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September 10th, 2010 by admin
 Goidellick Designs is a tiny family run business. We run our business from our remote farm cottage in the Highlands of Scotland.
We have three children who are educated at home. We decided to start up our own business to allow us to be at home with the children. We wanted this business to reflect our values and opinions. We are enthusiastic about breastfeeding, home education and environmental issues. Through these interests we came up with our range of shirts and bags.
We’re now running a busy household full of children and cats and trying to promote our business too.
http://www.goidellick.toucansurf.com/goidellickdesigns/gd_bm_shirts.htm
September 9th, 2010 by admin
 Dear Aunty Lactivist,
There has been some discussion at an ante-natal group I attend about the merits of Vitamin K and how best to administer it to babies.
Given fears about the injection potentially causing a leukaemia risk, there is some support for an oral dose administered through formula feed, as Vitamin K deficiency-related illness tends to mainly affect breastfeeding mothers.
Please can Aunty Lactivist weigh in with some facts and figures?
Kind regards,
Anonymous
Aunty Lactivist is all of us so if you can help the person who wrote the question, if you have links to research, have read anything useful or have opinions you want to share on the matter please use this space.
Lisa
September 9th, 2010 by admin
 I’m really pleased that Lactivist t-shirts are now available in Norway! The shop Ammebutikken stocks them, along side all sorts of interesting looking things.
Here is the site translated through google, for those of you, who like me cannot read Norwegian!
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ammebutikken.no%2F
September 9th, 2010 by admin
I would like to start up Aunty Lactivist and ask Lactivist readers to become agony aunts and help people with breastfeeding problems.
The idea is that we take one problem, say ‘my baby won’t sleep through the night and people say formula will help’ then Lactivist readers can comment and try to help. I know for a fact that some of you are Breastfeeding Peer Supporters and Lactation Consultants so we could theoretically have a good mixture of professional help and personal experience.
What do you think?
If you have a problem you’d like discussed you can email me at moomum@lactivist.co.uk and I can post it anon for you.
Lisa
September 9th, 2010 by Dispelling Breastfeeding Myths
There are many myths surrounding breastfeeding and to be honest they’re all pretty unhelpful… One of the ones you hear most often though, is that breastfeeding your baby will make your boobs saggy.
In light of the unhelpful & (IMO) highly misleading article in closer magazine by Dr Christian Jessen I thought it might be a good idea to set the record straight (again).
In one online survey, half of the young women (aged 18-25) polled said they had no intention of breastfeeding, and 32% stated that their reason for making such a decision was that they didn’t want to develop saggy breasts.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs of such a decision, anyone aiming to encourage women to breastfeed needs to take such figures seriously.
Last year in England and Wales there were nearly 700,000 births. If the above poll is in any way representative, last year something in the region of 350,000 mothers (around half) may have chosen not to breastfeed.
A belief that breastfeeding would adversely affect their figures may therefore have prevented over 200,000 mothers from breastfeeding their babies in England and Wales alone*. *(Until further research is undertaken these figures are purely speculation on my part, however they are based on a large survey of over 1,000 women).
Setting aside for a moment the range of other issues which influence a woman’s decision concerning how she feeds her baby, these statistics are horrifying because they show a huge degree of ignorance when it comes to the facts.
Thousands of women choose never to start breastfeeding because of a myth – they may as well believe the earth is flat.
IT’S SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
Last year thousands and thousands of babies were denied the protection of breast milk and breastfeeding. Not because their mothers weren’t adequately supported (which is so often the case), but actually because their mothers believed a lie.
Who told these women breastfeeding would make their breast sag? Their mothers? Partners? Friends? Doctors?
It’s incredible in the C21st, but this myth is so virulent that despite scientific evidence to the contrary, people still believe it.
So here’s the truth.
Breastfeeding doesn’t make your boobs sag.
