Home Birth a Celebrity Affair

Six years ago when I first got involved in “birth  world”, it was very rare to hear about a home-birth. Now it seems it is beginning to lose its aura of mystery and taboo. Celebrity Baby Scoop just put out an article on Celebrity home birth.

Yes. I did use a midwife and a doula. We had the option of having a doctor there, but even he said you’ll only need me if you need to be transferred to the hospital--which thankfully, I did not need."

“I had all my children at home, naturally,” Erykah said. “First my son [Seven Sirius]
was born at home in 1997, because that’s the natural environment, the old way. There’s not a lot of fuss and moving around. I had a very wise doula and midwives giving me the freedom to continue living my life. I didn’t have to uproot myself… Maybe to some it’s scary, but preparation is the whole key. When a mother has found out she’s going to have a baby, her whole life — her diet, her mood, her energy — should kind of prepare her. After she prepares herself, fear is never a part of it. I expected success and health, so I made sure I surrounded myself with it. By the time I had my third baby, childbirth seemed a very natural part of life to me.””]

According to an article by  Jill Cohen in MIDWIFERY TODAY:”In most cultures throughout history, women have given birth at home. The majority of women worldwide continue to birth their babies in non-hospital settings today. In many cultures birth is viewed as an integral part of family life. The advent of obstetrics in this century had a tremendous effect on childbirth customs in the United States. The birthing process became segregated from mainstream family life. Many were led to believe that the only safe birth was a hospital birth. Though doctors and hospitals took credit for statistics that indicated that birth was more successful than in previous centuries, in reality better nutrition, hygiene and disease control improved outcomes. Even today US statistics don’t support the premise that the only safe birth is a hospital birth. The US ranks 28th among industrialized nations for healthy births, at 7.0 infant deaths per 1000 births. (These data are based on 2002 statistics from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau: US Department of Health and Human Services.) Hospitals have never been proven a safe place to have a baby.

By the 1950s, most births in the US were taking place in hospitals. Cesareans, epidurals and heavy doses of pain medication became the norm. Women were denied feeling and experiencing birth through their bodies, and the drugs were having adverse effects on mothers and babies.

In the 1960s and ’70s, women began to question and challenge the way obstetricians were treating them—as though childbirth were a sickness. Women began to reclaim their power, and the homebirth movement was born.

The 1990s became a time of maternity awareness. People were concerned with making all of pregnancy and birth a family experience. Today, a carefully monitored homebirth has been proven to be very safe and successful for women who have been helped to stay low-risk through nutrition and good prenatal care.

A mother choosing a homebirth must, above all else, deeply desire to give birth at home. Even though a homebirth can save money, cost alone is not sufficient motivation. The most successful homebirthers are highly committed and trust their body’s natural ability to birth. They devote time and energy to finding the right birth practitioner, doing their own research and taking care of themselves.

For some mothers, the prospect of being at home in familiar surroundings provides tremendous comfort and reassurance. Others may feel uneasy that more technical medical assistance isn’t at hand. With a skilled midwife and a non-meddlesome approach, homebirth is safer.

Families that choose homebirth may be confronted by family members and friends who, conditioned by a society afraid of out-of-hospital births, challenge their decision, feeling it is both unwise and unsafe. Again, a strong inner commitment is required to stand up for the right to birth as the family chooses. Showing family members the evidence is sometimes helpful.

Midwife means “with woman.” Traditionally, women have attended and assisted other women during labor and birth. As modern medicine emerged in the West, birth fell into the realm of the medical. Since women were barred from attending medical schools, men became the birth practitioners. Having never had a baby themselves, they were unable to approach women and childbirth with the inner knowledge and experience of a woman. Childbirth became viewed as pathological rather than natural. Medical techniques and interventions that were unnecessary and often dangerous became commonplace.

During the 1960s and ’70s, along with the women’s movement and renewed interest in homebirth, the midwifery movement rekindled. It has been growing steadily ever since. Midwives are becoming more and more involved with birthing families and have been instrumental in redefining birth as a natural event in women’s lives. Midwifery empowers women and their families throughout pregnancy and birth.

