Seashells - Do WHAT with them?

Mothering.com
Web Exclusive - May 30, 2008
By Amanda Dumenigo

I knew that I wanted to breastfeed my baby, but I wondered if the lactation consultants, educational sites, instructional videos, La Leche league, and the rest of the somewhat overwhelming array of resources were necessary. After all, breastfeeding is ancient and totally natural. Wouldn't my body and my baby tell me what to do? This proved to be my first-time mother's enthusiastically naive perspective. After my son's birth, when the reality of the endeavour presented itself, I found myself shocked to actually need several meetings with a lactation consultant, much online research, and advice from friends. Eventually, I cobbled together a body of knowledge and techniques to successfully feed my newborn the time-honored, natural way.
There is no substitute for learning proper latching and baby-holding techniques from an expert, but the most surprising, breast-saving tip for the first few months was to place seashells on my nipples between feedings. Seashells? The idea captivated my imagination—after all, if we are gifted with a more voluptuous postpartum figure, isn't it fitting to wear Botticelli's Venus' undergarments? I liked the notion of having this potent feminine energy from the ocean and the tides at my breasts.

The suggestion came from my very modern, logical, Swedish, friend, Annika Granholm, who swore that seashells saved her aching, cracked, and bleeding nipples. Annika admitted her own initial resistance to such a non-Western remedy had prevented her from heeding a friend's advice for several months—until she was on the verge of quitting breastfeeding altogether and compromising her commitment to attachment parenting. While word-of-mouth had failed to persuade her, mounting physical pain and a Swedish midwife eventually did. In fact, in Scandinavia you can buy natural seashells from maternity shops, online, and at midwifery centers.

Patella vulgata shells have been worn by Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish mothers for thousands of years. These valuable limpets exist from the Arctic Circle in the north to Portugal in the south and can be found on all coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. The shells are an ancient remedy for nipple sores, ranging from splits and cracks, to bleeding and blisters. According to a Swedish online site that sells the shells, they create a soothing microclimate so that nipples soften and are moisturized by breastmilk—which contains lactoferrin—known for its antiviral and antibacterial healing properties. It is advised to air-dry the area prior to applying the shells and to boil them between uses if treating any infection or open sores.

Most seashells are made of calcite or calcium carbonate (CaCO3), also the primary mineral component in cave formations. Metaphysical uses for calcite, determined by its color variations, include recuperation, relaxation, energy enhancement, and emotional uplift. Calcite is credited with calming fears by soothing the psyche, as well as with helping a person to let go of emotional stress. It is said to expand our capacity to freely give and receive love, aid during transition, integrate the new into the physical plane, and ensure that power is properly used. Fortunately, most shells contain a rainbow spectrum of calcite, and although I was an amateur mom, intuitively I just knew that all of these qualities would be beneficial to mothering.

Walking along the beach in Jupiter, Florida, my partner and I handpicked a variety of native shells. We found Alternate Tellin, Buttercup Lucine, and Atlantic Surf Clam varieties that all proved suitable for protecting tender nipples. We selected only those with similar shapes and sizes to my breast anatomy. These local shells seemed to be custom-made by Mother Nature herself as they were as comfortable as a second skin and provided many additional benefits beyond preventing sores. They also served as a barrier for my highly tender areolas and nipples while I adapted to my baby's near-constant suckling. They were an oceanic armor against chafing from clothing. Unexpectedly, they also helped rebuild my self-esteem by bringing me a feeling of empowerment: wearing the seashells was like channeling the strength of the Earth Mother, which enabled me to embrace my new and divinely feminine role as a giver and sustainer of life.

