Kandi shared this very beautiful photo on social media this Tuesday, of a scrumptious plate, that she is going in on, and a healthy nursing baby.  I can relate.  Nursing a baby takes a lot of calories, so moms must remember to replenish each and every calorie.  They say when the baby sleeps, mommy should sleep.  Well maybe the same is true for eating.

https://www.instagram.com/kandiburruss/

Congratulations to the Tucker family!  And kudos to Kandi for normalizing breastfeeding!  To hear more about Black celebrity mothers and breastfeeding check out this post:

30 Quotes on Breastfeeding from Black Celebrities

Mommies, did you eat and nurse and the same time?

Запись [Pic] RHOA’s Kandi Burruss Shares Beautiful Breastfeeding Photo впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

By Claire Niala for The Natural Child Project

I was born and grew up in Kenya & Cote d’Ivoire. Then from the age of fifteen I lived in the UK. However, I always knew that I wanted to raise my children (whenever I had them) at home in Kenya. And yes, I assumed I was going to have them. I am a modern African woman with two university degrees and I am a fourth generation working woman – but when it comes to children, I am typically African. The assumption remains that you are not complete without them; children are a blessing it would be crazy to avoid. Actually the question does not even arise.

I started my pregnancy in the UK. The urge to deliver at home was so strong that I sold my practice, setup a new business and moved house / country within five months of finding out I was pregnant. I did what most expectant mothers in the UK do – I read voraciously: Our Babies, Ourselves, Unconditional Parenting, anything by the Searses – the list goes on. (My grandmother later commented that babies don’t read books – and really all I needed to do was “read” my baby). Everything I read said that African babies cried less than European babies. I was intrigued as to why.

When I went home I observed. I looked out for mothers and babies and they were everywhere (though not very young African ones – those under six weeks were mainly at home). The first thing I noticed is that despite their ubiquitousness it is actually quite difficult to actually “see” a Kenyan baby. They are usually incredibly well wrapped up before being carried or strapped onto their mother (sometimes father).

Even older babies already strapped onto a back are then further protected from the elements by a large blanket. You would be lucky to catch a limb, never mind an eye or nose. It is almost a womb-like replication in the wrapping. The babies are literally cocooned from the stresses of the outside world into which they are entering.

My second observation was a cultural one. In the UK it was understood that babies cry – in Kenya it was quite the opposite. The understanding is that babies don’t cry. If they do – something is horribly wrong and must be done to rectify it immediately. My English sister-in-law summarized it well. “People here” she said “really don’t like babies crying, do they?”

It all made much more sense when I finally delivered and my grandmother came from the village to visit. As it happened – my baby did cry a fair amount, and exasperated and tired, I forgot everything I had ever read and sometimes joined in the crying too. Yet for my grandmother it was simple – nyonyo (breastfeed her!). It was her answer to every single peep.

There were times when it was a wet nappy, or the fact that I had put her down, or that she needed burping that was the problem, but mainly she just wanted to be at the breast – it didn’t really matter whether she was feeding or just having a comfort moment. I was already wearing her most of the time and co-sleeping with her, so this was a natural extension to what we were doing.

I suddenly learned the not-so-difficult secret as to the joyful silence of African babies. It was a simple needs-met symbiosis that required a total suspension of ideas of “what should be happening” and an embracing of what was actually going on in that moment. The bottom line was that my baby fed a lot – far more than I had ever read about anywhere and at least five times as much as some of the stricter feeding schedules I had heard about.

Read the rest at The Natural Child Project.

Запись Why Africans are the Originators of Attachment Parenting впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

My daughter drinking it up…

Recently two breastfeeding stories have gone viral online.

A mother was nursing her 16 day old baby at a rec center, and asked by a staff member to leave. The confrontation was caught on camera, and the mom had to invoke her legal right to breastfeeding to get the staff member off her back.

The second is an image of 21-year-old Elicia Binman breastfeeding her daughter in front of an Enfamil booth at a baby fair in Minnesota. Some praised her for shedding light on an alternative to formula, while others felt she was being arrogant and combative.

I am a full supporter of breastfeeding. I did it and I definitely felt the benefits, but I have to say — the prevalence of these two stories makes me sad. Because I feel that breastfeeding is coming to shape the conversation on motherhood in a way that is very narrow.

When I was pregnant, I was consumed by a desire to breastfeed. My mother had done it and my childbirth instructor, who was a very strong advocate of attachment parenting and natural birth, discussed it constantly. As she talked, I could feel my Type A competitiveness getting revved up. I started to see breastfeeding as a personal goal that I would achieve — like completing a term paper, or losing 10 pounds. I wasn’t thinking of breastfeeding primarily in terms of my son. I was thinking of it as a reflection of myself.