How to Choose a Midwife

Midwives have varying styles and levels of expertise. It is important to choose a midwife with whom you feel confident and compatible. The following questions may help a pregnant woman select a midwife who is well-suited to her and her family:

• How did she become a midwife?
• What training has she had?
• Is she certified or licensed with any organizations?
• Does she belong to any midwifery organizations, attend conferences and workshops, subscribe to professional journals?
• What is her basic philosophy of childbirth?
• How many births has she attended as the primary midwife?
• Does she handle higher risk situations, such as twins or breeches?
• What is the fee for her services, how must it be paid, what does it include?
• What kinds of services are included in prenatal care? (May include early detection of problem areas for the mother and baby; nutrition information; exercise recommendations; in-home care; recommendations for parent education via books, videos or classes.)
• Does she work with another midwife or assistant at births?
• What does she do if two of her clients are in labor or birth at the same time?
• How do clients reach the midwife? Does she have a pager or cell phone allowing 24-hour access?
• How does she handle problems or complications that develop during labor?
• What standard and emergency equipment does she carry? What herbs or medicine does she use? Which ones does she not carry and why?
• Does she have any affiliation with a physician who can answer questions about unusual developments either during the pregnancy or in an emergency?
• What is her policy for transporting to a hospital?
• What medical facility would she use? Has she developed a good working rapport with them?
• What kind of postpartum care does she provide? (Ask about frequency of baby checkups, assistance with breastfeeding.)

In addition to asking these questions, it is important to be clear about what you expect from your potential midwife. Be prepared to share your vision of the birth and discuss any fears you may have. Tell her how knowledgeable you are about birth at present and how informed you would like to become.

Determine if the midwife’s answers to your questions agree with your desires. If your heart trusts her, you have found your midwife.”

I am excited to see it as it is the beginning of a change or a shift if you will of the perception of what birth is. There is a conspiracy of fear that seems to surround birth. Society says birth is dangerous, or at least the movies and hospitals do. I fear however we have a very long way to go before fear is removed from birth.

y delivery was in a bath tub, in water," Gisele said. "I wanted to have a home birth. I wanted to be very aware and present during the birth... I didn't want to be drugged up. So I did a lot of preparation, I did yoga and meditation, so I managed to have a very tranquil birth at home. It didn't hurt in the slightest. The whole time my mind was focused in each contraction on the thought ‘my baby is closer to coming out.'"

Doula Reality Radio Part II

On Monday Evenings program we got back in touch with Alyse and John, two expectant parents in their 39th week of pregnancy. During the interview Alyse was experiencing contractions or as she refers to them , pressure waves, Alyse is a Hypnobabies Student. We talked quite a bit about Hypnobabies and more! Our discussions, we hope will lead to more parents finding answers that they need before their baby is born. We also discussed brain wave states in labor and the different stages of labor. We hope doulas will use this as an educational tool for their clients. We also hope expectant couples can pick up a thing or two from these lovely folks who allowed us to peer into a very intimate part of their lives.

Real Life Back and Forth Between Doula and Client (s)

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO LISTEN TO THIS VERY REAL SHOW AND FOR INSIGHTS ON A COUPLE THAT IS EXPECTING SOON…

Babes in Arms; Progressive Parenting talks Baby Wearing, Co-Sleeping and Plagiocephaly

“Babies that are held often cry less and are more calm and content.”*

There, that’s it, end of blog. I mean shouldn’t I just stop right here? Do parents need more than just this one sentence, to be convinced to hold and be close to their babies? They do? Well, okay here we go.

In our culture here in the United States, parents have a myriad of choices when it comes to baby gear. You can stock a huge hangar full of stuff to buy to prepare to become a parent. Swings, bouncy chairs,  car seats, strollers, cribs etcetera, etcetera. It makes my head spin just wondering how we made it this far as a species without this stuff for millenia…………I just trailed off…sorry,I was just picturing cavemen and women putting their baby to sleep in a different cave.

