As much as there are things I absolutely love about breastfeeding, the intense bonding, the convenience of being a walking milk bar, the calories it supposedly burns, the truth is I didn’t actually know what I was signing up for. Not that knowing the challenges would have changed my decision to breastfeed – just saying…
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A 20-year-old New South Wales woman banned from breastfeeding has had the legal decision overturned. The ban emerged during a custody battle for her young son, with the injunction’s reason cited as a recent tattoo potentially exposing the child to blood borne illnesses, including HIV, through feeding. This ban was enforced despite the woman testing…
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American parenting magazine Hip Mama has released their latest print issue with an image of a woman breastfeeding a child, resulting in newsstands banning the cover due to its apparently explicit nature. The issue, which is to be released on Mother’s Day this May, features Barcelona-based artist Ana Alvarez-Erreclade breastfeeding her four-year-old child whilst wearing…
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Juliet Moody and Catherine Crowley of the band, Sparrow Folk, have hit back against gendered social prejudices with an entertaining video clip about the uncomfortable experiences of breast-feeding in public. The video has since gone viral. The video, dubbed ‘Ruin your day,’ shows both Moody and Crowley in a café (The Cupping Room, a local…
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In an effort to combat low breastfeeding rates in some poorer areas of Britain, new mothers will be entitled to receive government benefits pursuant to a new trial program. The pilot stage of the program is to operate out of the lower socio-economic areas of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire in England. Under this scheme,…
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You may have already heard, the Dutch edition of Vogue has as a mother breastfeeding as its cover image. The October 2013 issue of Vogue Netherlands features model, Ymre Stiekema, posing topless while feeding her baby in a scene reflective of the style of Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer was known for depicting household moments…
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I have never called myself a feminist. Being raised by a single mother in the 1980s with my sisters, equality for women wasn’t a concept that I questioned. You could say I took it for granted that women had equal rights. At this early age I didn’t question gender equality because I was only influenced…
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What is it with people getting all het up about women breastfeeding in public? Seriously – what is it about the sight of a small portion of breast, mostly covered by the head of a child, that stirs the masses into a morally outraged frenzy? This Monday saw a protest of hundreds of mothers outside…
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I blame Kochie. I blame Kochie for perpetuating what I like to think of as the “myth of choice” when it comes to breastfeeding, because it seems that somewhere along the line, ordinary people (people with breasts, people without breasts; people with babies, people without babies) got super distracted about breastfeeding. Distracted by strange concepts…
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I have an admission which will place me firmly in the category of Bad Feminist: I don’t particularly enjoy seeing women in the midst of breastfeeding. It’s unusual to see the naked female form with a baby attached out and about in public. I’m not used to seeing breasts in the shopping centre food court,…
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In May, Jamie Lynn Grumet literally became the poster mum for attachment parenting. After appearing on the cover of TIME Magazine (‘Are You Mom Enough’?) with her breastfeeding three-year-old, Grumet set off a multi-national debate about attachment parenting, with people wondering if it was natural, psychologically damaging, or selfish. And then Latch On NYC happened….
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It’s certainly not news that many mothers have copped flack for breastfeeding their babies in public. I, for one, recall stories from my mum about the struggles that she faced when my siblings and I were young. However you’d think in this day and age the most natural process of feeding one’s young would be…
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