Community Profile

We are a Pro-Breastfeeding community, designed to educate, encourage and support other women through their breastfeeding journey. Our members are:

• Currently Breastfeeding
  
• Pregnant and Planning on Breastfeeding
  
• Experienced, here to offer their support

Any advice that contradicts or discourages the advice of the La Leche League (LLL) or the World Health Organization (WHO) will not be given (or tolerated).

Call 1-877-4-LALECHE (1-877-525-3243) for 24 hour toll-free breastfeeding helpline services in the US.

"Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is the optimal way of feeding infants.
Thereafter infants should receive complementary foods with continued breastfeeding
up to 2 years of age or beyond. "

~ from the World Health Organization Exclusive Breastfeeding Policy

We do not support supplementing with human milk substitutes or giving up for any reason (unless absolutely medically necessary), and we do not accept the following excuses:

• "I want my body back."
  
• "It's too much work"
  
• "I want more sleep" etc...

Breastfeeding is not a "choice", and will not be presented as such in this community. It is your child's birthright, and your responsibility as a Mother. We are all here because we know that babies were born to be breastfed, and we will all do our damnedest to ensure that every one of us is successful.

You are a strong woman, and you CAN do it. You just need to believe in yourself, and we're here to help.

We fully support and encourage all mothers to eliminate their reliance on supplementing with inferior human milk substitutes and return to 100% breastmilk. If your goal is to get your baby back on the breast, we welcome you with open arms, you can succeed!

Click here to join our community. Click here to contact the moderators.

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Links that have been a Beneficial Resource to Many Nursing Mothers:

• Growth Charts for Breastfed Babies - Most pediatrician charts are based on formula-fed infants (on average, heavier than breastfed babies.)
  
• Kellymom.com - Evidence-based information on breastfeeding, sleep and parenting.
  
• Breastfeeding.com - Why Breastfeeding is good for you and your baby - tons of info.
  
• 101 Reasons to Breastfeed your Baby
  
• Dr. Hale's Breastfeeding and Medications Forum - Concerned about the medication you're taking? Check here first!
  
• Human Milk Banking Association of North America
  
• African American Breastfeeding Alliance
  
• Australian Breastfeeding Association

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Community Policies:
Before posting, please read this post that addresses frequently asked questions. Our entries are all organized in the community memories, and with post tags, as well.
If you are looking for information about the safety of a medication while breastfeeding, please see this post.

No formatting changes please (fonts, colors, centering, etc).

For the sake of those with dial-up connections, please put all pictures behind a lj-cut.

breastfeeding is a large community with quite a lot of traffic. As such, we'd like to remind everyone that posts do need to be directly relevant to the topic of breastfeeding, and to please keep off-topic posts to the more general parenting/birth communities. Some parenting & birth communities we recommend are:

• attachedparents
  
• parenting101
  
• naturalbirth
  
• naturalpregnant
  
• instinctualmama
  
• imakebabyfood
  
• real_baby_food
  
• babyledweaners

Please DO NOT DELETE POSTS OR COMMENTS. If you have an issue with a comment made in one of your posts, screen the offending comment and e-mail the moderators.

Please do NOT contribute to any drama. If you are concerned about drama in the community, e-mail the moderators - do not compose a new post complaining about the drama, thereby creating more drama. Please respect member privacy in this community, and refrain from screen-capping and snarking. Every woman deserves a safe place to ask questions without judgment, and all entries are forced friends-only. Please do not link to other LJ communities or discussion groups to validate your opinions - we are not on the warpath. All drama-related posts will be removed immediately.

If you have questions about formula, please ask them in a formula feeding community.

We do not condone the use of formula unless absolutely medically necessary and all options have been exhausted.

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If you have any questions, comments, ideas, or concerns about a post or comment made in the community, please e-mail us. We welcome everyone's input to keep this community the wonderful, caring, supportive breastfeeding community that it is.