The introductory of Formula & Down Fall of Breastfeeding

I have often wondered when and how formula came into the making. And how Western Society came to be Anti-Breastfeeding ( including Aruba). A few nights ago, as I lay in my bed studying the book "Childbirth Education - Practice, Research and Theory" I stumbled upon the introductory of baby formula, and the down fall of breastfeeding. I thought, This is it! This is going in a blog! Every mother, expectant parents, breastfeeding moms and bottle feeding moms need to know the history of breast milk substitutes. Here it is

Historically, there has always been a concern about having an alternative available when, for whatever reason, human milk was unavailable. Wet nursing, goats' milk, and cows' milk were all used. Toolsie (1998), in a recent history of breastfeeding, relays that in 1891, the Walker-Gordon Milk Laboratory in Boston began distributing a modified, individulaized cow's milk formula for infant who were delivered to homes in Eastern cities of the United States, Canada, and London. Soon, however, many mothers began to mix their own human milk substitutes using the concentrated or dehydrated cows' milk products that had recently come onto the market. Neither health professionals nor 'Mother Nature' was able to monitor what infants were receiving. Toolsie goes on the report that by 1932, The American Medical Association (AMA) issued guidelines for infant food and declared that every infant breastfed or artificially fed should be under the supervision of a physician. The companies manufacturing "formula," as human milk substitutes were euphemastically named, cooperated by removing the instructions for mixing formulas from their products and leaving instructions in the hands of physicians. Thus, physicians became viewed as the experts on infant feeding and manufacturers of human milk substitutes formed a close alliance with them (Apple, 1980; Geer & Apple 1991)

With this increased acceptance of human milk substitutes as convenient and "scientific", breastfeeding rates began to steadily drop. Initiations rates in the United States reached an all-time low of 24.7% in 1971, with less than 10% of mothers continuing as long as 3 months (Martinez & Nalenzienski, 1979).

The Hopsital scene of the early 1960s focused heavily on being sterile and biologically safe and reminds me of olden time movies with doctors wearing masks and biohazard suites. Hospital nursery cribs were called Isolettes, a brand name that demonstrated the value placed on isolating each infant. When infants were brought briefly and on a schedule to their mothers from a central nursery, they were often double wrapped in blankets. In many setting, mothers were asked not to open the blankets. The outer blanket was discared as the infant was returned to the central nursery. Nurses wore masks. Those who gave birth vaginally stayed 3-7 days postpartum, and mothers who had undergone cesarean births stayed even longer.

This next part made me cringe in horror.

Newborns were often times not offered the breast or any other milk product for 12 to 24+ hours after birth. They likely would be given glucose water two or three times to test the competency of their esophagus and their ability to handle fluid intake before a chance was taken that they might aspirate formula or breast milk. Care providers were unaware that should a rare case of esophageal atresia cause aspiration, mother's milk was a more biologically compatible fluid if it entered the lungs than was the glucose water being used as a test fluid.

"In restrospect, it would be difficult to have designed a health care system more damaging to breastfeeding than the one described."

While in the hospital, mothers were often given potentially irritating alcohol or soap to cleanse their nipples before the baby breastfed. There was little awareness of the advantages of the infant being exposed early to the family bacteria to establish a compatible intestinal flora or the benefit of the mother's natural body oils protecting her nipples. Routinely, bottles of glucose water or perhaps formula went out from the central nursery with the breastfed babies to be given after the infants breastfed. Infants in the central nursery who cried when it was "not time" to be taken our to their mothers were often fed in the nursery with little thought about the influence on the mother's milk production.


Given a misplaced fear of creating sore nipples, mothers were encouraged to breastfeed for only 3 and then 5 minutes at a time for several days. This timing might have been just long enough to create a milk ejection. Then the infant was removed, increasing the likelyhood of engorgement for the mother and the need for alternative feedings for the hungry baby. (Moon & Humenick, 1989). In the 1960s, after infants went home, they were frequently given solid foods beginning at about 2-4 weeks of age. Little thought was given to the fact that the rapidly growing infant needed calcium and other nutrients contained in breast milk, more than the nutrients in cereal or other baby foods. It was common to hear a mother say she could not breastfeed because her physician told her that her milk was "too thin" or that it was "too rich". Only manufactured milks were considered by many to be scientifically and reliably formulated and readily measured. Indeed,breast milk was portrayed as somewhat risky because the content and quantity were not readily observable.

