My Life as A Radical Whore/Madonna

Alright - Breastfeeding Campaign…

So, again it begins with a podcast - Mojo Mom this time. I like listening to it, they have some good conversations and flesh out ideas that are relevant to my circumstances. This is the best mom-related podcast I was able to find yesterday in the iTunes directory. Anyway, I went to the Mojo Mom website (mojomom.com) to nose around and look at the creator’s blog. The lastest blog post was about the recent US Department of Health ads to promote breastfeeding. Amy was expressing her outrage at how they were trying to scare women into breastfeeding.

Alright. After 5 years of being a staunch and sometimes militant breastfeeding advocate (I was, at one point, a certified lactation counselor — not the same as a lactation consultant), I think I’ve settled into a pretty reasonable, fairly radical, but less judgemental stance on breastfeeding and breastfeeding advocacy. It is clearly the best thing for any child, and there are precious few circumstances where opting to formula feed are better. But formula is the feeding choice of the culture right now, and many wonderful, healthy people were fed formula as infants.

It is high time for the public health advocates to do more to promote breastfeeding and the consumption of human milk. If you learn more about the topic, you actually learn that this is a public health issue, and that evidence shows that not only is breastmilk better for babies, but that formula is actually not so great for babies. It’s obviously not deadly, but it’s not great.

And now, this is the point where someone admonishes “You shouldn’t make women feel bad about not breastfeeding.” I find this extremely annoying, because as it happens so often with women, important discussions are curtailed because there’s a chance someone might feel bad. We get set against each other in these stupid ‘Mommy War’ factions that are based on personal circumstances and choices, losing sight of the bigger picture (as well as our common enemies) which usually involves capitalism and insufficient public policy. So, I’m sorry if I’m making you feel bad. My goal is to address facts about politics, breastfeeding and nutrition. Sometimes we feel bad about facts. I’ll do my best to be tactful.

First, consider the purpose of infant formula. It exists purely to be sold and create profit. It is made by pharmaceutical companies (yes, it is), regulated by the FDA, sold by major food companies, for profit. If it did not make profits, it would not be produced and distributed nearly as much as it is. Now, for the purposes of feeding babies, what reasons does anyone have to trust these groups? Knowing what we know about the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA, the food companies - what evidence do we have that they want the best for our children. I say none. This is the same industry that gives us Lunchables to feed our kids. Nutrition ahoy!

I cannot claim to be objective without stating that sometimes formula supplementation is necessary. I must also state that the risks associated with infant formula are not always necessarily direct results of formula feeding. The research cited regarding breastfeeding and formula feeding is rife with confusion over causation and correlation. Just because a risk (or benefit, for that matter) is associated, doesn’t mean it’s a cause-and-effect relationship.

Anyway, coming back to the ads… My understanding is that the process of creating these ads has been pretty sketchy. I cannot cite my sources right now - I read an article about this, I think on the HipMama website in the news archive. My understanding is that the people in charge of creating these ads consulted heavily with executives in the formula industry. Now why would that be? I can’t imagine… Or can I? These ads were supposed to come out about 3 or 4 years ago - some of the doulas in the local doula community were really up at arms about the delay. Anyway, promotion of breastfeeding has always been spun to discuss the benefits of breastfeeding, as opposed to any potential risks of formula. They are two distinct issues that both deserve to be addressed. Talking about one is not the same as talking about the other.

Anyway, I do have a point - maybe a couple of points:
- No, women should not be intentionally scared into breastfeeding. But, consider how fear is used to get people to immunize their children. Think about how we treat families that opt not to immunize. And study the facts on breastfeeding and immunizations before you claim there’s no comparison.

- I believe that familes should be encouraged and supported to provide breastmilk for their babies and young children. I believe that the government needs to be more aggressive about this than they have been, given the associated and proven health benefits (which include increased effectiveness of immunizations).

- I suspect that the government campaign to promote breastfeeding is less than it could be, and I suspect that it’s no accident.

The fact is that in our culture, what people know about breastfeeding, most of them learned it from TV or anecdotes from other people who didn’t know much about it. I’m not here to tell you that formula is dangerous, but I’m not going to tell you it’s safe, either. Take nothing for granted. If you happen to see any of these ads (I haven’t yet), remember, there’s a lot of politics and big business wrapped up in the topic. And as a group, Americans are abysmally undereducated about the ways we feed our young.

Stella’s getting pissed, so I have to wrap this up. Educate yourselves. Please comment - I think I’ll be coming back to this topic again later, ’cause there’s so much to say.

Love,

Atena McMama

Topics to cover:
- Don’t have kids article in BITCH
- Gov’t breastfeeding campaign
- Sex toys - phthalates…

Okay - so I don’t have time right now to get into the BITCH article - I’ll have to read it again, and analyze and stuff. No time for that right now. So on to other things….