Things went smoothly at the hospital after I gave birth. My son latched on immediately and I was thrilled. On our last day at the hospital, the nurse came into our room and offered us a large container of Enfamil. She might as well have been handing me a vial of arsenic.

“Um, I won’t be needing that, ” I said.

“We can’t let you leave without it, ” she said “You can do whatever you want with it after you go.”

I haltingly accepted the container. But in the weeks after my son’s birth, it became apparent that I had supply issues.

Having never heard from my childbirth instructor that supply issues — while uncommon — are not unusual, I felt that I was doing something wrong.

And so it began — Mother’s Milk Tea, oatmeal, drinking lots of water, getting as much sleep as I could, pumping in between feedings — anything to increase supply.

But when my son went in for his 4 week checkup, he was in a lower weight percentage than he’d been when he was born. And since he was a late-term preemie my doctor was concerned.

He suggested formula. I told him that I would keep breastfeeding exclusively. After all my chilbirth instructor had taught me that introducing babies to formula was a slippery slope. It started with an ounce here and there, and ended up replacing breast milk.

By week 6 I felt as though I was on the brink of collapse. My supply issues hadn’t improved and I was frequently coming up just a few ounces shy of satiating my son fully. I kept one step ahead by pumping furiously on the days my supply was higher.

Then came the day that it all caught up with me. I had just breastfed my son, and he was still hungry. I pulled two ounces of pumped breast milk from the fridge. My stomach tightened as I handed my husband the bottle. It was my ‘head start’ milk for the next day. My son drank hungrily, and started crying again. He was still hungry. I put him on my breast. He sucked for a few moments, then started wailing. I pulled out my breast pump.

“Leila, ” my husband said, “We have to give him the formula.”

I could feel the hot tears pooling behind my eyes. “No, wait! I can get it going, ” I said.

“He’s hungry. He needs it.”

My husband went to the nursery and pulled the Enfamil out of the closet. It was buried in the back, like a dirty secret.

We began supplementing with formula, but I was still determined to provide my son as much breast milk as possible. My goal was to make it to the 12 month mark, but deep down I knew that — between my supply issues and being a work-from-home mother — this would be damn near impossible.

I was pumping in the day time to make it easier for me to work and nursing at night, but every time I missed a pumping session — which wasn’t often — my supply dipped precipitously. I scoured the internet, praying that in some corner of the world wide web, someone had discovered a supply-boosting secret I hadn’t already tried. In breastfeeding forum after breastfeeding forum I read vitriol directed at mothers who supplemented or formula fed. Each comment filled me with incredible guilt.

And then I found it! A woman who had used non-FDA approved drugs, available in Canada, to get her supply back up.

The next morning I excitedly told my husband, “There’s this drug I can use, to get my supply back up. The side effect is depression, but I think I’ll be okay.”

As I looked into my husband’s stunned face, I could see what I’d become — a woman obsessed. A crazed and frazzled new mother who needed to accept that she had done all she could. It was over. As my supply dwindled I didn’t continue to fight it. By 6 and a half months, my son was on formula exclusively.

After I let go of nursing, I started to see life from the ‘other side.’ My eyes opened to the myriad of ways outside of breastfeeding I could ensure my son was healthy and well; making sure he had adequate space to play and explore, that he felt like an important and loved member of our family, that we taught him the concept of boundaries, that he slept comfortably and well. In my quest to breastfeed exclusively for 12 months, these things had been obscured.

And this is why it troubles me that in many circles, discussions on motherhood have been overshadowed by discussions on breastfeeding. They are not synonymous. One is a subset of the other.

It’s been three years since my breastfeeding debacle with my son. And looking back now I can see clearly that my over-reliance on a pump with decreasing suction was the reason for my dwindling supply (I’ve since learned that quite a few lactating women do not respond to pumps, and their babies can get all they need from nursing directly.) A year ago I was blessed with a second child, a daughter who is exclusively breastfed. I have had no supply issues and will continue to feed her as long as she wants.

But I now understand that breastfeeding needs to be relegated to its appropriate place — a practice that is very important and should be more widespread, but should never become all-consuming, or inspire guilt, paranoia, fear or panic, as it did in me.

Breastfeeding only happens in the first few years of a child’s life. But teaching children to be healthy, confident, independent, thoughtful and emotionally balanced are lifelong exercises. As we continue to battle low rates of breastfeeding in the black community, I hope that we can keep an eye on the big picture.

