If you have photos from your birth you would like to share please email me the images with you and your baby's name (sarah@ilithyiainspired.com) and stay tuned...
One month after the media storm around a mother being asked to leave a swimming pool for breastfeeding and television presenter Kochie's call for "discreet" breastfeeding, a mother in New South Wales was asked by the manager of Satellite Cafe to leave because she was breastfeeding her baby. In the exchange between the breastfeeding mother, Regan Matthews, and the cafe owner, the owner stated that breastfeeding was an "offence to humanity" and "disgusting".
After the incident became public knowledge via social media, the cafe owner issued an "apology" to Matthews, blaming the media for not educating her better about breastfeeding and the law. Today a public nurse-in was held at Satellite Cafe where around 50 mothers and their children gathered outside to protest the cafe owners' illegal actions. But the message of the nurse-in has failed to sink-in for everyone.
The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed a staff member from a hair salon next door saying that the incident was taken way out of context. Protesters overheard this woman telling the media that breastfeeding should be conducted discreetly. If you find the salon's facebook page and website you discover that while this hypocrite is all for discreet breastfeeding, the business is a big fan of pin-up and burlesque imagery:
From the salon's timeline photos
A patron of Satellite Cafe was also quoted, saying that Satellite is a cafe where he "comes to feel safe". He went on to state:
"[Breastfeeding mothers are] completely ignoring the rights of customers to come out and say 'I don't want to see that while I'm eating'"
Safety from breastfeeding mothers was a big concern, not just for this young man who feels threatened by it, but also from the cafe owner who refused to attend the protest "fearing for her safety". As far as I know there's no nuclear device activated when a child suckles at a breast, but I'm sure if there were, people would think twice before crossing breastfeeding mothers. Unsurprisingly the victims of discrimination are blamed for the actions and prejudices of the ignorant.
The nurse-in was also covered on The Project on Channel Ten. For the most part it was an excellent segment, which normalised breastfeeding (I was particularly impressed with Matthews' comment that she was surprised when the cafe owner stated breastfeeding was an offence to humanity because there wouldn't be humanity were it not for breastfeeding). Unfortunately, one of the panel members: Dave "Hughesy" Hughes admitted that recently he had made his breastfeeding wife and child relocate while at a cafe because he felt uncomfortable about them feeding near the entrance to the cafe.
While his panel co-hosts seemed suitably uncomfortable with Hughesy's admission, I felt more needed to be said on the matter. While Hughesy sought validation for his actions, the reality is that he transgressed the law and discriminated against his own wife. He may have been more polite than the owner of Satellite Cafe when approaching his wife about her public breastfeeding, but his motivations and actions were ultimately the same. I wrote the following on The Project's Facebook wall:
Hughesy. If your wife had been bottle feeding your baby at the entrance to a cafe would you have asked her to move? Your discomfort with where she was breastfeeding stems from the same socially-learned offence to breastfeeding as the cafe owner who insulted Regan Matthews. It's not valid and that's why 29 years ago our federal legislators made it illegal in The Sex Discrimination Act.
It's really disappointing that there continues to be a debate about breastfeeding in public in Australia today. It's even more disappointing that a cafe owner can be so ignorant of her legal responsibility not to discriminate against her customers, particularly given this very issue was only just covered in the mainstream media one month ago! We have a long way to go despite all the media attention, a national Breastfeeding Association and public nurse-ins.
Slogans and signs made by 1 mother & her daughters for the nurse-in
ETA: Kochie is at it again! Today Tonight interviewed him for his opinion on what happened to Matthews and this time he took his call for breastfeeding mothers to be discreet further, by stating that members of the public have a right to say they're uncomfortable with mothers feeding their children. Actually, Kochie, they're not, that's what we mean when we continually try to explain to you that public breastfeeding is a legally protected right as outlined in the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984.
We recently had our twenty week antenatal appointment. Antenatal appointments are rather lovely experiences for homebirthing families. In our case they are lazy Sunday afternoons and stretch on for hours. They are filled with great conversation, laughter, some massage, a few checks if I wish, birth planning, playing with children and eating.
This meet I gave them each a hard copy of my birth plan and we read through it and discussed important points. Doula gave me an awesome back massage and the midwife and I took turns searching for a foetal heartbeat.
We think we heard it once or twice, very briefly and very faintly (I have opted not to use doppler to hear the heartbeat so we were working with my fetoscope and my Midwife's stethoscope and pinnard).
