Are you anxious, nervous, stressed? Overtired, overwhelmed? And in over your head.

Welcome to new motherhood. On some days, it can seem like everything is all too much, and the demands of a baby are the last thing you can cope with. If you’re breastfeeding, it can seem all that more inescapable. (Especially if you’re sleep deprived, and still recovering from a tough birth)

A safe way to assist yourself, calm down, and handle the anxiety, and stress of juggling your new family can be flower remedies.

Edmund Bach discovered 38 specific flower remedies for symptoms such as anxiety, and stress - which he believed were the precursors to disease.

Rescue Remedy, is a combination of 5 remedies, available in a cream, pastille, and alcohol free drops. And is a great, natural, and safe solution for when you’re feeling overwhelmed with motherhood and feeding.

Impatiens: For those who act and think quickly, and have no patience for what they see as the slowness of others. They often prefer to work alone. Teaches empathy and understanding of and patience with others. We’ve found it very fast-acting in alleviating an impatient attitude and lowering stress.

Star of Bethlehem: For trauma and shock, whether experienced recently or in the past. Teaches the ability to recover from traumas and to integrate them into the present life.

Cherry Plum: For those who fear losing control of their thoughts and actions and doing things they know are bad for them or which they consider wrong. Teaches trust in one’s spontaneous wisdom and the courage to follow one’s path.

Rock Rose: For situations in which one experiences panic or terror.

Clematis: For those who find their lives unhappy and withdraw into fantasy worlds. They are ungrounded and indifferent to the details of everyday life. Teaches one to establish a bridge between the physical world and the world of ideas; may foster great creativity. Is also used to bring clarity and alertness to the present moment.

There is no substitute, for good support and counselling, but rescue remedy might get you through some of the tougher moments.

Infant nutrition, in its optimum form, is the task of the mother and baby. Interfering with breastfeeding, comes with the risks of sick children, or suboptimally nourished infants.

Here’s seven reasons to rethink that first bottle:

1. Formulas vary from batch to batch, so you have no real guarantee of ingredients.
2. Formulas are made using other animal proteins - Imagine building a human baby using, baby cow blocks
3. Feeding your child formula, even once, permanently alters the intestinal flora - for the worse. Your child may lose the ability to filter out toxins.
4. Formula tins have known to be contaminated with heavy metals, foreign objects, bacteria, and all sorts of stuff you wouldn’t want to feed your baby.
5. Formula companies profit greatly from the mostly innaccurate myth of “Insufficient Milk Supply” in mothers.
6. Supplementing with formula can REDUCE your supply. And effectively put the kybosh on your breastfeeding relationship.
7. Many babies are allergic, or intollerant to the ingredients in formula.

Below are some links to articles, cited on KellyMom.com informing the risks, and percieved benefits of Artificial baby milk.

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/infant-formula.html

Babies are born to be breastfed, and all things being equal, breast is by far best.

“Too many never know the deep glory of a woman’s pride as the hungry child ceases its demanding whimper and draws the ready nipple to itself and snuggles in the soft, satisfying security of its mother’s breast. Is this sensuous, sentimental, or scientific?

 I hope its all three intensely and uninhibited - for if there is one things I have ever envied woman, it is that perfect peace and alienated happiness she demonstrates in her movement, breathing, and facial expression when her baby lies contented and semiconscious at her breast.

 Can our male science willingly disregard these female experiences because it can never share them.
-from Childbirth Without Fear, 1942, by Grantley Dick-Read

Australia.

Australian Breastfeeding Association

Breastfeeders Anonymous - a light hearted and informative book on breastfeeding

Mothers Direct - the resource store of the Australian Breastfeeding Association

International

La Leche League  - an international organisation for Breastfeeding Support

Kelly Mom - a resource site with breastfeeding information and support

The Association of Breastfeeding Mothers - the UK equivalent of the Australian Breastfeeding Assc.

Breastfed Babies  - a resource and support site.

World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA)

The International Board of Lactation Consultant Examinera (IBLCE)

Mothers Overcoming Breastfeeding Issues (MOBI)