Запись Breastfeeding Shouldn’t Make You Crazy: How I Learned There Is More to New Motherhood Than Breastfeeding впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

Actress Tisha Martin Campbell recently spoke out about being raped at age 3 and how that affected her ability to breastfeed her first child;

It would affect me with breastfeeding my children. I didn’t want to with the first one because I felt like I was going to hurt him. You know, that kind of thing. It’s surprising how things kind of pop up out of nowhere. I didn’t know why I felt uncomfortable doing that. I didn’t want to do it, and I felt like it was a lot of pressure for me to do it. Finally, the pediatrician was like, “Can you just stop trying? Because the baby can see your angst.” So I took the pressure off of myself, and it was easier to do it with my second child because I knew what it was then.

The percentage of black women who breastfeed is lower than white and Hispanic women. And while there are a number of reasons for this including lack of hospital support, lack of education and strenuous work schedules, sexual abuse might be another reason to consider.

In an article for Babble.com, mommies who have suffered abuse share how challenging things like co-sleeping and breastfeeding can be;

Tonia, a mother of two small children, tried to breastfeed her first child but found it very uncomfortable. She was abused by an older relative as an adolescent and while that isn’t the only reason she didn’t enjoy breastfeeding, it played a big part.

“I breastfed my daughter, but the sensation of nursing and having to give my body over so completely and constantly was extremely unpleasant for me, ” she said.

Tonia planned to breastfeed her second child as well, but right before he was born she had second thoughts.

“Just the thought of doing it all over again, and this time with a 19-month-old [to take care of as well], made me so anxious that I broke down crying one night and decided I would be going straight to formula.”

She’s happy she made that decision, and is now very passionate about parents being able to choose how to feed their babies without any judgment.

Of course there are mothers who are able to breastfeed with little to no issue after suffering sexual abuse, but it does help to be aware and sensitive to mommies who may be struggling.

Запись When Former Sexual Abuse Makes Breastfeeding Difficult: Actress Tisha Martin Campbell Opens Up впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

I remember my first night as a mother. I nursed my tiny baby to sleep, placed him in his crib, where he began to cry. So I calmed him, waited longer before I put him down, and yet he cried again.

Since his crib was already in our room, the transition to the bed was a very short walk. That night my husband and I took turns holding him while he slept, and we’ve had a kid in our bed ever since.

I have no doubt we could have trained our son to sleep in his own bed, but that little cry spoke to me.

Babies don’t come into this world equipped with many skills. They can’t hold their heads up. They are pretty much helpless, but what they have is their voices, their little cries. So that first night when my son told me he needed me, I answered and let him into my bed. Now almost 4 years later with him still in my bed, you might think I regret this decision, but I don’t.

Co-sleeping is a way of life for many families. Some statistics show that “that 25% of American families always, or almost always, slept with their baby in bed, 42% slept with their baby sometimes.” Other studies have shown that co-sleeping is more widely accepted in Asian, African, and Latin American countries where parents are more concerned about separation from their child versus lack of privacy.

I saw a mom who shared her family’s co-sleeping arrangement with their four kids ranging from a baby to an 11 year old. Many people had lots of negative things to say, especially regarding the seeming lack of privacy, but I respect these parents’ decision to do what worked for their family. I know safe co-sleeping works for my family, even though there’s now 4 of us.

Speaking with other co-sleeping mothers, I’ve seen our motivations vary.

One friend whose nursery was on the first floor but master bedroom was upstairs realized that if someone broke into her house, the first room they would come upon was the nursery. Once she realized that, she knew she couldn’t leave a baby or a small child there.That threat also extends to emergencies like a house fire. I like knowing that if anything is happens, my kids are already right there next to me, at least until they are older and more capable.

I know I don’t sleep as deeply with a baby in the room, but I see that responsiveness as a bonus. I worry less. I breastfeed easier and longer without supply problems. When I was working outside of the home with my first child, the most time we had together in a day was when we were sleeping. I was so glad to have that connection after being away from him all day. During that time of serious internal conflict of working and leaving my child, the nights with him reconnected our family.

When I became pregnant again, I worried that our co-sleeping arrangement might not work with two children and me and working from home.

I thought I might crave more space from my children after being with them all day. When I see their sleeping faces in my bed, I feel peace, love, and comfort. If I felt negatively, I’d work on a different arrangement because I’m not a martyr. I’ve just found sleeping is not where I seek privacy. I find that time in the shower, at the gym, on a run, or even just browsing Facebook while my kids nap.

Just because we co-sleep, doesn’t mean all my waking hours are spent with awake kids.

I’m a believer in naptime and bedtime. I write this now while my 3 year old is at least quietly “reading”, if not asleep in the bed, while the baby is asleep. Soon, I’ll pick her up and bring her to bed with me. She’ll shift her weight against me, ready to nurse and sleep some more.

