Michigan Representative Rebekah Warren has introduced a new breastfeeding bill, House Bill 5515. HB 5515 would allow a woman to breastfeed anywhere she may otherwise legally be. The law would amend the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act to state in part:
Sec. 302. Except where permitted by law, a person shall not: (a) Deny the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of a place of public accommodation or public service to an individual because of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, or marital status or to a woman because she is breastfeeding a child.
To …read more

As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health Subcommittee, Senator Edward Kennedy played a crucial role in the 1978 Senate hearing on the marketing of f*ormula in developing countries. In his opening speech, Senator Kennedy asked:
Whose responsibility is it to control the advertising, marketing and promotional activities which may create a market in spite of public health considerations?
In the hearing itself, Senator Kennedy put a Nestlé executive through a very pointed line of questioning on the company’s social responsibility in countries where poverty and the lack of a sanitary water supply make f*ormula-feeding particularly dangerous. Watch this fascinating clip:
Patti Rundall, Policy …read more

Lactivists made the cover of the Chicago Sun Times on Saturday with a photo of two mothers breastfeeding their children at a nurse-in. Reporter Stefano Esposito explains that when Lauren Trost sat down in Lincoln Square’s Giddings Plaza to nurse her 7-month-old son, she was harassed by a passerby. Sadly, the person who objected to the breastfeeding in public was a woman in her 40s with two small children in tow! Trost returned to the plaza on Saturday for a breastfeeding rally that included a dozen nursing dyads.

Thanks to The Feminist Breeder for this cover shot:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was a physician who became a well-regarded American poet in the 19th century. I can tell he was a smart man just by this quote from one of his books:
We are willing to give Liebig’s artificial milk when we cannot do better, but we watch the child anxiously whose wet-nurse is a chemist’s pipkin. A pair of substantial mammary glands has the advantage over the two hemispheres of the most learned Professor’s brain, in the art of compounding a nutritious fluid for infants.

– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894), p. 276 of Medical Essays
A “pipkin” is a …read more

Women and babies will gather at sites around the world for the 9th annual Breastfeeding Challenge! The Quintessence Foundation sponsors the global event:
On October 3, 2009 at 11:00 am mothers and children at sites across Canada, the United States and other countries will compete to set the record for the most children breastfeeding at one time. The winners of the competition will be the site with the most children breastfeeding at one site, the country with the most children breastfeeding at registered sites and in North America the region (province or territory or state) with the most children participating as …read more

The vast majority of Breastfeeding 1-2-3 readers are from the United States, with nearly 10 times as many visitors from the U.S. than from the second country on the list. Can you guess what the next four countries are? I will give you a little hint:
The next four countries are:
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. India
5. Australia
I have been talking a lot about breastfeeding advocacy opportunities in the United States, so tonight I would like to share a breastfeeding advocacy opportunity for each of the other four countries listed. Please feel free to leave a comment if you are from any …read more

Generally we think of “nursing in public” as nursing anywhere besides the privacy of our own homes. However, the laws that protect nursing in public do not apply in the privacy of someone else’s home. Sometimes, the people who should support a nursing mother the most — her extended family and friends — are the ones who are uncomfortable seeing her nursing. In the comments for the last Carnival of Breastfeeding on Nursing in Public, Jenny raised this very issue:
Unfortunately, I have been faced with the choice of covering up/leaving the room to nurse or starting a big fight–especially …read more

Welcome to the discussion of Nursing in Public for the June Carnival of Breastfeeding! If you are new here and/or have not yet joined the Facebook group I created in support of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009, please consider doing so!
Lots of carnival participants have shared their own stories and advice about nursing in public (see links at the end of this post), but first I would like to discuss the issue of whether women should or should not cover themselves with a nursing cover while breastfeeding in public. At first it might seem like a non-issue. I think …read more

Remember back in March when I wrote to Dear Abby about the fact that A Bathroom is Not a Pumping Room? My response was not selected for printing but today’s Dear Abby column is entirely dedicated to other helpful replies: Employer Obliged to Give New Mom a Private Space.
I especially liked that the responses included a reference to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services information booklet: “A Business Case for Breastfeeding: Steps for Creating a Breastfeeding Friendly Worksite: Easy Steps to Supporting Breastfeeding Employees.” (PDF Download).
I must be on a breastfeeding letter-writing kick because last night I …read more

Calling all United States readers! It only takes 60 seconds to use this easy tool from the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) to ask your representatives and senators to co-sponsor the Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009. Simply type in your name and address including zip code+4 and the USBC does the rest! Here are more details in an email you can forward to ask your friends to use the tool as well.