In earlier societies, a child's need to be close to his parents during both night and day was a "self-evident truth", and the obvious way to meet that need was to provide safety, closeness and comfort. Throughout most of human history, mothers slept next to their babies, which fostered the bond between them, and encouraged and facilitated breastfeeding.

DID CAVE MEN HAVE NURSERIES? 

It’s kind of an absurd scene no? Ugg and Mugg leaving a cute little snack for the predators of the night…nope I don’t see it happening. It didn’t, for a reason.  They carried their babies, they were with them hunting and gathering. Baby’s were close to mom. The mother new immediately if the baby needed to nurse, and nursed her baby, crying babies scared away prey or attracted unwanted predators.

But when you stroll through the humungo hangar baby store you see cribs everywhere. Many experts tell you that bed sharing is unsafe. Many of these experts are consortiums like the JPMA, the folks that make cribs. Before I go on, is there ANY MONEY to be made if we encourage parents to sleep with their children? Hmm…..

The following is a quote from Dr. Sears ”

A conflict of interest? Who is behind this new national campaign to warn parents not to sleep with their babies? In addition to the USCPSC, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) is co-sponsoring this campaign. The JPMA? An association of crib manufacturers. This is a huge conflict of interest. Actually, this campaign is exactly in the interest of the JPMA.

What does the research say? The September/October 2002 issue of Mothering Magazine presents research done throughout the whole world on the issue of safe sleep. Numerous studies are presented by experts of excellent reputation. And what is the magazine’s conclusion based on all this research? That not only is sleeping with your baby safe, but it is actually much safer than having your baby sleep in a crib. Research shows that infants who sleep in a crib are twice as likely to suffer a sleep related fatality (including SIDS) than infants who sleep in bed with their parents.

Education on safe sleep. I do support the USCPSC’s efforts to research sleep safety and to decrease the incidence of SIDS, but I feel they should go about it differently. Instead of launching a national campaign to discourage parents from sleeping with their infants, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission should educate parents on how to sleep safely with their infants if they choose to do so.

A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW

“Cribs are dangerous, and prevent parents from intervening quickly in emergencies. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the same organization that recently warned about family beds, has reported 40 to 50 crib deaths per year, and thousands of serious injuries. Their own web site is filled with warnings of the potential hazards of crib use. Yet they never consider the possibility that cribs should be abandoned. This is a nonsensical double standard that no one seems to be questioning.” Jan Hunt, M.Sc Director of The Natural Child Movement.

WHAT KIND OF MAMMALS ARE WE?

There are two types of mammals, cache and carry mammals. The cache mammals are those that leave their babies in hiding for long periods of time so the mother can hunt for food. These mothers have milk high in fat and protein, allowing their babies to sleep for long periods of time in order not to attract a predator with their cries.

The carry (that’s us) species are those mammals whose babies are relatively immature and must be on their mother’s bodies or in very close proximity. These mothers produce milk that is low in fat and protein, which digests quickly, guaranteeing that the baby will be hungry more frequently. This forces the mother to stay close by, ideally having the baby on her body so they can move together quickly if needed to escape a dangerous situation. Human babies are by far the most immature babies born, needing constant care, including feeding, holding, rocking, and other soothing behaviors. Unfortunately, Western culture has traditionally treated human babies as if they were more like cache animals, trying to invent ways to keep them quiet and alone for as long as possible, especially at night. This can force babies to go against their biology and, in some cases, lead to failure to thrive.

WE ALL NEED TO BE TOUCHED

Researchers in the United States and England have found that on average, babies in these countries are only touched or held for approximately 25 percent of their daytime hours. By nine months of age, the touch time goes down to 16 percent. Even young infants in a model day care center were only touched 14 percent of the day. In contrast, studies done with the !Kung San tribe in Africa found that infants are in touch with their mothers for approximately 70 percent of the day and in someone else’s arms the rest of the time. These babies cry much less than Western babies.