Here are the facts on breast sagging (breast-ptosis) and why it happens:
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The majority of women undergo some breast changes during pregnancy. These changes include breast enlargement, increased blood flow, the development of small lumps (‘Montgomery’s tubercles’) on the areola. These changes happen so as to prepare the breasts for breastfeeding a baby after birth.
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In the days and hours following birth, the breasts begin to make milk. This will happen whether you intend to breastfeed or not. A few days after birth the milk (usually) ‘comes in’ and many women experience some engorgement. Their breasts become full and the skin may feel tight and stretched, (breastfeeding is a great treatment for this). ;)
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If you don’t breastfeed, the breasts gradually stop producing milk and the engorgement subsides on it’s own as the body realises no milk is required. The milk-making machinery then shrinks back in a process called ‘breast involution’. The skin (which has been stretched as explained above) may or may not ‘snap back’ into shape.
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If a woman smokes, this can affect the ability of her skin to recover from changes (such as those brought on by pregnancy). This is because smoking reduces the levels of collagen and elastin in the body.
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If you lose a lot of weight, your skin may struggle to shrink back once the fat has gone – this can leave your breasts looking ‘empty’. Again, the supporting ligaments may have been stretched in the past.
Breastfeeding helps the body to recover from the changes of pregnancy because it helps the uterus to return to it’s pre-pregnancy size. It also uses up additional calories and therefore assists in post-pregnancy weight loss.
Take a look around you. Can you honestly say you can tell from looking which of the mothers you see out and about have breast-fed? Can you tell if their impressive cleavage is down to a good bra, a set of chicken fillets, good genes, a good surgeon or a breast full of milk?
Didn’t think so.
Here’s the science bit:
*http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19083576
*http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2004.tb02935.x/abstract
September 8th, 2010 by admin
Please would you let me know what browser you are using, I am trying to fix it. Thank you!
Lisa
September 8th, 2010 by admin
 The lovely people from Family Friendly Working have a draw for a Boppy breastfeeding pillow that ends today at 2.45.
All you have to do is comment on the page here:
http://www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk/2010/08/27/win-a-boppy-breastfeeding-pillow/
September 8th, 2010 by admin
Should Breastfeeding Be Taught In Elementary School?
From http://blogs.babble.com/being-pregnant/2010/09/07/should-breastfeeding-be-taught-in-elementary-school/
Posted by ceridwen on September 7th, 2010 at 8:42 am Here’s how it should go: As a part of the basic biology curriculum, children are taught about breastfeeding. How the milk comes in. What’s in it. How it helps the baby. Students see pictures of women of multiple ethnicities breastfeeding. There’s a homework assignment and several questions on a test. Twenty or thirty years later these kids, now fully grown new parents, may not even remember Ms. Morris’ biology class, but there might just be one less mental hurdle to breastfeeding.
The website Nursing Freedom ran a piece last week called, “Why Children Should Witness Breastfeeding in Public.” Here’s a line I liked:
“We need to make nursing in public so boring, so quotidian, that it garners no more of a glance or second thought than seeing someone drinking a coffee or hugging a friend in public.”
I read this on Friday and over the weekend kept thinking about public breastfeeding. Usually this issue comes up when some ignorant manager of a mediocre eatery stupidly asks a nursing mother to cover up and then has to endure all kinds of grief, including being read to from state laws concerning breastfeeding in public and/or local press coverage of a “nurse in” in which a posse of breastfeeders show up and breastfeed in front of or inside the establishment.
I support a woman’s choice to breastfeed in public. If breastfeeding is kept out of sight, no one sees it. No one sees it and it’s mysterious. It’s mysterious and people feel weird about breastfeeding. And on the feedback loop goes. More exposure would make the sight of breastfeeding “boring.” Or normal.
But then I saw a new mom in the park nursing under a kind of nursing tent/cover-all. It was a pretty cool-looking gizmo and propped up so that the baby could nurse privately without a blanket literally plastered over his or her face. I thought about the feedback loop and wondered whether this mother should just toss this fancy tent aside to help the rest of us get over our baggage.
