Giddy Up!

Christmas is in just a few days and I am as giddy as this kid:

OK, so it's not Christmas. After all, there are no gifts to buy or wrap, no decorations to put up and take down, no staggering credit card bill coming next month (well, hopefully not...).

So, what is stress-free yet Christmas-level exciting for a lactivist? Why, August, of course!  The first week is World Breastfeeding Week and the whole month is National Breastfeeding Month!

There are so many events going on in Central Texas to celebrate, and I am looking forward to them all gleefully!  The month will kick off with The Big Latch On, which you can see me discuss with Amber Rogers and reporter Jennifer Borget on YNN Austin below.  Jennifer has a new son, and is breastfeeding him during the interview as Amber and I are breastfeeding our babies!  So yeah, she's kind of a hero of mine.

YNN Austin story here, with video available to Time Warner customers

How's that for normalizing breastfeeding?!  AND she's a breastfeeding working mom!  Hero.


So - the Latch On.  I was nursing an almost-two-month old last year at this time. I needed to buy Magoo school clothes and wanted to go to the MamaCents Consignment Sale anyway, but I was psyched to go toThe Big Latch On that they were hosting. With only one car, I was relying on Adam to get home on time for me to get to the latch on. He did not. (A fact he won't soon forget...)

But this year I WILL nurse my almost 14-month-old at two of three local latch ons!

In Austin:

• Friday, August 2nd at 10:30am sharp at The Natural Baby Company, (515 S Congress Austin, TX)

• Saturday, August 3rd at 10:30am sharp at the MamaCents Consignment Sale at Marchesa Hall & Theatre (6226 Middle Fiskville Rd. Austin, TX)

In Round Rock:

• Saturday, August 3rd at 10:30am sharp at BabyEarth (106 E Old Settlers Blvd D-100, Round Rock, TX)

The whole point is to show that we value breastfeeding through this challenge to have the most moms nursing in one location at the same time.  So invite all of your friends, and nurse in solidarity with women across the globe!  If you Facebook, you can RSVP on Facebook for the event(s) you plan to attend:

• The Natural Baby Company
• MamaCents Consignment Sale
• BabyEarth

While you're on Facebook, be sure to like Central Texas Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition. There's another challenge going on there - we've been challenged to catch up to Tarrant County Breastfeeding Coalition in our number of Facebook "likes."  (And hey, you might as well like my page, too, if you haven't yet!)

But I digress.


On Wednesday, August 7th at noon I'll be with some of the coolest broads in town at our Central Texas Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition Monthly Meeting. These meetings are always on the first Wednesday of every month at Any Baby Can, 1121 E. 7th St., Austin, Texas. Anyone is welcome, so come join us!  All the cool kids are doing it!


Thursday, August 8th is going to be a very. busy. day.  But there is no way I would miss the USBC National Breastfeeding Month Webinar:
Action for the Summer Recess.  Learn more about supporting breastfeeding legislation?!!  Booyah!!!  If you followed our legislative efforts in Texas this spring, are a member of We Support Texas Breastfeeding Laws with Enforcement, or just plain support breastfeeding, you need to register for the webinar, too, and be online from 1:00-2:30pm CST.  

Testify! 
With powerhouses Michelle Hickman, Dr. Susan Landers, MD,
and Gail Gresham, IBCLC.  We spoke to the Business and Industry
Committee in support of breastfeeding legislation in March.

After the webinar I'll be heading over to Austin City Hall (301 West 2nd St, Austin, TX) from 4:30-6:30 for the Breastfeeding Month Proclamation!  Central Texas Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) will be giving away free breastfeeding T-shirts! You read me right! I said Free BREASTFEEDING T-Shirts!!! There will be lots of other cool stuff, too - a Mayoral Proclamation (you know I loves me some politics!), Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin will be there (loves me some milk bank, too!), and other vendors and giveaways, and I think (fingers crossed!) some free ice cream!

If my exclamation points have not convinced you that you should attend, maybe this will:

That "Keep Austin Breastfeeding" T-shirt I'm wearing was the Free BREASTFEEDING T-Shirt!!! for the past couple of years. This year we're bustin' out a new design, so be there or be naked.


After Mayor Leffingwell proclaims that August is hereby National Breastfeeding Month and thereby Breastfeeding Month here in Austin, there's more breastfeeding advocacy to be done in Round Rock with the Mothers’ Milk Bank at the Ball Game!  The Round Rock Express will feature Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin as their Spotlight Nonprofit starting at 6:30pm. Personally, the fact that the only time I ever made it to home plate in third grade was when I was walked, and that I caught a ball thrown by my coach with my face kind of turned me off of baseball. But we celebrated Father's Day/Magoo's Due Date at a Round Rock Express game eight years ago, and it's really pretty fun. And I went to a game earlier this season as a guest at a blogger party that the Round Rock Express held and was really impressed by how much fun it is to be there.

So buy me some peanuts and cracker jack, cause Adam is psyched to take the boys again, either that night OR (maybe and) on August 12, 2013 at 6:30 pm, when Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies is at the Ball Game!  Because the Round Rock Express is so awesome, they'll be featuring HMHB, too!

Both games are home games at The Dell Diamond, located at 3400 E Palm Valley Blvd, Round Rock, TX.  Discounted ticket information for MMBA can be found here and for HMHB, information will soon be available here.

NIP at the Round Rock Express blogger party

On August 14th, MMBA will rock out with Lex Land at Central Market (4001 North Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX) from 7:00-9:00pm. Come to the Rock-a-Bye Baby Concert not just for awesome tunes, but also for cool prizes and edumacation about milk banking!


