Eye-catching campaign promotes public breastfeeding

This is quite possibly the coolest breastfeeding campaign I've seen in a long time. The Marin Breastfeeding Coalition (MBC) is putting up life-size cardboard cutouts of women breastfeeding around the North Bay in order to promote and encourage the acceptance of mothers feeding their babies in public. Each of the cut-outs has a sign that reads, "When breastfeeding is accepted, it won’t be noticed."

Now, I think this is a fantastic way to draw attention to the benefits of breast milk. On the other hand, the statement on the sign is a little problematic for me. I can appreciate that the MBC is trying to make people give a second-thought to preconceptions about public breastfeeding. But will it ever be possible to stop people from gawking at exposed breasts? Can we ever subtract associations with sex from breasts? Or can we reasonably expect that other people will not be genuinely interested and curious to look at a woman feeding a child?

Sources:
http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/hh/main/hs/CHPS/BF/MBC.cfm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28811794/

breastfeeding still a big no-no

'Workplaces 'not breastfeeding-friendly' http://au.news.yahoo.com/070507/2/13dgp.html:

'Australian mothers are forced to wean their babies off breast milk too early because workplaces are not "breastfeeding-friendly", a public inquiry has been told'.

Ya think? As if this is really a surprise to anyone but the Howard government.....

Rebecca on proving 'I'm not a fat person'

After struggling to conceive for over 2 years, I am currently 7 months pregnant with an IVF miracle. Pre-pregnancy I weighed 50kgs and my body fat was 16 percent. On advice from my Obstetrician, I backed off the exercise and gained 4kgs. I believe this helped me to eventually conceive. I have so far gained 13kgs during my pregnancy and am now putting up with snide remarks about my weight gain. All I want to achieve is a healthy baby but I am being made to feel like my pregnancy is more about how big my butt is now as opposed to the fact that I am finally able to have a child at all! As much as I would like to say I just ignore the comments and move on, I do take them to heart and often end up in tears behind closed doors. I am now finding I can't wait for the baby to come so I can exercise again and 'prove' I am not a 'fat person'! Society puts too much pressure on women; when if ever, are we going to get a break?

Rebecca

post-baby body

At 34, I have four children. I stopped triathlon training when pregnant with my last baby. I have always been fit, and always put on between 15 and 28kilos for each pregnancy. I never cared so much about weight, I believed that I was the incubator for my baby and just let my body do what it needed. I was in the hospital coffee shop with a girlfriend and my baby one day after my last caserarian delivery, we were approached by a mother and her two teenage girls, the mother congratulated my girlfriend on the birth of her baby and I was asked when mine was due....it set the tone for comments over the next eight weeks. I was in a chemists shop and the pharmacist asked me when my baby was due - I was holding a week old baby!! I could be pushing my brand new baby at the shops and strangers would ask me how hard is it to be pregnant so quickly again....It sucked, I stopped counting those comments after I reveied 14 unsolicited nasty remarks from strangers. Nobody wants to be large after the birth of a baby, if supermodels get six weeks to get back into shape, can't I , an ordinary working class woman, with a career, study, home and children take just a little longer???? It is not women who put pressure on themselves, it is all of the jerks and thier dreadful rude comments. A sleep deprived new mother does not need to be told anything other than "you look wonderful, your baby is beautiful" etc. If you don't have anything nice to say....P.S. My latest baby is almost four months old and I am still a size twelve, I feel unfit and unattractive, I have veins, stretch marks and sagging breasts, I don't have time to dye my grey hair or apply eye cream, I also have four beautiful children and a wonderful husband who loves all of me, for my real body and the life that it has given. I will lose the weight, in the june mid semester break I will have more time to exercise and nurture myself, until then I am thankful for my health.