In response to heat they're getting from the American Family Association, P&G is conducting a phone poll to see if people are for or against the Luke/Noah storyline on As The World Turns. Even if you don't watch the show, please consider taking a quick moment to support boy kissing and thwart homophobic bigotry. The poll is completely automated. You don't have to talk to anyone. And it really does take all of a second to register your opinion.

Just call 1-800-331-3774 and press #2 to get to the ATWT poll, then press #1 to continue the storyline.

(ganked from bicrim)

( I just wanted to clarify my thoughts on formula and breastfeeding for those of you who haven't read that far back into my LJ. )

When I post pro-BF stuff or anti-formula stuff I am not pointing fingers at individual people. In my previous post, I was not meaning to imply that that particular mother should or should not be formula feeding. I meant it as another reason why I am glad I nursed Sadie and why others should try.Of course any food product could and probably does to some extent have foreign substances in it.

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080208/NEWS/3739209/1033/NEWS01

This happened in Santa Rosa. Woman attacked while baby still in car.

Research study on DHA/ARA 'Fortified" Infant Formula that was not sponsored by a formula company.

Full PDF report here

( Highlights of the study that pretty much denounces nearly every health claim the formula industry purports )

Yesterday morning I thumb tacked the bottom of my foot on a tack that had fallen off our wall in the middle of the night. Had to pull the damn thing out. owowowowoowowo OW! Thank goodness my tetanus shot is up to date.

I sit here holding Issue #1 of Anything That Moves. I don't think I have ever read the entire copy. What a completely radical and progressive and just incredible act of love and perspiration the mag was.

I wish I could resurrect the magazine all by myself. There is much of who I am -was- in that magazine even though I think I only truly worked on one issue maybe 2. But it was through ATM that I got to know the bi-community, the poly/sex scene, myself.

Why do I have this copy? Well, because it is the 20th Anniversary of the Bay Area Bisexual Network and Marty is doing the fancy booklet for the 20th Anniversary Brunch on Sunday Nov 11. The brunch is a combo celebration/fundraiser for BABN. Marty, Sadie and I are going.

Any of you ATM folk want to sponsor a table and sit together? Or maybe write something up about ATM for the booklet? Let me know.

Two videos worth watching...

I just asked my representatives to co-sponsor the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, and I hope you will too.

As you all know, I was lucky to have an employer that supported my taking the necessary pumping breaks during Sadie's first year of life. Not all mothers have this opportunity but they all should because breastfeeding is so much healthier for the baby and for the mother both in the short term and on a long term basis.

Nanette from the MomsRising team shares why: As the mother of four breast-fed children (including a set of twins), I take it seriously when mothers describe difficulties they encounter trying to breastfeed their babies.

Recently we learned about Sophie Currier, a medical student who needed pumping breaks during her 9-hour board exam. We also learned about Janee McConnell, who was an exceptional employee at a grocery store but could not convince management of the need for a clean, comfortable room in which to pump for her third baby.

Stories like this make me realize that WE must tell our own members of Congress that we want them to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act.

We need to take a stand on this or else they won't. A bill goes nowhere without co-sponsors. So we need your help: Ask your Congressperson to co-sponsor the Breastfeeding Promotion Act by clicking below to send a letter right now. In just one click, you can send a letter asking your representatives to co-sponsor The Breastfeeding Promotion Act and also sign a statement of support for the Breastfeeding Promotion Act.

TAKE ACTION FOR THE BREASTFEEDING PROMOTION ACT BY CLICKING HERE:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/momsrising/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=13731

We want to give this Act momentum. Think for a moment about all the things on a ongressperson's mind right now: Iraq, budgets, the 2008 election. They will not give the Breastfeeding Promotion Act the attention it deserves--that we mothers deserve!--unless we demand that they do. Pediatricians say that breastfeeding is best for baby, and MOTHERS make the sacrifice for their babies to give them a great start in life.

Yet mothers often find themselves in additional struggles--with employers or other organizations like the medical testing board--to provide this for their children.