You can learn even more about milk banking on a Milk and Cookies Tour!  August tours are

• Monday, August 19th from 2:00-3:00pm
• Tuesday, August 20th from 10:30-11:30am
• Wednesday, August 21st from 6:00-7:00pm
• Thursday, August 22nd from 12:00-1:00pm

MMMmmm, cookies.

Cookie Monster and the Milk Monster (source)

All tours will take place at the Milk Bank (2911 Medical Arts St. #12, Austin, TX).  More details here. 


And last but not least, National Breastfeeding Month for me will end with brunch at the zoo, where Mothers' Milk Bank will show their appreciation for Austin area milk donors, recipient families, healthcare providers, milk depots, and supporters with an Austin Appreciation Brunch on Saturday, August 31st from 10:00-11:30am at Austin Zoo (10808 Rawhide Trail, Austin, TX).

I have some personal goals for World Breastfeeding Week, as well.

1. On August 1st I have well checks scheduled for my oldest and youngest boys. I plan to open a dialogue with our wonderful pediatrician that will begin a test run for a campaign I want to launch.  I want to help to empower parents to demand, as consumers, better lactation support from the medical community (as well as some tools for pediatricians to meet our need).
2. We (HMHB) will be putting out a survey to get feedback about why respondents are or are not a member of their local breastfeeding coalition. (Hint: if you're here reading this - YOU should be in a coalition!) We'll also begin a newsletter that I plan to help with.  Wait - is that one goal or two? 
3. I want to improve upon my blog and Facebook page with a shiny new logo. So I'll be having a contest! Woot! I will announce the winning submission on September 5th, the anniversary of the NIP incident that put me on this path to begin with - so really, a day I want to celebrate.
4. I think I'd like to try to post a NIP photo to Facebook every day of August.  Then I'll make a blog post of them, maybe. 
5. I want to see, finally, a resolution with AISD.  We think we're all but there.  I can't wait for it to be official!

Nursing at my first AISD board meeting. 
Hopefully my next will be my last.

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle

Yesterday I woke to find out that my Grandma Rae, one of my favorite people in the world, had passed away at 3:19 a.m.

She was 87. 

It wasn't old enough.

I knew when I said goodbye on our last visit a year and a half ago, and again on our last phone call on her birthday months ago, that it might be our last goodbye.  And yet, as with all things, I really thought there would be more time.

More time to call, when the kids weren't running around screaming in the background.  More time to visit, when money to fly wasn't so tight.

But now time has run out, and she is gone...

Talking to my Grandma Rae the last time I saw her,
pregnant with Bellybean and talking about her births

Just over a week ago I embarrassed the crap out of myself crying out of the blue in front of a very sweet woman I don't know very well.  I felt so stupid.  I was dropping off a donation of breastmilk to Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin, and when I was thanked for donating, I made the mistake of saying, "I just wish it had been more."  And with that came the waterworks.

Dropping off my 100 ounces

In January I'd been to a Milk and Cookies Tour of the milk bank, and afterward, I'd signed up to be a donor.  I got my blood test within days, which costs the milk bank money, but I didn't start pumping right away.  I wanted larger flanges, but put off driving up to Special Addition to get them.  The kitchen was a mess and I didn't want to go in there to wash - and boil - extra dishes until it was spic and span (which never happened).  The situation at AISD was neverending, we got a virus, I worked long and hard on the school's silent auction, I got sucked into legislative work that ruled. my. life.  But it was going to be okay.  I had time.  I had until Bellybean turned a year old.  That was so much time.

Bellybean's chocolate birthday cake

And then it wasn't, and we were singing "Happy Birthday" over a chocolate cake at Kerbey Lane after a day at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. 


With my oldest, Magoo, I only donated about 100 ounces.  I had oversupply until he was six months old - I was soaking through sheets every night, needing an extra shirt or two in the diaper bag in case I blew through all of the breast pads I had in there and then leaked all down the front of whatever I was wearing.  But I didn't get around to pumping until my supply leveled out, and I didn't know about The Milk-Saver until well after Bellybean was born.  So I was really disappointed not to donate more.  I planned to make up for it with Sweet Pea.  Then adjusting to life with two kids got in the way.  When I committed to donating some of Bellybean's milk, I was shooting for a minimum of 500 ounces in my head.  Never mind that as a stay-at-home mom I've never much pumped just for my own kids or even gotten them to take a bottle.  Never mind that my oversupply had resolved months before by following my midwife's advice to block nurse.  I thought I would pump the initial donation of 100 ounces, then keep pumping for two months as requested, and then keep on going.  But all I managed, again, was 100 ounces.  And then there was no time left.

I'm sure there was an element of knowing that Bellybean is growing so fast and that he's our last baby that contributed to the tears that just kept coming.  Even with my kids in the backseat when I got back in my car, even needing to go into Jason's Deli for a late lunch, the stupid tears just kept coming. 

But it wasn't just about time passing.  It was that my time was up.

I value integrity very highly, just under honesty, which probably tops my list of necessary traits in people I want to be friends with.  Nonetheless, often, I lack integrity.  I forgive myself, though, because there's still time to schedule that playdate I promised.  There's still time to do better about signing the homework log next week.  I can start the Orange Rhino Challenge again tomorrow, get the house clean next weekend, start that diet next month.  I'll play with the kids once the laundry is done.

But to donate breastmilk that can literally save the lives of the most medically fragile babies, there is just one year, because our milk changes to meet the needs of our own babies as they become toddlers.  And I ran out of time. 