As I approach four years into parenthood, I can see how quickly these 18 years will pass.

For perspective, my car is 15 years old. My husband and I have been together for 14 years. Our first dog is 12 years old. Years only seem to go faster as I get older. My car is breaking down. My dog’s face is nearly all white. Their time is coming to a close right in front of me, as my husband and I approach being together nearly half of our lives. My lap can hardly contain my leggy 3 year old as he “reads” me stories. This new baby who just arrived in August is now smiling, grabbing things, and trying to roll over. I have no worries about forcing them out. Their independence is coming without question.

One day my children will tell me they are sleeping in their own beds, and I will be proud as they reach that stage. Until then, I’ll scoot over and welcome them in.

Запись I Won’t Kick My 3-Year-Old Out of My Bed впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

Alright mommies, are you ready for a doozy?! A new study (well, relatively new, it came out a few months ago), has stated that the benefits of breastfeeding have been exaggerated. From Slate Magazine’s coverage;

A new study confirms what people like our own Hanna Rosin and Texas A&M professor Joan B. Wolf have been saying for years now: The benefits of breast-feeding have been overstated. The study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, is unique in the literature about breast-feeding because it looks at siblings who were fed differently during infancy. That means the study controls for a lot of things that have marred previous breast-feeding studies. As the study’s lead author, Ohio State University assistant professor Cynthia Colen, said in a press release, “Many previous studies suffer from selection bias. They either do not or cannot statistically control for factors such as race, age, family income, mother’s employment—things we know that can affect both breast-feeding and health outcomes.”

Colen’s study is also unique because she looked at children ages 4-14. Often breast-feeding studies only look at the effects on children in their first years of life. She looked at more than 8, 000 children total, about 25 percent of whom were in “discordant sibling pairs, ” which means one was bottle-fed and the other was breast-fed. The study then measured those siblings for 11 outcomes, including BMI, obesity, asthma, different measures of intelligence, hyperactivity, and parental attachment.

When children from different families were compared, the kids who were breast-fed did better on those 11 measures than kids who were not breast-fed. But, as Colen points out, mothers who breast-feed their kids are disproportionately advantaged—they tend to be wealthier and better educated. When children fed differently within the same family were compared—those discordant sibling pairs—there was no statistically significant difference in any of the measures, except for asthma. Children who were breast-fed were at a higher risk for asthma than children who drank formula.

For those who want more details on how the study was done, the best breakdown I found was on GroundedParents.com. They analyzed the methodology very thoroughly and clearly. The site concludes;

This study suggests that as a public health measure, investing in breastfeeding promotion and support might not be as cost-effective as we thought, in terms of decreasing rates of diseases such as obesity and asthma. If we are worried about child health and wellbeing, we should maybe look at addressing some of the factors associated with formula use, such as poverty, poor-quality schooling, lack of affordable daycare and paid parental leave.

I have been looking for a response to the study from the American Association of Pediatrics, but so far I haven’t found one.

So, what are my thoughts. Well, first off, I’m not a public health official, or a doctor, or a breastfeeding instructor. I can only speak as a mother.

I had a rough time with breastfeeding, very rough. Trying to juggle it along with work and pumping (which I never should have been attempting to do, ugh) was awful. I sabotaged myself in many ways and by month 7 my supply was seriously drying up. The first time I fed my son formula, I wept. I felt so devastated. I had such high hopes for breastfeeding, and I felt I’d failed.

I considered buying breast milk, but my mother-in-law blocked my attempts (she was VERY adamant and vehement), so we relied on formula.

Once he got off the breast milk and onto the formula I noticed that he got colds more frequently. In fact, the very weekend we switched, he got a pretty bad cold. But after that, he was okay. I do miss nursing him. Around month 9 I attempted and failed at re-establishing my supply and resuming breastfeeding. That too was heartbreaking.

As someone who is pursuing a whole-food and plant-based diet, I have to admit that I am skeptical of formula. This Mother Jones article on toxic chemicals in infant formula is less than reassuring, but very important to read.

All this to say, in a perfect world, I would still be breastfeeding my 19 month old.

But, let’s leave the realm of a ‘perfect world’ and enter reality. My son is fine. Now that he is eating solids, we are incorporating him into our whole food, plant-based diet (which is definitely still a work in progress, but getting there.) We garden as a family to teach him how to control his own food production and to shield him from pesticides (still trying to figure out how to get non-genetically modified seeds… but that’s a different post for a different day!) We’re deliberate about keeping him physically active and mentally engaged. If he is not interacting with us, he is interacting with a nanny who knows our parenting philosophy, and is committed to his development in the same way we are (and is getting her masters in child psychology to boot!) We keep our home stable and happy so that he feels safe and secure. We don’t discipline him in a way that demeans or humiliates him.

