ElementalMom

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/080807/science/vancouver_bc_breast_feeding_cover_up_west_jet

OTTAWA (CBC) - Another Vancouver woman has come forward to say she was harassed while breastfeeding in public. Vancouver teacher Erin Tarbuck told CBC News she was nursing her 11-month-old son on a recent WestJet flight as the plane was preparing for takeoff, when a flight attendant asked her to cover up.

Takeoff and descent can cause painful pressure in the tiny Eustachian tubes of children’s ears, so it’s common for mothers to nurse their babies, Tarbuck said, as swallowing helps ease the pain.

“[She] came up and said quietly, ‘You know, some men find the sight of a bare breast quite offensive. Can I offer you a blanket to cover up with?” Tarbuck said on Wednesday.

Tarbuck declined the offer of a blanket, but one was brought to her anyway. “I was pretty shocked,” said Tarbuck.

She later complained to WestJet’s head office and received a written response. “The rep defended what the flight attendant had done. She said we have to make our customers feel comfortable,” said Tarbuck.

WestJet couldn’t be reached for comment on Wednesday.

So my pal Krista, who is Canadian, sent them this…

Dear WestJet staff, I would appreciate you forwarding this message as I cannot locate a direct email for anyone, and my comments are too long to fit in the web comment form. Thank you so much!

Dear Sean Durfy, CEO,

I was so happy today to read your reply to the recent criticism of your treating breastfeeding women as second-class citizens. In an email to those questioning this behaviour your company representative stated “If a guest is engaged in an activity that makes others uncomfortable, or has the potential to make others uncomfortable, flight attendants have a responsibility to engage the guest in an effort to find a solution.” I was very relieved to hear this, as I frequently fly WestJet with my family and I have been made uncomfortable numerous times by other guests. You may want to stock up on more blankets.

First, fat people, are frankly, quite offensive to me and they make me feel very uncomfortable. Especially when they are eating, that smacking and slurping is really disturbing. I heartily support a WestJet policy that would assist me in feeilng comfortable by handing out a blanket along with their pretzel snack, so they can eat in comfort underneath a nice soft blanket, and I can be spared the sight of their wobbling jowls. Of course, I could look away, but for such a disgusting act, clearly more protection (for me) is needed.

Second, thin young girls. Need I say more? I’m a woman of a certain age and truthfully I can think of nothing that makes me more uncomfortable than some young whelp wearing a mini-skirt and a low-cut blouse. Probably two blankets would be in order, just to make sure their feet are covered as well, as I find pedicures have the potential to make me uncomfortable. (I love how inclusive and wide-reaching your statement above is!) And don’t get me started on how immodest exposed ankles are, I mean, can’t we all just follow a few simple rules of modesty that will keep everyone happy? What’s the big deal?

Third (and last, you’ll be happy to hear) I appreciate your support in covering with a blanket any couple that might be holding hands on the plane. Gay, straight, cover them all! I just don’t want to have to see THAT kind of behaviour on an airplane for pete’s sake. Disgusting.

I look forward to your support for my comfort on my next WestJet flight. I’m glad to hear you are not just considering one group of people’s comfort level and instead will fairly support ALL of our comfort, with your customers myriad definitions of politeness, modesty and appropriate behaviour, regardless of what Canadian law actually supports.

warmly,
Krista Cornish Scott
proud WestJet customer

Meet Halima. Gorgeous, isn’t she? She’s Aurora’s milk sister.

So what’s a milk sister? That’s a baby who has shared milk from the same mama. Because Halima’s mother had a rare and really unpleasant birth complication, she is unable to nurse this time (Halima has an older brother). And because her parents are completely clear on the fact that breastmilk is hands-down the best thing to feed a baby, they called for help. I’m on one of the email lists they asked for assistance on, and so here I am, pumping milk.

Technically, that means I’m nursing three kids right now. I am the dairy queen!

Joking aside, it’s astonishing how much distaste people have for this practice. The squidge factor is superhigh. And yet 100% of the people who flip out when they find out you’re feeding a stranger’s child, even indirectly, drink the milk of other species. But sharing human milk? That’s just yucky.

Grow up.

The research has proven, time and time and time again, that human milk is the best food for human babies. So why do people flip out when you feed human milk to a human baby? Clearly they can’t have thought it through.

