Edwina Froehlich, one of the seven founding mothers of La Leche League, died of a stroke earlier this month, according to her obituary in the Chicago Tribune. She was 93.

I knew nothing of the history of La Leche League or Froehlich's battles to start it. Breastfeeding was considered so radical that she was accused of sacrificing her three boys' lives to "prove a point." The boys, BTW, are alive and well, including her son, Illinois State Rep. Paul Froehlich, who was quoted in the article. Here is a quick glimpse of Froehlich's fascinating life:

At the time, many doctors were promoting infant formula as superior to mother's milk. Froehlich, who breast-fed all three of her children, didn't think women were getting straight information from their doctors.

"We all felt a mother should listen to her body, her nature," Froehlich said in a 1996 interview with the Chicago Tribune. "We could see clearly that if you trusted your inner self, you could do something amazing."

Newspapers then would not publish articles or meeting notices that included the word "breast," so the group used the Spanish word for milk, leche, for its name.

For the first several years, the league operated out of Froehlich's home in Franklin Park, Ill. She'd care for her children and do chores while walking around the house with a phone receiver tucked between her shoulder and ear, counseling women from around the country, her son Peter said.

"She had all these domestic qualities. But she had an unwavering commitment to help women take care of what she thought was their natural right," her son said.

First off, let me say I fully support the right of every woman to whip out a boob wherever she pleases to feed her child. Second off, let me say, I am a very modest person and don't really want to flash nip at random strangers. So what's the best way to breastfeed an infant in public?

Wired magazine's "Mr. Know-It-All" recently answered a letter regarding drinking and nursing. "Stressed-out mom of a newborn" has found herself craving cabernet, but she is nursing. Is it safe for her to drink?

Mr. Know-It-All's response:

Caution is certainly called for, as hooch does, indeed, seep into a kid's nutritional supply. The good news is that an occasional glass of wine shouldn't be a problem, as long as you don't have another feeding slated for a while. The effects of liquor vary widely according to a drinker's weight and metabolism, but a general rule of thumb is that the concentration of alcohol in breast milk peaks around 60 minutes after ingestion. Play it safe: Wait two to three hours per drink before nursing Junior.

You want to be extra cautious, however, if your breast monkey is less than 3 months old; the youngest livers have a tough time metabolizing alcohol. It's also prudent to avoid the more potent vintages--zinfandels tend to have a higher percentage of alcohol than Rieslings, for example. Check the label before pouring.

But what if there's a special occasion approaching and you'd like to celebrate with more than one tipple? First off, don't go crazy--breast-feeding with a hangover is as much fun as doing anything else with a hangover. More important, pump plenty of milk in advance, and be prepared to pump and dump--pump milk and throw it away--should your breasts become full before the alcohol clears your system. Milk alcohol level declines at the same rate as blood alcohol level, so whenever you're back to 100 percent sober is when you can safely nurse.

Bottom line: Enjoy a glass of wine, and don't panic. But you should probably wait to really tie one on till after your child has been weaned. Don't worry--at that age, they'll still provide plenty of reasons for you to need a stiff drink.

Makes sense. Then again, occasional -- versus regular -- alcohol consumption is probably a good idea for everyone -- not just nursing mothers.  

But, personally, I have never restrained from eating my favorite foods, including spicy or garlicky foods, or even drinking while nursing. While I did wait until my babies were older -- after the 3-month-mark sounds about right -- to have a very occasional glass of wine, I did not see a correlation between what I was eating or drinking and their behavior. Plus, I thought being a parent was hard enough that restricting my diet seemed rather cruel. I needed the calories!

For the record, I am in the process of weaning Eli because DH and I have a trip scheduled next month. It's only for a few days and my MIL will watch the kids. But it will be my first overnight stay without Eli.

She is 11 months old today. I am nursing her once every couple days and supplementing with formula. I actually feel good about it -- not depressed like I did with Ari. She was nursed two more months than Ari, and I am simply relieved to have survived the first year of babyhood. Whew!

We are a day away from December so the holiday parties begin. We have two back-to-back kid birthday parties tomorrow. But starting a week from today, we have a litany of holiday parties, which has left me scrambling for childcare. With no grandparents in the area, it will be a combination of paid childcare and free care off the backs of our lovely friends.

An Actual Decent Pop Star: In a music market that fetishizes teen sluts, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks is a breath of fresh air. Sparks, who at 17 is the youngest Idol winner, said it was important to her to make an album that was accessible by people of all ages, according to an Associated Press report.

"I wasn't really sure what I wanted to sing about," Sparks said, "but I knew what I didn't want to sing about."

