Good news for breastfeeding moms in the US! The IRS has officially announced that breast pumps and their related supplies are tax deductible medical expenses! This is for your 2010 taxes (due next month) and all years moving forward. The official IRS wording is “supplies that assist lactation” which could be read to include herbal products for making more milk, nursing bras and pads, the freezer bags to store breastmilk, books about how to breastfeed or breastpump, and bottles for feeding breastmilk to the baby.

For years, the IRS held that these were better understood as foods rather than as medical supplies, and only medical costs are tax deductible. However, with pressure from the American Academy of Pediatrics and certain congressmen, the IRS has become informed enough about the persuasive medical benefits for breastfeeding that it now officially now considers breastfeeding supplies as deductible medical expenses. It is also fortunate for taxpayers that many purchases of breastfeeding supplies can occur in the same year as pregnancy and birth, which usually bring their own tab of tax-deductible medical costs.

Previously, the IRS considered breast pumps to be feeding equipment, not medical devices. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics argued that breastfeeding has many medical benefits for both mother and baby. Advocates hope that making breast pumps more affordable will enable more women to breastfeed longer.

“Unfortunately, due to financial restraints and work demands, not all women are afforded the opportunity to nurse their children, despite the proven health benefits,” the academy said in a 2009 letter to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman that was also signed by nine other medical groups. “In order to continue to breastfeed successfully, millions of mothers working outside the house require a breast pump.”

For more details, the actual IRS code can be read at this link
Being that Tender Cargo is a Medela Certified Nursing Center, of course we sell everything from the breast pumps to every little accessory or replacement part you could ever need. Keep those receipts!

I am saddened today to hear that Mothering Magazine will not be able to print anymore, ending they 34-year run due to the down economy and the decline of print media in general.

They posted an open letter today here explaining today that their last printed issue was actually December 2010 and their last web-published issue is March 2011.

In 2009, magazine subscriptions saw their steepest decline in 40 years.

The venerable magazines Gourmet and Reader’s Digest ceased publication.

After three years of decline in advertising sales, subscription orders, and newsstand sales, with the March–April 2011 issue we saw our ad sales drop to their lowest point in 10 years.

In a single year, from March 2010 to March 2011, we lost one-third of our print advertisers.

I am surprised to hear, though maybe I shouldn’t be, that they would lose so much money even in a web-only magazine situation. They are ending the digital version of the magazine because even with trimming all the costs of physical printing and distribution, it would be prohibitively expensive for their staff to put together an online edition

I am personally interested in this story as one of those remaining advertisers, having signed a contract for every issue in 2011 to run a 1/3 page advertisement for this store. Time to go double-check the paperwork.

Mothering.com will move forward with their huge forums, their blogs and articles and resources, all of which is good news for the natural parenting community, especially pregnant and nursing moms who rely on Mothering for information and social support in those crucial times.

Christmas Delivery is Guaranteed -

See our Shipping Cutoff FAQ here

As I write this, the main shopping season has just begun so there is plenty of time, even for Canadian shipping and other international holiday season orders. We do our part ot get you gifts there on time – every item in our system is guaranteed to be actually in stock and ready to ship within 1 business day. Please do your part to try and place the order before the very last minute! That said, the link above includes this year’s cuttoff dates for the various shipping services.

Email Gift Certificates are delivered instantly. These emails include your gift message and will never expire.

My neighborhood newsletter includes safety information fomr police due to recent local events.

See here

Heads up to this line “CELL PHONES MUST USE THIS EMERGENCY NUMBER FOR BERKELEY POLICE: 981-5911. Enter this number into your cell phone now. FOR LAND LINES REPORT EMERGENCIES AT 911.

Here’s a cool find from the NY Times about sugars found in breastmilk that protect the infant digestive system

Breast Milk Sugars Give Infants a Protective Coat

A large part of human milk cannot be digested by babies and seems to have a purpose quite different from infant nutrition — that of influencing the composition of the bacteria in the infant’s gut.

The details of this three-way relationship between mother, child and gut microbes are being worked out by three researchers at the University of California, Davis — Bruce German, Carlito Lebrilla and David Mills. They and colleagues have found that a particular strain of bacterium, a subspecies of Bifidobacterium longum, possesses a special suite of genes that enable it to thrive on the indigestible component of milk.