THE CASE AGAINST CONTAINERS

Plagiocephaly, what is it?

plagiocephaly (plāˈ·jē··seˑ·f·lē),

n a medical condition occurring in infants; distinguished by the reshaped, flattened, or deformed appearance of the skull. It develops as a result of constant pressure being placed on one area of the thin and flexible skull of the infant. Can be corrected if treated early; techniques involving direct cranial molding often provide the best results.

It looks like this:

According to Ask.com.Pediatrics:

”

Prevention

Since posterior plagiocephaly is caused by there being too much pressure being put on one part of your infant’s head, you can often prevent it from occuring by alternating the positions that your infant stays in. This does not mean that you should stop putting your child to sleep on their backs, put you can alternate your child’s head position that he usually sleeps with.Spending more time on his stomach (prone position) in ‘tummy time’ when he is awake and being supervised is also a good idea. And try to avoid letting your infant spend a lot of time in the same position on his back when he is awake. This may mean avoiding leaving your infant in car seats, when he is not in a car, and bouncy type seats for long periods of time. An infant sling or wrap can be a better alternative, as they put less pressure on your child’s head, or use a stationary walker once your child is old enough to sit in one.

These preventative measures can be especially important for infants at higher risk of positional plagiocephaly, including preemies, multiples, and infants with poor muscle tone.

When should you start? Usually during the newborn period, when an infant’s skull is ‘maximally deformable.'”

When you carry your baby, he/she is forced to keep her head up, he/she using their core muscles and will develop these muscles faster than their crib lying, car seat sleeping, bouncy seat bucking friends.

For more information on these ideas OR a great gift for parents who want to know more about them : 

Doula Reality Radio

We are not sure if this is a radio first, but it is definitely a first for us. This is the first installment of a three week series covering the last weeks of pregnancy for first time parents.  Last Monday evening I interviewed a couple (my doula clients)they very graciously shared with me (over the air) what actually happens between a pregnant couple and the guardian of their journey.  This is reality radio at it’s best!  We hope that doulas everywhere will help in sharing this episode with the public at large. This can be an invaluable tool to share with folks on the fence about using the services of a doula or for folks who ask, “What is a doula?”.

I hope that if you hear  this program and see the value of using this episode as a teaching tool please, feel free to hit the embed this episode button, take the code and put it on your site.

In the third installment (if baby cooperates) we will be discussing the birth with this couple and see how these new parents feel about their experience.

Leave us comments here or under the actual episode.

Benefits of using a Doula

A Doula benefits Mom:
• Shorter labors
• Fewer complications
• Reduced cesarean rates
• Fewer requests for pain medication
• Greater sense of fulfillment with the birth experience
• Greater satisfaction with her partner’s role
• Better bonding with her baby postpartum
• Less postpartum depression

A Doula benefits the Baby:
• Shorter hospital stays
• Fewer admissions to special care nurseries
• Improved breastfeeding success
• More positive assessment of the baby

The Benefits of continuous labor support are recognized by:
• The World Health Organization
• The Medical Leadership Council (an organization of over 1200 US hospitals)
• The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada

Bring Birth Home Radical Choice or the Beginning of Normalcy?

My guest on tonights show will be Kaitlin Rose Parmenter of  Bring Birth Home. BBH is a great resource for parents wanting to learn more about  their options outside a hospital or birth center. Hospital birth is fairly new to us, as far as the history of man is concerned. To put this in perspective name the first US president who was born in a hospital. More and more women are choosing to have their babies at home.

For centuries giving birth at home was the normal thing to do, but by the 1900’s women slowly began changing their birth setting by going to hospitals. As our understanding of anatomy, modern medicine, the mechanics’ of childbirth, and technology have significantly increased, more and more women are exploring the idea of a home birth with trained midwives or nurse-midwives for low-risk, healthy pregnancies. As the desire for home birth grows, the number of studies and statistical data will continue to grow and give us a greater understanding of the risks and benefits.

