Encouraging Advice for Breastfeeding Moms

By Tamika Gardner

The decision to breastfeed is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. As a new mother, you want to do what's best for your baby and for you as well. Breastfeeding is a wonderful experience and bonds both mother and baby. It is a indescribable feeling and is one of the greatest gifts in life.

In speaking with many new moms, I have found that many really want to breastfeed their babies. But after the first few days, that desire quickly turns into frustration because it is very painful during the first week or two as your body adjusts to the new changes, or because baby isn't latching on or not appearing satisfied by the few dribbles of the premilk that comes from the breast the first few days after birth.

Here are some things that you can do to help you through those first tough couple of weeks:

Remain Dedicated to Breastfeeding
For me, unless there was a medical reason why I would not be able to breastfeed, I did not give myself any other option. Buying formula was not an option. I told myself over and over and I was determined to make it work. I thought to myself, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"

When I first had my daughter, she latched on right away and I was concerned because I thought she was always hungry and she wasn't getting enough the first few days in the hospital. I followed the advice from my lactation consultant to keep nursing and I stuck with it. I kept feeding my baby and then my milk came in.

Remember the Pain is Only Temporary
No one told me that breastfeeding would be excruciating the first week or so. After the second or third day, my nipples were so sore, I started dreaded feeding the baby because it was that painful. The benefits of breastfeeding are so great I was determined to get through it. It really hurts, but you have to know that your nipples have to toughen up and it takes a week or two before you won't feel anything. You also have to be sure your baby is latching on correctly. But if you stick with it, it will pay off.

Seek Breastfeeding Support
Many hospitals now encourage mom to breastfeed their babies and have lactation consultants and breastfeeding support services free of charge. Take advantage of that! When I had my baby, someone from breastfeeding support services called me daily to see how I was doing. They are very helpful and many will also make house visits free of charge as well.

Please don't give up! Your baby will benefit dramatically even if you do it for a short time. You will also save a ton of money and find that it is much more convenient to breastfeed.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tamika_Gardner

Smart Moms Tips for Getting Traffic To Your Website

By Rebekah Kogelschatz

If you are new to internet businesses, you may be wondering how you get traffic to your site to increase the page ranking on the search engines or to increase sales. There many wonderful resources that are available to help you increase your “search engine optimization” including help with key words and website design that are primary in getting traffic to your site. After the basics are in place, what next? Do you sit back and wait for the customers or visitors or do you find ways to bring them to you? These three simple tips can help you increase the traffic to your site, thereby increasing hits, sales, and page rankings.

The first tip is writing articles. This is an often overlooked way of getting traffic. Most people do not pursue article writing because they are afraid to write (it brings back bad memories of high school English)! Most people can write a simple article, find someone to proof read it, or find someone to write the final draft from your ideas. You will be amazed at what you can create.

By writing articles and submitting them to article submission sites, you are increasing your traffic in two ways. First, most submission sites allow you to include your personal information and a link to your site (in fact, don’t submit to sites that don’t allow at least one link). Some allow up to three links, like EzineArticles.com. People can browse the submission site for content to include on their own site, ezine, or blog. From the article site, they can click right on your link to your website and see what you have to offer. The second way to get more traffic from these articles is when these searches like what they read and include it on their site or ezine. They must include you bio with the links intact. Then those that read your article are able to click to your site from your links. This technique gives people the opportunity to find your site through a variety of pathways, all for free.

The other important part of the article submission technique are the links. Not only is your article with your site link on the article site, it is also on every site that publishes it. This is great for the search engine spiders to see that people have linked to your site and helps your page rankings.

Links are the second important tip to increase traffic and page rankings. You can include links to other sites, but it important those sites link back. Reciprocal linking is another piece search engines use to rank pages. If you have multiple sites, you should have them all linked together.
You should also find complementing sites that allow for free link exchanges or exchanges for a small fee. Then you include the link to that site on your site and they link back. This also provides more opportunities for people to find your site through other means.

The third tip is to change your website content. Websites that have content changes will increase in page rank. Be sure your website is not stagnant. Change your content every few weeks in some way, even small minor changes. Use articles you find on the article submission sites to provide some new information and ideas to your readers or write the content yourself.

Another great way to change your content frequently is to have a blog attached to your site.
Since blogs are frequently added to daily or weekly, they increase page rankings. Also, people may find and read your blog and then find your site, increasing the hits on your site. Make sure your blog is relevant and uses key words for titles and content. Not only will people want to read it, the search engines will like it to!

These three simple techniques can help to increase traffic to your site and help increase your page rankings. Internet businesses are all about your page rank and the amount of hits you receive. The higher the page rank and the higher the hits, the more likely you are to increase your sales and profit from your site.

Rebekah Kogelschatz is a stay at home with her two children in rural Florida. She is a co-founder of the site SmartMoms-SmartBusiness and the founder of a parenting resource site Heartland-Moms. You can read her blog at The Day of A Mom.