Second day

I think I enjoyed today even more. I was also on time for the first presentation! It's going to be another epic post, so make yourself comfortable if you're going to read on...

It was just as well I was on time today, because I would have been sorry to miss Ros Escott's presentation Breastfeeding Head to Toe: not breastfeeding does make a difference. Hers was a literature review, and a bit of an explanation of why not all breastfeeding studies and articles are equal. For example, what's the author's definition of "breastfed"? For some studies "some" breastmilk is deemed equivalent to exclusively breastfed when collecting and analysing results. When the results from the well-designed studies are gathered together, such as Ros did, it presents an overwhelming body of evidence for the risks of not breastfeeding.

Next up I went to Robin Grille's presentation Fear and loathing of being a parent. I'll admit being somewhat skeptical when he talked about how infants may be emotionally wounded and have barriers to intimacy later in life because of modern parenting practices and family arrangements. He then explained about the amygdala and emotional memories, as opposed to intellectual, conscious memories and that's when it started to click. At the end, Robin presented the "Children's Wellbeing Manifesto"; a prescription for good mental health with which to lobby political parties and health professionals. Interestingly, most items were enthusiastically received by the mostly-ABA crowd - except for the one about banning corporal punishment completely. It seems this issue divides all parents, even within ABA, and I was quite pleased to see that we don't all agree on everything. Mum and Dad if you're reading this: because of the way you reared us, it took me a while to understand the emotional distances Robin and audience members were discussing. Thanks for not listening to the people who told you not to breastfeed, not to cuddle your babies and not to hug and kiss your son!

After morning tea, everyone joined together to listen to ABA president Margaret Grove talk about changes in ABA, particularly our new status as a Registered Training Organisation, and changes to the helpline. Next up, Prof Helen Ball gave a riveting talk about Breastfeeding and Bedsharing, where she showed that bedsharing is actually not such a weird and "hippy" practice in the UK (where her studies have been conducted), where two-thirds of breastfeeding parents and one quarter of formula-feeding parents practice it in some fashion. She also showed comparable results for Australia, outlined how it is so beneficial for continued breastfeeding and showed how the position breastfeeding mothers adopt (arm crooked above baby's head, knees drawn up below baby's legs) is also the safer position for bedsharing. Following Prof Ball, Steve Biddulph took the stage, and from the start his talk was affectionate and hilarious. Steve Biddulph is a magnetic speaker, and if you ever get the chance to hear him speak - do it! His talk Why Men Are Like They Are was a little bit history and a little bit anthropology and a lot about understanding childrearing from the father's perspective.

Dr Wendy Brodribb presented the results of her study into how much medical students actually learn about breastfeeding during their studies. For me, this was the most frightening talk so far. The average amount of time spent learning about breastfeeding over a 4-year postgraduate or 6-year undergraduate medical degree in Southeast Queensland is only 2 hours! 40% of interviewees reported that they learned much of their breastfeeding information from family and friends, which explains why it is such a "mixed-bag" of information and advice where I live (also in SE Queensland). Then Maree Crepinsek presented one of the papers I had been really looking forward to, which was her retrospective study of women who succeeded at breastfeeding despite extraordinary difficulties. One of the women in the study had mastitis 12 times, and her comment that it "never occurred to me to stop breastfeeding" (meaning she'd just accepted mastitis as part and parcel of breastfeeding for her) agreed with that part of Maree's findings on the importance of the woman's confidence and faith in herself to keep breastfeeding.

Pinky McKay's talk on Promoting Breastfeeding, Promoting Guilt was another I had been keenly anticipating. Pinky talked about some things that I and other ABA members had been mulling over for a while now. She talked about how in no other area of preventative health is guilt a barrier to promotion, such as it is with breastfeeding; in fact it's often a tool for issues such as smoking. She also discussed whether it is really guilt or actually a mixture of grief, regret, anger and unfulfilment that mothers feel when their breastfeeding relationship didn't go as planned. She also mentioned, "No-one can make you feel guilty without your permission", which is something that I have observed in my own life. After I had run the gauntlet of postnatal depression following my first son's birth I decided to work on reducing my guilt. Either I feel like I did my utmost, in which case I tell myself I have nothing to feel guilty for, or I recognise I could have done more and resolve to do differently next time or make amends. My guilt-free life is still a work-in-progress, though!

Lastly, I was privileged to hear Dr Ted Greiner speak again, this time about Breastfeeding as the Right of the Working Woman. He contrasted maternal leave and working conditions in Sweden with those in the US. Dr Greiner is a dual citizen of both countries and, worringly, he says that in Australia we're closer to the US situation, where they have a dramatically lower rate of breastfeeding mothers in the workplace than Sweden. Sweden has paid maternity and paternity leave, and this can be taken in a very flexible way up to years after the baby has been born (my memory is hazy on the exact age).

Last day tomorrow!