At the end of the day, I’d like to think that all these factors will play a bigger role in his outcome than whether or not I was able to breastfeed for 2 years, as I had originally planned.

I hope a study like this diffuses some of the tension between the pro-breastfeeding and pro-formula crowds, and shifts the focus to the bigger issue: the lesser outcomes for formula fed children have less to do with the formula itself, and more to do with the lack of resources — time, money or support — that exists within that child’s family. Obviously there are mothers who simply choose to use formula, even though they have the resources to breastfeed. I don’t understand that choice, but it’s not my place to question it (especially in light of this study!)

I also know this study will be a relief for mothers of preemies/sick children who watched helplessly as their little ones spent their first days, weeks or even months in the NICU and were unable to latch, or adoptive mothers of infants, or working mothers whose schedules don’t allow them to pump as frequently as is needed to maintain a milk supply.

Will I breastfeed my additional children? Oh hell yes! I relish the thought of nursing another child. And now that I’ve learned more, I’m certain that my second attempt at breastfeeding will be far more successful. The community of mothers I am a part of is very pro-breastfeeding, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. Even though formula does a good job of sustaining children, there’s no denying that breast milk is pretty freaking incredible, and it tastes great! Plus, the benefits of breastfeeding on the mother’s body — weight loss and a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancer — are incredible too. At the very least, breastfeeding has one HUMONGOUS advantage — it’s a huge money saver! (Take it from someone who has been shelling out cash for formula for 12 months. UGH!!)

Ladies, I’d love to hear your thoughts on all this!!

Запись Controversial New Study Says Long Term Benefits of Breastfeeding Have Been Exaggerated впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

1. Michelle Obama

“In fact, in the last job I had before coming to the White House — I remember this clearly — I was on maternity leave with Sasha, still trying to figure out what to do with my life, and I got a call for an interview for this position, a senior position at the hospitals. And I thought, okay, here we go. So I had to scramble to look for babysitting, and couldn’t find one.

“So what did I do? I packed up that little infant, and I put her in the stroller, and I brought her with me. And I prayed that her presence wouldn’t be an automatic disqualifier. And it was fortunate for me that, number one, she slept through the entire interview. And I was still breastfeeding — if that’s not too much information. And I got the job.”

2. Jada Pinkett Smith

“I never stopped being a mother, and I never stopped being an artist. Which is probably why my kids are so creative.  When I’m with my kids I’m creating but I’m still a mom. I don’t wear two different hats. My kids have always been on the set with me. I was breastfeeding on set. None of my kids would take a bottle so they could not leave my side for a very long time.”

Also, when asked how long she nursed Jayden:

“A good 18 months. That baby never even saw a bottle. He went everywhere with me — premieres, award shows. I would just find a back room and hook him up.”

3. Nia Long

“I admire the women who can have babies and jump right back to work.  As a nursing mother, I couldn’t sit there and just pump all day. I needed to be close to my baby.”

4. Laila Ali

“I was one of those people who wasn’t getting a lot of milk, so I had to pump forever to just get two ounces of milk.  But, you know, I wasn’t going to give up or stop.”

5. Eryka Badu

“[T]he Twitter community was happy to welcome her into the world. They ask about her every month. She just turned six months, and I got a lot of “happy six months.” She’s the first Twitter baby, and she’s breastfed on Twitty milk.”

6. Halle Berry

[During a charity event she was attending] “I’m going to have to leave, my baby is calling for my breast. So, if I don’t see everyone later, thank you!”

7. Debra Cox

“I am big believer in breastfeeding. My oldest was breastfed for 9 months, my second for 6 months and I will try to nurse Kayla for 6 months. At the end of the day, it’s a big sacrifice but you have healthier kids.”

8. Alicia Keys

“I took this whole class prior to [giving birth] , which I thought was really good because I think a lot of people think you’re just supposed to have this natural instinct that’s supposed to happen out of thin air, and there’s a technique to learn and if you don’t know it it’s not your fault…But the whole engorgement thing, no one mentioned that part.”

9. Holly Robinson Peete

“Breastfeeding really did help me drop the weight…I did not cut back on calories…There’s a reason you’re hungry. It’s because you’re feeding your kids”

10. Beyonce

“I lost most of my weight from breastfeeding and I encourage women to do it; It’s just so good for the baby and good for yourself.”