No more telling myself tomorrow, next week, next month, next baby. 

I can donate money, fundraise, raise awareness - but I can no longer donate the most important thing the milk bank never has enough of - breastmilk.

If you're reading this as a lactating mom of a baby under one, please consider donating your milk to babies in need. 

There are drop off points all over the place if you're not close to a milk bank, or you can ship your milk.  Insurance is supposed to cover a pump.  And though I for one hated pumping a few months ago, I came to love it just because I associated the honor of donating my milk (and maybe some oxytocin helped, too!) with the tedium of washing pump parts, boiling them, washing my breasts, having the baby wake up mid-session and needing to wash my boob again after nursing him back to sleep... - all of the annoying stuff became this warm, fuzzy, I-get-to-watch-TV-while-I-pump-now feeling. 

So donate now, before time runs out. 

And call your grandma.

After my high school graduation in 1994 with my
Grandma Hannan, Aunt Anne, & Grandma Rae.

Breastfeeding Promotion, 4-Year-Old Style

When my baby, Bellybean, my four-year-old, Sweet Pea, and I first started visiting legislators about two breastfeeding bills during the regular 83rd session, Sweet Pea had filled a sheet of paper with Dora stickers on the car ride to the Capitol.  While we went office to office, he wanted to share his stickers with the staffers.  He'd carefully peel off one sticker at a time and pass them out to each staffer, saying sweetly every time with practiced enunciation, "Do you want a sticker?"  I really can't convey how precious that enunciation was.  To meet him, you might not know that he was diagnosed at two with a severe speech disorder.  He still needs speech therapy.  It's hard to understand him when he's upset, or talking fast, but he gets by.  He articulates as best he can, and is pretty well spoken.  But I treasure that I can still hear in my mind the slow cadence in his high-pitched little-boy voice as he perfected that question: "Do you want a sticker?"  He charmed the crap out of people. 

And he was delighted to make people happy.

The second day that we returned to the Capitol, the Dora stickers had all been distributed.  A friend had ordered "Thank You for Breastfeeding" license to breastfeed cards from WIC for me, and with them, a roll of stickers. 

So while asking for support of breastfeeding legislation, Sweet Pea passed out sticker after sticker at the Capitol, adding "breastfeeding" to his pitch, and sometimes calling out in the halls like a carnival barker, "Get your free breastfeeding sticker.  Breastfeeding stickers for sale.  Get your free breastfeeding sticker."

And I would grin a big Cheshire grin, adoring my little activist.

Passing out stickers at the cafeteria at the Capitol

Today Sweet Pea noticed the stickers, which had fallen out of the box they were in.  We were on our way out the door to the post office to mail birthday cards to Magoo's teacher.  Sweet Pea wanted to be Sticker Boy on our errand.  I said no, as I am sometimes wont to while trying to herd three kids out the door, and he began to cry.  Realizing how much it mattered to him, I changed course, and I am thankful that I did.  He calmed down, and I was so impressed as he told me that he would tell people, "If you have a baby and it cries, you have to breastfeed it."

You might worry that people would react badly - much the way we worry someone would react badly to nursing in public.  But all I saw - all I've seen on the many days that Sticker Boy has spread his joy - is smiles.  Some of the chuckles may be ever-so-slightly embarrassed, but the rudest thing anyone has ever done has just been to decline a sticker in their haste - and even that is a rarity.  Often, in fact, people read the web address under the little pink baby and affirm the importance of breastfeeding.

At the post office Sweet Pea offered a sticker to the postal worker, and said (because it's all he really knows), "If you have a baby, you have to breastfeed it."  And she said, "Oh, I know all about that.  I breastfed my daughter 'til she was four!"

Squirrel Nudity - Protect the Little Children!

Scandalous?  Or just really freakin' cute?
Photo Source

Shopping for Bellybean's birthday at Whole Earth Provision Co., I came across this novelty item:

Just a silly, funny little wee pair of underwear.  Amused, I read the back:

 

A portion of the proceeds from this
product will be donated to the
"Small Animal Decency Fund"
which seeks to rid our
neighborhoods of any potentially
offensive naturally occurring
indecent exposures. 

"The poor little things don't even
know that they are naked! 
We've got to educate the animals
and protect our children!"
- Worried Mother

 Do I even have to explain what this has to do with nursing in public?

Well, probably, yes, because the connection may not be too obvious if you don't live in my head.  So, briefly:

...blah, blah, blah NIP is no more indecent than a naked squirrel blah blah....  blah blah worrying about exposing kids to NIP is about as ridiculous as putting squirrels in underwear blah...

You get the picture, right?

Of course, I don't want to offend anyone who worries about their kids seeing breastfeeding.  I get that it's outside of your comfort zone.  It's likely outside of what you consider to be a societal norm. 

Thing is, unless kids are exposed to the reality that breastfeeding is the healthy, biological norm, breastfeeding will never be a societal norm.  Not only that, but without knowing it before they're old enough to catch on that breasts are sexualized, how weird will it be to then have to adjust to the notion that primarily, they're for feeding babies?

So.  In the interest of public health, we must all support mamas who nurse their babies - even in public, even where children may see.  And in the interest of the mental health of squirrels, we must let them go commando.  The world doesn't need another "Super Squirrel" like the one that terrorized my alma mater ages ago.

America's Biggest Problem?
Not NIP!

Uphill Bottle

There's something wrong with this picture...

Photo from Cate Mari

And it's not just the fact that the nursing room is off of the public restroom in this Tyler, Texas mall. 