Getting pinnard ready
I requested a blood pressure check because I'm curious about that and had been feeling a bit off that week. As suspected, it was due to the Aussie Summer heat that I'd been feeling off and my BP was a boringly normal 120/80.
I wanted to learn more about palpation and sensing foetal position. Because I elect not to have ultrasounds, the best way to determine my baby's position is to palpate my fundus. Palpation is a hands on abdominal examination. At twenty weeks there is little the "palp" could tell us because the baby is about the size of a mango and there's quite a bit of skin, muscle and fat between the midwife's hands and baby. But as he/she grows we will be able to tell if baby is head down, whether his/her head is engaged, and (a specific interest of mine after two posterior labours) we will be able to tell if this baby is facing front or back.
Palpating fundus
After an unassisted pregnancy, I am enjoying sharing this pregnancy with my midwife and doula. Their excitement about this baby's birth further fuels my own. It's rather wonderful to feel treasured and important to others while pregnant, as well. Pregnancy takes so much from you, a little nurturing can go a long way to replenishing your energy.
I'm also delighted by the growing relationship between my birth team and my children. My girls feel included in the whole process thanks to the birth worker's willingness to talk and to play with them. And the kids know that if they need attention during the birth, these women are there for them. Though, the 5 year old is quite annoyed that I don't pop the baby out when my "birth friends" come to visit. She hears talk of a midwife visiting and excitedly asks "are you having the baby today?!"
This week I was sad to learn that one of my midwives can't attend me as planned and I'm disappointed because I clicked with her well and wanted her at one of my births since the day we met. I still have a fantastic midwife and my very dear friend for a doula and of course my partner. I'm not unsupported, but losing a support person I was attached to having at this birth has brought up a lot of "stuff" from my previous births and especially my own birth. Thankfully I still have half a pregnancy to work through the issues and will be stronger and more prepared for this birth than I otherwise would have been.
I leave you with the latest belly pics my partner took on Thursday night in our backyard:
What are Obstetric Ultrasounds? : " The power emitted by a doppler device is greater than that used in a conventional 2-D scan. Its use in early pregnancy is therefore cautioned"
Last year I was invited by Fertile Mind to speak at a "Babywearing Masterclass" about babywearing advocacy. The crew at Fertile Mind organised a babywearing consultancy course and flew Ulrike Howe from Germany in for the event. Howe founded the Tragescule School for carrying or babywearing. She is director of the school which started in 1998 and is now found in 18 countries and trained over 650 consultants (from here). On the final day of the event a panel of speakers were organised that included Howe, chiropractor: Dr Vanessa Harrington, Ian Scott from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and myself.
I was invited to be one of the ten Australians trained by Howe to become a babywearing consultant but had to decline because of the time commitment it demanded away from my family in another city. I did accept their invitation to speak on the final day about my babywearing advocacy experience. In particular, the organisers were interested in hearing more about the incident in January 2012 when my husband was questioned by police for babywearing.
It was a very busy 24 hours in which: I flew from Melbourne to Sydney with my 1 year old, slept at a hotel, squeezed in some touristy fun including wandering the Quay and more importantly spending a few hours in the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is possibly my favourite gallery in the country (it's so hard to choose!), attended the talk and then flew straight back home.
I intended to blog about the event back then, but never got around to it, until today, when I stumbled across youtube clips of some of the speeches. Even better than me blogging about the event, you can actually "attend" right from the comfort of your home.
Here is the footage of my talk. Ironically enough my daughter protested to being worn while I stood still for twenty minutes, the poor darling was not 100% well that day, so I apologise for the baby distractions throughout.
Ulrike Howe's keynote speech was incredibly informative. She presented a lot of research and shared insights from her fascinating work as a babywearing consultant and trainer. Unfortunately there is a glitch happening with blogger and youtube where it is embedding different videos to that which I am pasting into the post. So instead of embedding these clips I will have to provide the links for you to watch on youtube.
Thanks again to Manduca and Fertile Mind for flying me to Sydney to attend this event. It was a really enjoyable experience connecting with other passionate babywearing advocates and learning more about babywearing and infant health. I was also grateful to meet a few babywearers and homebirthers in the flesh who I'd known of online for years. Hopefully more events like this and more babywearing advocacy happens here in Australia in the future.
