Breastfeeding is one of the best joys of motherhood. The bond mamas develop with their little ones is so precious, but it's not always easy. Some of the most common struggles new mamas confront include securing a proper latch, nipple soreness and low milk supply. But for breastfeeding mothers of color, there is an additional set of struggles that are often overlooked.

While it's only a start, Black Breastfeeding Week can be an equalizer, bringing attention to the challenges black women face while promoting the fact that black women do, in fact, breastfeed.

These are breastfeeding challenges new mothers of color face and what we can start doing today to initiate a positive change:

1. Lack of prenatal support

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black mothers are four times more likely to die during and after pregnancy. In fact, a study from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine proved that healthcare providers often assume that black patients are overreacting when raising issues regarding pain, discomfort and other difficulties.

The nonchalant outlook regarding the health concerns of black women can lead to the common assumption that black mothers do not breastfeed. As a result, the breastfeeding education that expectant black mothers should receive is often left out of the prenatal care plan.

How Black Breastfeeding Week helps: It encourages increased integration of prenatal breastfeeding education. By raising awareness of the racial disparities experienced by the black community, this week can motivate healthcare workers to place a greater emphasis on promoting and encouraging breastfeeding to their black expectant mothers.

2. Lack of postpartum breastfeeding support

After giving birth it is common for new mothers to receive assistance with latching, education regarding the benefits of breastfeeding, and a visit from a lactation consultant. But for new mothers of color, this experience may be very different. In fact, a study indicated that hospitals located in areas with a higher percentage of black residents were less likely to provide adequate breastfeeding support. Additionally, black infants are more likely to be formula fed in the hospital than other races.

Compared to white mothers, researchers at Northshore University reported that black mothers were significantly more likely to be encouraged to formula feed. Early initiation of formula feeding without necessity can reduce the likelihood of long-term breastfeeding success.

How Black Breastfeeding Week helps: This week draws attention to this discrepancy, thus reminding birth workers that black mothers DO breastfeed and that, with proper education and support, the breastfeeding rates among the black community will improve.

3. Lack of support within the black community

In addition to the uncomfortable stares, nursing mothers may get while breastfeeding in public, breastfeeding women of color also have to deal with stigmas within their own community. These stigmas stem from the historical trauma of being forced to wet nurse babies of their slave owners which often led to the neglect and inability to nurse their own children.

Because of this, breastfeeding is not normalized within black families or the black community.

How Black Breastfeeding Week helps: With a focus on normalizing and celebrating breastfeeding in public, this awareness can help to eliminate the stigma of breastfeeding within the black community. When more of the black community see their peers proudly nursing their babies in public, it will break the generational belief that "breastfeeding is only for white women."

4. Lack of support within the breastfeeding community

Of the 31,181 International Board Certified Lactation Consultants worldwide, very few of them are African American. Black mothers often find it easier to discuss their breastfeeding struggles with someone that understands the disparities and cultural issues they may face. Additionally, the majority of advertisements depicting breastfeeding mothers do not feature women of color. Without role models and supporters that look like them, it is unlikely that black mothers will strive to breastfeed since it is not promoted within their community.

How Black Breastfeeding Week helps: While this is an unfortunate truth, Black Breastfeeding Week seeks to encourage women of color to become lactation consultants by pointing out the lack of diversity within the lactation community. It also highlights the amazing black lactation consultants available that act as role models for aspiring breastfeeding supporters of color.

Here's how you can make a difference:

These struggles have led to a lower percentage of breastfeeding black mothers when compared to other races, however, with raised awareness by the CDC and campaigns like Black Breastfeeding Week, the statistics are improving. In 2015, only 64.3% of black infants were breastfed. The most recent CDC breastfeeding statistic report shows that there was a 10% increase in breastfeeding of black infants.

With increased prenatal and postpartum support (regardless of your race), more access to resources, and added representation of both black breastfeeding mothers and black lactation professionals, these statistics will continue to improve, resulting in healthier communities everywhere.

Here are three actionable ways you can support Black Breastfeeding Week right now:

1. Write to your government officials and tell them why they should celebrate and promote Black Breastfeeding Week in your city/state.
2. Share articles like this on social media to help your friends, family and the rest of the world learn about why this week is necessary.
3. Like and share images of black breastfeeding women on your social media channels. Black representation matters and your support just might encourage a mother to breastfeed.

source: mother.ly

When I was first learning about positive parenting, I admit that I was confused. If I didn’t punish poor behavior, wasn’t I being permissive? How would my kid learn what was acceptable and what wasn’t if there were no “consequences?” I loved the idea behind the philosophy – raising my sons in a positive, loving environment where we focused on building trust and strong relationships. It sounded great on paper, but I didn’t understand how to actually put it into practice. I didn’t know what to do when my kid misbehaved.