The variety of practices that effectively sabotaged breastfeeding was only slowly replaced as researchers began to document more effective care to promote breastfeeding. In many settings, a number of cited harmful practices carried over well into the 1980s, and vestiges can still be readily found as we enter the 21st century, especially here in Aruba.  In restrospect, it would be difficult to have designed a health care system more damaging to breastfeeding than the one described. Furthermore, some of the same maternity care practices have been spread to third-world countries that have looked to the industrialized nations for leadership in health care.

That, ladies and gentleman.. is the early history of formula and the downfall of breastfeeding....

Ask an IBCLC

This is a new segment of Aruban Breastfeeding Mamas which is entitled " Ask an IBCLC" which was inspired by Breastfeeding Moms Unite's Blog "Ask an LC"

Our International Board Certified Lactation Consultant is Marlene Giel, a RN here in Aruba at The Horacio Oduber Hospital. She's been a L&D Nurse since 1995 and did her specialization in Obstetrics&Gynecology. She Graduated in 2002 from the Erasmus Medische Centrum Rotterdam. Always having had a passion for breastfeeding, she took on a new title that of Certified Lactation Consultant since beginning her studies in 2006. She is in the course of completing absolute certification for IBCLC. 


Question: I've been nursing my son for many weeks now and breastfeeding is finally becoming enjoyable. But now, all of a sudden, my breasts don't feel full anymore, what's going on? Is my milk drying up?


Answer: Many mothers are concerned about milk supply after the early weeks because they notice that the breasts are feeling soft or empty. It is normal for your breasts to feel mostly soft after the first weeks. At some point around 6 weeks, your milk supply will begin to regulate and your breasts will begin to feel less full, soft or even empty. You may stop leaking, you may stop feeling let-down or feel it less. This doesn't mean that the milk supply has dropped, but this mean that your body has figured out how much milk is being removed from the breasts and is no longer making too much. This change may come gradually or sometimes rather sudden. Many people are not aware that these breast changes are normal because so many mothers stop breastfeeding early on and never see this change or they mistakenly interpret this change as a sign that the milk supply has dried up and wean because of this change.
Why the change? The prolactin level that is high in the early weeks gradually decreases. Mom's body will adjust the milk production to the baby's needs.


Send in your questions to llama_lovah@hotmail.com or Wendy Martijn on Facebook, or post them in the comments on this blog, and have yours answered by our IBCLC in next week's "Ask an IBCLC"

Socially and Culturally accepted ages of breastfed infants

If most people find breastfeeding disgusting, and some think it's ok, and yet some find and older nursling to be repugnant, where does a breastfeeding mom stand when it comes to her decision to continue or wean her growing nursling? This blog won't discuss the nutritional benefits of Breast-milk past the age of two, because contrary to popular belief, breast-milk has no "expiration date" and has no age limit where nutrional benefits are concerned. Its properties continue the same and continually protects the breastfeeding child, regardless of their age or gender.

What will be discussed is the socially/culturally "accepted" age to wean a child. What does society say regarding nursing an older child? Even if there are no words spoken against breastfeeding a child past 1-2 years, what are the perceived mental attitudes telling us? Why would it be more acceptable for a child to bottle feed at an older age compared to children of that same age breastfeeding? How is it here in Aruba?

I asked this question on my Facebook and was inundated by responses of varied backgrounds. Women, younger and older, breastfeeding mothers and childless women. I was pleasantly suprised to read there responses

• "my personal opinion is around 9 months to a year. By then they should go right to drinking from a cup. Of course everyone is free to choose what they feel is right for them."

• "2 years"

• "Well They say...( the experts) around 1 1/2 year.. that the milk is nutritive and so..but then again it's up to the mom what she is wants and what the baby demands......because some baby just wont let go.........."

• "It's never TOO OLD!!!! If you're confident about giving your 5 yr old breastfeeding then you should do it."

• "when the baby decides....I nursed my oldest until he was 4.5, and am now nursing my 3 year old and 9 month old. They also never get sick."