Do you HAVE to be a radical hippie to consider this? Is it safe? We will tackle all these questions and more on the show tonight. Is homebirth becoming mainstream? Watch this commercial from Pampers and tell us…

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“Recognizing the evidence that births to healthy mothers, who are not considered at medi- cal risk after comprehensive screening by trained professionals, can occur safely in various settings, including out-of-hospital birth centers and homes …Therefore, APHA Supports efforts to increase access to out-of-hospital maternity care services…”

American Public Health Association, “Increasing Access to Out-of-Hospital Maternity Care Services through State-Regulated and Nationally-Certified Direct-Entry Midwives (Policy Statement)”. American Journal of Public Health, Vol 92, No. 3, March 2002.

In the five European countries with the lowest infant mortality rates, midwives preside at more than 70% all births. More than half of all Dutch babies are born at home with midwives in attendance, and Holland’s maternal and infant mortality rates are far lower than in the United States… (Midwives Still Hassled by Medical Establishment, Caroline Hall Otis, Utne Reader, Nov./Dec. 1990, pages 32-34)

Mothering Magazine has calculated that using midwifery care for 75% the births in the U.S. would save an estimated $8.5 billion per year. (Madrona, Lewis & Morgaine, The Future of Midwifery in the United States, NAPSAC News, Fall-Winter, 1993, page 15)

“Excellent outcomes with much lower intervention rates are achieved at home births. This may be because the overuse of interventions in hospital births introduces risks or the home environment promotes problem-free labors.”

Henci Goer, Obstetric Myths versus Research Realities: A Guide to the Medical Literature. Bergin & Garvey, 1995.

Emotional Muscle

Last night I talked to husband and wife authors Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick  about their book, “Emotional Muscle: Strong Parents, Strong Children,” and shared their experience, knowledge, and research on building emotional muscles for children.

She and her husband Jack Novick, have been working with children and families on thoughtful, positive parenting techniques for more than four decades. Psychoanalysts and psychologists, they are the founders of the innovative Allen Creek Preschool in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As internationally recognized authorities on child and adolescent development, they teach at universities and training centers throughout the world and lecture frequently to groups of parents, grandparents, teachers, pediatricians, and nurses. Together and separately, the Novicks have published dozens of newspaper articles and papers in professional journals, as well as three books for professionals.

You know how important it is for your child to flex his physical muscles: without exercise those muscles will atrophy, leading to pain and discomfort. Well, if they don’t get regular workouts, the same thing will happen to his emotional muscles.

Even as an infant, your child is capable of much more than you might think—and the best way to foster his growth is by building emotional muscle through thoughtful, positive parenting. With these established strengths, your child will become a good friend to others, a responsible helper, and a self-motivated learner, well equipped to meet life’s challenges.

Emotional Muscle provides parenting tips for the first five years of your child’s life, offering opportunities for emotional muscle-building at every stage.
For example:

• Babies learn trust and adaptability
• One-year-olds develop empathy
• At age two, they learn resilience and mastery
• For three-year-olds, it’s about persistence
• By age four, they’re ready to develop internal controls and realistic standards
• And at five, at last, it’s time for cooperation and competence

Each chapter describes the characteristics and challenges of that age group as well as the emotional muscles that you can work on to guide your children, with examples drawn from our highly successful preschool.

Timeless and informative, this book offers parents, grandparents, teachers, and all who work with children practical, straightforward, easy-to-implement parenting tips and techniques. As one mom told us after reading the book, “I have gotten so much help and a sense of competence in my parenting this week!”

-During the show we mentioned the Parent Circle an online 
community please be sure to join us there!

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE CIRCLE!!

Click Here to listen to this episode!