11. Tia Mowry-Hardrict

“On a plane during take-off. I’m afraid to fly, and breastfeeding actually calmed me.”

12. Tamera Mowry-Housely

“The health benefits were the main reason I wanted to do it. I wanted to make sure my son got a fair start. I can’t control what’s in formula but I can control what goes into my body. I have never been so health conscious in my life! It all started with nursing and making sure what I was putting into my body wouldn’t seep into my milk. Also, I wanted that bond with my son.”

Side note: The two sisters are also the creators of a lactation supplement called Milky.

13. Ananda Lewis

“Ok, weirdest breastfeeding situation EVER! (for me). On an exercise/walk leaning over and into stroller feeding while joggers go by…HA!”

14. Tonya Lewis Lee

“As natural and as wonderful as breastfeeding is, it is not so easy…Every woman needs the support for the choice to breastfeed.”

15. Christina Milian

“In the beginning I didn’t do anything but that. I nursed Violet for 11 months and lost a lot of weight that way.”

16. Regan Gomez

“It’s definitely harder to keep breastfeeding while at work. Even tho laws support this, the environment can be hostile.”

17. Brandy

“I did [breastfeed] for like 13 months…”

18. Monica

“My day is continuous now because I’m breastfeeding my youngest…every 2 to 3 hours I’m up making sure she has what she needs.”

19. Kimora Lee Simmons

“[Ming and Aoki are] into changing the diaper, helping warm the bottle or if I’m breastfeeding, bringing me my little baby pillow, They’re very supportive.”

20. Paula Patton

“Once I finished breastfeeding, my mom’s like, ‘Don’t take that bra off ever!’ Mom, thank you.  I wore a one-size-too-small bra for like, two years. It helps…! They don’t fall, you teach them, you teach them to come back!”

21. Kelis

“I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about breastfeeding, but quickly realized its brilliance.”

22. Regina M. Benjamin

“One of the most highly effective preventive measures a mother can take to protect her child and her own health, is to breastfeed.”

23. Lisa Leslie

“I knew when Lauren was hungry.  I could hear her cries from far away, but I did not know that when a woman is nursing, her milk refills naturally when the baby cries.  Isn’t that amazing?  Any woman who has had a baby has got to be baffled when she hears someone say there is no God.  My baby whines, and my breast automatically fill up with milk.  That’s incredible!”

24. Susan Rice

“When my son was a mere three months old, I started working at the State Department.  I was not only the youngest Assistant Secretary of State but I was also a breastfeeding mother. I’m the first to admit that this felt crazy at times, and the balancing act is never ever easy. But my two kids are the most wonderful things that have ever happened to me.”

25. Melanie Brown

“Breastfeeding is amazing; you can actually feel your stomach shrink with every feed.”

26. Phaedra Parks

“I tell people to nurse their baby, It tightens up your uterus. It brings everything back in places very quickly. And it cuts down on buying milk and going to the grocery store. Milk does a body good, and if you can make it yourself, then why not?”

27. Essence Atkins

[Regarding baby Varro being a champ at breastfeeding] “He knew what to do from the moment they put him on me.”

28. Nicole Ari Parker

“I breastfed Sophie for 14 months and Nicolas for 11 months.”

29. Tisha Campbell-Martin

“I just want to get back down to 130. Breastfeeding helps!”

30. Tichina Arnold

“An innocent little human being was solely dependent on me! I took all the CPR and breastfeeding classes and learned quite a bit”

Sonia Manzano aka Maria from Sesame Street

Although Maria is acting out a scene, and this is not a personal quote from her, I thought it was worth adding to the list.

“She’s drinking milk from my breast…sometimes I feed her this way and sometimes I feed her with a bottle.  But you know, I like this way the best, its natural its good for her, and I get a chance to hug her some more.”

Mommies do you know of any other Black celebrities who are outspoken about breastfeeding?  Who would you add to the list?

Angele is a wife to a wonderful, creative husband, mother to two beautiful, intelligent daughters and a lover of art, education and laughter.  She is the creator and author of ABC remix.

Запись 30 Quotes on Breastfeeding from Black Celebrities впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

1. Michelle Obama

“In fact, in the last job I had before coming to the White House — I remember this clearly — I was on maternity leave with Sasha, still trying to figure out what to do with my life, and I got a call for an interview for this position, a senior position at the hospitals. And I thought, okay, here we go. So I had to scramble to look for babysitting, and couldn’t find one.

“So what did I do? I packed up that little infant, and I put her in the stroller, and I brought her with me. And I prayed that her presence wouldn’t be an automatic disqualifier. And it was fortunate for me that, number one, she slept through the entire interview. And I was still breastfeeding — if that’s not too much information. And I got the job.”

