Dear Readers

Dear Readers,

Welcome to this new issue of Breastfeeding Today!

Let me start by introducing the second poem of the poetry column we launched in the April issue. Gráinne Evans shares with us an important story For The Lockdown Babies: “I was your whole world back then, just as you were mine / And now, though it’s just a memory, I still smile when I see, / A rainbow in a window, put there for you and me.”

Even when surrounded by constant reassurance, becoming a parent is still a time of great change, requiring a large dose of confidence first and foremost in ourselves. Feeling supported and encouraged can be crucial, even more so when you’re a young mother, as Julia Pelly tells us in her article Supporting Young Mothers: Boost Their Confidence for Successful Breastfeeding. “Adolescents, who are still developing the ability to think into the future and to whom the ‘now’ holds a lot of power, often benefit from setting small goals that build into something larger. When a support person emphasizes that every single time she brings her baby to the breast she is doing something great, the young mother is more likely to continue to do it.”

Breastfeeding is not just a way to feed and nurture our babies, it is “the primordial experience of both loving and of being loved”, as Caroline Herman shares with us in her article Hidden Beginnings. “I don’t know how to mother without breastfeeding. […]  All I know is that my daughters are everything that I’m living for, everything that I would die for, and everything worth fighting for—even if it means fighting my own fear.” 

We’re already well aware of the properties of human milk and how they make a baby thrive and grow. For little Rebecca, her mother’s milk was so much more! As Chris Newlon tells us in her story Joys and Challenges of Parenting a Daughter with Down Syndrome: “The nursing kept her immune system strong and I believe it helped her through the extensive family allergy issues, too […] Nursing Rebecca helped me see her as the child she was and not the one I’d imagined. Nursing saved not only Rebecca, but it saved me, too.”

And to close this issue, something sweet that you can also prepare with your children. Ready to make the Light Fruity Yogurt Dessert? By following Penelope Karagouni’s step-by-step directions (in Greek as well!), you will enjoy something simple but incredibly delicious to refresh your day!

Enjoy your reading!