It’s ridiculously hard to find information on this practice of milk sharing. I know that in the Muslim faith, milk siblings are considered so close they may not marry. I know that in Romanian culture milk siblings are considered as closely related as blood siblings. I know that before some 19th century man decided that corn syrup solids were better than wet nurses, this kind of thing just happened without comment, because women looked out for each other and for each other’s babies. If something happened to make it difficult to feed a baby, other women just stepped in and helped. And like so many other aspects of what’s now referred to as “attachment parenting”, it was such a common event it was pretty much entirely undocumented. Which makes it tough on those of us trying to access the accumulated wisdom of generations.

I have huge admiration for Halima’s parents. The lengths they’re going to to ensure milk for their girl are just herculean. I think of all the women who could breastfeed and don’t because of some misguided ideas about vanity and propriety, and I want to cry. But I also think that great challenge often gives great blessings both to those who endure and those who are called to assist. I feel honored to be able to give this connection to my children, this new milk sister of theirs. Even Kestrel gets that this is an important thing; he’s voluntarily cut back on his nursing times, in favor of “just cuddling” so there’s more milk for Halima.

So if anyone reading this knows more than me (which wouldn’t be hard) about milk sharing, especially in other cultures, let me know in the comments. And if anyone reading this is in the SF Bay Area, more donations are appreciated.

Tags: Breastfeeding, milk share

La Leche League founder Edwina Froehlich died last Sunday. She was 93.
I am completely devastated. Edwina pretty much embodied everything I admire in an activist. And also proved that even if you come late to your passion, you can change the world.

My favorite article about her, so far, is the Chicago Tribune piece. Some tidbits:

In the 1940s, Mrs. Froehlich witnessed her older sister Pauline go through what were then standard hospital childbirth procedures: plenty of drugs, the use of forceps and no fathers allowed, said another son, state Rep. Paul Froehlich (D-Schaumburg). Her sister also was discouraged from breast-feeding.

“That experience led mom to seek a better way,” Paul Froehlich said.

Newspapers would not run stories or meeting notices that included the word “breast,” so the group used the Spanish word for milk, “leche,” for its name.

How fabulous is that? Smack into some stupid arbitrary rule, and work around it creatively. See what’s wrong with the world, and change it. Some other fun bits from the New York Times piece:

Edwina Froehlich,… was inspired to help found La Leche League to support breast-feeding after being told at the age of 35 that she was too old to make breast milk for her baby…

A pioneer on several fronts of motherhood, she worked for Young Christian Workers, a Roman Catholic lay organization, before marrying John Froehlich when she was in her early 30s. She had her first child a couple of years later, making her comparatively old to have a first child at the time, and she made the controversial decision to forgo giving birth in a hospital in favor of a more natural delivery in her Franklin Park, Ill., home, with an obstetrician attending.

“We used to tell the mothers the three main obstacles to successful breast-feeding were doctors, hospitals and social pressure,” Mrs. White said.

It is so hard to be an “older” mother. It’s so hard to stand up when the world wants to shame you for doing what’s biologically appropriate in birthing and feeding your offspring. Having had a cesarean with my first baby, and feeling that breastfeeding was at least something I could do right, it’s because of Edwina’s work that I was able, 2.5 weeks out from that cesarean, to participate in the Berkeley, CA Guinness World Record Breastfeeding event. It healed a lot of the “broken” feelings I was working through. Breastfeeding has also been a really good arena for me to use in my birth activism work, to show mothers how very wrong doctors can be about very basic things.

But at the time Edwina and her six cohorts (Marian Tompson, Mary White, Mary Ann Cahill, Mary Ann Kerwin, Viola Lennon, and Betty Wagner) got started with LLLI, breastfeeding in America was down to 20% of women. It’s not a whole lot better now, but without them to hold back the tide, who knows how much harder it might have been for me to get the support and encouragement I needed for this critical aspect of mothering?

So thank you, Edwina, for standing up for what you believed in, and making it that much easier for me to do so as well. You’ll be missed.

Tags: , Breastfeeding, Edwina Froehlich, La Leche League

There’s a daycare chain in Ohio that’s discriminating against breastfed kids. Read the whole story here. And then get out your red pen, and write those folks a letter.

I’d write more, but I’m just way too appalled to say anything constructive. Get going, and let me know what you did about it. Come on, there are babies counting on you…