This subspecies is commonly found in the feces of breast-fed infants. It coats the lining of the infant’s intestine, protecting it from noxious bacteria.

Free Car Seat checks this week – September 25 10am-2pm  in Oakland CA at the Fruitvale BART station.

Make sure your carseat is installed safely and properly. No cost, just drop-in for this first-come first-served event

see the flier here for further details

Sponsored by the CHP, the BART police, Publci Health, and others.

Britax and CPSC recalled their folding umbrella strollers today due to the risk of a child’s fingers being injured in the folding hinges. Click here to see the Britax Recall Poster including the image  showing the manufacturing date and the hinges which are involved.

This recall is VOLUNTARY and there are NO REPORTED INJURIES to date.

Still, as a precaution, Britax is sending a remedy kit to every registered Blink stroller owner. If your stroller might not be registered, you can request your free kit at 800-683-2045 or visit www.blinkrecall.com.

from the manufacturer: While Maclaren was faced with actual cases of injury from its folding strollers, no incidents with Britax strollers have been reported worldwide.  Therefore, the decision of Britax to offer remedy kits and issue a safety advice is a completely voluntary and precautionary action Britax Blink is perfectly safe if properly used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.  It  meets and even exceeds all relevant US safety standards

from our opinion only: The flaw here is something that all umbrella strollers on the amrket share in common. See Maclaren for the leading example, then others followed right after. Britax is being especially proactive to address this now, but we can expect to see similar retrofit action from all other strollers with hinges as this issue, ummm, “unfolds”

The mortality rate of California women who die from causes directly related to pregnancy has nearly tripled in the past decade, prompting doctors to worry about the dangers of obesity in expectant mothers and about medical complications of cesarean sections.

California Watch spoke with investigators who wrote the report, and they confirmed the most significant spike in pregnancy-related deaths since the 1930s. Although the number of deaths is relatively small, the rate in California is higher than in Kuwait or Bosnia.

“The issue is how rapidly this rate has worsened,” said Debra Bingham, executive director of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, the public-private task force investigating the problem for the state.

Read more: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article

This is exciting! I just received the news by email through FirstCandle.org , nonprofit organization we support that has been supporting the research efforts for decades.

From the press release

[Baltimore, MD – February 2, 2010)   First Candle today announced that researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have further linked low serotonin levels in the brainstems of babies to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. The research team’s most recent study, being published in the February 3^rd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, compared brainstems of babies who died of SIDS with brainstems of babies who died of other, known causes. The results of the study are compelling and send a strong message to new and expectant parents, particularly since SIDS remains the leading cause of death for babies one month to one year of age in the United States.

First Candle salutes Dr. Hannah Kinney and her research team for their untiring efforts to unlock what was once thought to be the mystery of SIDS. “After more than 20 years of research, we may now be able to move forward in identifying babies at risk and developing preventive treatments to correct this serotonin deficiency,” said Kinney. In the study, the SIDS babies had 25 percent less serotonin in their lower brainstem and 22 percent lower levels of tryptophan hydroxylase, the enzyme that makes serotonin. Levels of binding to the serotonin receptors were 50 percent lower in the SIDS babies, signifying that a serotonin defect in the brainstem was most likely involved in the death of these babies.

As this defect probably occurs during pregnancy, good prenatal care is of utmost importance. “There is no safe amount of alcohol, smoking or second-hand smoke that is safe for pregnant women,” said Kinney. The Harvard team and other researchers are also exploring a possible genetic cause for this defect.

The study results also send a strong message to parents with newborns. “We now know that there is likely a physical reason that many of these babies die,” says Dr. Rachel Moon, Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Task force on SIDS. “And when babies with this defect are placed to sleep in unsafe places, the results can be disastrous.”  For babies with low serotonin levels, re-breathing carbon dioxide (exhaled air) and overheating during sleep can be fatal. Parents need to do all they can to make sure their baby is ALWAYS placed to sleep on his or her back and in a safe place.

(it continues on at the link with safe infant sleep tips, etc)

Public Health Dept press release

What: Free H1N1 Community Vaccine Clinic
Where: West Berkeley Family Practice, 2031 Sixth Street, (off University Ave)
When: Sunday, January 24, 2010, 10am-12pm and 1pm-4pm

Nasal and injectable H1N1 vaccines will be available. Please note that no seasonal flu vaccines will be provided at this clinic.