The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Cafe caters to nursing moms
ONEIDA — Two times a month, local mothers can meet for breast feeding advice at the Breast Feeding Connections Cafe at Oneida Healthcare.
On the first and third Friday of every month from 1- 4 p. m., mothers who breast feed can come to the cafe, eat, weigh their baby and receive advice from lactation consultants. The cafe is located on Seneca Street in the Wee Care building across from Oneida Healthcare.
Mothers are advised to breast feed until their child is a year old, and after
that it’s really a preference when to stop. The cafe, which has been running since May, offers reassurance, and people can also arrange to meet with lactation consultants privately.
On Friday, Rachel Fall of Hamilton was feeding her three- week- old son Jason at the cafe.
“If it weren’t for you, I’d probably quit,” she said to a consultant after receiving latching advice. Latching refers to a baby getting in the correct position to be able to get milk.
Fall said that in the three weeks since her baby was born, latching has been the only problem.
Breast fed babies eat more than bottle fed babies, so Fall’s child receives milk roughly every few hours.
“The main thing is getting confidence and learning to be discreet if you want to feed your child when you are out,” she said.
It wasn’t a hard decision to breast feed or bottle feed, Fall said. As soon as she found she was pregnant, she immediately wanted to breast feed.
“I find it easier than having to prepare bottles,” she said; she plans on breast feeding for six months to a year.
“It’s a great way to talk to other moms,” said Pat Jones, a nurse practitioner and lactation consultant at the cafe. The cafe provides support for moms and babies who are having difficulty, especially since “latching is the biggest issue.”
“Let the baby find the breast naturally,” Jones suggests. “Skin- to- skin contact is best, with as little assistance as possible.”
“There also is often a perception that moms don’t have enough milk; they do,” said Molly Limbert, a public health nurse with Madison County, another consultant at the cafe.
One common topic of discussion at the cafe is when to stop breast feeding.
When asked about her reaction to a recent TIME magazine article about a woman who was still breast feeding into toddlerhood, Limbert said that sometimes articles sensationalize breast feeding for shock value. Some experts say it is perfectly OK to stop breast feeding anywhere from two to seven years of age.
Limbert feels that in some ways, “The American public sees breast feeding as a negative,” a notion that she and her colleagues hope to change through education.
If anyone has questions regarding lactation consultations or the breast feeding cafe, they are encouraged to call the Oneida Healthcare maternity unit at 315- 361- 2065.