CDC says hospitals not promoting breastfeeding: With only 3.5% of facilities having at least 9 of the 10 baby-friendly steps, you can see how they came up with this headline. But it’s actually worse than this – because in fact, it’s very likely that hospitals are promoting breastfeeding. They tell mothers about all the “benefits” of breastfeeding and all how very important and normal breastfeeding is to their infant’s short- and long-term health. And then they take none of the steps that have been shown to actually help them achieve that important goal. That’s the part that’s always missing from these stories.

Big Latch-on takes hold in the US: Interesting that it seems that this is considered a new thing – since the Quintessence Foundation in British Columbia has been doing it for 10 years now. Last year’s challenge saw over 4,700 children breastfed in over 18 countries – looking forward to attending the Toronto site on October 1 2011.

Vancouver women may be low in Vitamin D in pregnancy: Presumably along with every other pregnant woman in Canada – this is a tough area, but boy, it’s time that Health Canada took a harder look at recommended levels, especially given the potential for long-term health impacts from deficiency.

Lactation support covered under preventative services insurance requirements: Great news that lactation support is being given a place among preventative care services in insurance reimbursement, though it take some time to sort out exactly what this looks like for lactation consultants and other care providers like doulas. Having worked some years in US health benefits, I am reserving judgment for a bit – the path between regulation and the cheque in the mailbox is often long and winding.

Breastfeeding mother charged with murder after ingesting meth: These are not ever simple situations and it’s always tragic. Much of the time I feel like breastfeeding itself isn’t the issue, regardless of feeding, someone who is heavily using illicit drugs isn’t in any condition to care for an infant. It does seem that in this case, there was an alleged direct connection between the drug in the breastmilk and the infant’s death: most of the news coverage on this story is not nearly as nuanced as care2 ‘s piece.