Social Breastfeeding – Camden County Courthouse Nurse-In

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Monday 5th March at 10am, Woodbine Courthouse, East 4th Street, Camden County, Georgia is the time and place for the nurse-in triggered by a church’s reaction to Nirvana Jenette’s social breastfeeding.

Nirvana Jenette with Olivia

Nirvana Jenette with Olivia

Nirvana Jenette was breastfeeding Olivia in her church when church leaders asked her to breastfeed in her car. She felt they implied it was lewd behaviour to breastfeed in public and got the impression the church “was comparing her to a stripper” (see  News4Georgia and ActionNewsJax).

Horrified by the reaction, to a natural act for a new mum, she has decided to organise a nurse-in at the Camden County Courthouse on 5th March. The courthouse has been chosen for the nurse-in because, despite the law allowing breastfeeding in public, the law becomes ridiculous if a breastfeeding mother could be charged for public indecency.

social breastfeeding

For breastfeeding mothers the thought that feeding their babies could be related to sexual ideas is baffling and horrifying as they are carrying out a completely natural act that they believe to be the best for their baby. Social breastfeeders want to feed their babies in public and not be made to feel uncomfortable because someone deems it indecent exposure as opposed to understanding it for what it is, i.e. feeding a hungry child.

Nirvana Jenette is leading the nurse-in at Camden County courthouse for this reason. There are also plans for nurse-ins at other courthouses in Georgia on this date, there is a Facebook  page for the event with more information and where you can show your support. New mothers need our support and social breastfeeding needs to be accepted and not misunderstood.

Social Breastfeeding: Reason Number 1

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There have been a number of nurse-ins and protests by breastfeeding mothers in recent months all calling for greater social acceptance of breastfeeding. This is the first in a series of articles about why a change of attitude is needed by the general public.

Social Breastfeeding - Reason No. 1

This sign succinctly sums up the first reason; the law may be on the side of the nursing mother but very often business owners think it is reasonable to expect breastfeeding to take place in the toilet! Put simply no one would eat their lunch in the toilet so why expect a baby to? Mothers should not be made to feel uncomfortable feeding their baby, by breast or bottle, in environments that any member of the general public would expect to eat comfortably.

Social Breastfeeding takes on Facebook – the latest!

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Social breastfeeding went worldwide as the nurse-ins at the Facebook offices took place yesterday and earlier today. Here is a round up of pictures and the news generated by the event. Follow the links on each city to see the local news reports.

Reports indicated over forty protesting at the offices in Dublin, hardy groups of protestors braved the cold in London and Amsterdam, and in Paris the protestors got into the Facebook office!

Dublin

London

Breastfeeding mums and their supporters, in the US, turned out too, protests occurred in New York, Texas (Dallas and Austin), Seattle, Detroit and Menlo Park, Facebook HQ.

Austin, Texas

Menlo Park, Facebook HQ

Seattle

Toronto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canada joined in too with the mothers of Toronto out showing their support for the campaign, this morning in Sydney over 60 protested and in Singapore the worldwide nurse-in concluded.

Sydney

Singapore

There are lots more photos on the Facebook page for the event. This nurse-in is an example of women around the world uniting to try to change public perceptions about breastfeeding. Social breastfeeding in action!

(More news reports for Dublin and Menlo Park.)

Social Breastfeeding takes on Facebook

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On Monday 6th February 2012 at 10.00am Facebook offices worldwide will be the focus of  breastfeeding women and their supporters. Earlier this month Facebook removed photos of Vancover mum Emma Kwasnica breastfeeding her children classing the photos as “sexually explicit”. Not surprisingly this has angered mums worldwide and again questioned the public perception of breastfeeding and especially social breastfeeding.

italian elle on babble

Emma Kwasnica is not the first mother to have had breastfeeding photos removed from Facebook, according to the website Terca.ca, 391 people are recorded as having had breastfeeding photos removed by Facebook.

The International Facebook Nurse-In is one of a growing number of protests that have been occurring in recent months as new mums ask not to be harassed and disapproved of as they feed their children. The most high profile recent event was the nurse-in that occurred in Target stores across America after a mum was asked to move whilst feeding her baby and there is the Great Nurse-In planned for August this year in Washington.

The International Facebook Nurse-In is planned for all Facebook offices from 10am to 1pm on 6th February, there is also a Virtual Facebook Nurse-In page where people that cannot attend one of the nurse-ins are posting photos of themselves breastfeeding

Social Breastfeeding in Action – Meet the Milk Truck!

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Jill Miller, an artist from Pittsburgh, has combined an art project, activism and humour and come up with The Milk Truck. The first thing you see is a giant boob on the roof of the truck but once you delve a bit deeper into the reasoning behind it you realize the giant boob is just the start of it.