If you have photos from your birth you would like to share please email me the images with you and your baby's name (sarah@ilithyiainspired.com) and stay tuned...
Umbilical cords are a fascinating part of the reproductive process. Cords are rather brilliant in terms of physiology, function and diversity of appearance. But sadly the only time they seem to merit attention is when a medical professional wants to pathologise them: wrapped around necks, tied in knots, or when discussing third stage severance and blood harvesting for research. Despite the hype, these life lines rarely pose a problem for babies. Rather than fear the cord, take a moment to appreciate their wonder.
Baby's cord in the first minutes after birth, still providing oxygenated blood
There are three parts inside the umbilical cord: two arteries and a vein (see left). The white part surrounding the arteries and vein inside the cord is known as Wharton's jelly (named after an English physician of the 1600s, so we'll just call it cord jelly since it was there long before Mr Wharton). Cord jelly prevents the cord from compressing or tying itself into tight knots. The jelly can also cause the umbilical cord to untie themselves. Nicole from Bellies and Babies provides a great explanation of how the cord functions throughout pregnancy:
"The arteries return deoxygenated, nutrient-depleted blood from babe to the placenta, where it will be reoxygenated and replenished with vital nutrients to be recirculated through the one vein back to babe again."
A common misconception about umbilical cords is that nuchal cords (nuchal meaning "around the neck") are a rare and dangerous complication of childbirth. This is inaccurate. From personal experience I have found that the possibility of a nuchal cord is frequently cited as a legitimate reason not to consider having a homebirth. The reality is that nuchal cords are a normal variation of birth, which rarely cause problems for mother or baby.
According to Childbirth Educator Gloria Lemay: 20% of babies have nuchal cords and up to 5% of babies are born with the cord wrapped around their neck multiple times (from class notes). Homebirth midwife Lisa Barrett states "As many as 1/4 of births have the cord at least once around the neck and it has never posed a problem in the 20 odd years that I have witnessed birth". Lisa goes on to state that she has been present at a birth where a baby's cord was wrapped around the neck six times. You can read about this at length here.
Part of the fear of nuchal cords is owed to a lack of basic knowledge about the physiology of umbilical cords. Rachel Reed, an independent midwife who completed a PhD about nuchal cords writes:
"The umbilical cord is designed to be worn around the neck without causing a problem. The cord is covered in Wharton's jelly and coiled. This protects the 3 blood vessels from the kind of stretch and compression involved in being attached to a mobile baby. The umbilical cord is also long enough (average 55cm) to be comfortably wrapped around the neck with plenty of left over length."
There is a misconception that a nuchal cord compromises a baby's access to oxygen. In normal physiological childbirth the placenta is the baby's oxygen source until the first breath, when the lungs begin to take over. As outlined above the cord is designed to wrap around the neck and tie in knots without compromisng blood flow from the placenta, thanks to the jelly inside. The most efficient way to compromise a just born baby's access to oxygen is to clamp and cut the umbilical cord. There has also never been a case of a baby's neck breaking on account of a nuchal cord. In the homebirth community, where delayed cord clamping is the standard of care, nuchal cords are understood to be a common variation of normal physiological childbirth. They are treated by calmly unwrapping the cord from baby once the baby has been fully born.
In her Midwifery 101 class on "Common obstetric problems" Gloria Lemay teaches students: if a baby is so tightly wound in his cord you can perform a "somersault manouver",
once the shoulders are born. This is done by placing your hand on the back of the baby’s
head, pressing the baby’s face into the mother’s thigh and not letting the baby
come straight out. By supporting the baby's head, into mother’s groin, the head
stays there and the rest of the baby’s body is able to come out or: “jackerknife" out as Gloria states (see here for a diagram of this manoeuvre).
Another variation: wearing his cord like suspenders, courtesy of April
During her first homebirth, Lis treated her newborn's nuchal cord herself. She writes:
"Next contraction hits me and again my body pushes, out comes his
perfect little body! I scoop him up out of the water and notice that
the cord is wrapped around his neck 3 times. No biggie. Happens in the
majority of births to some degree. As I'm sitting there with him in my
arms, unwrapping the cord from his neck in walks [the midwife, my husband and children]. Just in time to greet the new arrival.
Everyone
was just so overwhelmed and excited. [The midwife] was fantastic, telling me
what an awesome job I had done, how strong I was and what an amazing achievement it all was and how beautiful my instincts were just calmly
unwrapping the cord from his neck."