"I wanted to stay away from 'Oh, put your hands all over me'-type thing, because I haven't experienced that yet so the fact that I would sing it would be really dumb -- plus I don't feel comfortable singing stuff like that," Sparks, who turns 18 in December, said with a giggle.

It's that kind of wholesome charm, along with her powerhouse voice and striking good looks, that endeared her to "American Idol" audiences this year, making her the youngest winner in the TV phenomenon's six-season history after defeating semifinalist Blake Lewis. And on her Jive Records self-titled debut, record executives -- and Sparks herself -- wanted to make sure she retained that sweet-as-pie image.

Good for her. I hope she is able to maintain her values and not flash the rest of us like almost every single teen pop star before her.

A Stephen Hawking Kids Book: The genius physicist Stephen Hawking and his daughter Lucy co-wrote a children’s science book, according to the Today show website. This may be just the holiday gift for the budding scientist.

I've written before about how I went into motherhood a reluctant breastfeeder and ended up a proud lactivist.

But as much as I support breastfeeding and the moms who do it, I must admit the vivid descriptions in this column, by a British woman who is still nursing her 4-year-old, had me cringing:

From the age of two, my daughter started to switch breasts – that is to say, she would no longer feed on one breast, then sedately take the other. She would switch, sometimes manically, between the two, because she had learnt that the let-down (the flow of milk) is faster if you stimulate the breasts in this way. It was also about this time that she started a habit I find extremely annoying to this day: twiddling. While she fed off one breast she would twiddle the other nipple, as if trying to tune in to a short wave radio station. Again, this was to stimulate the milk so that when she did latch on to the second breast, it was all ready to go.

What I loved about nursing was the closeness and the comfort. Manic switching and nipple-twiddling, on the other hand, don't sound the least bit relaxing to me. In fact, it doesn't sound as if it was very relaxing for the author:

I found feeding between the ages of two and four quite hard at times. She needed to feed a lot, sometimes 50 feeds a day, although they were quick. When we moved house, her feeding became almost frenzied, as if she thought I would leave her.

50 times a day??? Bless this mama's heart! I don't even think I was nursing my daughter 50 times a day when she was an infant...and there's no way I could have tolerated four years of that.

Ultimately, it sounds as if this mom has hung on to nursing as a way to pacify and comfort her daughter:

I'm not sure how I would have met her needs so quickly during this time without breastfeeding. And I'm not sure I could have parented during the terrible twos without it: it was like having an entire cavalry at your beck and call. Breasts are a powerful parenting tool.

I nursed my daughter for 14 months, and weaned her very gradually, as I was no longer making enough milk to satisfy her. Working full-time is not conducive to nursing, but I lasted longer than I expected and like to think my robust and healthy daughter reaped a lot of the benefits of mother's milk.

In retrospect, I wish I could have hung on until closer to her 2nd birthday (and plan to nurse a litle longer should I have another child). But in many ways, I was relieved to have my body back after 9 months of pregnancy and 14 months of nursing.

There are times I wish I could have those "powerful parenting tools" back...like when we're trapped on an airplane and my daughter is fussy and tired. There's nothing like sticking a boob in a fussy baby's mouth for instant peace and quiet.

But as my daughter quickly approaches her 3rd birthday, I can't imagine myself still nursing her, no matter how fond those memories. What about you ladies? For those of you who nursed, how did you decide when to stop? And for those of you who breastfed for an extended period of time, was it a conscious decision or an organic one? And when did you know it was time to wean?

We all know that there have been horrible injustices due to immigration laws and homeland security in the past.  This recent incident is no exception.  On October 27th, Sayda Umanzor had her nine month old daughter Brittany, who was breastfeeding at the time taken from her arms when she and her husband were led away by authorities.  

"It was like a piece of me was torn away," Umanzor said Thursday, speaking through an interpreter.

I’ve been an avid reader of the attachment parenting resource Mothering Magazine since my son was an infant.  Mothering’s editor, Peggy O’Mara has written a very interesting editorial about how she feels breastfeeding is in trouble.   According to O’Mara, breastfeeding initiation rates dropped when infant formula companies began to advertise to consumers in 1989 via magazine and television.  At the same time, she says that breastfeeding advocates became more active to actually increase the initiation rate to an all time high of 70.1% in 2002.  Then, in 2003 she says the unthinkable happened.  The rate drops 4% to 66%.  

Please note: Oops, my bad! Currier apparently is taking the exam over two days AND getting additional break time. Seems like a lot to me. Thanks for clarifying, Erika! -Elisa

Sophie Currier, the Harvard student who requested additional time during the nine-hour medical licensing exam to pump milk for her four-month-old daughter, just won an appeals court decision. She will be allowed an additional 60 minutes of break time to take the test.