Let's support mothers who are nurturing and caring for the next generation of Americans! Those nursing babies may not be able to vote, but their mothers can! Let's tell our Congresspeople that we care about the Breastfeeding Promotion Act because we care about our babies and fellow citizens.

Please forward this email to your friends and family so they can add their names to our congressional letters and statement of support for breastfeeding mothers and their babies.

Together, our voices CAN make a difference.

Thank you!

Thanks to bicrim for this one.

Veggie Booty Recalled for Possible Salmonella Contamination.

Sadie loves this tuff so thought others migth want to know.

I totally forgot to post this. On Saturday Sadie turned 2 and we got out 2 year nursing ribbon. Every other day I swear she is weaning but then she'll go a few days nursing quite often and I think I'll be nursing her forever. ah well. It's like most every other thing when it comes to life with a 2 year old: whatever will she do next???

I just found this new resource.

The National Women's Health Information Center (http://www.4woman.gov/) offers a National Breastfeeding Help Hotline M-F 9-6pm EST. The number is: 1-800-994-9662. Their website also has lots of great breastfeeding information: http://www.4woman.gov/breastfeeding/index.cfm?page=ask

x/p a bunch of places

( Follow up to the post about a family being threatened with removal from a Ronald McDonald House for breastfeeding )

I have checked and rechecked this info and it is legit.

From scarlett_heartt

Ronald McDonald House asks our family to leave for breastfeeding!

My sister and I are staying in the Ronald McDonald House in Houston because one of her 17 month old twins had to have brain surgery to remove a tumor last week. The RMH has been great and we have felt so blessed to find such a safe and homey place to take care of her other two children and my daughter while we are here for Tobin's recovery.

However yesterday my sister, who is nursing the twins, was asked to stop nursing in the communal area of the Ronald McDonald House and to take it up to her room. She was shocked! After his surgery her son will basically only drink breastmilk and it is the only thing that eases the constant pain and anxiety he feels. She told them that it was illegal, according the Texas state law, to ask a breastfeeding mother to stop nursing in any public or private place. She also tried to explain to them how inconvenient it would be for her to take all her children up 3 floors to their room every time her sick child needs to nurse.

Unfortunately after 30 minutes of arguing, and being threatened with being kicked out, she was in tears and they weren't backing down. So I headed down there to talk to the administrator because I am also nursing my three year old daughter. I even pulled up the state law on my laptop and after a lengthy discussion the administrator acted as if she was going to examine the law so she understood it and move on. I thought that was the end of it.

Today I find out they may be kicking us out of the RMH because we refused to comply with what they call their "interpretation of the law". Their interpretation is that if they provide somewhere else for us to nurse they don't have to let us nurse in public places. Since when do laws get to be personally tailored to an organizations needs?

This is a ridiculous and terrible situation for all of us, I am not sure what else we will do if we can't stay here but we can't just not nurse our children. The Ronald McDonald is such a great resource, why do they have to discriminate against nursing moms?

If you would like to send a letter we would appreciate it. Arlene Whatley is The Executive director of The Holcombe location of the RMH where we are staying and one of the people who Jessica spoke to about this. It is Arlene that seems to be making the decision here. Her email is awhatley@rmhhouston.org and her phone is (713) 795-3570.

This message may also be shared and reposted. Thank you all for your support.

The Lactivist tagged me to do a 5 Things You Might Not Have Known About Me post...I'll make this one public but you should all know that 95% of my journal is friends' only so if you wanna know me better than this comment and I'll add ya (maybe)!

1. I was the editor of my high school's literary magazine my junior year. Then the next year the teacher decided to change how the Editor position was chosen and instead of her doing the choosing she made it by vote and since I was the least popular kid I got voted out even though I did a 300% better job than the idiot who got voted in.

2. When I was in high school I was extremely pro-life and fairly conservative, with the exception of believing in Gay Rights. I could not understand why people cared about what people did behind closed doors. I didn't become pro-choice until colege and since becoming pregnant/having had Sadie I am even more pro-choice.

