tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181446807575097193.post7107106357985272604..comments2023-03-27T04:25:39.453-07:00Comments on The Positive Parenting Challenge: Day 102: Activism Is...Meredithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16332544075938121114noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181446807575097193.post-28951651192573626312011-04-21T13:23:34.850-07:002011-04-21T13:23:34.850-07:00@Zoie: Thanks for the words of support! I tend to ...@Zoie: Thanks for the words of support! I tend to think that each facet and style of advocacy has a purpose, but is only effective when used in the right context. I think this is why certain movements get a bad rap and why some people are turned off - not because there's anything necessarily wrong with intensity, just that it's either used at the wrong time, directed at the wrong place (i.e. the formula feeding mother rather than the system that failed her) or without the balance of support. I appreciate your input and look forward to interacting with you!<br /><br />@Michelle: It's sad how used to illness we've gotten as a society, isn't it? I'm often told we're "lucky" to have such healthy kids, but in reality it's the things we do and don't do that keep their bodies healthy. <br /><br />I love your breastfeeding passion! But if I may...be careful to direct that at the source of the problem, not the sufferers of the symptoms. Women have the deck stacked against them before they even conceive. Women are not the problem - and as proof I offer the ~80% or higher breastfeeding initiation rate in hospital. Women WANT to breastfeed, but they're being given none of the tools or support they need in order to do so. Coming from a family that supports you (and exposed you to breastfeeding as normal!) and having a group like LLL behind you, it's very easy to say "just don't give up." I used to say the same. But it's not that simple. <br /><br />I posted an article on Facebook about Tina Fey being defensive around breastfeeding friends because she "failed" at breastfeeding and I think my comments there apply here: "Only when women find the strength to redirect this anger away from breastfeeding mothers, away from themselves, and toward the cause of their "failure" will we see more thrive in the breastfeeding relationship they all want so badly. <br /><br />Because it's not their failure. It's the medical system that medicates and interferes with their births then offers detrimental breastfeeding advice and no support. It's the society that simultaneously marginalizes and rejects breastfeeding women and negatively judges them when they don't succeed. It's the formula companies who do everything in their power (which is a lot) to undermine breastfeeding before a woman even conceives by making their product appear "normal" and benign in our culture, to get formula into their homes "just in case," to create fear and doubt about milk supply, weight gain, and ounces in a feeding, and to sustain the myths that breastfeeding is difficult and formula feeding is easy, that breastfeeding is "optimal" and formula feeding is normal, that breastfeeding isn't something most women are capable of and that breastfeeding hold a woman back from her life.<br /><br />THIS is where all that anger needs to go if we want all women and children to experience the joy, health and security of a breastfeeding relationship as they're biologically designed (and thus capable!) to do. It's not just for an elite few, it's available to every woman on the planet with the right tools and support."<br /><br />I think we, as successful breastfeeding mothers and breastfeeding advocates, need to be careful to direct our anger and energy that way also.Meredithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16332544075938121114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181446807575097193.post-55136310614265856792011-04-20T08:53:41.409-07:002011-04-20T08:53:41.409-07:00Thank you Meredith for this post.
I would like to...Thank you Meredith for this post. <br />I would like to tell you a few things that would add to your post. <br />#1 I have a cousin who is a lot older than me, works full time and has two older children her youngest son is ten months old and as far as I know has been feed Enfamil his entire life. A comment that his mother made scared me.<br />we were talking about our children since they are close in age and she asked me if Maggie had been sick I told her that Maggie had regrettably been sick for the first time last month she gave me a rather surprised look congratulated me and then continued to tell her mom and sisters that Bauer (her son) had been sick most of his life and on antibiotics for ear infections and colds she casually said that she thought he was just getting used to it (being sick) she then passed little Bauer off to his Grandma and went to make a bottle. <br /><br />#2 I too was at the baby expo. as you saw I was there for my midwives. I also got one of the green and brown bags filled with formula samples but I love free samples no matter what they are I usually get rid of the formula and just use the bags and bottle caddy's as my husband likes them when I pump and he has time with Maggie. I was later at the expo. talking to my midwife and I asked her why they don't get the samples from the formula company's like hospitals do. She then told me that nothing is free and that if we take their "free" samples we are saying that what they are doing is OK. It made me think a little bit more about "free" samples and although I did not take my bag back I don't think I will be grabbing free stuff from Enfamil, Similac or Gerber good start anymore. Because It really ticks me off when women so flippantly give their babies less than the best.I want to yell at these women and tell them "don't you see what your doing to your child/children?" yes breastfeeding is hard for some women but unless it is physically impossible for you to produce milk due to mastectomy's etc. than you should not use formula! it is great that it's there but it is way, way, way to overused just like hospitals for childbirth.Michelle Schneidernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181446807575097193.post-28612723359979408362011-04-16T22:08:07.088-07:002011-04-16T22:08:07.088-07:00Thank you for this post! I love it. After particip...Thank you for this post! I love it. After participating in the April compassionate advocacy carnival, there's been some discussion going around about what it really is and whether all the empathetic posts met the criteria. I agree with you that without unconditional compassion, there can be no advocacy.<br /><br />And thank you for trying with the formula rep. That corporate greed over human life really chafes my chaps, too. I just came upon your blog on a random facebook suggestion and I'm so glad to make this connection to your blog. Subscribing and sharing <3Zoie @ TouchstoneZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08688056216105729821noreply@blogger.com