, shopping, gardening, knitting, reading, writing, singing, dancing, drawing... you get the picture (ooops, no pun intended!), please join me as I begin this brand new venture.

I'm also very keen to hear your thoughts about and suggestions for the improvement of BMums. Is there something you'd love to be able to do? Is there a feature glaringly missing?

If on the other hand you just love it (please do!), then hopefully you're dying to spread the word - if so, grab a badge and help us publicise BMums by placing it on your blog, website or MySpace page or by just emailing all your mum friends about it!!!

Go now! Visit, join up and enjoy... I'm lonely here all by myself :)