• "The AAP says children should be breastfed for 2 years...at least. But they also say a lot of other bogus things. And WHO recommends at least to age two, as well. The only reason people are saying children should wean before then is due to their own insecurity and uncomfortableness. Obviously NOT because they have the best interest of the child in mind."

After reading all these responses it prompted me to recall and mention that in Bible times, for example,Sarah had breastfed Isaac until the age of 5. It's true that things were much different back then, wet nurses were as common as olive oil was and women simply nursed and got on with their lives. Breastfeeding wasn't this big thing as it is now. It was normal and accepted and  was not so exalted as it is now. Why? Because it was the norm, they didn't have to go to great lengths in praising breastfeeding because it was naturally and correctly assumed that human milk is the best nourishment for human babies. 

Following up on the topic at hand, even some women who have breastfed their children find that breastfeeding an older child is "too much". This is not because of some kind of lack in the lactational ability, but because of social and cultural perceptions of what is "ok" and what is "normal" or "excessive". We see that even women who approve of and have breastfed are touched by a tinge of shame, discomfort and avoidance when it comes to discussing, looking at and even thinking about a 3-4 year-old nursling. Even when nothing is said, body language and gestures speak volumes. People may cringe at the sight of a woman nursing an older child in public, and Aruba is not to be excluded.  One of my breastfeeding "sensei's" J, told me at a mother-to-mother support group that it got to a point that when she nursed her over 4 year-old son she had to sometimes sit and in effect "hide" in her room, in her own house because of the comments she got from then close relatives. This woman is a staunch breastfeeding advocate and supports it all the way, and to think she would ever feel that way with her nursling shows a lot of what outside influece can do/does.In the U.S., from what I read and hear of other mothers' experiences, it's not much different from Aruba. Unfortunately, not all states have laws that protect women and enable them to nurse in public, let alone nurse a toddler! In stark contrast however, places like Mongolia, Holland and Europe in general, it's something natural and a daily occurence. It's not uncommon at all to see women breastfeeding anywhere/anytime. People in general rather you hurry up and nurse the child already to stop it from crying! So, what advice is there for moms out there reading this? Let me share some words of wisdom from my other breastfeeding "sensei" M.She tells me and all the other moms out there, EARPLUGS. Set 'em and forget 'em! Put 'em in and continue until you and your child make the decision that the point has been reached and the breastfeeding relationship has met its goal and satisfactory fulfillment.
This is not the way the majority of the nursing relationships end, however, along with my other strong convictions, I know I will see a time when all is restored to its original intended purpose, and that includes the breasts and their practicality.

Just some food for thought...

Kangaroo care / Skin-to-Skin contact

I decided to do a piece today about the benefits and effects of skin-to-skin contact or as referred to as Kangaroo Care, between mother and newborn baby. This topic will discuss how skin-to-skin contact impacts early and successful breastfeeding initiation and extends exclusive breastfeeding duration.

Skin-to-skin contact has become more widely accepted and implemented into hospital policies because of it's many benefits. The World Health Organization launched a "Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative" in the '90 and so began the implementation of such practices as the above mentioned. For the history of the BFHI go here

So, let's go straight to the benefits of undisturbed Kangaroo Care for at least an hour after birth

*Babies are more likely to latch and get a proper latch
*The baby is less likely to cry
* The baby is more likely to breastfeed exclusively longer
*If left undisturbed, the healthy term baby takes an average of one (1) hour to orientate to the breast, attach and start to breastfeed.(This is known as the Breast Crawl in which a newborn infant literally crawls to his mothers breast unassisted in search for nourishment)Babies affected by medications used during labor and birth may require longer than one hour
*Baby adapts better, stabilizes temperature, breathing, heart rate and blood sugar levels
*Mother and baby imprinting is fostered with baby using the strongest newborn sense- smell
*Baby's hand and mouth contact with the nipple stimulates maternal oxytocin to enhance uterine contractions, milk let-down and mother-baby interaction and bonding.