2. Jada Pinkett Smith

“I never stopped being a mother, and I never stopped being an artist. Which is probably why my kids are so creative.  When I’m with my kids I’m creating but I’m still a mom. I don’t wear two different hats. My kids have always been on the set with me. I was breastfeeding on set. None of my kids would take a bottle so they could not leave my side for a very long time.”

Also, when asked how long she nursed Jayden:

“A good 18 months. That baby never even saw a bottle. He went everywhere with me — premieres, award shows. I would just find a back room and hook him up.”

3. Nia Long

“I admire the women who can have babies and jump right back to work.  As a nursing mother, I couldn’t sit there and just pump all day. I needed to be close to my baby.”

4. Laila Ali

“I was one of those people who wasn’t getting a lot of milk, so I had to pump forever to just get two ounces of milk.  But, you know, I wasn’t going to give up or stop.”

5. Eryka Badu

“[T]he Twitter community was happy to welcome her into the world. They ask about her every month. She just turned six months, and I got a lot of “happy six months.” She’s the first Twitter baby, and she’s breastfed on Twitty milk.”

6. Halle Berry

[During a charity event she was attending] “I’m going to have to leave, my baby is calling for my breast. So, if I don’t see everyone later, thank you!”

7. Debra Cox

“I am big believer in breastfeeding. My oldest was breastfed for 9 months, my second for 6 months and I will try to nurse Kayla for 6 months. At the end of the day, it’s a big sacrifice but you have healthier kids.”

8. Alicia Keys

“I took this whole class prior to [giving birth] , which I thought was really good because I think a lot of people think you’re just supposed to have this natural instinct that’s supposed to happen out of thin air, and there’s a technique to learn and if you don’t know it it’s not your fault…But the whole engorgement thing, no one mentioned that part.”

9. Holly Robinson Peete

“Breastfeeding really did help me drop the weight…I did not cut back on calories…There’s a reason you’re hungry. It’s because you’re feeding your kids”

10. Beyonce

“I lost most of my weight from breastfeeding and I encourage women to do it; It’s just so good for the baby and good for yourself.”

11. Tia Mowry-Hardrict

“On a plane during take-off. I’m afraid to fly, and breastfeeding actually calmed me.”

12. Tamera Mowry-Housely

“The health benefits were the main reason I wanted to do it. I wanted to make sure my son got a fair start. I can’t control what’s in formula but I can control what goes into my body. I have never been so health conscious in my life! It all started with nursing and making sure what I was putting into my body wouldn’t seep into my milk. Also, I wanted that bond with my son.”

Side note: The two sisters are also the creators of a lactation supplement called Milky.

13. Ananda Lewis

“Ok, weirdest breastfeeding situation EVER! (for me). On an exercise/walk leaning over and into stroller feeding while joggers go by…HA!”

14. Tonya Lewis Lee

“As natural and as wonderful as breastfeeding is, it is not so easy…Every woman needs the support for the choice to breastfeed.”

15. Christina Milian

“In the beginning I didn’t do anything but that. I nursed Violet for 11 months and lost a lot of weight that way.”

16. Regan Gomez

“It’s definitely harder to keep breastfeeding while at work. Even tho laws support this, the environment can be hostile.”

17. Brandy

“I did [breastfeed] for like 13 months…”

18. Monica

“My day is continuous now because I’m breastfeeding my youngest…every 2 to 3 hours I’m up making sure she has what she needs.”

19. Kimora Lee Simmons

“[Ming and Aoki are] into changing the diaper, helping warm the bottle or if I’m breastfeeding, bringing me my little baby pillow, They’re very supportive.”

20. Paula Patton

“Once I finished breastfeeding, my mom’s like, ‘Don’t take that bra off ever!’ Mom, thank you.  I wore a one-size-too-small bra for like, two years. It helps…! They don’t fall, you teach them, you teach them to come back!”

21. Kelis

“I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about breastfeeding, but quickly realized its brilliance.”

22. Regina M. Benjamin

“One of the most highly effective preventive measures a mother can take to protect her child and her own health, is to breastfeed.”

23. Lisa Leslie

“I knew when Lauren was hungry.  I could hear her cries from far away, but I did not know that when a woman is nursing, her milk refills naturally when the baby cries.  Isn’t that amazing?  Any woman who has had a baby has got to be baffled when she hears someone say there is no God.  My baby whines, and my breast automatically fill up with milk.  That’s incredible!”

24. Susan Rice

“When my son was a mere three months old, I started working at the State Department.  I was not only the youngest Assistant Secretary of State but I was also a breastfeeding mother. I’m the first to admit that this felt crazy at times, and the balancing act is never ever easy. But my two kids are the most wonderful things that have ever happened to me.”