3. When I was a little kid (like 5 or 6) I punched my paternal grandmother in the stomach really hard one day when she was babysitting me. I was mad at her for something. She died about a year later and for a while I thought it was my fault. It wasn't - the stupid nurse used the wrong sized needle to give her her insulin shot!

4. I saw Pres. Bill Clinton speak twice when I was a teenager. My dad used his press pass to get in and because he was in a wheelchair I got to come in as his aide. Pres. Clinton is an extremely awesome orator.

5. I was a videographer/camerawoman and sometimes anchor at my university's television station.

I tag crayonbeam, isarma and canis_fortuna

Enough with the deep, thought-provoking posts. Go here:

http://www.punch-me.com/

and

http://www.kneebouncers.com/kneebouncers.html

Satisfying wasn't it?

(thanks ,ercvt vis a vis goop

I was going to write about tonight's Super Nanny episode ...but then I read The Lactivist and she already did it for me.


Don't get me wrong...I believe that women should nurse til 2 at least - breastfeeding has imprtant nutritional benefits not to mention emotional. But in the same way that I am pro-choice I have to say that I also support a woman's right to choose when to wean - even if I don't agree with her decision. I feel it was clearly the mom's decision to wean (though Jo definitely encouraged weaning I think).

I also encourage women to slowly wean rather than overnight like they did. First, I feel that gradual weaning is better emotionally for the child. Second, sudden weaning can lead to mastitis in the mom.

I feel like if Jo had been MORE supportive of breastfeeding she would have encouraged the mom to set more limits around nursing (I nurse on demand AND still have limits around it) and helped her to delatch her child and still nurse her child to sleep or get the kid down and play.

My general philosophy around parenting is that the needs of the child must be balanced with the needs of the parent. In the end in our house at least the scale gets tipped in Sadie's favor for some things and in ours for others. Sadie would love to co-sleep for example but I get 0 sleep. Cranky mom makes for cranky parenting which is not good for anybody so she has been in her own space since she was 2 months. On the other hand, if Sadie is in need of extra attention in the morning I give it to her even though I will be late for work. And so on and so forth...it's a real give and take I think. Overall - if the parenting technique works for you it may or may not work for me and vice versa.

I really really disliked the advertisements for the show though. They really sensationalized and "negativized" extended breastfeeding and attachment parenting in general. The show as a whole wasn't as bad as I thought it was but the ads really were the things that I as a lactivist have problems with.

Don't know if any of this is making sense or not - but it's time for bed so it'll have to do.

This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of in relationship to breastfeeding/breastmilk. A daycare wants to charge parents $50 extra per WEEK if their child is eating expressed breast milk.

http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/02/city-kids-daycare-chain-charges-mom.html

The NY Times has made an interactive tool where you can search for specific words in Bush's State of the Union Addresses from 2001 thru last night. It's awesome.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/20070123_STATEOFUNION.html

This just in from another radical parent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just got this from my man D. Labrie. Apparently the city of Menlo park
is planning to cut an after-school / childcare program that serves
low-income / working-class people on one side of town, while
conspicuously leaving the program that serves wealthier and whiter
people on the other side of town fully funded.

This right here is where the class war gets dirty - when rich people
balance their budgets on the backs of poor children. Let's get out and
show `em what we think about those kinds of tactics.

What's Goin' On!!
The City of Menlo Park is TRYING to SHUT DOWN THE BELLE HAVEN AFTER
SCHOOL PROGRAM which will mostly affect Black/ Latino/People of Color/
Low Income Families in East Menlo park & East Palo Alto!!
HOW CAN I HELP!!
Just Show Up to the Town Meeting in Solidarity with the Community and
Bring all your FOLKS!! Just SHOW UP and Make a DiFFERENCE!! Come to
the Meeting and Receive a free Hip Hop Congress Music Compilation fea.
Your favorite Artists from the Bay !!