Then I thought back to when I first had my baby.
I was quite engorged and it wasn’t the hot kind of engorged, the fake boob kind. It was the, Wow, how’s your back doing? kind. I won’t tell you the cup size, but let’s just say many people I do tell had no idea that size even existed. My over-supply meant that milk would often squirt out all over the minute I started unfastening things. The idea of doing all of this in public– as much as I supported the idea in theory– was hard.
After a few months when I’d gotten it all down, I nursed at friends’ houses, in restaurants and parks discreetly and without much fuss or a blanket. But at first I felt like this was all nobody’s business. I also felt a little cranky about the situation. Why do I have to change attitudes about public breastfeeding?? It’s hard enough learning all these new things. Do I have to change public opinion at the same time?
This is how I came to the breastfeeding in school concept. If Bill Maher and others had seen breastfeeding when they were kids, and been taught that it’s a normal part of life, like digesting or breathing, maybe there wouldn’t be so many snickers. Get to the kids before they get to the giggling stage– teaching teens about breastfeeding is also a great idea but by then too much squeamishness has settled in. The sooner the better.
September 8th, 2010 by admin
“I am a nearly 37 year old mum with two children (Connor nearly 4 and Katie nearly 2). I gave up teaching in a primary school (which I loved) so I could look after my son and haven’t looked back. Although money is tight, my husband and I are content with our lifestyle choice which is just as well as we are going to home educate our littlies and so won’t be bringing in much money any time soon. 
I like being creative, when I get the time, and I am not looking after children, cats, dogs or chickens. I enjoy cooking/baking, making jams and chutneys, making ring slings and clothes, making cards and my latest Sok Doodes. Sok Doodes were sock dolls that I made for my children but after I put photos on Facebook, I had lots of friends and family asking me to make them all kinds of creatures. My midwife loved them and asked if I could make a breastfeeding doll and I accepted the challenge as it was something that I had wondered about in the past myself and so Boobee Mamma was born!
As I posted the orginal photos on Facebook, a friend suggested I make a toddler as well as a baby so she could be a tandem feeding doll. Already she has created a lot of discussion at a family party and if I don’t get the opportunity to feed my daughter in my efforts to normalise breastfeeding (which to be honest, happen fairly regularly ) then at least I have something else to help the cause!
Boobee Mammas can be found on Facebook as well as my website www.lil-treasure.co.uk. If anybody wants to buy a Boobee Mamma, they can contact me through Facebook or email: boobeemamma@littleave.freeserve.co.uk
Tracey”
September 7th, 2010 by Bundle Jungle
The Bundle Jungle are pleased to announce that their charity auction in aid of Cheshire and North wales human milk bank is officially open for bids!
Items on offer include:
- Lactivist T-Shirts
- Modern cloth nappies from cheeks and cherries, Issy Bear, Fluff and Stuff and many more.
- Chambers and Beau charm bracelet
- Professional Photoshoot with Penny Wincer (London Area)
- Holden’s Landing Nappy and Knittybugz Wool Collaboration
- Designer maternity clothes
- Designer baby clothes
- SO much more!
All items start at just 99 pence with NO RESERVE. Come on over to The Bundle Jungle pregnancy and parenting forum now, sign up for your FREE account and get bidding! It’s all for a great cause and there are some serious bargains to be had.
Elle
www.TheBundleJungle.com
By admin, on March 16th, 2010
 At the moment the Lactivist Facebook fan page has 622 fans which is just brilliant, but I am sure we could do better 
So…… invite your friends because when it hits 700 I will chose someone from the fan list to win a new Lactivist t-shirt, or any other design if you prefer.
You don’t have to live in the UK for this competition, you just have to be a fan of Lactivist on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/lactivist/20770463680?ref=ts
By admin, on February 24th, 2010
There is a group on facebook called Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! (Official petition to Facebook)
The reason this group exists is because facebook seem to have something against pictures of breastfeeding.