25. Melanie Brown

“Breastfeeding is amazing; you can actually feel your stomach shrink with every feed.”

26. Phaedra Parks

“I tell people to nurse their baby, It tightens up your uterus. It brings everything back in places very quickly. And it cuts down on buying milk and going to the grocery store. Milk does a body good, and if you can make it yourself, then why not?”

27. Essence Atkins

[Regarding baby Varro being a champ at breastfeeding] “He knew what to do from the moment they put him on me.”

28. Nicole Ari Parker

“I breastfed Sophie for 14 months and Nicolas for 11 months.”

29. Tisha Campbell-Martin

“I just want to get back down to 130. Breastfeeding helps!”

30. Tichina Arnold

“An innocent little human being was solely dependent on me! I took all the CPR and breastfeeding classes and learned quite a bit”

Sonia Manzano aka Maria from Sesame Street

Although Maria is acting out a scene, and this is not a personal quote from her, I thought it was worth adding to the list.

“She’s drinking milk from my breast…sometimes I feed her this way and sometimes I feed her with a bottle.  But you know, I like this way the best, its natural its good for her, and I get a chance to hug her some more.”

Mommies do you know of any other Black celebrities who are outspoken about breastfeeding?  Who would you add to the list?

Angele is a wife to a wonderful, creative husband, mother to two beautiful, intelligent daughters and a lover of art, education and laughter.  She is the creator and author of ABC remix.

Запись 30 Quotes on Breastfeeding from Black Celebrities впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

Tandem nursing is nursing two babies at the same time, and it’s not a path that I set out on.  It began while I was pregnant with my second child.  I continued to nurse my baby throughout the entire pregnancy, much to the chagrin of older relatives who felt that I was robbing my unborn baby of nutrients.  I talked it over with a nurse, and she said that it was fine for me to continue nursing my baby while pregnant.  As with any pregnancy, it was important to stay hydrated, eat well, rest, and take good care of my overall health.

With my first set of children I assumed that I would stop nursing once my new little one arrived.  But after coming home from the hospital and getting settled in with my new baby, the reality was that I couldn’t fathom making my almost one year old stop nursing.  He reached for me to nurse him, especially when he saw me nursing his baby sister.  So, I figured I would let him nurse after the baby was completely finished.  It ended up being around three times a day.  In the mornings, before nap time, and before bedtime were our times to nurse and I enjoyed having that special bonding time with my little toddler.

Here’s what I learned from my experience.

Tandem Nursing Pros:

•  You can still enjoy a nursing relationship with your toddler.
• It can help the toddler adjust to his/her new sibling.
• Your nursing toddler can help increase milk production in the early weeks with an infant.
• Your nursing toddler can help combat breast engorgement in the early weeks as well.

Tandem Nursing Cons:

• While pregnant, your milk production might go down.  If you have an exclusively breastfed baby while pregnant, you may have to supplement with formula.  I had to do this with my third child while pregnant with my fourth.
• Both children wanting to be nursed at the same time.  You can choose to nurse them at the same time or teach your older one to wait patiently.

Here were some guidelines that I went by while tandem nursing.  I didn’t nurse them at the same time when the infant was small.  After around 5 or six months I would nurse them together if I had to.

Infant (0-4 months old) and toddler:
-Always feed the baby first.
-Feed the baby by him/herself in your lap
-Afterwards, offer a feed to the toddler if he/she requests.
-Some mothers then return the infant to the breast after the toddler nurses to get any remaining hind milk.

Baby (6-12 month) and toddler:
-Always feed the baby first.
-If the toddler is clamoring to nurse you can put the toddler on the side that the infant just finished while nursing both.

It’s important to feed the baby first to make sure the baby is full, and then allow the toddler.  But, I would occasionally nurse my children together first thing in the morning if they both woke at the same time and were crying to be nursed.   I usually nurse my youngest two together as soon as I get home from work, because they are both crying to be nursed.

Tandem Nursing Positioning:

•  Baby across your lap.  Toddler on the side- similar to the football cradling of infants.  Simply support the toddler’s head or back.
• Both in the football hold, infant on one side of your body.  Toddler on other side of your body.
• Double cradle- both children in your lap.  The baby’s legs can rest upon the toddler’s legs.

For extra support:
Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond by Hilary Flower

Ladies, have you ever done tandem nursing? Share your tips, advice and experience!

Sundi is a mom of four who lives with her husband outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

Запись The Mommy’s Guide to Tandem Nursing: Everything You Need to Be Successful впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

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