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP
Email/ My Space Blast w/ your orgs Logo attached
Spread the Word to Everyone, get them to come out
PRINT THIS AND POST around Community, on your blog, your website,
whatever.
Come to Meeting If Possible
WHEN & WHERE:
January 30th, 2007- 7:00PM, Onetta Harris Community Center, 100
Terminal (Belle Haven Area)
Contacts: Marcia Perez 415-297-6009 / Rahman Jamaal 213-215-5257
FOR MORE INFO READ ON
HELP SAVE CHILDCARE FOR EAST MENLO PARK AND EAST PALO ALTO
The City of Menlo Park is trying to take away the Belle Haven After
School Program once again. Last year they tried to slash the budget.
But City Counsel said to "leave Belle Haven's budget alone." Now the
City manager wants to cut the personnel so that the center would only
offer low quality care with minimal adult supervision. The more
affluent west side is fully funded and with extra staff but the low
income working families that are black and Latino are getting cut. We
are the families that really need the child care. We are asking that
everyone we can get to save child care for low income working mothers
of color come to the City Counsel meeting so our voice is heard. HANDS
OFF OUR CHILD CARE.

Our after school program could really use the help of the community at
a Menlo Park City Counsel meeting on January 30 @ 7:00 at the Onetta
Harris Community Center located at 100 Terminal in the Belle Haven Area.

Contact D. Labrie (dlabrozia2004@yahoo.com and
www.myspace.com/dlabriemusic) to help bring people, lots of people.

I wish for all of you:

health
happiness
love
financial well-being
peace
contentment
curiosity
gentleness
security
and...

that all your new year's wishes come true!

I encourage you all to watch this video that "Mr. Nice Guy" posted as his Christmas Card. For those on my flist who,like me, find themselves in a hard place financially it puts much perspective on things.

I forgot to post this, but we have been nursing for 18 months as of Saturday!

My friend ercvt wrote the following:

Today...I heard on the radio about an infant who was left in a car ( I think it was running) in a garage. It was found dead, and the parents were in the house. They are being charged with murder.

What were they thinking?? ... it just breaks my heart. Don't these people have friends who will help them?? Don't the people with infants that they abandon in the middle of nowhere ( happened here!!) know that they can take them to a hospital or church?! I mean, even drop them on someones doorstep!!

Or heck, call me!!!! I just wish I could take all these kids and save them and keep them warm and safe in my house. I hope that all of my friends know that if they ever need serious help- and they ever think they cannot handle their children or think they are going to harm them- that they can call me. Where ever you are, no matter what state. I will come help. I don't think I could forgive myself if something happened to my friend's child.

Which made me think of adoption, but we would never be able to afford that. And then that made me think of foster care. Oh who knows really. I just have this incredible need to help kids.

Please, everyone, go tell a friend that you are there for them. And tell them to do the same. Post on your friends list that you will help your friends. That they can call you if they ever think of harming their child. That you will not judge them, but help them.

Hug your kids.

So, yes, if you ever need help and feel you are going to hurt your kids...please do not hesitate to contact me for help. I will not judge you. I will help you in whatever way I am able.

http://www.breastfeeding-art.com/html/frames/framesetall.htm

Really, follow the link. Beautiful.

Can you believe a woman was recently kicked off a Delta Airlines flight for discreetly breastfeeding her child!? Here's an article on it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15720339/?from=ET

*SIGN THE PETITION TO SUPPORT BREASTFEEDING: http://www.momsrising.org/breastfeeding-petition

Join me in telling Delta Airlines to get a clue and be supportive of breastfeeding mothers; and also in telling Congress it's time to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding mothers. Clearly this law is needed now!

And, I hope you'll also join me and tens of thousands of others in one of the most exciting grassroots movement on the Internet: MomsRising.org.

SIGN ON WITH MOMSRISING AT: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/momsrising/signUp.jsp?key=1682&t=longsignup.dwt

MomsRising.org (http://www.momsrising.org) is working to build a massive grassroots movement big enough to impact the outcome of the 2008 elections and beyond. The time has come to break the logjam that's been holding back family-friendly legislation for decades. It's going to take all of us--and then some--working together to get there.

Thank you!