In Toronto, a Canadian judge ordered the mother of a 29-month-old girl to adjust her breastfeeding schedule or begin pumping so her biological father could spend time with the girl. The girl is now 34 months old.

The woman, Jennifer Johne, had allegedly been limiting time for her daughter to spend with dad, Carl Cavannah, because the girl was still breastfeeding.

But Justice Alan Ingram said that must change. The law says that mothers and fathers are equally entitled to custody of a child.

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Breastfeeding can be a hardcore subject.  If you nurse your baby, for how long? If you don’t, why not? If you do breastfeed, are you allowed to do it in public?

But one thing that most breastfeeders don’t think of is this: Would you donate your breastmilk?

Breastmilk donation came in my mind again when I wrote the blog about Salma Hayek breastfeeding an infant in Sierra Leone while on a vaccination (tetanus) campaign. And when I read about Nadya Suleman breastfeeding her octuplets, I wondered: If we’re not naturally meant to give birth to this many babies, will she be able to keep her supply up? Or will she have to turn to milk donations?

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Up until now Medela has only supplied women with plastic bottles for breastmilk storage. This week they have expanded their line to include glass bottles. The glass bottles are 8 ounces each and are designed to work with most of the Medela pumps.

Why glass bottles though?

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I attended my first La Leche League meeting when Zinnia was a week old. I silently gaped at all the seasoned moms calmly discussing parenting techniques as they nursed babies of all ages. Some of the children were really tucking into their evening meal, but others were just “checking in;” breastfeeding was an intimate, nurturing bond that comforted them and made mother and child feel connected.

At Zinnia’s one week check-up, she showed a slight weight gain, which is almost unheard of, since most babies actually lose weight during their first week. I was one proud mama!

Like most new moms, the first two months hurt. A lot. I cringed at the thought of the next feeding. I was a slave to Lansinoh, the lanolin nipple cream that was supposed to smooth the way and ease the pain of cracked, tender, or otherwise harassed nipples that were relentlessly utilized every four hours or so.

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MC sent me this link, as a follow up to my post “Breastfeeding Reduces Anxiety in Children“. Apparently, breastfeeding creates anxiety in some mothers, thus they have chosen to feed their infants exclusively pumped breastmilk. Actually, I know of two women who have done this, and I applaud their commitment to giving their infants the best possible nutrition from the start.

One such mother, that has chosen to exclusively pump for her daughter, is Carrie Mehi, a lawyer from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Carrie explains her psychological struggle with breastfeeeding:

This is a part of my body that’s always been reserved for sexual activity, and I sort of assumed my brain would make whatever necessary adjustments it had to do to make [breastfeeding] not a completely creepy experience for me. I really don’t think we tried breastfeeding after the first day we left the hospital. I was not interested in having my sweet baby crying at my breast for one more minute. I just wanted her fed. [Breastfeeding] was an unpleasant sensation to me, and I thought, you know what, if I’m flinching, I might as well flinch to a machine instead of to my girl.

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