Don't get me wrong - it's lovely that a private room is provided for mamas and babies who prefer it.  And of course we want pumping moms to have access to privacy.  But "restroom" is just a polite word for the toilet room, yeah?  A restroom isn't a lounge, and it's kind of unpleasant that when places of public accommodation put in a nursing room, they attach them to or combine them with public toilets. 

But that aside, it does irk me that a bottle would be used to symbolize breastfeeding.  Either it's some sort of visual euphemism for breastfeeding (because breastfeeding is so, I mean, gosh - there are breasts!) or the bottle is such an ingrained symbol for babies that someone was completely oblivious to the idiocy of symbolizing nursing with a bottle.  It seems to be the latter in this news clip about public breastfeeding in which a bottle graphic is the backdrop for an interview - or is it? 

Either way, can you say "uphill battle?"




(Note - the sign says, "Nursing," not "Pumping.")

Thank You for NIP

What do you say when you see a mom nursing in public?

I used to not say anything.  But after the first time someone said something negative to me, I vowed to always say something encouraging to anyone I saw breastfeeding in public. 

But what? 

Then I read a post on facebook about someone who thanked a mom for NIP, and I thought, "That's perfect.  I can say that." 

So now, whenever I see a nursing mama, I get all giddy.  I dig through my bag to see if I have one of the "Thank you for breastfeeding" cards with the right-to-breastfeed law inside.  Then I look over at her & think, "Maybe I should wait until she's done nursing so I'm not interrupting."  Then I start to get nervous.  I don't know why.  Except that I'm shy, and it's just kind of what I do sometimes, I get nervous and I clam up.

Nursing Bellybean months ago at a pizza place

Tonight at Kerbey Lane Cafe a mom seemed to be nursing, but I wasn't certain.  I had my card ready and had myself all excited and nervous (and boy do I feel stupid admitting that publicly), when suddenly Sweet Pea had to go pee, and off we rushed to the restroom as I tried to tell Adam to give the lady the card if they left before we got back.

Well wouldn't you know it, we came out of the restroom and I could see through the front windows that they were getting into their car.  The "thank you" card still lay on the table, and my heart sunk at my failure.  (In Adam's defense, he had no idea what I'm mumbled on my way to the restroom, and he'd have felt awkward as a man thanking a mom for breastfeeding.)  This was, I think, the fourth mom I'd seen NIP (besides quite a few at MommyCon) since the fall, and the first missed opportunity to thank a fellow mom for normalizing public breastfeeding.

We gathered our leftovers and headed out, and Adam nagged and nagged me to go up to their car, as they hadn't yet pulled out (since getting kids into car seats takes forever and a day).  "But that's creepy and weird," I complained.  Nonetheless I followed him into the parking lot and up to the front door of their car. 

I waved.  I'm such a dork.

She put down her window.

I said, "Hi, I'm being creepy and weird, I'm sorry.  Were you nursing your baby?"  I'm smiling big so she knows I'm not intending to yell at her for it.  And so she knows I'm a big fat dork.

"Yes."

"I just wanted to thank you for nursing in public, and to give you this."  I hand her the card and try, lamely, to pin the blame for my creep weirdness on my husband, explaining that he was supposed to have given her the card for me if I didn't make it out of the restroom before she left.  I apologize (in my mind this was an apology for stalking her to her car, but I may have been incoherent in my dorkiness at this point, I don't really know) and walk away. 

So I did it.  Not in an ideal fashion, but there it is.  It sure as heck beats being told to cover up or go to the restroom, right?

The Fat Lady Sings

I couldn't bring myself to post this here yesterday, but enough procrastinating:  HB 741 is not going to make it out of the Senate. 

It generally takes more than one session to pass such a significant bill, and all of the work we've done this time has greased the wheels for next session.  We should be very proud of how far we got HB 741 and HB 1706. 

I am incredibly thankful for all of the work that everyone in our community has put into these bills.  Even though the bills aren't passing this session, that work is worthwhile and important.  We've raised awareness in our community and among legislators of the need for legislative support of breastfeeding mothers and babies.  We pushed the bills through Calendars, and one through the House.  They had unanimous support in the House Business and Industry Committee and 741 passed in the House 90-46!  They are good bills and your involvement helped legislators to see that.  Thank you.

I started this blog and the Facebook page (where I manage to post much more frequently - if you've been wondering what's been going on, it's all there and at TXBFLeg.com) to ask for support, and I am overwhelmed on a regular basis by just how much I've been given, and by how many friends I've made.  Thank you.

I'm going to take a break, and the blog and Facebook page will slow way down this summer while I focus on my kids for awhile (and do laundry).  I'll post occasionally, and will keep you apprised of what happens in June with AISD.  But after that, there's much we can do over the next couple of years.  I think we can get these bills through in the next session.

I encourage all of you to write your legislators (always, always, always with the utmost diplomacy, stating facts & avoiding inflammatory language) any time (every time!) you hear of or experience a NIP incident (any interference or restriction, not just being yelled at by a manager or ousted), or a lack of support to pump breastmilk at work - not just in Texas but anywhere.  Because the next time a breastfeeding bill is filed, we want legislators to know this is an issue that concerns their constituents, and it's a problem that needs a legislative solution (not just a solution looking for a problem).

It's over for the moment, but we're not going anywhere, are we?

HB 741 passing in the House
(but it's now stuck in a Senate committee)

Help Today, Please!

This week has been a nail biter, and I wish I had time to write about it, but I've spent every day at the Capitol and am headed there again soon.  Our bills need your help.  Please check the daily action alerts at www.TXBFLeg.com.

