Friday! Friday! Friday!
What does that mean to a SAHM? Well, I might get to sleep a little more this weekend and maybe take a shower by myself. Yesss!
My morning is starting off like this. The girls drawing at the table. Sisters <3
What do you have planned for the long weekend? Are you going to the March Against Monstanto? 11am everywhere! Do it!
Here are some of the latest breastfeeding and parenting blogs/articles I’ve seen lately to keep you busy.
Enjoy!
<3 Paala
Pregnancy & Birth
Did you know More Business of Being Born is on live-streaming on Netflix? Awesome, right? I just watched it yesterday. Go check it out! Here is the trailer:
Hey! Guess who else ate their placenta? January Jones!
Yep. Just read it on Daily Mail. Did you? I will certainly give it a whirl the next time around.
Have you seen this CBS clip on homebirth, midwifery, and Ina May Gaskin? It is pretty great.
“Don’t criticize nature. Stand in awe of it.” -IMG ♥
Breastfeeding
New nursing in public incident at a Target in Michigan, shared by Sherry yesterday:
“Today I was in target and I walked into the bathroom and in the corner of the bathroom sitting on the floor was a women dressed up in a business suit breastfeeding her baby.. I went over to her and I said “Miss excuse me for imposing but you don’t have to feed the baby on the floor!, Your allowed to feed your baby anywhere you want! She looked at me and said “Really, I was told there was plenty of room in the bathroom”. I said “Whom ever told you that was in the wrong, Michigan state law says your allowed to breastfeed anywhere”…I went out and found the manager and told her that someone directed a women to the bathroom and she said “We would never tell her that, she must have something wrong mentally in her head”, tell her to go into the dressing room instead”…..SMH!!!!!!”
and
“I offered to help the women up and said “If you would like to sit on a chair, Starbucks has chairs for you”, it’s much cleaner then this bathroom. Obviously I don’t want to butt into people’s business but when I saw this women sitting on the bathroom floor in a suit I knew something had to be said. I was hoping that a manager would of come in and offered her a sit in the cafe but in stead she tells me to direct her to the Changing rooms.”
It is never okay to make a mother feel like she needs to hide her breastfeeding and certainly not to offer a bathroom floor as an acceptable place to feed a child. Period.
Someone googled, “Can you nurse in starbucks?” and found my page earlier this week. I don’t think I have that answer in there but OF COURSE mamas can nurse in Starbucks! The breastfeeding in public laws vary by state but personally, I would nurse wherever my baby needed me, regardless of the law. Because our children’s basic human right to nourishment and comfort is above any laws or store rules. Someone wants to try to kick me out for being a good mom? Shame on them.
Another mother was kicked out of a clothing store in France for breastfeeding and the company is refusing to apologize!
“A mother was expelled from a Celio (male clothing) shop because she was breastfeeding her 15-month-old baby while waiting for the dad, who was trying clothes on and refused to hide. The right to breastfeed in public is protected by French laws, but apparently many don’t know or care.
I told the story on the blog of our publishing house (the Éditions du Hêtre, James Akre, Jack Newman, Ann Sinnott, etc.) and indignant comments to the customer’s service and on the Celio France FB page immediately started pouring out.
Celio put a silly little so-called “sorry for the inconvenience” in the comments on their page, and the mother herself got the same standard answer from the customer’s service as the rest of posters: they didn’t even read her message or addressed her directly.
I wrote two long mails to the headquarters and didn’t get any answer, then phoned them and got the CEO’s direct email address as soon as I uttered the word “discrimination”.
So I wrote him directly on Wednesday and got a message from the regional director asking to meet me (that was Thursday). Only when I sent a scandalized answer di he phone the mother herself (on Friday). He then offered to meet her on Monday (tomorrow), and she accepted, while demanding that I be present. He said he’d call her back the very evening to settle the time of the appointment. He called only yesterday at 11a.m, saying he’d been working till 8.30 p.m.
While on the phone with the mother, he insisted on the fact that the shop manager who threw her out falt terrible, and that we should “bury” the whole affair for the poor lady’s sake. So far, the mother has received no apology of any kind!