I’m starting with sex toys. This began with a podcast. I’ve just recently (this week) become interested in podcasts, having been given an iPod as a birthday gift (Thanks, Anita!) I figured I better find some interesting podcasts to listen to on my iPod (though I also learned that you don’t need an iPod to listen to podcasts). So, yeah, I found a podcast that I like very much called ‘Sex is Fun.’ It’s right up my alley - good educational info on general human sexuality, but without scimping on the fun and dirty words.

So, I’m listening to the podcast, and they have the founders of the Smitten Kitten (Minneapolis sex shop) on, and they’re talking about how crappy jelly sex toys are (which we essentially knew already), and also talking about how jellies contain phthlalates , which are toxic chemicals. I did some web research, and discovered that exposure to phthalates has been researched, and ultimately that the risk to benefit ration has been decided in favor of the benefits, i.e. - in their general use in various products, they do more good than harm, because humans aren’t exposed to enough of the chemical for a long enough time.

The problem with this is that of all of the uses listed to take into consideration, none of them included prolonged exposure to phthalates by way of repeated (and vigorous) contact of jelly sex toys with mucous membranes. Much of this has to do with the fact that jelly toys are packaged with the instructions “For novelty use only,” indicating that you shouldn’t actually stick them inside yourself, and that the makers are not really advocating that you put the big jelly double dong in any two orifices. If that’s not what the jelly toys are technically for, then there’s no reason to test the effects of such actions. Right? Goddamnit!

So, no one knows if putting jelly toys in your puss will create some kind of toxic problem. I’m suspicious. Well, I stopped using nonoxynol-9, and I won’t be purchasing any more jelly toys. If you don’t intend for your tools to be put in vaginas, don’t shape them like penises and sell them in sex shops. If they should not be put in orifices, then don’t put them in the same place where everything else that looks exactly like it GOES IN ORIFICES!

I’d just like to mention that I am nursing and typing with both hands. ‘Cause I rule.

Anyway, I’m displeased about the jelly toys, and have decided that the time has come for me to start saving for good, quality sex toys. Like Pyrex glass toys, and high quality silcone numbers. Good toys are money well-spent, and I’ve known that for a while, I guess.

I’m also going to wait to address the government breastfeeding campaign. It’s more than I have time for now.

But yeah, I’m looking forward to the day I can get a pyrex dildo. Check out that podcast if you get the chance - it’s fun. And take care what you put where.

Love,

Atena McJellynone

It’s funny - at least half of the time, I think of myself as the ‘We’ of Stella and myself. It makes sense. If children exist in relationship to their caregivers, it follows that we be transformed to exist in relationship with them. It’s a little different, because we parents could choose to separate from our children and exist separately, but not without losing something, some part of ourselves. I couldn’t make such a choice. The cost would be unfathomable.

So, I haven’t blogged on Friendster out of annoyance with their obtrusive ad placement, but I guess I’d rather connect with people. So I’ll be doing this in addition to myspace. Honestly, I don’t know why everyone thinks myspace is so freaking great. It’s okay, but I was expecting some kind of revolution in interpersonal connection-making. Not so.

Life is good, as ever. Stella is 9 months old. She’s a very big girl. Her health is excellent, and her development is going great. Stella is amazing and taking care of her is the rapture of my life. She’s napping at this moment, we’ll see for how long. I’m trying to figure out the plan for today. We must go outside - the weather is beautiful.

I’m finding that our routines are evolving again as she grows and as I become more engaged with my own life. I’ll be training Sunday school teachers at our church in a new curriculum at the end of the summer. We’re making a lot of changes, so it’ll be a lot of work. And then I’ll be starting school again - internship, supervision, meetings,etc. We’ll be hiring a sitter for Stella, and maybe I can get a part-time job. We’ll see. It’s hard to tell at this point. I’m looking forward to re-engaging in academic and professional life.

THIS FUCKING GOVERNMENT! I continue to be amazed and frightened and deeply saddened by how many people’s lives around the world, and really, the very planet itself, are being damaged and ruined by the greed of a relatively small number of people. Greed and entitlement. So dangerous. I’ve been listening to Democracy Now on the radio (WLUW 88.7 in Chicago, 9 am), and they were discussing the situation in New Orleans. My God - how can people treat each other this way? Demolishing low income housing when people are already living in the streets and abandoned buildings! Supporting privatization all of the schools - THE FIRING ALL THE PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYEES! Though, really, the same things are happening here in Chicago, just more slowly.

I’m not even going to go into what’s happening in Iraq. Just to say that if a country could have a conscience, ours should be crippled with profound shame. Not just the government, but the people for passivity, acquiesence and apathy.

I’m planning to get back into the development of my pregnancy and sexuality workshops. I have a friend who is going to design a media package for me, so that I have professional materials to use for correspondence and communications. I was discouraged that my initial workshop didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but as my very clever husband Ian has pointed out, one should not give up because one doesn’t succeed the first time, and also that business people often fail several times before succeeding. So I’m going to keep trying - I just need to take my time and gather more resources.

Well, Stella needs changing and bathing, so I’ll bid you all farewell. I’ll post some pictures soon.

Love, peace,

Atena