“One More Girl” – A Documentary, Progressive Parenting digs Deeper into the Gardasil Controversy

I will admit I have been known (before kids) to take a road trip to Vegas. I really get into the action at the Craps tables and have made some serious cash at Black Jack. But there are some gambles I can’t imagine. I will admit that Progressive Parenting has never been a big promoter of vaccines, but after stumbling upon the following video and doing some research, we at Progressive Parenting were appalled. On this Monday’s show, I will be interviewing Ryan Richardson and his brother, David, who are currently starting production on the film documentary “One More Girl”. This film will cover the controversial vaccine Guardisil and it’s alleged side-effects which could include over 88 deaths.

We found we aren’t the only ones thinking that parents need to know ALL the facts before they go running to give this vaccine to their girls. Even ABC News’ Chief Medical Editor Dr. Timothy Johnson said;

” Today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) contains two articles – and an excellent editorial – addressing the question of whether the benefits of the Gardasil vaccine outweigh its risks. The vaccine is designed to prevent infection by two strains of the HPV (Human Papilloma Virus); these strains are said to account for about 70% of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine is now recommended for 11-12 year old girls before they become sexually active. For the first time in my career, I cannot recommend a vaccine for its intended population — in this case, young girls. Therefore I am going to say that any parent considering this vaccine for their daughter should read the editorial in JAMA and then talk to their doctor before deciding.”

Even the CBS Evening News Katie Couric’s Blog, Couric & Co had this to say about the vaccine:

There is likely still a lot to be learned about the ultimate benefits and risks of this relatively new vaccine. Since the test subjects are young, it will be decades before a large group of them reaches the age at which women typically get cervical cancer. Which means it may be a long time before we know the vaccine’s true real world effectiveness when it comes to preventing cervical cancer. In the meantime, public health officials say they will closely monitor any emerging side effect trends. Hopefully, this vaccine will prove to be the lifesaver everyone would like for it to be.

We hope you will join the conversation. The call-in number is (917) 889-2491

Progressive Parenting… a Babe in the Woods, Last Nights Show & a Real Babe in the Woods.

When we started years ago, we only wanted to share what we believed to be important information with parents. Four years later we STILL want the same thing. We’ve gone from AM to FM to the internet. The internet has been an exciting format. We can see EXACTLY how many people are listening, we can get instant feedback, through the chat room or phone calls or comments left on the site. We are still learning as we go, as we teach ourselves how to navigate the web and cyber space in general. One thing has stayed steady through the years, we still need your ideas and suggestions as to the direction and content of the show. Please email us your comments, opinions, and suggestions to progressiveparentingradio@gmail.com. Even though it’s been 4 + years we still feel very young.
_

Last nights show was important to me and timely. Recently we have made friends, my daughter and I with a mother and son duo that recently moved here from Maine. My daughter has been craving friends that live close by (they live in the apartment complex next to us), the only draw back was, well, he’s a boy. It was only a set back for about 20 minutes, she warmed up to the idea of a playmate ANY playmate and is now very happy. The show was timely for me because I found myself WAY more aware of things I was going to say, but didn’t because of the show. Things like, “BOYS WIL BE BOYS”, or after he got smacked in the noggin, I almost said, “AW, HE’S OKAY, HE’S A BOY”. My guest was Crystal Smith author of the ACHILLES EFFECT, she and Melissa Ward of Pigtail Pals joined me to talk about stereo types and how pop culture affects young boys. The hour flew by and we even had a caller from Bangkok! I invited them back and hope to talk to them on the show again in June.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf

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Today for the first time we had a chace to visit the GREENBELT HERE in Austin. Amazing, beautiful and OUTDOORS! I have been cooped up for sometime now. I had no idea till we were trekking along and seeing lizards and hearing only animal sounds.

look closely!

Ah, refreshing change I love you! I am also pretty crazy about the friends that took us, Raji Simpson of BEBLISS and her charming son. New friends and new things, gotta love it!

