TIME

The image that keeps on giving...

So much ink has been spilled today - the TIME front cover showing a child breastfeeding  has been around the globe more times than Janet Jackson's nipple moment..possibly.

And, despite all the sniping and plain old strange comments about the mother's dress, her demeanour, her make-up, her stance, what cannot be denied is the publicity gained for normal breastfeeding. 

Ever since man first walked this earth, dyads have nursed every which way - upside-down, back-to-front, leaning,  sitting on a rock, swinging from a tree, twisting, turning, at night, in the morning....just, whatever, whenever.

The Time image is normal. It is out there. It will adorn coffee tables, surgeries, galleries, waiting rooms, newsagents...
It will be everywhere!
People will have a lot to say about it, doubtless...but, it will be there. 

Breastfeeding advocates have gained a lot of ground - but, ground that has only very recently and very locally been lost - we, the modern west, are the blip.

Let's celebrate normal breastfeeding, because that is what it is, and it has neither a special name, and, strictly, it is not part of a parenting style; no-one invented 'breastfeeding-until-a-child-slowly-chooses-to-forget-the-need', because it is what we, as mammals, as animals, have always done in order to survive.


Many, many people work hard every day to help with breastfeeding; mothers work hard every day to breastfeed, and so do babies and children - and TIME, in its own way, gave them 

all a hand....

...thanks TIME!

Curiouser and Curiouser.....

What a time the breastfeeding community is having...! 

Over the last week or so we have seen a woman discriminated against in Cafe Violette, near Stratford-upon-Avon - Jo Sale went to the local press, and the story made the newspaper . And then, Catrina Carten was asked to stop feeding her baby while shopping in her local Primark in Blackpool - this, too made the local news.

Next up...

This picture is of Caroline Gauthier breastfeeding her son - it falls within Facebook's rules and regulations - but, do you know what? They don't seem to care whether they follow their own rules or not when it comes to haranguing breastfeeding women....

So, the biggest news, and the most farcical, I might add, is the campaign that Facebook seems to be running against breastfeeding mothers and their support network.
As of this evening, I have been blocked from posting content onto Facebook (the second block in just over a week!) - this content being pictures that have been removed from others' walls and accounts, even though they fall within the "rules" that Facebook have set out...rules that have been "tinkered with" in the past few months, following Emma Kwasnica's concerted efforts and media pressure. And, so too have other women been blocked from posting images that appear to fall within the rules - among them, Jodine Chase and Shana Ritter, who both have been prevented from posting, and are currently unable to use Facebook to communicate without hindrance.
It is still happening!

Frustration has set in, and thus it was decided to launch our own campaign, and post a selection of the deleted images that have caused accounts to be blocked and suspended - one image, every hour, for 24 hours. Guess what happened - they have suspended people for the same pictures all over again! Here is the page where all 24 pictures can be viewed - but, you had better be quick, because Facebook, I don't doubt, will be sure to begin deleting all of these without explanation.
Let me finish by clarifying that some of these images were text only - with only the word "breastfeeding" contained within them. Surprised? Confused? Yes, everyone is! All of the almost 6000 people that have joined the "Hey FB breastfeeding is not  obscene" page here! And, so are the almost 7000 people who have joined the page supporting Emma Kwasnica.
Please share these pages widely and show your support - we need Facebook to know that we are not going away, and, infact, the more action they take, the more determined we are to stop this.