Q. I had my nipples pierced about three months ago, and my fianci and I want to start a family after the wedding, but I want to breastfeed still. Can I still breastfeed with my new body jewelry?
A. http://www.llli.org//llleaderweb/LV/LVJunJul99p64.html
Is there breastfeeding after nipple piercing? The BREASTFEEDING ANSWER BOOK asserts that there is no evidence to show nipple piercing has any effect on a woman's ability to breastfeed. Self-proclaimed "Hip Mama" Arid Gore agrees. In her book, The Hip Mama Survival Guide, Gore offers suggestions for pierced breastfeeding mothers. "Remove nipple rings and seek advice from a reputable organization like La Leche League for help and support with breastfeeding."
Mita Saldana, a professional body piercer with the Chicago-based studio, Body Basics, says she's pierced many nipples and has never had a complaint about problems with breastfeeding. Many of Saldana's clients are also friends. This affords her a unique vantage point from which to observe these women from the moment of a piercing, through the healing process, to life with a pierced nipple. One of Saldana's clients, a piercer herself, had her nipples pierced and went on to breastfeed. "She had no problems." said Saldana. Most nipples are pierced horizontally though some clients prefer a vertical piercing. Horizontal piercing seems better suited for breastfeeding according to Elisabeth Speller, an Australian lactation consultant.
Breastfeeding has been around since the dawn of time: body modification also has a long history. Some of the body piercing dates back to 1400 BC. Throughout history women and men have pierced their nipples for religious or spiritual reasons, beautification, decoration, protection, social rank or status. Today, according to many sources, nipple piercing seems to have two primary functions, beautification and sexual stimulation. "The piercing of the nipple is sensual, attractive and often encourages the nipple to become larger, more pronounced and more sensitive," according to Gauntlet, Inc. a professional piercing service with studios in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, USA.
Tom Rael, a professional piercer and tattoo artist with Addictive Ink in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA says different piercings serve different functions. "Usually those that are visible are for decoration, shock value, or to make a personal statement. Those that are not visible, such as genital and nipple piercing, are generally for sexual gratification.”
Nothing in life, nipple piercing included, is without risk. A piercer from a southwestern USA tattoo parlor who wishes to remain nameless says. "No one will pierce a pregnant woman. What she feels the baby feels. It's just not a good time." An apprentice piercer of two years declares, "It's a trauma to get pierced and no one wants to traumatize the fetus or the mother." Other professional piercers agree. They will not pierce a pregnant woman and recommend against piercing while breastfeeding. Mita Saldana goes a step further and recommends piercing at least a year before becoming pregnant. The average healing time for nipples is three to six months. For some people healing may take longer. Saldana feels that a year before pregnancy gives a woman's body ample opportunity to heal.
http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/html/ask/pierced.shtml
There is no evidence that pierced nipples will affect your ability to breastfeed. Your breasts will still produce adequate milk for your baby, and unless your body rejected the piercing right after you had it done, there is no reason to anticipate any additional problems with infection. Horizontal piercings are more common than vertical, and seem to be more compatible with nursing.
You will need to remove the jewelry when you nurse. Leaving it can cause problems. It will be difficult for your baby to form the nipple and press it against the roof of his mouth if there is a piece of metal in the way. Latching on correctly at the breast is a skill that newborn babies have to learn, and it can take awhile for them to get the hang of it even with an un-pierced nipple. While it may be possible for him to latch onto a nipple with jewelry in it, it will make it more difficult for him, and may cause pain as the ring presses against the soft tissue of his tongue and palate. Healthy babies are born with a very strong suck, and it's entirely possible that the ring could dislodge while he's nursing and he might choke on it.
It would be best for you to remove the rings completely for the first few weeks of nursing. Newborn babies nurse a lot (10-12 times or more in 24 hours) and it would be a hassle to keep taking them in and out that often.
Once your milk supply is established and your baby isn't nursing as often, you can replace the rings between feedings if you want to. I can't guarantee that the holes won't grow back together in that time, but if you replace the jewelry once a day and then take it out, that should help keep the holes open.
It can take about three to six months after piercing for the hole to heal completely. It is recommended that you not remove the rings for six to t
What's the significance of that painting? The one of a farmer with pitch fork and his wife looking at him?
Q. What's it called and what's its significance?
I have the feeling its iconic in some way. If yes than what?
A. American Gothic
by Grant Wood, 1930
Oil on beaverboard
74.3 × 62.4 cm, 29¼ × 24½ in
Art Institute of Chicago
From
http://www.bookrags.com/research/american-gothic-sjpc-01/
This painting of a stern-visaged, tight-lipped, nineteenth-century country couple posed in front of their pristine farmhouse has become not only one of the most reproduced images in American popular culture, it has also virtually become emblematic of the moral fiber and simple virtues for which America is said to stand. Painted by Grant Wood in 1930, American Gothic has been interpreted both as homage to the artist's Midwestern roots and as slyly witty commentary on American "family values." After winning an important prize in 1930, American Gothic quickly became, as Robert Hughes notes, "Along with the Mona Lisa and Whistler's Mother … one of the three paintings that every American knows…. One index of its fame is the number of variations run on it by cartoonists, illustrators, and advertisers…. The couple in front of the house have become preppies, yuppies, hippies, Weathermen, pot growers, Ku Klux Klaners, jocks, operagoers, the Johnsons, the Reagans, the Carters, the Fords, the Nixons, the Clintons, and George Wallace with an elderly black lady." In the visual culture of the millennium, American Gothic remains the most potent and pervasive symbol of America's heartland mythology, as witnessed by its perpetual permeation into all areas of popular culture.
From
http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/American_Gothic
In 1930, Grant Wood, an American painter with European training, noticed a small white house built in Carpenter Gothic architecture in Eldon, Iowa. Wood decided to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." He recruited his sister Nan to model the woman, dressing her in a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century Americana. The man is modeled on Wood's dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Wood entered the painting in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago. The judges deemed it a "comic valentine," but a museum patron convinced them to award the painting the third medal and $300 cash prize. The patron also convinced the Art Institute to buy the painting, where it remains today. The image soon began to be reproduced in newspapers, first by the Chicago Evening Post and then in New York, Boston, Kansas City, and Indianapolis. However, Wood received a backlash when the image finally appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Iowans were furious at their depiction as "pinched, grim-faced, puritanical Bible-thumpers". One farmwife threatened to bite Wood's ear off. Wood protested that he had not painted a caricature of Iowans but a depiction of Americans.
Art critics who had favorable opinions about the painting, such as Gertrude Stein and Christopher Morley, also assumed the painting was meant to be a satire of rural small-town life. It was thus seen as part of the trend towards increasingly critical depictions of rural America, along the lines of Sherwood Anderson's 1919 Winesburg, Ohio, Sinclair Lewis' 1920 Main Street, and Carl Van Vechten's The Tattooed Countess in literature. However, with the onset of the Great Depression, the painting came to be seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit.
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