Update - Blogging My Butt Off

I have been blogging my butt off lately - just not here.  Get your Texas breastfeeding legislation updates at TXBFLeg.com.

And for more info, you can read my guest posts on

Banned from Baby Showers

Food Good, Laundry Bad

and The Badass Breastfeeder.

I am so thankful to the awesome women who have shared their platforms to spread the word that we need support to make our bills law!

In other news, the Austin Independent School District's School Health Advisory Council has made a recommendation that the board's breastfeeding policy follow state law, and the recommendation has no language implying that breastfeeding may be distracting or disruptive.  'Cause the SHAC is cool like that. 

Cover of the Breastfed Babies calendar delivered to Calendars Committee members this week
with a request to set our bills for the House floor as soon as possible.

Proactive, Not Reactive

At the beginning of this year, I was ambivalent about nurse-ins.  Having been to two alone, I didn't go into the Hollister nurse-in with a lot of hope.  But as it turned out, it was a really positive experience.  I love the way that mamas come together to support another breastfeeding mom.  In a society where breastfeeding support is sorely lacking, it's terrific that if someone is wronged, women across the country have her back.

I understand that outrage at a mother and baby's rights being denied fuels a passionate response from breastfeeding advocates.  That is as it should be.  It's why I'm here.

That reactive advocacy will only get us so far, though.  We need to be proactive.  We need to change the culture so fewer and fewer mothers face discrimination.  We can do that through legislation.  And you can do things that will have a more lasting, farther reaching effect in less time than it would take to drive to a nurse-in.  Please check out "Contact Calendars Committee" over at TXBFLeg.com to see how you can help pass legislation to improve breastfeeding law in Texas.

My Favorite Facebook Posts

Today I made what are probably my two favorite Facebook posts on KANIP to date.  It takes me forever and a day to write a blog post, so for those of you who may miss it there, I'll just share it here now, rather than wait.  

HB 1706 passed out of committee!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!

There is a long road ahead, but this is fantastic news! Lactivist in Louboutins & I will update www.TXBFLeg.com later on how we can help support this bill in the coming stages of the legislative process, & on FB you can keep abreast at https://www.facebook.com/groups/165119216973838/?ref=ts&fref=ts.

and

HB 741 passed out of committee 7 to 0! When I know how we can keep it moving, I'll share, and I'll post as soon as I hear anything about 1706!
Woohoo!

It was a REALLY good day for breastfeeding moms & advocates!

Happy Birthday, Mister Rogers

Mister Rogers was a brilliant man.  So what would have been his take on breastfeeding?

An autographed photo of Mister Rogers,
which he sent to my husband in 1983.

Yesterday was Mr. Fred Rogers' birthday. 

It's been a decade now since the world lost this wonderful man.  A man who made children feel loved, just the way they are, and gave a crotchety Senator goosebumps.  A man who was gifted with so many insights about children and how they learn and feel and grow. 

I think most everyone recognizes that Fred Rogers was spot on with everything he said.  Always honest, always caring - he earned our trust.  He was special. 

So how would he have felt about nursing in public?

From Adam's scrapbook - Mister Rogers' letter

How do you think?  What's your best guess about how this great man, who was so in tune with children and how best to respect them and teach them - what is your guess about how he might have treated the topic of breastfeeding?

My husband, Adam, has always been a huge fan of Fred Rogers.  When he was eight years old, he wrote to him.  Mister Rogers wrote back. 

Adam even wrote a song about him when he died.

Yesterday he posted these photos to Facebook, and a friend of his commented that she liked the "Mister Rogers Talks about Food" episode, and today he found it online.

In it, Mister Rogers says that moms often find pleasure in feeding their babies - feeding their babies is a way of showing love.

In the clip below, there are different animals nursing their offspring.  As the mama cat is nursing, the camera gets a close up of a kitten, and you can see that it latches on to the mama's nipple to drink milk.  I thought as I watched it, "How wonderful!  Kids can really see it.  It takes the mystery out of it."

(You may want to watch for yourself now, to avoid my spoiler below.)

As I watched, I hoped that Mister Rogers would show women nursing on his show, even though I was happy even just to see calves and kittens.  And then - boom! - a nipple.  

A mama nursing her baby, and not even covered up.  

On TV, on a brilliant children's program.  Taking all the mystery out of breastfeeding, so that children can see and understand the primary function of breasts.  While they're young, before they've received the message broadcast so loudly by our society that breasts are sexy.  Cause how confusing must that be?  

Going from "breasts are for feeding babies" to "breasts are attractive" is as natural a progression as going from kisses on your neck tickling as a child to kisses on your neck tingling as a teen.  Starting with cleavage on pretty Disney princesses and then finally mentioning to adolescents that mammary glands are the best way to nourish a baby - that's what could be damaging to a child.

I'm still dealing with AISD so I have to say here that as the vast majority of mothers do, I will conform to society's expectations that I do not reveal any of my breast while I nurse my baby at school.  And my agenda with AISD has only ever been for mothers to feel at ease to feed their babies at schools as needed without being shamed.

But in the wider world, normalizing breastfeeding absolutely includes children seeing mothers feeding their babies as we were designed to do.  And I'm not the only one who thinks so.  The brilliant, gentle Mr. Fred Rogers thought so, too. 

Two Worlds Collide

UPDATE 3/23/13: You can see video of my speech and the post-communication discussion of suspending policy work by clicking here.  I have been informed that the board policy committee will not meet until June 11 (instead of next week) because they are all very busy working on the Bond election.  
 