Families and birth workers at homebirths have the great fortune to witness the wide spectrum of what constitutes normal childbirth, in a calm and fear free environment. This atmosphere helps create optimal birth outcomes and experiences for the families and education for birthworkers. It also means those in homebirth circles get to witness ordinary birth moments which sadly have become extraordinary thanks to hospital maternity ward culture. Homebirther and Mummy blogger Shae wrote about this on her old blog and shared the following image:
Shae shared this photo here so that more birth-interested people would see the exquisite colour of her third daughter's umbilical cord. In her blog post Shae notes that this photo is sadly "extraordinary" in contemporary birth culture because her baby is in her arms, still coated in the vernix she was born with (vernix is a butter-like moisturising substance babies skin secretes while in the womb), and a juicy blue cord still attached to baby and placenta (read her post here). Had this birth taken place in a maternity ward it is highly likely that the cord would have been cut and the baby wiped down before she made it into her mother's arms.
In addition to being blue or white, umbilical cords can also appear green. A green cord suggests the baby has passed meconium while in the womb. While this is interesting it is rarely a dangerous complication. In class, Gloria Lemay mentioned that very rarely a cord may have no jelly and as such will be spindly and could possibly break. Her final words on nuchal cords were that a cord around a baby's neck is a cord out of trouble, not falling below the baby and also an indication that the baby has a long cord to work with.
While the idea that nuchal cords are a rare and serious danger to babies is a widespread misconception about umbilical cords, there is one other myth that is perhaps even more widespread. That is, the belief that the umbilical cord must be cut. When left alone the cord naturally detaches from the newborn's belly button in the first week of life. Leaving the cord to detach in nature's time-frame is "non-severance", or more widely known as "lotus birth", named after a 1970s pioneer of the practice: Clare Lotus Day (more details here).
2 freshly born placentas with cords still attached to baby, couple of hours postpartum (same mother)
same cords featured in above pic, post lotus birth, top: 2 yrs 10 months old, bottom: 3 days old
While historically the placenta has been regarded with some respect in some cultures and is increasingly recognised for its incredible role in the reproductive process, umbilical cords continue to be severed with little thought. It seems that only the mythical possibility of a cord causing a problem merits our cultural attention. However, increasingly the blood inside umbilical cords is receiving cultural attention in Western medicine. Unfortunately scientific interest in cord blood and the harvesting of cord blood has promoted premature severance of umbilical cords, which compromises the health of babies and denies them of their own blood. I would hardly call this showing respect for the cords' reproductive brilliance.
Umbilical cords are lifelines. They are a fascinating aspect of women's amazing ability to create life and they deserve our attention even when they stop pulsating. Next time you have a baby or attend a birth take a moment to appreciate the only umbilical cord that baby will ever have, at the time of birth it is as much a part of him or her as the heart and lungs.
A very big thank-you to Lis for sharing your birth story here and to Shae and April for volunteering your awesome photos for this post.
You may remember in 2011 I travelled over 1800kms to attend the birth of a babe I came to think of as "Epic Erin" who weighed in at a whopping 11 pounds, 5 ounces. Last month I took another doula holiday, once again in Queensland. This time I attended Nat, whom I had the pleasure of attending Kat with, during Erin's birth.
During my 2013 doula holiday I was fortunate enough to re-meet Erin. I cannot believe how much growing our little people do in eighteen short months!
Look at how delighted Kat remains with her sweet babe (no longer a babe!). Beautiful
Nat, like Kat, is a friend I made through the Joyous Birth network. Nat and I have known each other for seven years. We were two of the very few who found out about homebirth before we'd started trying to have children, before we were married. We followed one another's conception journeys online. Nat was always about six months ahead of me. Her wedding happened in October, mine in February. Her first child was born in August, mine in February. Her second child was born in May, mine in December. Again we found ourselves pregnant with our third babies: her due in January, me July. We also have daughters, so I joked that whatever sex her third baby was, mine would be too.
My family and I arrived in Queensland when Nat was 39+2. She'd been getting some warm ups in the weeks before I arrived and we had been a little worried I might miss the birth, but as it turned out Poppet held on.
Doula 16 weeks & Mumma 39
A few days after I arrived we held a blessingway for Nat and Poppet. It was the least formal of all the blessingways I've been a part of. It was very lovely, it had a natural rhythm that made the whole afternoon serene, everything seemed to flow and nothing felt contrived or uncomfortable.
