Quick links: What I’m reading

Another bunch of links for you today–things that I’ve been reading and have made big impressions on me, organized today (roughly) by topic:

Breastfeeding:

• “Desperate Breastfeeding Moms Reveal Secrets” (CNN)–Weird, melodramatic, sensationalist tone, sort of about bad advice and good advice from lactation consultants and doctors. Worth a look, but warning, it’s hard to figure out the tone of this article.
• “Breastfeeding: It Takes a Village to Help Moms Succeed” (Time)–Similar subject, very different approach. Also see “Why Most Moms Don’t Follow Breastfeeding Recommendations” (Time).
• “Breastfeeding Pumps Now Deductible, IRS Rules” (MSNBC)–What was that about a village? The IRS is doing its part (at last), at least.
• “Is Breastfeeding Advocacy Anti-feminist? An Essay by Katherine A. Dettwyler” (Lactivist Leanings)–a 2009 post someone brought my attention to in a comment last week, with an excellent scholarly article reviewing the literature on breastfeeding advocacy, biocultural studies of breastfeeding, and anti-breastfeeding rhetoric.

High-Tech Fertility Stories:

• “Meet the Twiblings” (NYTimes Magazine)–Melanie Thernstrom’s controversial account of her route to motherhood.
• “An Egg Donor’s Tale” (Motherlode)–Lisa Belkin offers a guest post giving “the other side of the story.”

Pregnancy and Food Prohibitions:

• “The Nine Months of Living Anxiously” (NYTimes)–a 2004 article I just revisted; so strange to see what has now, by 2011, definitely become institutionalized “science” being reported (again, in the Styles section, thank you, NYTimes for marginalizing women’s concerns) as a trend or fad.
• “The Pregnancy Menu” (The Guardian)–Restaurants with separate menus for pregnant women? Separate but equal? Hm. Discuss.
• “The Peanut Puzzle: Could the Conventional Wisdom on Children and Allergies Be Wrong?” (The New Yorker)–Not too much new here, but a nice review of recent findings and recommendations by pediatricians and other groups.

–Christina