This is not about an individual complaint, but about defending children’s and women’s rights, human rights. The law is on our side, but we’ve still got to make mentalities change. Breastfeeding, whether in public or not, is just normal and shouldn’t be hindered.
We’ve got an appointment with the regional director tomorrow, we need public support!
We’ve set up a FB page,http://www.facebook.com/JeTeteOuJeVeuxQuandJeVeux, to make the whole story public (in French, sorry!) and gather supports. Yesterday at 10 p.m., we started asking people to send us breastfeeding photos to make a patchwork poster for Celio and our FB page, and to post support videos on youtube and dailymotion with the title “Téter où je veux quand je veux”. We’ve already got 950+ “likes” and 80+ photos. This is really picking up! No videos yet. Please help us, support us by liking the page, sending photos, sharing this on your pages, blogs, mailing lists, forums, with your contacts, everywhere you can! Thanks!”
Join the FB page: http://www.facebook.com/JeTeteOuJeVeuxQuandJeVeux
I have nearly had to nurse while having my hair done. Babies just need their moms sometimes and nothing but breast milk will do. There is a poll at the bottom of this article and it is currently at 83% against breastfeeding your baby whilst having your hair done! Can you help turn it around?
“Walmart Apologizes To Kayla Andre, Mom, After Refusing To Print Breastfeeding Photo” – Huffington Post
Shameful! What a beautiful portrait. Photo by fotojenick’z Photography. Go give their page some love.
There was a NIP incident at Gold’s Gym this week too.
Why is it that people think breastfeeding mothers need to be shunned? And other say breastfeeding until a year is gross, two years is despicable, and four? Well, that’s insane and disgusting. My thoughts? The child knows when they need to stop. That’s it.
I love this piece posted earlier this week by Bermuda’s Royal Gazette about breastfeeding past infancy and child-led weaning. From Breastfeeding Until Age 4? Why not? “Society said it was time to end breastfeeding, but one two-year-old boy had the temerity to disagree. He screamed for a week, while his mother cried and his seven-year-old sister cried.
Finally, the mother, who did not wish to be named, took him to the doctor. The doctor said it was obvious that he just wasn’t ready.
“He advised me to avoid any further distress to him, and my daughter,” the mother said. “He told me to let him wean when he was ready.”
Her son did not wean until the age of four, one month before starting preschool. She has no regrets although she never intended to breastfeed for so long.”
This was published in the UK yesterday. Do you feel proper woman-to-woman support in your state/country or do you feel more judgement?
NY Bare Breasts Controversy: What is the Difference Between Female and Male Mammary Glands? – I Am Not the Babysitter
Love the ending…”After this marathon of breast information, breasts are sounding about a sexy as nose hairs right now.”
And good news! ”Mothers in 40 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Changsha, Wuhan and Ningbo, staged a breastfeeding flash mob on May 18-20, 2013, marking China Breastfeeding Day, which falls on May 20 every year. ” – Women of China
And finally, have you “liked” FB vs. Breastfeeding yet? It’s a place for any mom (with a page or not) to publicize their bans and try to create lasting changes. Like and share!
Parenting
Have you seen this skit yet? Imagine his man is your two year old daughter and get ready to crack up.
Convos With My 2 Year Old – EPISODE 1
Boba shared my snot sucking photo (by Sweetness and Light Photography) today with a nice supportive comment. Too bad lots of their readers are being nasty about something that just isn’t.
Sure, it may not be for everyone and certainly isn’t my go-to in other situations (like when I have a tissue around) but I am not ashamed to do what needs to be done. This is my original share of it on Facebook if you want to pass it around and support me, not Boba. From my post: Snot sucking: Natural Parenting Gettin’ Real
Swaddling: Putting All the Myths to Bed – I Am Not the Babysitter
Swaddling is getting a bad rap lately. It didn’t work for my girls but some people swear by it. Check out this post about it.
Did you swaddle?
My recent posts:
No, I don’t use formula but I do like to read about which ones are the best, like this post by the 
This piece may make you a bit misty.
