Several nursing mothers gathered Saturday in Fountain Square Park downtown to breast-feed their babies at exactly 10:30 a.m. as part of The Big Latch On, a worldwide celebration for World Breastfeeding Week, which runs from Aug. 1-7 annually.

“This is just a great event,” nurse and midwife Lisa Dalporto said.

Saturday’s rain held out just long enough for the mothers to sit in the grass at the park and nurse their children to be part of the celebration, which took place at 10:30 a.m. local time in every city that participated.

“Breast-feeding doesn’t require any special knowledge, but it does require support,” said Dalporto, of Bowling Green.

Women from prior generations could rely on their mothers for support. But now that family members have moved away from each other, women sometimes have to rely on other mothers to support their desire to breast-feed, Dalporto said.

Dalporto is a co-chairwoman of BabyNetKy, a network of professionals and community members who actively support families during the childbearing years through education about pregnancy, childbirth, breast-feeding and parenting. BabyNetKy.com organized the local Latch On event.

The purpose of The Big Latch On is to raise awareness about breast-feeding and its benefits to babies.

“I’m a huge supporter of breast-feeding,” said Julia Belden of Bowling Green, who attended the event and fed her 7-month-old daughter, Savannah Lee. “I feel that it’s the healthiest thing for my daughter. It’s extremely easy.”

Belden attributes her daughter’s good health to breast-feeding, which has been proven to help a baby’s immune system.

“She hasn’t been sick yet,” Belden said.

Seven-week-old Daniel Rush slept soundly throughout the event while his mother, Meredith Rush of Bowling Green, nursed him. His sister, Anna Jo Rush, 7, sat beside the two with her doll in her lap.

Rush wanted to send the message to others that nursing a baby is a natural, healthy thing to do.

“It’s good for your children,” she said.

“Our bodies were created to grow our babies and feed our babies,” said Melissa Jolly of Bowling Green, who participated with her 7-month-old daughter, Dehlia. She also breast-fed her oldest daughter, Maggie, who is 6 years old and never gets sick, she said.

Lactation education
New mothers interested in breast-feeding offered supply bags filled with information, goodies

By ALYSSA HARVEY, The Daily News, aharvey@bgdailynews.com
Friday, July 29, 2011 9:41 PM CDT

Print this story | Email this story | | Text Size   Miranda Pederson/Daily News
Ellyson Sloan McIntosh models her new T-shirt, which came in a breast-feeding supply bag provided to her mother, Nichole McIntosh.  
advertisement When Nichole McIntosh gave birth to her daughter, Ellyson, on Wednesday, she knew she wanted to breast-feed.

The Bowling Green woman had successfully breast-fed her son, Eli, who is now 5, for about six months.

“He was born four weeks early. He was not as good an eater,” she said as she nursed Ellyson in her room at The Medical Center on Thursday. “I know a lot more this time. I have more information. Breast-feeding is more common now.”

BabyNet - a local group that provides education about preconception, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, breast-feeding and parenting - and Women, Infants and Children, a national supplemental food program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, want to make sure moms such as McIntosh get all the information they need by providing bags with breast-feeding supplies and information.

“Formula companies have historically given out discharge bags with a can of formula,” said Dana Bennett, a registered dietitian and certified lactation consultant at the Allen County Health Department and regional breast-feeding promotion coordinator for the state. “The problem is that even the presence of any kind of artificial nipples undermines breast-feeding success.”

The bags have been helpful to the moms, said Marilyn Thomas, a lactation consultant at The Medical Center, which had a 64 percent breast-feeding initiation rate for June.

“We’ve had some moms who are offered a bag from a formula company and they state that they’re not going to use that,” she said. “This helps them.”

McIntosh said the bag is really nice.

“I like that it has the video,” she said. “There’s a book where you can keep track of feeding times. When you’re up all night long, you forget the last time you fed the baby.”

Bennett said 125 bags have been done in the Barren River Area Development District, mostly at The Medical Center.

“They have been well-received,” she said. “The lactation consultants have been great about encouraging (the nurses) to give the bags.”

The bags - which come in pink, blue and yellow - are given to mothers who are exclusively breast-feeding before they are discharged from the hospital. They contain a coordinating changing pad, swaddle blanket, breast-feeding book, washable breast pads, a breast-feeding log and the video “Breastfeeding: You Can Do It!”

“It’s filled with things we thought would be of value to breast-feeding moms,” Bennett said. “With the DVD, they can see pictures of how the babies latch on.”

The bags also have a card on which mothers can write an evaluation of the bag. Those who fill them out receive a T-shirt for the baby that reads, “I eat at mom’s.” They can also submit evaluations at the BabyNet website, babynetky.net.

“We’re hoping to get some feedback from around the state,” Bennett said.

Bennett has also been supplying reusable, washable canvas bags with the international breast-feeding logo at southcentral Kentucky farmers markets to raise more awareness for World Breastfeeding Week, which starts Monday and continues through Aug. 7. The bags will be handed out to the public at Bowling Green-Warren County Farmers Market, Southern Kentucky Farmers Market and Community Farmers Market Bowling Green on Aug. 6.

“Vendors put the produce in them,” she said.

Various health organizations - including the American Academy of Pediatrics - support breast-feeding. At its website at www.aap.org, the organization recommends exclusively breast-feeding for about the first six months and supports breast-feeding for the first year and beyond as long as mutually desired by mother and child.

Studies have shown that benefits of breast-feeding include reducing the risk of various illnesses, enhancing brain development and developing stronger facial muscles for the baby and, in mothers, reducing the risk for breast and ovarian cancer and helping them get back to their pre-pregnancy weight quicker.

“Formula is much harder for the baby to digest,” Bennett said. “Breast milk is perfectly designed for baby. They only eat until they are full and then they stop.”

On Saturday August 6th, 2011 at 10:30am local time in locations across the USA, nursing mothers will gather to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week and try to break the record for the most women breastfeeding simultaneously!

At each registered location, witnesses will count all the mothers that have latched their babies on for one minute at 10:30am.

Join us at Fountain Square Park to meet other breastfeeding moms and supporters!

Registration begins at 10 am