Tonight I spoke at yet another board meeting.  I wasn't sure what I haven't already said, but I didn't want to waste an opportunity to try to get through to whomever may still disagree with my perspective.  Below is my speech.  I'll edit this post tomorrow to add the video when Adam has finished it.  You see, he had it about ready to go when Citizen Communication concluded and the board discussed suspending work on a board policy until we know the fate of HB 1706.  Ugh.  Spring break ended yesterday and already I can't wait for summer, when all of this will be done.  Or so I thought.  

Below my speech is my letter to the board, in response to the Chairman's interest in knowing more about the legislation.   

Speech:

January board meeting - Marianne Baker, Lauren Reyes,
Barbara Brawn, Gail Gresham, & Kristine Phillips Keller

Good evening.  In less than two weeks the board policy committee will meet and breastfeeding will be on the agenda.  I don’t know the procedure beyond that, and I wanted to talk to you again before a decision’s made.

Two months ago when I was here, my baby was falling asleep in his father’s arms, but every two minutes a speech would end and the applause would wake him.  I nursed him to sleep, just before my turn.  So I was breastfeeding here at the podium.  It wasn’t a stunt - just a necessity.

Last month, he couldn’t fall asleep.  I bounced him, he cooed.  He was a distraction.  He was disruptive.

When I was breastfeeding him, that was not disruptive.

Breastfeeding is not a tequila bottle or a curse word on a T-shirt.  Limiting distractions and disruptions that could be caused by fashion makes sense in a dress code, but there is no place for it in language regarding breastfeeding. 

If my child required a service animal (even a miniature horse) there’s no provision in the applicable policy that states, “If your dog’s really cute and the kids all want to pet him, you’ll have to be secluded away.”

There’s already a federal law which grants schools the right to tell a parent they have to leave if they’re disrupting the environment, but there’s no redundant language to reflect this in the service animals policy.

If I were Korean, black, a Baptist, blind, or in my eighties, no one would say to me, “It’s okay for you to be 83, as long as your being 83 does not disrupt the teaching and learning environment.”  Or, “You can be blind, but if it distracts anyone, you’ll have to go be blind in a private room."

Breastfeeding mothers are not a protected class.  But neither are parents with nose rings, or tattoos, or those who smell strongly of cigarette smoke.  But no one’s telling those parents that if those things draw attention, they’ll be segregated. 

And if someone did, while disconcerting and inappropriate, it wouldn't pose a risk to public health.  I can’t emphasize this enough: when breastfeeding is stigmatized as something which may be disruptive or distracting, rather than treated as normal and healthy, we take a great risk, for which our children will suffer. 

Letter:

Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you again tonight about the importance of supporting breastfeeding mothers.  I rushed out to get my baby home and to bed even though he is all mixed up by the time change, and once home I learned of the conversation the board had regarding current legislation related to breastfeeding. 

HB 1706 will strengthen Texas' existing right-to-breastfeed law.  You can read the bill and subscribe to updates at this link: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HB1706

Texas Health & Safety Code Sec.165.002 currently reads "A mother is entitled to breast-feed her baby in any location in which the mother is authorized to be."

It is a terrific law which asserts a mother's right and comforts many women who are nervous about breastfeeding in public. 

However, there is no provision which actually protects the right.  While Austin ISD is working on whether and how other laws pertaining to students and parents must be taken into consideration when interpreting how to implement 165.002, places like Hollister Co. and Pure Fitness for Women are simply ignoring the law altogether. 

HB 1706 strengthens the language of the law by adding the word "otherwise" before "authorized to be" and stipulates that a mother cannot have her authority to be in a place revoked for breastfeeding, and that no one may interfere with or restrict her right.

In my opinion, the most important and potentially effective aspect of the bill is that it will notify businesses of the law via the Comptroller's office.  It is usually an ill-informed employee who insists a nursing mother must move or altogether leave a place of public accommodation.  If more business owners were aware of the law and trained their employees accordingly, fewer women would face discrimination.

The sticking point may be the enforcement provision, which grants a private right of action.  It is possible that some legislators will be concerned about people filing lawsuits.  It is equally possible that more legislators will recognize that a law which can be ignored with impunity weakens respect for the rule of law. 

A similar bill has failed in the past few legislative sessions; in the past the proposed enforcement provision was a fine.  But a fine would require creating a system to assess fines, which would create a need to finance that system. 

A private cause of action is not accessible to very many women; it would not result in rampant lawsuits.  Most families cannot afford a lawyer and do not have time for a lawsuit.  It would be difficult to prove damages, or even to get a lawyer to take the case.

It would however stand to remind businesses that the right has weight.

The language in the initial version of HB 1706 broadly defines an "interested person;" this language will be narrowed in response to concern voiced by the representative of NFIB, the only organization which testified against the bill.  There was significant support for the bill represented by individual stakeholders and health organizations. 

You can imagine how invested I personally am in this bill.  You see how motivated I have been to protect mothers and babies in our part of Texas.  I want very much to improve our law for all of Texas.

However, I see it as entirely unrelated to the policy at AISD. 

Texas has a right-to-breastfeed law.  We are asking AISD to have a right-to-breastfeed policy. 

Regardless of the outcome of this bill, the law exists for a reason.  With or without an enforcement provision, the law should be respected. 

Tonight's discussion of HB 1706 was unexpected.  I choose not to believe that AISD would take failure of the bill to mean that 165.002 can be ignored.  I choose to believe that AISD instead would feel emboldened to take a stronger stand in favor of the health of mothers and babies if the bill becomes law.

