Category Archives: in the news

WBW: Who Are the Experts?

Posted on 03.Aug.06 by | 19 comments

Most women have some desire to breastfeed.  Many have told me, “I tried to breastfeed, but [I had problems, I didn’t make enough milk, etc.]”  Many people do not have extended networks of family and friends who breastfed and don’t have much support.  Nursing isn’t as easy as it seems like it should be.  Honestly, I believe it’s a bit challenging at first because God designed it to slow down new mothers to keep them resting and healing and not running around.  Anyway, it’s not easy and people have problems.  Who do they turn to?  Their pediatricians.

Several doctors and medical school students have confirmed for me recently that medical school education does talk about the importance of breastfeeding for the health of babies and some of the general advantages to babies and mothers, but the mechanics of it?  How to troubleshoot nursing problems?  Those are not generally well discussed in medical school curricula.

So, who should people call when they need help?  Breastfeeding experts, particularly international board certified lactation consultants and lay helpers like your local La Leche League leaders.  LLL is a great place to get breastfeeding support, before or after you have a baby.

19 Comments

Posted in culture, in the news, parental ponderings

WBW Rewind

Posted on 02.Aug.06 by | 9 comments

Last year’s posts:
Introduction
When to Start Solids
WBW Link
Why I Demand Feed
WBW Roundup

Last year I wasn’t planning on blogging on breastfeeding the whole week, it just happened after people showed interest!

9 Comments

Posted in culture, in the news, parental ponderings

Why World Breastfeeding Week?

Posted on 01.Aug.06 by | 5 comments

This week is world breastfeeding week.  Why are we “celebrating” it here on TCL for the second straight year?  In our conservative evangelical circles, breastfeeding is the norm.  But across the United States, breastfeeding is still languishing far below where it should be.  The American Academy of Pediatrics (the mainstream organization) recommends 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding.  No formula, no water, no solids.  Then to continue breastfeeding as primary nutrition for at least the rest of the first year.

Here are the most recent stats on breastfeeding in the United States.  In 2005, 72.9% of babies were breastfed at least once.   39.1% were still breastfed even a little at 6 months, but only 13.9% were exclusively breasted to 6 months.  At 9 months, 26.3% were still nursing.  Only 20.1% of babies made it to a year of breastfeeding.    Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in culture, in the news, parental ponderings

Slaying St. George

Posted on 07.Jul.06 by | 2 comments

The Church of England is considering a proposal to dethrone St. George as its official patron on the grounds that he is too warlike and offensive to Muslims.  (HT: CrunchyCon blog)

St. Alban is proffered as a replacement.

2 Comments

Posted in culture, in the news

Seminary For Conservative Anglicans

Posted on 07.Jul.06 by | 1 comment

Gordon-Conwell sees a need; will train conservative episcopal priests. (HT: Stand Firm in Faith)

1 Comment

Posted in in the news, theology

Round-Up

Posted on 19.Jun.06 by | 1 comment

+ Blogging the Bible – a lax Jew who happens to be an editor at Slate.com reads the Bible for the first time as an adult. (HT: Sarah Mosley)
+ 1,000+ Dutch fans attend World Cup match in their skivvies after their pants are confiscated. (HT: All Things Considered)
+ I spent several hours last night fiddling with it and got the iPod we thought was on its last legs running just like new! Don’t go out and buy a new one when yours starts whirring and not finding songs. Reload everything and manually run the Disk Scan function.

1 Comment

Posted in general, in the news

Breastfeeding Ads

Posted on 14.Jun.06 by | 7 comments

This New York Times article about the risks of not breastfeeding has caused a bit of a fuss — you can see some reaction on this segment of the Today Show (only opens in IE).