The basic principal is that babies should be able to feed any place that anyone else can and this should be done without harassment or discouragement from business owners or other members of the public. The Milk Truck provides women with a clean, supportive environment in which to feed their babies after they have been made to feel uncomfortable and as Jill says; “if you thought a nursing mother creates a spectacle, meet The Milk Truck!” The objective is to make business owners and the wider public consider the sense in making a woman feel uncomfortable for feeding her baby.

The Milk Truck is making an impression on Pittsburgh and is a great example of the growing campaign for the social acceptance of breastfeeding and indeed of new mothers feeding their babies in public either by breast or bottle. More information on the Milk Truck can be found here. Support our new mothers!

Social Breastfeeding; The Great Nurse-In

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On August 4th this year breastfeeding mums and their supporters intend to gather at the National Mall in Washington D.C. for The Great Nurse-In. Why is this happening?

Great Nurse In

There were nurse-ins in 250 Target stores in the US in December after one mother was asked to move to a changing room to breastfeed her baby. There was a nurse-in in Wholefoods in Utah after a breastfeeding woman was asked to move by employees. In the UK in December a Brighton mum started a nursing flashmob after she was told to stop breastfeeding her baby in a café. The three incidents that sparked the demonstrations are everyday examples of how breastfeeding women are treated when breastfeeding in public. Why is social breastfeeding socially frowned upon?

The Great Nurse-In instigated and planned by Rachel Papantonakis intends to address this. She wants to “demystify breastfeeding and …be able to do so with as few barriers as possible”. This is not a militant pro-breastfeeding campaign, this is about allowing new mothers to be comfortable and confident in the feeding choices they make for their baby and one key aspect of that is social acceptance of breastfeeding. She hopes to attract 500,000 breastfeeding mums to raise social consciousness. There is a facebook page where you can show support and keep up to date on the plans. New mums need our support and social breastfeeding is a part of that!

What is breast milk? An overview.

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We are all used to hearing how good breast milk is for both baby and mother but do you know what it is actually in breast milk? I didn’t and I have a perpetual curiosity about everything, so I have tried my best to analyse it…….get ready! Breast milk is pretty amazing!!


As it is pretty complicated, please see below an overview. Our next blog post on this topic will explore the components of breast milk in more detail.


Overview
Breast milk “contains more than 200 important substances that stimulate and strengthen the baby’s metabolism and immune system” [Penelope Ody "Herbs for a Healthy Pregnancy"] (Mama Tea’s wonderful Medical Herbalist!) More than 200!! Wow!


Types of Breast Milk
There are three types of breast milk – Colostrum, Foremilk and Hindmilk. “Mature Milk” describes both Foremilk and Hindmilk.


Dr Paul has a good summary of the different types of breast milk http://www.drpaul.com/breastfeeding/colostrum.html 


Colostrum
After birth, the baby should start suckling as soon as possible, as this will stimulate the production of colostrum. Colostrum is the yellowish fluid that is specifically designed to meet a newborn’s special needs. Colostrum is extremely high in proteins; the content has three times the protein content of fore milk and hind milk as it contains antibodies that are passed from the mother, which help provide immunity to your baby, as your baby’s immunity is not fully developed at birth. These antibodies also help your baby to pass its first stool, known as meconium. It is best to try to breastfeed at least 8 to 12 times per 24 hours during this initial period. If you are having trouble getting your new born baby to latch on, try hand expressing, even just to get your baby to get this vital first form of breast milk. 


Picture of mother hand expressing colostrum:
BF-colostrum2.jpg



Mature Milk 
Engorgement of the breasts is common in 3-5 days after the birth. Be aware that when your “mature milk” comes in, sometimes it comes in all at once and far in excess of your baby’s needs and your breasts become so engorged that it is actually hard for your baby to latch on. if this happens, the best solution is to use a breast pump to get rid of the excess milk or even to hand pump your breast. This happened to me and was extremely painful and also frustrating as my baby couldn’t nurse. My midwife showed me how to hand pump my breasts which relieved the problem.


This is an excellent video showing you how to hand pump:
http://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/AppendixG.html


Foremilk
This is the milk released at the start of a feed and is watery, low in fat and high in carbohydrates. It is mainly water designed to satisfy your baby’s thirst.

Hindmilk
Hindmilk is much creamier and is released after several minutes of feeding. It is much creamier and having a much higher content of fat is designed to satisfy your baby’s hunger.

This is a picture comparing the two, with Foremilk on the left and Hindmilk on the right:

humanbreastmilk1.png


Breastmilk contains all of the nutrients needed by the newborn baby during the first weeks of life. These include the metabolic fuels (fat, protein, carbohydrate), water, and the raw materials for tissue growth and development, such as fatty acids, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and trace elements.


In our next blog post - “What is breast milk? Nutritional components”, we will investigate even further the composition of Mature Milk.


In the meantime, I think the under noted video is an excellent video for any breastfeeding mothers who are struggling with milk supply, or are looking to go back to work whilst breastfeeding, as it really shows how to get the maximum amount of milk expressed.