I ask that you continue with the policy work that you have begun and fully support breastfeeding regardless of the outcome of HB 1706.

If I may be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me via email or at the number below.  I hope that this information is helpful to you in determining how to proceed.

Best Regards,
Krisdee Donmoyer

Postscript: On my way out, a man in the lobby who had just watched my speech on the TV screen there thanked me. That means more to me than he can possibly know.  Isn't it incredible the effect we can have on people, both positive and negative, without ever realizing our impact? 

Regarding Rep. Riddle

Obligatory NIP photo, because NIP is freakin' awesome,
not immodest or lewd or in any way offensive. 
Photo courtesy of Tatiana Tate

Representative Riddle on Tuesday afternoon announced that House Bill 1706 does not have her support, remarking, while she was at it, that breastfeeding mothers need to be modest.  Instantly, breastfeeding advocates jumped in to comment, sometimes with gentle education and other times with "snarky" (according to the media) insults.

This is my bill.  Not really, it's Rep. Farrar's, but I am so invested in this bill.  I've been working to support our breastfeeding bills for weeks, to the point of exhaustion and dehydration, to the extreme detriment of my already messy home, and sometimes to the annoyance of my slightly neglected kids.  I skipped driving to the pharmacy to refill my Synthroid prescription for a whole week after running out because I was too busy working toward making this bill law.

You can think I'm stupid or nuts for this, or, you can try to understand the magnitude of HB 1706 for nursing mothers.

I'm not alone in this work.  Many women in and out of Texas have made sacrifices to spend countless hours gathering and sharing information.  We are striving to communicate the need for this bill to the representatives who will decide whether or not it continues through the legislative process.  (Rep. Riddle, by the way, is not among those representatives - as in, she's not even on the committee.)

This is my bill, our bill.  It belongs to the breastfeeding mothers of Texas, their babies, and their advocates.    And with intelligence, education, and diplomacy, we can help make it law.

I understand the frustration felt by the women who engage the opponents of the bill and make "snarky" comments.  I get that it can be hard to make your irritation (or fury, depending on how many comments you've read) take a back seat as you craft a well thought out, respectful, educational reply (and then proofread it).

But if the focus of all this media attention is put on flippant remarks, we stand to lose this bill, and it will be two years before we have another shot at it. So please, when commenting on Rep. Farrar's post or the media coverage of it, remember who you are representing.

With every comment you make, you represent mothers who may not breastfeed for as long or at all if this bill is not made law.  You represent babies who stand to have less incidence of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, allergies, asthma, ear infections, celiac disease, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - and the list goes on and on and on.  You speak as a representative of mothers who will have lower rates of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.  And postpartum depression - not just from breastfeeding but because they aren't holed up at home alone because they're too afraid to breastfeed in public. 
(See research citations below.)

Please, for the love of breastmilk and babies, show the world that breastfeeding advocates are on the smart side of this issue.  If you're yelling and demeaning people, they're not going to listen to you.  You're a mom.  You see it with your kids, right?  Adults are no different.  Criticize them and they'll ignore you. 

Over here on the smart side of this issue, you and I know that moms are not likely to have the time and money (I was told 10 grand) to sue a business.  (And those of us who have had NIP incidents know that attorneys aren't calling at all hours offering to work pro bono.  Not even the ACLU called me back.)  Furthermore, it would be very hard to prove damages, so you might even be hard pressed to get a lawyer to take the case if you were paying him/her.  

One vital aspect of this bill is that it gives the Comptroller's office the responsibility of communicating to business owners that there is a law protecting a mother's right to breastfeed.  This may really be more powerful than the enforcement provision which will protect our right.

A business owner reading an email from the Comptroller is going to think two things: "Oh - there's a law that says mothers can breastfeed in my place of public accommodation.  I did not know that."  And, "Oh, they really mean it with this law.  I can't just revoke that mom's authority to be in my establishment, they could potentially sue me if I do."  And maybe one more - "Well, gee whiz, that sure makes it easier to handle complaints.  I don't have to try to please one person by possibly humiliating another.  I can just tell anyone who complains that I'm following the law, and I could be sued if I don't."

So the problem of 40% of women being so worried about nursing in public that it's their top barrier to breastfeeding can be greatly impacted by knowing that business owners are telling their employees they have a right to nurse anywhere.  The problem is addressed through the education on the law, so NIP incidents plummet and lawsuits would be rare, not rampant.

And more importantly, babies and moms would be healthier.  Not to mention the economic benefits of keeping the patronage of breastfeeding moms and our supporters - more than 60% of Americans, according to a new poll by the Kellogg Foundation, as well as the economic benefits of saved health care costs.

People are going to spout off about law suits, the role of government, and modesty, but this is about NONE of those, so don't get sucked in.   

This is a bi-partisan, public health issue.

The current law we are seeking to strengthen, Health and Safety Code 165.002,  was voted into law almost unanimously.  Authored by Democrat Debra Danburg after a friend was ousted from a restaurant for breastfeeding, it was passed through the House and Senate and was signed into law in 1995 by then-governor President George W. Bush.   

Bi-partisan.

It's a good law.  We love the law.   The thing is, a law which can be ignored with impunity weakens respect for the rule of law.  A brilliant woman told me that. 

This good law, and the mothers and babies it seeks to protect, deserve respect.

Trolls on the internet and even Rep. Riddle don't really matter.   At this moment, HB 1706 is pending in the Business and Industry Committee.  If you're a Texan and you have five minutes, don't spend it commenting on Rep. Riddle.  If this issue matters to you, send an email to the representatives who matter to it.  Because the most important thing about Riddle's stance right now is that it is irrelevant if we don't make it out of committee.