This amazing website – http://www.tera.ca/photos12.html has been collecting the banned pictures, and the stories behind them.
All the text below is from http://www.tera.ca/photos12.html
“Facebook routinely deletes from its site photos of breastfeeding. It has labelled them obscene and pornographic. It says that it has rules for what is allowed on its site, but its careless actions show it does not.
Facebook’s clueless manner of censoring is not just pointless but harmful. There are other ways to deal with unwanted material than by immature, arrogant, and foolish removal of what one doesn’t like, especially when photos of breastfeeding are claimed to harm children—a claim Facebook has made for years.
Here we present the first page of photos banned from the social utility Facebook, as well as a few that haven’t been. With several hundred million users, Facebook still removes from its pages photographs of women breastfeeding, despite complaints about that practice beginning as long ago as June 2007.
Facebook claimed that breastfeeding photos violated its terms of service if they showed “an entire breast.” Eventually it dropped the vagueness and the euphemism and claimed that all photos with a visible nipple or areola were “obscene,” “pornographic,” or “sexually explicit.” This claim by Facebook is at odds with legislation, case law, and actual practice throughout the USA. In addition, breastfeeding itself is allowed in public, exposed breasts or not, in almost all states in the country. By its attitude and action, Facebook is wrong. It demeans and stigmatizes women and breastfeeding.
In May 2009, the same Facebook spokesperson responsible for the above claims said that Facebook removes only a small number of photos of naked women breastfeeding. That would be funny if it weren’t so ignorant. Facebook also claims that images of breasts harm children. That’s absurd. Facebook wrongly uses children as an excuse for its immaturity and errors.
Facebook is undoubtedly a great utility, both useful and fun. Its worldwide acceptance on the Internet confers upon it a responsibility to do better.
The protest against Facebook’s removal of many breastfeeding photos isn’t really about legality. It’s not even about rights. It’s about what is right.
No. of photos in this collection: 170. Of those, 154 have been banned, some more than once. The others are here for comparison. (Many, many more have been banned than we have collected.) Comments from the photos’ owners are often illuminating.
http://www.tera.ca/photos6.html
By admin, on February 11th, 2010
5th February 2010
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2517126532&ref=ts
Lactivist group faces termination from Facebook after embarrassing the social networking site in high profile media awareness campaign last year. The group of almost 250,000 members faces threats of removal after a media blitz that chastised the social networking site for its draconian policies toward breastfeeding mothers.
The campaign, which garnered national and international attention in over 25 languages from various media outlets around the world, was featured on CNN, CBS News and the Dr. Phil show among others. Members believe the current threat is directly related to the embarrassment caused to Facebook’s bosses.
Administrators of the group, “Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding is Not Obscene! (Official petition to Facebook)” were told by the social networking site that the group was in violation of copyright infringement policies. When pressed for details by the group’s admin, Facebook responded by changing the accusation to say the group was posting nudity or sexually explicit material and sending harassing messages to members. “We have no idea what they’re talking about and they won’t explain the charges,” said Gillian Joseph, an admin of the group, living in Edinburgh, Scotland. “We checked our pages but can’t see any copyright infringements, and we’ve certainly sent no harassing messages. Now they’re saying it’s because we’re uploading obscene photos.”
Ms. Joseph says she believes the harassment is due to the social networking site being embarrassed that such a large number of people are against their policies of branding breastfeeding photos as “sexually explicit content”. The support and advocacy group, which boasts over 247,000 members from all over the world, wishes to normalize the sight of breastfeeding mothers and children. It currently contains over 4,500 discussion threads on parenting topics, and over 5,700 photos – though some of these have already been removed by Facebook.
“To shut the group down would not only end valuable support, but give a message to the world that breastfeeding babies are somehow obscene. It’s just absurd,” said Debra Balcaen, a Winnipeg resident and administrator of the group. “It is unfortunate and hypocritical that Facebook’s administration has targeted this breastfeeding advocacy group for alleged violations when at the same time they happily endorse sexually explicit material from third party applications and paid advertisements.”
