POLAND via USA: Breastfeeding in public?

POLAND via USA: Breastfeeding in public?

A while ago, during a nice lunch in a restaurant, I had to feed my two-month-old daughter. The moment I put her to my breast (completely covered, by the way), a constant whispering and eyeballing from a table across us made me feel like I was doing something wrong. These were young people, among them a mother herself. (more…)

Ewa Samples

Ewa was born, and raised in Poland. She graduated University with a master's degree in Mass-Media Education. This daring mom hitchhiked from Berlin, Germany through Switzerland and France to Barcelona, Spain and back again! She left Poland to become an Au Pair in California and looked after twins of gay parents for almost 2 years. There, she met her future husband through Couch Surfing, an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals. Today she enjoys her life one picture at a time. She runs a photography business in sunny California and document her daughters life one picture at a time. You can find this artistic mom on her blog, Ewa Samples Photography, on Twitter @EwaSamples or on Facebook!

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PHILIPPINES: Proudly “Pinoy” Views on Attachment Parenting

Photo of the author and her then 5-month old son

I won’t go into the old news that is Time’s controversial “mom enough” mid-May issue. We all know they sold enough copies on that matter.

Instead, I wanted to share some views on attachment parenting and breastfeeding expressed by fellow Filipino moms.

To begin, let me say that I am a babywearing, formerly nursing mom (my son recently weaned after being breastfed for two years and six months). In fact, here’s a photo of me a year and a half ago, when my son was just five months old.

Here in the Philippines, we are not new to the concept of babywearing and breastfeeding.

Velvet Escario‐Roxas, a breastfeeding counselor and representative of Arugaan (ah-roo-ga-an), a non-governmental, WHO-funded organization that conducts breastfeeding training for the Philippine Department of Health, gave a good picture of this when she posted a recent  Facebook status update on the fan page of the popular breastfeeding blog, Chronicles of a Nursing Mom:

“Our Pinoy [colloquialism for “Filipino] ancestors have been doing these things since the beginning of time. We call it the Filipino way of living or raising of children. They on the other hand modernized it and called it attachment parenting. Look at the indigenous folks of the mountain provinces. (more…)

Martine de Luna (Philippines)

Martine is a work-at-home Mom and passionate blogger. A former expat kid, she has a soft spot for international efforts, like WMB. While she's not blogging, she's busy making words awesome for her clients, who avail of her marketing writing, website writing, and blog consulting services. Martine now resides in busy, sunny Manila, the Philippines, with her husband, Ton, and toddler son, Vito Sebastian. You can find her blogging at DaintyMom.com.

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SOUTH KOREA: Are We Foolish Enough?

It was the boob shot seen around the world.

The recent cover of Time Magazine, has been quite controversial. A mother and her 3-year-old son face the camera as he stands in front of her, on a chair, and suckles at her breast. The accompanying headline is: “Are you Mom Enough? Why attachment parenting drives some moms to extremes – and how Dr. Bill Sears became their guru.

There are a lot of words I could use to express my feelings about this cover, but very few of them are appropriate, so I’ll stick to just one word: infuriating.

This cover manages to insult mothers, attachment parenting, Dr. Sears, and any culture where breastfeeding beyond infancy is the norm. The photograph and headline are insinuating several things:

  1. Extended breastfeeding is so strange and unnatural that it requires props
  2. Extended breastfeeding is an “extreme”, one of many
  3. All attachment parents practice extended breastfeeding
  4. Those who practice attachment parenting and/or extended breastfeeding pass judgment on others and deem them as “mom enough” or not
  5. Those who practice attachment parenting view Dr. Sears as a guru (more…)

Ms. V. (South Korea)

Ms. V returned from a 3-year stint in Seoul, South Korea and is now living in the US in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her partner, their two kids, three ferocious felines, and a dog named Avon Barksdale. She grew up all over the US, mostly along the east coast, but lived in New York City longer than anywhere else, so considers NYC “home.” Her love of travel has taken her all over the world and to all but four of the 50 states. Ms. V is contemplative and sacred activist, exploring the intersection of yoga, new monasticism, feminism and social change. She is the co-director and co-founder of Samdhana-Karana Yoga: A Healing Arts Center, a non-profit yoga studio and the spiritual director for Hab Community. While not marveling at her beautiful children, she enjoys reading, cooking, and has dreams of one day sleeping again.

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