I know we debated whether the 45 minutes was sufficient -- it seemed like it was -- but Currier’s demands made sense in this Associated Press article:

But (Judge) Katzmann said that amount of break time was "insufficient" for Currier to nurse her baby, properly express breast milk, eat, drink and use the restroom over the course of the nine-hour exam.

Without extra break time, Currier would have to choose between pumping breast milk and ignoring her bodily functions or foregoing pumping and causing herself significant pain, the judge said.

"Under either avenue, (Currier) is placed at significant disadvantage in comparison to her peers," Katzmann wrote in his 26-page ruling.

Forty-five minutes for a 9-hour exam doesn’t seem like much when you take into consideration eating and using the bathroom. I know I am starving all the time when I am nursing. And since I just delivered a baby, I always have to use the bathroom, too.

I think this is a good precedent to set. Hopefully, it trickles down to other industries.

I'm struggling with personal problems right now and it's made things much harder for me as a parent.  I'm trying to put the pieces together and understand what has happened and it's a journey I thought I might share, but it's personal and I'm quite honest.  

I also don't doubt that there are many women who have a hard time with motherhood just as there are many women who don't see it as hard at all.  Everyone is okay, I want to say this because this is a very personal entry and it's not meant to make a statement about other mothers, just me as a mother, that's it.

And please, I beg of you, no lectures and no scolding about my labor, my breastfeeding or any other choices.  I'm not soliciting advice.

Erin already covered this issue over at huffington post, but I was so appalled (after just managing to watch Friday's episode tonight) that I had to vent.  

First, I've known in my gut that Bill Maher is a misogynist child hating prick.  Somehow I've managed to overlook his hatred of women and children, mostly because his hatred is generally contained, and if discussed, mostly alluded to.  I now feel guilty for overlooking it for so long, I should've done along time ago what I did tonight.  I've untivoed Bill and I will never watch his show again.

Update on my ongoing drama to get Blue Shield of California to pay for my epidural: As I had mentioned before, it cost $1,500 to get an epidural to deliver Eli. Our provider, Blue Shield tried to get me to pay for it saying the anesthesiologist was “out of network.” (As if I were in a position to ask him!)

After some haggling, I received a shmarmy letter from the company that for this time only it would graciously pay for it. (As if our premiums have not doubled in the last few years.)

I thought this was settled as BCBS agreed to call the hospital and settle this. Except I received a phone call from a bill collector yesterday, telling me to pay up or deal with the credit bureau instead. UGH.

So I wasted another 45 minutes of my life, waiting on the line to speak to either the bill collector or BCBS. The bill collector especially was rude. I told her that the insurance company was supposed to call her -- she had no such record and treated me as if I were lying about the whole thing. Infuriating -- and then I confided in her, “Excuse my language, but last time I spoke to them (BCBS), they told me that they were sending small checks here and there so that your doctor would drop his fee as a ‘courtesy’ to them. They are dicking you over.”

Bill collector: “Maam, we are not the hospital. We just want to collect the bill. You need to call the insurance company.”

Once I finally got through to someone at BCBS, I demanded a three-way conversation with the bill collector to settle this. Turns out, BCBS had a record of the conversation with the bill collector, but the bill collector did not. The bill collector lashed out at me, “Elisa, I sent you a bill with some notes on what BCBS would pay. You should have responded!”

Me: “Well, you told me that you were going to take care of this! It’s been almost six months and this still has not been settled!”

The BCBS rep told me she would send payment to the bill collector but asked her to put a “30-day hold” on my account. The bill collector grudgingly agreed. Sigh.

I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I will hear from either of them. This is so aggravating.

Four years ago, I got wind of a new ad campaign by the Department of Health and Human Services promoting breastfeeding.  The new national campaign, was controversial and featured what some thought were scare tactics in order to improve the country’s abysmal breastfeeding rates.  Soon after the ads were developed, I heard through the grapevine that the formula industry had been pushing hard for the ads to be changed, citing reasons such as inducing guilt in new mothers.  So, the ads were changed to a “more friendly images of dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops, to dramatize how breast-feeding could help avert respiratory problems and obesity” as a direct result of the formula industry’s influence.  

Some of what has transpired has come to light in an article on MSNBC.com today.  

The formula industry's intervention -- which did not block the ads but helped change their content -- is being scrutinized by Congress in the wake of last month's testimony by former surgeon general Richard H. Carmona that the Bush administration repeatedly allowed political considerations to interfere with his efforts to promote public health.