We managed to provide Nat with the love and nurturance we throw blessingways for, and included some classic rituals, despite the informal flow of the celebration.
Most of the afternoon involved mothers exchanging wisdom and making one another laugh. Nat requested that one of her student midwife friends palpate her abdomen to ascertain Poppet's position at that moment. The "palp" confirmed Nat's inklings about her baby's lie. As the "palping" came to an end our friend laid her ear to Nat's belly and listened. Then she quietly, but excitedly said to me "You've got to hear this!" I turned to Nat who consented and exchanged places with our student midwife friend. I listened closely and could not believe my ears. I heard Poppet's heartbeat! Skin to skin with another woman: hearing the drum of a little soul's heart, beating from another world! Breathtaking.
Nat had long predicted her babe would be born the day after her blessingway. But the day came and went and Poppet stayed rooted to his/her mother's womb (though not without giving Mum another restless night of warm-up labour that vanished when a sibling woke).
The following day was Poppet's estimated due date. We refused to spend the day twiddling our thumbs. I'd been keen to get Nat into water to give her heavily pregnant body some relief from gravity ;) So we took the kids to an aquatic centre with fun water features to play on and we parented while floating.
The week wore on and as anyone who has been pregnant at full-term can tell you, it is physically, emotionally and psychologically challenging to make it through those final days (particularly when you're parenting the baby's two older siblings). Every day we would part with "hopefully I'll see you tonight", willing labour to begin. Nat had reached the most pregnant she had ever been. One thought that kept her going was the thrill that she might make it to the next milestone: 41 weeks.
I made sure Nat and her partner Martin got some kidfree time to connect with each other during these last few pregnant days and at 40+5 Martin and my partner made sure Nat and I got some women-only time. We went out for dinner, just the two of us on a doula date and then back to her place where I gave her a back, neck and shoulders massage with essential oils.
At 40+6 we were shopping together and Nat joked that she'd be annoyed if Poppet decided to fall out of her in the next few hours, robbing her of officially making it to 41 weeks. I joked that surely for this reason Poppet would choose to be born at 11:59PM that night.
We went back to Nat's house and as had been long promised she used her mad skillz to paint the children's faces (we laughed as she worked out how to turn my eldest into a "kangaroo fairy" as requested). After the kids, Nat fulfilled one of my childhood dreams and transformed me into a rainbow butterfly.
I was thrilled with my new face and told Nat I hoped she'd be up for re-doing it in early labour so I could attend her birth as a pretty butterfly ;) The butterfly perished later that night. Queensland was flooding and even a short run from front door to car was long enough to soak us. Our families shared a late night together at Nat's house because our accommodation had lost power due to the floods. I was starting to worry about the logistics of attending a flood birth. There were only so many hours of charge left on my phone before I would be beyond reach to Nat. There was also the risk that I might be cut off from her when she did go into labour or that I would be unable to get back to my family when the birth was done. By morning one of two routes between her house and my cabin would be under water and the second route predicted to be likewise submerged sometime the following night.
Aside from the flood concerns there was also the very real possibility that Poppet might hold on until after I had to fly back to Victoria and neither Nat or I wanted that. As it happened Poppet's timing was flawless. The morning that Nat clocked over to 41 weeks I woke up at 7AM to the sound of a text message on my near dead phone. It read: "Shit's getting real!" :D
Not wordless today because I want to formally introduce you, gentle readers, to a new series of posts I'm going to be publishing for as long as you feel like sharing your birth photos here. Ilithyia Inspired is adding birth photos to Wordless Wednesday link ups around the world to celebrate childbirth each week, starting with: Kimba and Isis...
These images were photographed by Brooke Patel, homebirth and newborn photographer
If you have photos from your birth you would like to share please email me (sarah at ilithyiainspired dot com) the images with you and your baby's name and stay tuned...
We are half way through "Wattle's"
pregnancy, preparing ourselves for a third homebirth. Our five year old
is very enthusiastic about this upcoming birth and the baby (though she
is very clear she will be less enthused if we produce another sister for
her). She is keen to be at the birth and we are keen for her and her
two year old sister to be there to meet the baby as he or she enters the
world. As such we have taken to youtube to expose our children to the
raw honesty of birth to help them prepare.