By admin, on December 31st, 2008
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1869128,00.html?cnn=yes
By Ada Calhoun Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008
The breast-feeding wars have long followed a familiar pattern. A woman gets thrown off a plane for nursing her toddler; she sues Delta. Barbara Walters says sitting next to a breast-feeding woman made her “uncomfortable”; ABC’s headquarters get surrounded by 200 women staging a “nurse-in.” Maggie Gyllenhaal is photographed nursing her daughter in public; tabloids rush to either praise her as a role model or tell her to throw a blanket over her shoulder.
Facebook has drawn a line in the sand by removing any photos it deems obscene, including those containing a fully exposed breast, which the site defines as “showing the nipple or areola.” In other words, plunging necklines or string bikinis are fine — just no nips. The purging of bare-boob pics began last summer and has swept up, alongside any girls gone wild, a growing number of proud — and very ticked-off — breast feeders. (Read about giving birth at home.)
On Dec. 27, some 11,000 protesters held a virtual nurse-in by uploading breast-feeding photos onto their Facebook profiles, and 20 or so women showed up at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., to breast-feed there. By Dec. 30, more than 85,000 members had joined a Facebook group called “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!”
The group, founded by San Diego mom Kelli Roman, urges Facebook to change its obscenity policy. “We expect you to realize that nursing moms everywhere have a right to show pictures of their babies eating, just like bottle-fed babies have a right to be seen,” their petition reads. “In an effort to appease the closed-minded, you are only serving to be detrimental to babies, women, and society.”
Assisting their cause is the Topfree Equal Rights Association (TERA), a Canadian group that has started posting on its website photos that breast feeders claim were removed from Facebook. One or two are vaguely pornographic shots of naked women holding babies, but most are straightforward and innocent.
“There are two problems,” says Paul Rapoport, coordinator for TERA, which has been advocating that women should not be penalized for going topless since 1997. “First, Facebook removes photos arbitrarily. Second, its policy clearly implies that visible nipples or areolas always make photos of women obscene. Facebook stigmatizes breast-feeding and demeans women.”
Facebook counters that it is far from the only organization steering clear of Areola City. “Could I place an ad related to breast-feeding that showed a woman breast-feeding a child but exposed her full breast in TIME or on your website?” asks spokesman Barry Schnitt. “During the course of this protest, I’ve called many media organizations and asked them this question. Not a single one has said yes.”
The Facebook furor has brought up a bizarre cultural issue. We’re all for breasts — the more cleavage the better. But the second a nipple is visible or we are reminded of nipples by the sight of a baby attached to one, all hell breaks loose.
When a tabloid website catches a star like Britney Spears, Keira Knightley or Tara Reid in a red-carpet “nip slip,” traffic goes through the roof, as Web surfers click to catch a glimpse of the forbidden bit of skin. (See the 50 best websites of 2008.)
It is perhaps understandable that we’d be so enflamed by the sight of women’s nipples because we see them so rarely. Barbie dolls don’t have nipples. Magazines routinely airbrush out nipples on fully clothed (but presumably chilly) models.
In the past decade, some 40 states have passed pro-breast-feeding legislation. Rapoport, however, says he considers such laws a “two-edged deal because it exempts nursing women from prosecution but reaffirms the sense that a topless woman is obscene without a baby.”
Meanwhile, men’s nipples aren’t a problem. Recent photos of President-elect Barack Obama walking shirtless on a beach were greeted with puns about how he is “fit to be President,” “buff-bodied” and “chiseled.” (See pictures of Presidents at the beach.)
And perhaps the surest sign that “pregnant man” Thomas Beatie has been accepted as a man — even though he still has female sex organs and the ability to deliver a baby — is the fact that his nipples, the same ones he had when he was a woman, are suddenly O.K. to look at. They are acceptable features for the cover of a book, the pages of a magazine —and the profile photos for the Facebook groups supporting him.
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