My shift came when I finally understood that behavior was communication – and wrongful behavior was a cry for help from my child. That’s when positive parenting clicked for me. Before I discovered positive parenting, I was constantly asking “which consequence fits this behavior?” or “how long should I punish him for this?” Now, when a problem arises, I ask “What is this behavior telling me and what does my son need?”

That is a huge shift! I stopped seeing my son’s “misbehavior” as a punishable moment and started seeing it as a teachable moment. The reason I put misbehavior in quotation marks is that it’s a mere judgment, and part of my shift was that I really made an effort to stop judging my children based on fleeting actions driven by strong emotions and an underdeveloped brain. For example, what I had misjudged as defiance from my three year old turned out to be emotional pain. He was dealing with a new baby brother, loss of time with mommy, and a confusing new role as “the big boy” even though he was still so very little. Looking past the behavior and seeing the hurt driving it stopped time-outs, behavior charts, and other behavior management systems in their tracks and helped me understand what I had to do to heal the hurt, which was empathize, reconnect, and reassure.

Viewing behavior as teachable moments helps you shift away from using punishments that miss the mark because they don’t deal with the underlying emotions or thoughts driving the behavior. This also helps you avoid permissiveness because you are still focused on fixing the problem. You aren’t just waving it off as something your child can’t control. By using it as a teachable moment, you’re automatically focused on the word “teachable,” and that’s where the positive parenting magic is! It’s really about teaching what’s right and acceptable instead of punishing what’s wrong. It’s about empowering your child with tools and skills to really do better, not just to stuff those feelings down or hide his behavior from you.

To turn behavior issues into teachable moments, ask yourself two questions.

What is my child’s behavior telling me?

What does my child need right now?

It isn’t always immediately apparent what is driving your child’s behavior, so a good place to start to determine if your child’s basic needs are being met. Those needs include:

• Safety and security
• A warm, loving environment
• Feeling loved and liked
• Feeling attached or connected to primary caregivers
• Structure
• Consistency
• Good nutrition
• Adequate sleep
• Exercise
• Positive role models
• Feeling valued, respected, and understood
• Feeling capable
• Freedom to express feelings
• Emotional support

Finally, what is it that your child needs right now? What can you teach her or what need can you meet that will help her do better? We are here to teach and guide our children through childhood, and we become better able to do that when we ask the questions that get to the root of the problem rather than simply asking, “How long should I take away your electronics?” The key to good behavior isn’t fearing good punishments but feeling good about oneself, one’s relationships, and one’s place in the world.

source: Rebecca Eanes

Discovering the best foods for lunches and snacks is an important step in back to school preparation. But with new routines and packed schedules on the horizon, finding time to think about what to pack for back to school lunches can be a challenge. Some kids are super picky and won't eat anything but grilled cheese. Others could eat endless amounts of nutritious snacks all day, everyday. Regardless of where your child falls on the food spectrum, we're here to help you find what works best for your family.

We asked #TeamMotherly to share their favorite go-to lunches and snacks for the back to school season. Mix it up and add some variety in there and you'll be good to go! Here's what they had to say:

1. "Cubed ham, cheese, cut grapes, yogurt covered raisins."—Tiffany S.

2. "Granola bars, carrots or cucumbers and ranch, peanut butter crackers, fresh fruit."—Melissa B.

3. "For me? Wine."—Nicole N.

4. "My little one loves to take tuna or chicken salad with grapes and crackers, yogurt and ice water with fresh cucumbers and garden tomatoes or chicken Alfredo with toast and veggies or peanut butter celery tomatoes cucumbers chips and water."—Jackie P.

5. "The cafeteria!"—Toni H.

6. "Once a week, it's usually ham and cheese sandwich with raw baby carrots and grape tomatoes. And for dessert, I do yogurt or fruit. It doesn't really matter if it's always the healthiest or the best lunch, what I find really good is alternating and rotating and trying to get creative."—Erica W.

7. "Bananas, string cheese, blueberries, apple sauce, raspberries."—Melina S.

8. "Cut strawberries or cut apples & peanut butter for snacks! & Sandwich with ham or turkey, tomato, lettuce, & mayo separately! And yogurt."—Melodi B.

9. "I roll a hotdog in a flour tortilla and toast it in a skillet until crispy. Like a hot dog burrito."—Elda E.

10. "Sandwiches (meat or sunbutter and jelly), quesadillas, hummusdillas (hummus in tortilla), leftover pizza, bean salad with tortilla chips, boiled eggs/cheese, pesto pasta salad, yogurt and granola, bagel with cream cheese, empanadas (bean and cheese or meat). And always fruit/veggies as sides."—Tran L.

11. "I make a sandwich with hummus then pack carrots, applesauce, Z-Bar and some crackers."—Suzanne W.

12. "Vary it between ham sandwiches, dairylea dunkers, breadsticks and then healthy snacks and juice box. [I also include] water in a sports bottle for during the day."—Danielle B.

13. "Gluten-free pretzels and peanut butter, ham and cream cheese rolls, GF tortillas with PB & J."—Heather T.

source: Motherly