Breastfeeding Today: Previous Issues

This article has been updated. See  Cancer: Diagnostic Tests, Therapeutic Procedures and Treatment while Breastfeeding.

PROFESSOR HELEN BALL, Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK Originally published April 2016 and republished with the express permission of the author. Image courtsey of Kathryn O’Donnell, sourced from the Baby Sleep Info Source (Basis) website, made available under a Creative Commons License. Putting bedsharing babies in the picture In February 2015 an editorial published … Read More

EMMA RICHARDSON, Washington, Tyne & Wear, UK Originally published February 2016, republished here with the express permission of the author. Photos: Helen Wilson Lifestyle Photography ESPAÑOL This is my story in which I tell why I cut my hair for LLL. Let me start from the moment Katy was born. I’m not afraid to admit that it wasn’t … Read More

TERESA PITMAN Originally published January 2015, updated May 2016 and republished with the express permission of the author. Photo: Belle Verdiglione My dear friend Joyce Barrett died of cancer in January of 2014. We had been friends for a long time, although when we first met she was just the new family doctor who had been recommended … Read More

Excerpted from The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding 8th edition, Schaumburg, IL: LLLI, 2010, pages 50, 52. Pick a mammal, any mammal, and imagine it giving birth the way we do. Let’s say you take your laboring dog to a strange place with bright lights, lots of strangers, people who stick their fingers in her vagina repeatedly, tubes … Read More

ALISON JONES, OXFORD, UK Originally published April 2016 and republished with the express permission of the author. Series Meetings I am so new to this mothering thing, so I arrive with a little one in a sling, and enter a room where there are mothers; those mystical others who seem to know what to do, … Read More

MARIAN TOMPSON, Illinois, Chicago and MELISSA CLARK VICKERS, Huntingdon, Tennessee, USA Originally published October 2016. Marian Tompson has lived a life that has taken her on a passionate journey (if an unexpected one) and she continues to bring that passion to the organization she helped found. There is a growing collection of LLL lore—those favorite … Read More

MELISSA CLARK VICKERS, HUNTINGDON, TENNESSEE, USA Originally published May 2016, republished here with the express permission of the author. I am about to embark on a great adventure—one that not just anybody can experience. The eligibility criteria is based on choices I made decades ago, combined with choices made more recently by others. My choice—and success—at … Read More

JESS RHEA, Calverley, Leeds, Yorkshire, UK Originally published March 2015 and republished with the express permission of the author. Great start Breastfeeding was always something I’d planned on doing, yet it’s not something I’d given much thought to before Lola arrived. I had heard from others that it might not be easy and “some people just … Read More

TERESA PITMAN Originally published October 2013, updated January 2016 and republished with the express permission of the author. What your baby knows about breastfeeding may surprise you … Most mothers imagine breastfeeding is something they do. They figure out when it’s time to feed again, they bring the baby to the breast, they put the … Read More