Tag Archives: Breastfeeding Support

Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival 2011

This year I’m heading the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival again and it starts in 9 days! Don’t worry though, there’s still plenty of time to participate!

The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival works like any other blog carnival. There is a specific topic on a specific day that everyone posts on. Then we all link to each other’s blogs so people can read lots of posts on the same subject. The twist with the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival is that we do this every day for 2 weeks. Don’t worry, you don’t have to participate every day, just as many as you’d like to. Though there are some over-achievers out there that post every day for two weeks.

If you don’t have a blog (or don’t feel comfortable posting on your own blog), you can still participate! We are still looking for guest bloggers for the Breastfeeding Cafe’s blog. Just let me know as soon as possible. Topics are first come first serve! Spots are filling fast, but we still have plenty left. We will not need guest bloggers for the Wordless Wednesdays posts.

This year the Breastfeeding Cafe’s theme is Mothers See! Mothers Do! In public, in pictures, and online too! The topics for the carnival are attempting to stick along this theme. Thanks to all of you who contributed topic ideas! Here is our list of topics:

Monday, July 18—Mothers Before Me: How were you influenced by the mothers before you when it comes to breastfeeding? Did you witness breastfeeding as a child? Was breastfeeding considered taboo in your family? How did this influence your choice to breastfeed?

Tuesday, July 19—Eco-Breastfeeding: The environment is a hot topic at the moment. Was the environment something you considered when you decided to breastfeed? Does the environment come into consideration for other parenting choices you’ve made?

Wednesday, July 20—Wordless Wednesday-Breastfeeding Photos: Show us your breastfeeding photos! Maybe just your favorite or maybe every photo you have, up to you!

Thursday, July 21—Language and Breastfeeding: Most people don’t realize how their language can influence our ideas of breastfeeding. Do you feel this is an issue in our society? If so, how can we change our language to rid our community of the bias against breastfeeding? How do you feel breastfeeding is portrayed by the language in our media?

Friday, July 22—Nursing in Public: What are your views on breastfeeding in public? How do you feel a mother breastfeeding in public influences others in public? Do you feel breastfeeding in public helps to normalize breastfeeding?

Saturday, July 23—Birth Experience: How did your birth experience affect your decision to breastfeed? Did the people present at your child’s birth truly support breastfeeding? Did you get off to a good start or did you have to fight to figure things out? Did you receive good information on breastfeeding from your birth attendants?

Sunday, July 24—Online Breastfeeding: This is the internet age. Many of us log on more than we’d care to admit, but in the case of a new mother that can possibly be a good thing. How did the internet influence your breastfeeding? Did you participate in online forums, Facebook, Twitter, or any other kind of online community? Did this influence your parenting choices? Did these influences help or hinder your efforts?

Monday, July 25—First Nursing in Public Experience: This could be anything from the first time you witnessed a mother breastfeeding in public to the first time you did it yourself. How did you feel about it then? How do you feel about it now?

Tuesday, July 26—Breastfeeding and Multiples: No we’re not just talking about twins, triplets, etc. Any way that you breastfeed with multiple children. Maybe you’ve breastfed while trying to conceive, maybe you’ve breastfed while pregnant, maybe you’ve tandem nursed, maybe you’ve just breastfeed a younger child while chasing the older one. How does breastfeeding help you parent? What are the challenges?

Wednesday, July 27—Wordless Wednesday-Babywearing Photos: Let’s see your favorite babywearing photos! This year at the cafe we will be having a special top-secret babywearing flash mob! There’s still time to participate, so let me know if you’re interested!

Thursday, July 28—Importance of Breastfeeding: Why is breastfeeding personally important to you? Who helped you to first see why breastfeeding would be such a benefit? You know what they say–there’s nothing like word of mouth.

Friday, July 29—Reliable Online Breastfeeding Sources: We all know that it is a mutual blessing and curse that anyone can post on the internet, so what do you do to shield yourself and others from the ones who are wrong? How do you find a good breastfeeding resource online? How do you help other new moms to find good sources of information?