Our chlidren are very involved in our birth planning meets, they usually take a
seat on one of our midwive's laps for the duration, our birth team are
known as "Mumma's birth friends". Our five year old has her own special
role in our birth plan: to be the one to check and tell us if we have a
boy or a girl. She is thrilled to have the best job of all, in her eyes.
Our two year old is baby crazy and we hope her love for babies extends
to her sibling who she will have to share her parents with.
We
have selected one of our support people to focus on entertaining the
kids during the birth, if they're awake (with the assistance of my
partner). The plan is to have a special box of new craft activities,
toys and DVDs given to the children while I'm in labour to help keep
them entertained in their room if they're bored or need to be elsewhere
during birth.
The
possibility for involvement of older siblings is one of the many
benefits of birthing at home. I hope that this means the girls will find
the transition into becoming one of three will be a little less
turbulent if they are there to share the moment. Something else that
should help aid sibling bonding is our continued breastfeeding
relationships. The girls will get less time at the breast and learn to
wait longer because the baby's need is greater, but they will also learn
that a new baby doesn't mean the end of Mumma meeting their needs.
I
leave you with our family's favourite birth clips and a few words about why they're a hit with us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoIiVszj1EU
This one can't be embedded elsewhere, so head to youtube to watch. It's a very quick, accidentally unassisted birth, mother catching her baby in the bathtub.
This one is quick (my girls like when the babies are born quickly), it's clear and there is so much joy. It's also one of the few non-waterbirth videos.
Baby born in bathtub, Daddy assisted catch. We talk about how babies go straight from vagina to Mumma's chest, when we watch this one.
This one is an old favourite we also watched with 5yr old when she was
preparing for the birth of our 2yr old. We talk about birth noises and
how kids can help birthing Mummas.
This one is fantastic for talking to kids about how loud birth can be and how that's okay.
I love this one because they weren't expecting twins, the kids love
it because there are two babies. It's a good one for talking about
patience during birth.
Another one that's good for discussions about patience. But
the highlight of this one is watching the mother catch her own baby,
while birthing, standing upright.
This is a terrific birth clip for educating kids about patience, birth noises and for talking about the fact that some babies need some help when they are born, this video shows the Mumma performing neonatal resuscitation on her baby and it's calm. It's also good for talking about what Mummas need while birthing because this Mumma asks her midwife to give her quiet.
Another twin birth my girls love. We talk about patience and we talk about people touching the baby, a very important topic since the 5yr old wants to hold the baby as soon as he or she is born.
An Australian mother was forced to leave a swimming pool for breastfeeding her baby last month. Following the coverage of this incident a morning television presenter: David "Kochie" Koch, called for breastfeeding mothers to be "discreet" and "classy" about how they feed their children in public. My Facebook newsfeed was alight with lactivist fury, protest rallies were organised, and frustrating debates about who defines what is appropriate breastfeeding behaviour.
My 2008 blog post "Uncovering what lies behind lactophobia" received quite a few hits and I shared the link on Kochie's Facebook page with a few thoughts that plagued me throughout the (social) media hoo-ha:
"Breasts are a body part, there to perform a function. It makes no more sense to call for 'discreet' breastfeeding or covering up while breastfeeding than it does to call for eyes to be covered while seeing, or arms covered while lifting. That is, unless you mistakenly believe that breasts' function is to arouse a misogynist culture that has fetishized women's bodies as one way of subjugating us"
Yesterday the Townsville Bulletin published a brilliant article by Bettina Warburton about the incidents, focusing on an often forgotten fact when it comes to breastfeeding debates in Australia: it is illegal to discriminate against breastfeeding women and children. The federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984 protects public breastfeeding, as Warburton explains:
"It's illegal to restrict access to public spaces otherwise accessible because a woman is breastfeeding. There are no shades of grey, and no interpretation of the law required, when it comes to a breastfeeding woman in public. In fact, the law means what happened last month to a breastfeeding mother at the Bribie Island Aquatic Centre was illegal."
This is a fact needs to become public knowledge and something I wish I had recalled the last time I was discriminated against for breastfeeding. Last year my Grandmother and I were eating breakfast at a cafe, my baby eating hers in my arms, when an elderly woman interrupted us and told me to go across the street to feed my daughter in the filthy public toilets (the cafe did not even have its own toilets! And I refuse to use the one's across the street even for eliminating because they are known in the local community to be a popular place for drug users). I was too surprised by the interruption to respond, but my Grandmother had a few strong words about "old biddies minding their business". In any case, it would have felt great at that moment to remember that my behaviour is protected by law and that woman was the transgressor!