Initiating breastfeeding after a vaginal birth

Unless a medically indicated procedure is required, ,immediate skin-to-skin contact with the mother is facilitated and continues undisturbed until the baby has had the first breastfeed, even if mother and baby has to be transferred. The baby is allowed to follow the normal sequence of innate feeding behaviors and initiates breastfeeding when ready.The staff should provide assistance by keeping the mother and baby together and encouraging the mother to recognize and respond to her baby's innate feeding behaviors

Initiating breastfeeding after a cesarean birth
Skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby should preferably be initiated in the theatre suite. Where this is not possible, a mother who has not had a general anesthetic is in skin-to-skin contact with her baby within 10 minutes of the time she arrives in recovery, unless a medically indicated procedure is required. A mother who has had general anesthetic should have skin-to-skin contact within 10 minutes of being able to respond to her baby. And the same protocol is followed as with a vaginal birth.

I would like to add though, that Kangaroo Care's benefits does not end once you get home. Regularly having skin-to-skin contact at home in the weeks and months to come is just as important and beneficial for mother and infant as it was right after the baby's birth

And how do we do it here in Aruba?
Having all of this said, I would like to apply this locally. In Aruba, unfortunately we do not have such a breastfeeding friendly hospital. Where skin-to-skin contact is concerned, my ob/gyn did place my daughter on my chest (not my bare chest though, and my daughter was wrapped up in a blanket because it was freezing in the L&D room. However, my daughter was taken away after about 5-10 minutes to be measured etc. I've spoken to our one and only IBCLC and RLDN (Registered Labor and Delivery Nurse)Marlene Giel, and she's explained to me that although they do encourage and implement kangaroo care to some extent, much improvement is to be made. She also explained to me that the HOH(Aruba's hospital) is in the process of adopting the BFHI (Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative). One day, hopefully soon, we will see more mothers enjoying skin-to-skin contact without unnecessary interruptions, more mothers having the choice to room in with their baby without having to be in a first class room. And more mothers enjoying holding their precious little ones without the snarl of "If you hold her, you'll spoil the baby".

To close this topic, Here I leave you with the most heart warming story I've read about a mother's love, read Carolyn Isbister's story about how skin-to-skin contact saved her severely premature baby's life

Fundashon Pro Lechi Mama Aruba, Quintessence Foundation and World Breastfeeding Week

The other board members and myself from Fundacion Pro Lechi Mama Aruba have had a pretty busy week-and-a-half having meetings constantly all the while trying to balance family life, work life, and somewhat of a social life together with our passion for volunteer work with this non-profit organization.

Why this rush? Well, we decided( a little last minute) to participate for the first time ever in the yearly GLOBAL breastfeeding challenge from Quintessence Foundation. The board is super excited about this idea, and we've been frantically putting things together, arranging, calling, asking and asking and asking. Ofcourse, being a non-profit organization, we rely (A LOT) on sponsors and donations.

So far we have the site arranged which will be Paseo Herencia. They have been super super kind to us to give in to our every whim of how we envision this Challenge to be. We cannot stop extending our gratitude and apreciation for all they have done and will yet do. SO! Tomorrow is the Press Conference to reveal to whole Aruba this event. It's gonna be huge, it's gonna be impacting, it's gonna be attitude altering (hopefully).

What's the purpose of all this shabang? Well, Around the world, mothers struggle to find acceptence and validation where breastfeeding is concerned, and over and over again, women are shoved into a corner, a car and even a bathroom when it comes to breastfeeding in public. This implies that nursing a infant/toddler beyond the privacy of one's own home is wrong. THIS attitude must change. Why can women degrade themselves and walk around on beaches with their breasts out, yet DARE a baby nurse or suckle from that SAME breast, FORGET about it. SCANDAL SCANDAL...what is going on...
Aruba is not to be excluded from this non-accepting mentality. That is why this breastfeeding Challenge is so timely and appropriate.

Now... If I were speaking, I'd be out of breath. I'm very excited, I want to blog about all all all the details but will wait till more stuff is finalized before I begin divulging anything.


On another note, this is my first blog, it's very simple, it's very short. I hope to get more hang of it sooner or later and add more interesting things to it. Grow with me, come along and start from the very beginning with me..

-Wendy Martijn-