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.
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!
