I came across this picture today. I took it two years ago in New England. Click the picture to enlarge. Look at the gas prices.

From MomsRising.org:

As if the price of gas wasn’t bad enough, now Exxon Mobil is aggressively lobbying to defeat our efforts to ban phthalates, a toxic chemical, from kids’ toys.

Read the rest of this entry »

What gets me is when the woman shouting ‘war criminal’ is being hauled away as Bush says “We believe in free speech in America”.

Also, the guy who repeats “Bush has brought fascism to these shores”

Not to mention, he’s giving the speech at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. That seems like an insult to the memory of the founding fathers of America and the man himself.

At CNN Ticker

Pretty powerful stuff.

The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood & Social Change
Edited by Shari MacDonald Strong
Seal Press
352 pgs, $15.95
ISBN: 1-58005-243-6

Something definitely changes when you become MOTHER. Besides all the physical,emotional and mental aspects; the sleepless nights, cranky babies, the thought of being able to fit into your pre-baby jeans. You become more aware of the world and your place in it, of what is happening around you. You see things with a mother’s eye. One of the essays, In Albania, by Mona Gable, captures this new view absolutely. Here she recounts her time in Albania as a reporter during the Kosovo conflict-Balkan wars with the new eyes of a mother: “The lens of motherhood would filter everything I was to witness…..”. Read the rest of this entry »

 How DO they do it? With the comforts of nannies, housekeepers and a decent income?

I just wanted everyone to check out this post on CNN. Read the comments.

 I got this in my mailbox this morning. Read the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, read Kristen Kelly’s story, then go and sign the petition to get it going.

Really, I find it disheartening that this Act is even being considered on the table. If people could just accept that breastfeeding is just a natural occurrence, and get over their own issues, this act would not even be necessary. But, it is, because we live in a sort of world that makes it necessary. Too harsh?

Dear MomsRising Member,

Just a couple of months ago, a mother was kicked out of a museum in New York for breastfeeding, a perfectly legal act in that state. [1]  Mothers continue to suffer discrimination and humiliation for breastfeeding, even though doctors recommend breastfeeding for all infants. Clearly we need Congress to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act (H.R. 3799) now–before more mothers are stigmatized and humiliated for breastfeeding.

But this Act is currently stalled in Congress, and isn’t going to move forward without increased citizen pressure.  You can supply that pressure.

CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSPERSON NOW:  http://www.momsrising.org/CosponsorBreastfeedingAct
MomsRising members have successfully raised awareness about the need to protect the rights of breastfeeding mothers in the past and can do it again.  Last year, MomsRising members and other activists changed Delta Airlines’ corporate policies when a mother was kicked off a flight for breastfeeding.

We can harness this same power to push through the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, but we need your help contacting Congress.  Let’s support mothers who are nurturing and caring for the next generation of Americans. Those nursing babies may not be able to vote, but their mothers can!

Here’s that link again in case you need it: http://www.momsrising.org/CosponsorBreastfeedingAct

Thank you! - Kristin, Joan, Nanette, Mary, Donna, Katie, Roz, Anita, Andrea and the MomsRising Team

[1] http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S352021.shtml?cat=10114

P.S. THE LOWDOWN ON THE BREASTFEEDING PROMOTION ACT: Representative Carolyn Maloney’s Breastfeeding Promotion Act (H.R. 3799) would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect breastfeeding by new mothers by providing tax credits to employers who provide a place to breastfeed and/or provide breast pumps.  This makes it a lot easier for women who want to give their babies breastmilk and keep their jobs.  As you may know, 82% of American women become mothers by the time they are forty-four years old, so this issue is critically important to a large portion of our nation.  To read the bill, visit The Library of Congress Website.

Has anyone seen the Nationwide Insurance ‘Bank Brat’ commercial?

If not, click on that link and tell me what you think. If so, skip the link if you’d like, and leave a comment.

Does it not seem a subtle cut against working mothers? Or am I just reading too much into it?

I posted about it at my blog. I was (and am) not thrilled with it.

What will they think of next? Outsourcing national security? Wait, haven’t they already…

Check it out here.

There’s a great article/interview with Pamela Paul at the Campaign for Commercial  Free Children website. She has a new book out (due out next Tuesday) called  Parents, Inc.  that takes a look at the over-commercialization of parenting and babyhood.

We live in a world where $800 strollers are bought without a blink of the  eye, wipe warmers are ‘necessary’, diaper bags are a statement in style and can cost just as much as the stroller, and finding toys that aren’t electronic nearly impossible.

Surely there must be more (or less, depending on how you look at it) to parenting life than this?

I just wanted to make everyone aware (if you aren’t already) of The Business of Being Born

The trailer itself is amazing. That link will take you to the site of The Business of Being Born and you’ll be able to view the trailer immediately. The documentary is actually playing at The Green Mountain Film Festival here in Vermont, an influential venue showcasing independent films.

The state of maternity care in the U.S. is appalling; there’s no question in that. Just read something like Jennifer Block’s Pushed.  What gets me in that trailer is when the nurses are asked if they have ever seen a natural birth and they all answer ‘no’, basically. Scary. When  did giving birth become medical, something that needed to be fixed?

You can get it at Netflix

I’ll be getting it at Netflix.