Sign on to support breastfeeding moms
Yesterday I was at a street fair with some friends in Montpelier. While nursing Ada an older man approached me and told me that I shouldn’t be “doing that” in public. It’s the first time I’ve been scolded for nursing and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Luckily Vermont is one of the 42 states that has laws in place to protect nursing mothers and I forcefully told him so. It’s HE and people like him, who should not be warping the innocent act of breastfeeding into a pornographic one.
Vt. Acts, Act 117 (2002) state that breastfeeding should be encouraged in the interest of enhancing maternal, child and family health. The law provides that a mother may breastfeed her child in any place of public accommodation in which the mother and child would otherwise have a legal right to be.
At a time when the many health benefits of breastfeeding need hardly be defended, women are still being shamed into feeding their children in bathroom stalls or worse, stopping all together. Apparently it is a national goal to increase the proportion of mothers who breastfeed their babies in the early postpartum period to 75 percent by the year 2010 (http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/breast50.htm), and I’m writing now to assist in my own small way with that goal.
JOIN ME IN SUPPORTING THE BREASTFEEDING PROMOTION ACT! Sign the Statement of Support for breastfeeding moms everywhere now: “Healthcare professionals inform us that breastfeeding is the best possible way to ensure that babies thrive. In turn, we must ensure that breastfeeding mothers are able to breastfeed, and given the time and environment to pump at work or during other professional obligations.” Congress and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) need to hear that breastfeeding must be supported for all moms, and that we support the Breastfeeding Promotion Act which is currently before Congress.
*Click here to sign the Statement of Support for breastfeeding moms.
When a subsidiary of Delta Airlines kicked a woman off an airplane for breastfeeding, we sent them a petition with more than 20,000 MomsRising signatures, and shortly afterward the airline apologized and instituted a new training program for their employees. STAND WITH MOTHERS ACROSS THE NATION! Frankly, we all lose when we don’t support mothers–businesses lose excellent employees, infants lose important nutrients, and women lose needed jobs. No mom should have to choose between keeping her job and feeding her baby and protecting her own health. All too often women aren’t able to breastfeed their babies even though the American Academy of Pediatrics tells us it’s one of the most important things we can do for a child’s health. Let’s send a strong message together that it’s time to “walk the talk” for healthy infants and mothers.
Much Love, D
Filed under Natural Childbirth, News, Uncategorized | Tags: breastfeeding public, breastfeeding rights, momsrising.org | Comment (1)Crawling!
For grandmothers everywhere. Grandfathers, too.
Very strange child
Ok, so Ada has fallen in love with the plastic cover to her sippy cup. She likes to hold it up to her face and scream into it. She really freaks out over how it changes her voice to some sort of babydemon. Not for the faint of heart.
More babies!
No, we’re not pregnant.. but the sheep are!
Our first lambs were just born at 6am this morning. Penelope had twin boys. Everyone is happy and seemingly healthy.
We did have one lamb on Sunday but he didn’t make it. His mom (Ester) got real sick and we had to induce labor early - so his lungs weren’t developed enough for him to breath. The good news is that Ester is doing much better now and enjoying these two new rascals.
You can see some more of them (with videos) over here .
Jason
Sitting up, sort of
Originally uploaded by jlemieu
This is a cute and funny video of Ada hard at work on her new venture, sitting. It’s more interesting with audio turned on.
Lately she can actually sit with just a wee bit of help but it looks like she’s just folding in half more than anything else. We all have to start somewhere.
Love D
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (3)For The Record
I just want to let people know ,if they were wondering, that it’s just Ada. Kay is her middle name, after my favorite Great Aunt, but it’s not a May-Jean or a Bobby-Sue, we’re not that far out of town.
Love, D
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Mud Season
Spring is finally showing it’s bright face up here. Ada’s wondering what the big, shiny, round thing is up in the sky. Unfortunately, when the sun starts showing up around here it also means that it’s tax time. I suppose life moves on. Jason’s started our garden seedlings which cheers me up every year. Summer will be here soon.
This Saturday the three of us leave for a big trip to Long Island, Philadelphia and Florida. Don’t ask, our trip plans just kept snowballing. My family on L.I. will finally get to meet Ada, all 12 pounds of her. Also, I’m so excited to introduce her to the ocean! Can’t wait to see her reaction to that. Nibs is still so young that everything seems pretty good to her. She’s only now becoming very interested in her surroundings and her playmates, me and Jason. I’m so honored.
I’m sure we’ll have many great pictures to add from our trip but here are a few from this week.
Denise