I think the ads are a good idea. There are moms who legitimately are unable to breastfeed, and yes, they might feel guilty. But they are far outnumbered by the moms who choose not to or are misled about their ability to breastfeed. In many lower income communities, breastfeeding still has the stigma it did in the sixties about being “for poor people” and how formula is good because “we know what’s in it.” An ad campaign telling people about the benefits of breastmilk to their babies could really help them. But it needs to be followed up with targeted help to new moms with breastfeeding. Continue reading →

7 Comments

Posted in in the news, parental ponderings

Every Medical Procedure has Risk

Posted on 05.Jun.06 by | 9 comments

A woman died, allegedly from an infection due to a routine epidural. I am very thankful for modern medicine, don’t get me wrong, but for every intervention and procedure, there are risks as well as benefits. As a patient, you have a right to know them, and oftentimes, you need to research yourself to find them out. Right before a procedure is done is not a time you are likely to get a full answer from your medical staff, in my experience.

9 Comments

Posted in in the news

6 Degrees of …

Posted on 15.May.06 by | 17 comments

… or it’s a small (Reformed) world after all!

I am growing increasely fascinated by the list of signatures gathered for the Presbyterians Together document. It’s getting rather bad. I’m checking the list a couple of times a day, and I really don’t know why. I guess it’s the Facebook of the post-college Reformed world (“Who signed on today?” “I don’t know, but did you know that HE signed?”).

There are probably a boat load of great games that can be created out of the list of names. Like, connecting people by six degrees of real contact (e.g., like really worshipped together for an extended period of time, married to so-and-so, who is so-and-so’s relative, etc… I’d be willing to venture that Rick can be connected somehow to most people on that list). I already noticed that there is a father/son-in-law pair on the list. I wonder how many of those or like things are on it. We really need to get the statistic guys from MLB to analyze the list.

Anyhow, enough of this jest. I hear it’s a really good document. I printed it out and its sitting on my desk waiting to be read, perhaps during the 7th grade Latin test tomorrow.

17 Comments

Posted in in the news, theology

Reqiescat in Pace

Posted on 15.May.06 by | 2 comments

Jaroslav Pelikan, 17 December 1923 – 13 May 2006

2 Comments

Posted in in the news

The End of An Era

Posted on 11.May.06 by | Leave a comment

My alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has finally done it. This year’s graduating seniors are the last class required to pass a swim test to graduate. It may seem outdated and silly, but I like the swim test. It’s a unifying experience of all Carolina graduates (Mike: “Isn’t spending four years in Chapel Hill enough?”). In upstate New York, where I attended elementary school, almost every public school had an indoor pool. As part of our physical education we had several weeks of swimming each year that continued as long as P.E. was required. We learned all the strokes and how to tread water. It was virtually impossible to make it through elementary school without learning to swim. In North Carolina, almost no schools have pools. I know many adults who never learned how to swim. Every summer, several adults drown in the state of North Carolina. UNC has pools. They still require physical education. If you don’t know how to swim, they’ll teach you. And the swim test wasn’t like the service academies. It only required swimming 50 yards and then treading water for the remainder of five minutes. But now it is no more.

HT to Laura Leigh for letting me know about this sad departure and also for taking such a cool picture at Notre Dame and letting me make a header with it!

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Posted in culture, in the news

Global Night Commute

Posted on 29.Apr.06 by | 2 comments

Tonight is the global night commute to raise awareness about the situation of the invisible children in Uganda. 1.8 million people have been forcibly displaced during the twenty year long war. About a thousand people die every week due to the war itself and conditions in the resettlement camps (starvation and preventable diseases.) It’s difficult to estimate, but at least 20,000 child soldiers as young as five and six years old have been forced to fight in the rebel armies, probably more like 50,000. Tens of thousands of children commute nightly to protect themselves from being abducted from their own homes to fight. The situation there is as grave (some say moreso) as that in the Darfur region. If you haven’t heard about this, buy the DVD or just google.

UPDATE: You can see the dvd here. My sister reported that though less than twenty had signed up beforehand, 160 people showed up to the Global Night Commute in her small college town and about half of them spent the night, even thought it was in the middle of exams.

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Posted in in the news