What Pop Culture is Teaching Young Boys about Masculinity

CAUTION TODAY’S PARTICULAR POST IS RIDDLED WITH PROFANITY, THAT IS ALL…

Tonight our guests are Crystal Smith author of THE ACHILLES EFFECT and Melissa Wardy of Pigtail Pals Redefining Girly. We will be discussing pop culture messages about masculinity, their impact on boys, and the benefits of introducing more gender balance to boys’ lives.  According to Smith, “the pop culture environment that surrounds boys introduces them to a world where traditionally masculine traits-like toughness, aggression, and stoicism-are highly esteemed and where female influence is all but absent.”

We were planning on speaking to Smith after reading her book, but after seeing all the hooplah about the new J Crew ad (showing designer Jenna Lyons with her son, laughing and bonding and…. wait! What’s this!? She painted her sons toe nails neon pink!),I thought I would speak to that, then I will follow up with Smiths’ book as a perfect way to approach this topic.

Neil Steinberg wrote a fantastic article in the Chicago Sun Times about how the detractors of this ad, the ones who would call out Ms. Lyons and tell her to set aside money for counseling for her son later, got it all wrong. My favorite part, a picture he included of Iconic Uber macho man Ernest Hemmingway as a child out for a walk with his sister.

Looks like even a dress couldnt keep Ernest from a lifetime of machoism

While I’m posting pictures of boys in dresses I HAD to write about one of my FAVORITE blogs (I do like MANY, but this one ALWAYS makes me laugh), and that’s STUPID EVIL BASTARD what the fuck is wrong with you people?  In it Les goes of as usual in a glorious rant about how lame the good folks at FOX News reacted to this ad. He goes on to say how once in a while he will paint his own toes because he likes the way it “bothers the fuck out of some people”. He went on to include a photo of a young Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a link to an article about the history of color and gender, or WHEN DID GIRLS START WEARING PINK?

Young-Franklin-D-Roosevelt

Ladies’ Home Journal article in June 1918 said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.

In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. In Boston, Filene’s told parents to dress boys in pink. So did Best & Co. in New York City, Halle’s in Cleveland and Marshall Field in Chicago.

Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers. “It could have gone the other way,” Paoletti says.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html#ixzz1JuWV4KtF

The following YOU TUBE CLIP IS AN EXCELLENT SUMMARY OF GENDER BIAS IN THE MEDIA SO I THOUGHT I WOULD INCLUDE IT HERE

In a recent post, Smith did a “mash-up” of the words used in commercials for so-called boys’ toys.

here’s what she came up between word used in commercials for boys and girls toy commercials, I think they speak for themselves

and there you go

awww

WHY SEEING BRESTFEEDING IS IMPORTANT

Our guest on tonights’ show was Emma Kwasnica the Montreal-based mother and breast-feeding activist, organizer of Human Milk for Human Babies. Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB) is a global network represented by community pages for each state/province/country. These pages provide a space where families in need can connect with women who have milk to share. HM4HB affirms that human milk is the biological norm for human infants and children. HM4HB does not support the sale of human milk. In light of the horrendous disasters in Japan, we are seeing how formula can fail a society when clean water is not readily available.

We  discussed the importance of SEEING other women nursing and how it can help NORMALIZE/MAINSTREAM nursing. The more we hide it away[breastfeeding], classify it as obscene, shame mothers into covering up while feeding, and encourage women to retire to “private” rooms in order to breastfeed the baby, the less we see of it in public, and the less and less people are comfortable with the very idea of nursing in public. This is the sad reality, in this pathologically hyper-sexualized (yet sexually repressed…) North American culture of ours.

One of our guests told a sad story of her father insisting she nurse her baby in the restroom! We know her story is one that has been told many times before. We don’t eat in restrooms, neither should our children..for our caller this is for you…

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW!

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Later in the show we discussed the evil nature of Nestle. Evil, really? Well, without going into detail I will let the following video do the talking. If after you have looked into this topic on your own and you come to a different conclusion, feel free to tell me all about it in the comment section of this post.

I will leave you with one of my favorite videos on Breastfeeding in Public…