Saturday, July 30—Book Review: Books are a large influence on how we parent and can bring new ideas into light (or help us to shun old ones). Maybe it’s your absolute favorite breastfeeding/parenting book or one you recently read. Maybe it’s one that helped you through the hard times or maybe it’s just advice on what kind of breastfeeding/parenting books to read. Let’s talk about books!

Sunday, July 31—How You Influence Others: What do you think is the most important thing that you do to influence pregnant and new moms to breastfeed? Do you have a story of a mom who you feel you’ve really helped?

Email me at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com and I’ll add you to the email list. I will be sending out a reminder email one week before each topic is supposed to be posted. Posts will need to be up before 12:00pm (noon) Mountain Standard Time on the day specified. Please email me a link to your post as soon as possible (preferably before the day it will be posted) and I will make a list of links (in HTML) that everyone will put on the bottom of their posts. We will also have a blurb about the carnival for you to put at the top of your post (also in HTML). Please make sure that you add the code at the top and bottom of your post so that others can see that you are participating in our carnival and when you receive updates, update them as soon as possible!

Warmly,
Claire
Blog Carnival Mistress

My Biggest Advocate

Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival!

This post was written as part of The Breastfeeding Cafe’s Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today’s post is about nursing in public. Please read the other blogs in today’s carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th through the 31st! 

 
As many of you know, I am not nearly as outspoken in person as I am on the internet. Actually, I am embarrassingly shy and hate confrontation. When I get into arguments, even civilized ones, I instantly get hot in my cheeks and forget all of my points. I put my foot in my mouth constantly, I talk too much about nothing when I’m nervous, and I rarely speak in front of groups. I will never be a good public speaker and I’ve come to grips with that.

It makes me feel very conflicted about the topic of breastfeeding in public. I am constantly arguing with people on the internet when they shun breastfeeding in public. I am constantly encouraging other mothers to have the confidence to NIP. Yet, it is one of my biggest fears that someone will actually get upset about me nursing Peanut while out and about.

So when I read the line “Who or what makes it easy for you to nurse in public?” when we were coming up with and editing the list for the carnival, before I was even in blogging mode, I instantly thought of one person—my husband. My husband is confident and outspoke, yet still diplomatic and able to handle arguments with ease. I have always hoped that he would be there if I ever get confronted about nursing in public.

I am blessed to have a supportive husband. When I hear other moms talking about their husbands not being supportive of their breastfeeding, it just feels alien to me. I can even picture myself sitting there with my mouth agape out of shock. How can your husband not be supportive? How could I survive without my husband being supportive? Supportive isn’t even the best word—he is my biggest advocate. How could my breastfeeding relationship survive without that unconditional support?

It’s because breastfeeding has turned into something much bigger for him than I had expected. I figured he would go along with it because it’s what I wanted (and of course the fact that it’s cheap would make him all sorts of happy). I thought that he would passively endure. Maybe he would go as far as telling me that I have the strength to continue when I felt I wanted to quit. Yet somehow, he ended up feeling as strongly about it as I do. He is the one person in my physical world that I can tell the research to and he’ll listen with interest, I can speak of benefits without him taking offense, and I can breastfeed where ever I want knowing that if I’m not able to stand up for myself when someone speaks against me, he’ll gladly take that role.

It’s not just his protection that makes it easy for me to breastfeed in public. Even if he isn’t there if/when I get confronted, I feel him supporting me will help me to stand up for myself. Him having absolute confidence in me and agreeing with my stance 100% makes me realize I am not alone. I am not the only one who knows I have the right to breastfeed where ever, when ever, and how ever I want. I am not the only one who knows that this is just how babies eat. So hopefully, if the need arises, he won’t be the only one who can stand up for our daughter’s right to eat.

 

 Here are more posts by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.