In addition to the underlying misogyny and illegal nature of discrimination against public breastfeeding, negative breastfeeding comments in the media infuriate me because I know there are mothers trying to do their best for their babies and trying to please the general community simultaneously. It is unjust. Warburton's article touches on this issue beautifully when she writes:
"When I started on my motherhood journey nearly five years ago, I found breastfeeding an extremely difficult act to master. The last thing I needed as a new mother, who was trying desperately to master the fine art of breastfeeding, was public scrutiny on how discreet and classy I should be when feeding my baby in public. High-profile comments, such as Kochie's, that sanction curbing a breastfeeding woman's access to public spaces can make it awkward for many of us to continue on our breastfeeding journeys."
I can remember being afraid to breastfeed in public in the early months of motherhood. I hid myself away from crowds, got my partner to sit or stand strategically to protect me from view, afraid not only that someone might tell me off for breastfeeding, I also worried someone would stop me to tell me I was doing it wrong. It is a very vulnerable time in a mother's life. It was for me even though I already hung out in lactivist circles and blogged about the importance of breastfeeding. I can only imagine how much harder it must be on mothers without the same information and support that I had. It is reassuring to know that our law makers considered and included us in the Sex Discrimination Act, 29 years ago.
All the opinions expressed on this site are the author's, unless otherwise stated, and are independent from any of the organisations I am affiliated with| Any information provided on this site should be used as an introduction to ideas that hopefully inspire further research and education elsewhere. Information and opinions provided on this site should not used in place of professional midwifery or medical advice.
Breastfeeding is an unequalledway of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers. As a global public health recommendation, infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. Thereafter, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond. Exclusive breastfeeding from birth is possible except for a few medical conditions, and unrestricted exclusive breastfeeding results in ample milk production.”
World Health Organisation Says
Birth Is Not An Illness
These 16 recommendations are based on the principle that each woman has a fundamental right to receive proper prenatal care: that the woman has a central role in all aspects of this care, including participation in the planning, carrying out and evaluation of the care: and that social, emotional and psychological factors are decisive in the understanding and implementation of proper prenatal care.
1. The whole community should be informed about the various procedures in birth care, to enable each woman to choose the type of birth care she prefers.
2. The training of professional midwives or birth attendants should be promoted. Care during normal pregnancy and birth and following birth should be the duty of this profession.
3. Information about birth practices in hospitals (rates of cesarean sections, etc.) should be given to the public served by the hospitals.
4. There is no justification in any specific geographic region to have more than 10-15% cesarean section births.
5. There is no evidence that a cesarean section is required after a previous transverse low segment cesarean section birth. Vaginal deliveries after a cesarean should normally be encouraged wherever emergency surgical capacity is available.
6. There is no evidence that routine electronic fetal monitoring during labor has a positive effect on the outcome of pregnancy.
7. There is no indication for pubic shaving or a pre-delivery enema.
8. Pregnant women should not be put in a lithotomy (flat on the back) position during labor or delivery. They should be encouraged to walk during labor and each woman must freely decide which position to adopt during delivery.
9. The systematic use of episiotomy (incision to enlarge the vaginal opening) is not justified.
10. Birth should not be induced(started artificially) for convenience and the induction of labor should be reserved for specific medical indications. No geographic region should have rates of induced labor over 10%.
11. During delivery, the routine administration of analgesic or anesthetic drugs, that are not specifically required to correct or prevent a complication in delivery, should be avoided.
12. Artificial early rupture of the membranes, as a routine process, is not scientifically justified.
13. The healthy newborn must remain with the mother whenever both their conditions permit it. No process of observation of the healthy newborn justifies a separation from the mother.
14. The immediate beginning of breastfeeding should be promoted, even before the mother leaves the delivery room.
15. Obstetric care services that have critical attitudes towards technology and that have adopted an attitude of respect for the emotional, psychological and social aspects of birth should be identified. Such services should be encouraged and the processes that have led them to their position must be studied so that they can be used as models to foster similar attitudes in other centers and to influence obstetrical views nationwide.
16. Governments should consider developing regulations to permit the use of new birth technology only after adequate evaluation.
