Sustainable Mothering

The Implosion of Slutwalk and My Apology

Jake — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:11:36 +0000

When I first heard about Slutwalk, I cringed. I thought then, and think now, that the name is awful. "Slut" is a hate word and I do not believe hate words should be used in any context other than direct quotes and then only as necessary for some specific purpose that can't be met without [...]

Goodbye Mothering Magazine

Jake — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:23:16 +0000

I first saw Mothering magazine in the waiting room of my midwife in 1996. I didn't read parenting magazines but this one was clearly written for me. Breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby-wearing, anti-circumcision, suspicious of the vaccine schedule. I didn't come to parenting with more than a desire to breastfeed and an academic understanding of attachment theory. [...]

Facebook Removes the White Lady: Breastfeeding Policy or A New Punishment for Nudity?

Jake — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 17:56:45 +0000

The day after several blogs, including this one, suggested racism as a motive for Facebook's removing a breastfeeding image from the Earth Mama Angel Baby Facebook fan page, Facebook removed the photo of the white woman breastfeeding her baby.

Okay, this one does violate the "areola rule." But in addition to [...]

Facebook’s Removal of Breastfeeding Pictures: Racist or Arbitrary?

Jake — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:04:59 +0000

Facebook has been making news and raising ire for removing breastfeeding photos since late 2008. I have been writing about the protests here and in the late Mothering magazine. Facebook did announce the standard it would be using to decide whether a breastfeeding image is "obscene" and thus would be removed. I wrote about that [...]

Helping Breastfeeding Mothers in Haiti: One Women’s Experience

Jake — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:57:47 +0000

Following is a Guest Post from my friend HopeAllison Dwiggins. HopeAllyson is an IBCLC who recently traveled to Haiti with Circle of Health International. For a week she provided lactation support in a maternity clinic in Fond Parisien and the surrounding community. She taught classes to nurses and expectant mothers, as well as [...]

Wordless Wednesday: Breastfeeding in Disaster

Jake — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:00:31 +0000

I saw this painful photograph in a museum in Los Alamos, New Mexico, birthplace of the bomb that the U.S. dropped on this woman and her children in Nagasaki, Japan. Karleen Gribble shared both this copy of the photo with me and this article about what happened to the mom and her children. Send to Facebook

Will Nebraska Finally Get A Public Breastfeeding Law? Will it Matter?

Jake — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:00:58 +0000

Only three U.S. states have no public breastfeeding law – West Virginia, Idaho and Nebraska. Unfortunately the majority of state public breastfeeding laws don't do a particularly good job of stopping harassment of women who breastfeed in public (this is where I tell you again to go read my feature in Mothering magazine called Lactation [...]

“The Talk” on Breastfeeding and The New Federal Workplace Pumping Law

Jake — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:00:03 +0000

The latest "sorta famous women sitting in a semi-circle talking about things they know little about" daytime show is called "The Talk." You probably know lots more about it then I do. It looks like "The View" which I have seen only in clips – the clips that arrive couched in "can you believe [insert [...]

Tennessee Legislature Considering Eliminating 12 Month Limitation in Public Breastfeeding Law

Jake — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:18:28 +0000

Since its passage in 2006, Tennessee's public breastfeeding law has been trouble. It reads:

68-58-101. Right to breastfeed in any location. —

A mother has a right to breastfeed her child who is twelve (12) months of age or younger in any location, public or private, where the mother and child are otherwise authorized to be present.

The [...]

West Virginia’s Pending Breastfeeding Bills: I Have Good News and I Have Bad News

Jake — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:00:57 +0000

West Virginia is one of only three U.S. states (along with Nebraska and Idaho) that has no law whatsoever protecting breastfeeding. So I was glad to read that this month not one but two bills were introduced in the West Virginia Senate concerning breastfeeding.

Unfortunately, one of the bills could result in a law that helps [...]