If you're not a Texan, please share our advocacy efforts outlined at TXBFLeg.com where there is information about our letter-writing campaign and our call for NIP incidents (which prove the necessity of this bill).

If you're on Facebook, share this group, and the graphic below.  And you can make the badge to the left your profile picture by scaling it to fit.

IF you comment on Rep. Riddle's post or on media coverage and you're a Texan, please begin your comment by saying so - and if you're in Rep. Riddle's district, 150, include that.  Click to look up your representative or check her district map.

PLEASE do not engage the trolls/opponents. They often make themselves look ignorant without any help from us, and when we start arguing, we're likely to get frustrated and become less diplomatic.

In fact, not reading the other comments can be a really good idea.

PLEASE be respectful of Representative Riddle. Here are some helpful guidelines.

You may feel you have been disrespected, and that makes it difficult to be diplomatic.  It also makes it hard to hear the other person.  And these comments should be about being heard, not just talking.  So make sure your voice is heard, and that you can be proud of how you represent other breastfeeding moms.  Please.

For this little guy, and so many more.

Bellybean nursed to sleep in the back of the room as the hearing for
House Bills 1706 and 741 drew to a close Tuesday.

Research on Health Benefits: 

obesity 
Lancet 2002; 359:2003-2004.     
Pediatrics 2002; 110:597-608. 

allergies
Lucas A, Brooke OG, Morley R, et al. "Early diet of preterm infants and development of allergic ar atopic disease: randomized prospective study". Br Med J. 1990:300:837-840
Halken S, Host A, Hansen LG, et al. "Effect of an allergy prevention programme on incidence of atopic symptoms in infancy". Ann Allergy. 1992;47:545-553
Saarinen UM, Kajossari M. "Breastfeeding as prophylaxis against atopic disease: prospective follow-up study until 17 years old."
Lancet. 1995;346:1065-1069

asthma
Breastfed babies have lower risk for developing recurrent wheezing when they are older (age 6 or more). Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Med., July 1995), 

ear infections
"Otitis media is up to 3-4 times more prevalent in formula-fed infants".
Aniansson G, Alm B, Andersson B, et al. "A prospective cohort study on breast-feeding and otitis media in Swedish infants". Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1994; 13:183-188
Kovar MG, Serdula MK, Marks JS, et al. "Review of the epidemiologic evidence for an association between infant feeding and infant health." Pediatrics. 1984:74:S615-S638
Saarinen UM. "Prolonged Breast Feeding as prophylaxis for recurrent otitis media." Acta Paediatr Scand. 1982;71:567-571 )

celiac disease
Akobeng, et al.: Effect of breastfeeding on risk of celiac disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of
observational studies. Archives of Disease in Children 2005.

SIDS
Ford RPK, Taylor BJ, Mitchell EA, et al. "Breastfeeding and the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Int J. Epidemiol. 1993;22:885-890
Mitchell EA, Taylor BJ, Ford RPK, et al. "Four modifiable and other major risk factors for cot death: the New Zealand Study". 
J Paediatr Child Health. 1992;28:S3-S8
Scragg LK, Mitchell EA, Tonkin SL, et al. Evaluation of the cot death prevention programme in South Auckland. 
NZ Med J. 1993;106:8-10)

breast cancer
Epidemiology 1994; 5:324-331.
American Journal of Epidemiology 2000; 152(12):1129-1135.
Lancet 2002; 360(9328):1871-95.
 
ovarian cancer 
Rosenblatt KA, Thomas DB, "WHO Collaborative Study of Neoplasia and Steroid Contraceptives". Int J Epidemiol. 1993;22:192-197
Schneider, A.P. "Risk Factor for Ovarian Cancer". New England Journal of Medicine, 1987.)

postpartum depression
Groer M: Differences between exclusive breastfeeders, formula-feeders, and controls: A study of stress, mood, and endocrine variables. Biological Research for Nursing 2005; 7:106-117.

Research on Fear of NIP as Barrier to Breastfeeding:

Nursing women “felt ‘vulnerable’ nursing in public. Certain proactive behaviors and personal attributes as well as support from other women enabled them to breastfeed successfully in public.”

Sheeshka J, Potter B, Valaitis R, et al.: Women's experiences breastfeeding in public places, Journal of Human Lactation 2001; 17(1):31-38.

"The variability in support for breastfeeding by managers of restaurants and shopping centers will continue to create uncertainty for mothers wishing to breastfeed in these public places."  

McIntyre E, Turnbull D, Hiller J: Breastfeeding in public places, Journal of Human Lactation 1999; 15(2):131-135.

“[P]ublic perception needs to be changed and legislation prohibiting discrimination against breastfeeding in public needs to be encouraged and supported,” based on findings that more than a quarter of surveyed adults found breastfeeding in public embarrassing.

Li R, Fridinger F, Grummer-Strawn L: Public perceptions on breastfeeding constraints, Journal of Human Lactation 2002; 18:227.

American Academy of Pediatrics: “Lack of family and broad societal support is an obstacle to breastfeeding.”  Policy statement: Breastfeeding and the use of human milk, Pediatrics February 2005; 115(2):496-506. 

“Interventions to increase public acceptance of breastfeeding include legislation ensuring the right to breastfeed.”  Shealy KR, Li R, Benton-Davis S, Grummer-Strawn LM. The CDC Guide to Breastfeeding Interventions. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005.  

Full text at http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/breastfeeding_interventions.pdf

Research compiled by Central Texas Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition