US Moms Think Public Breastfeeding is Perfectly Natural

Lansinoh-- A company that makes an assortment of breastfeeding products commissioned a survey which the results showed that US mothers think that public breastfeeding is natural. We already knew this because breastfeeding IS the natural way to feed a baby and SHOULD be done anywhere the mother darn well pleases BUT its always good to have information to back you up ;)

So lets look at the survey!

Lansinoh looked at 13,000 mothers from 9 (China, Brazil, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States) different countries, 2,045 of which were from the United States.

From the surveys given to the mothers in the United States:

93% believe that "Breast is Best"
64% said they would feel guilty if they did not breastfeed
57% think that breastfeeding in public is natural only 3% think its wrong

the most challenging places to breastfeed are the car, the grocery store, and the bathroom.
Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba, and Kate Middleton are the three celebrities that US moms most identify with. 1 in 3 moms said that they would feel more comfortable breastfeeding if they saw more celebrities breastfeeding.

While this survey is promising, I am a bit concerned because mothers should not feel guilty if they choose not to breastfeed that is their choice like with all things but they should know that there has been tons of studies done to show the risk of formula feeding....with all choices there are risk and benefits and we should not shame mothers for their decisions here.

It breaks my heart that these mothers are still being shamed to the restroom to nurse their babies. Stop it people its gross in there! No one eats in the bathroom  and neither should babies.

my last point: as much as I hate to see "well X Celebrity breastfed so I am too!" I can not get away that they are highly influential and most anything do gets replicated as the new "style". I hate that they are making a natural process a "fad" but whatever... whatever gets the babies to the breasts. I do wish that there were more women of color who held such high positions that breastfeed and if they do I do wish they were more public about it.

I challenge every mother not just the breastfeeding kind that when they see a breastfeeding mom in public give her a thumbs up, high five, or at least a smile. That tiny bit of encouragement can go a long way.


Click here and here to read more about the survey.

Ancestral Parenting Product Review

I recently listened to an audio book on ancestral parenting. Here is my review!

About the Product:

Ancestral Parenting (instinctual parenting or attachment parenting) is parenting the way nature intended humans to parent instead of parenting according to what the particular society you live within tells you how to parent. This method of parenting practices keeping baby close and responding to baby's needs when the demand is there, giving baby the most natural start at life by having a medical free vaginal birth and breastfeeding, practicing elimination communication, and baby wearing. This may not be the most realistic form of parenting in today's societies BUT it is the natural way and it is what the baby expects once it enters the world. This website has an audio book to download and comes with very informative printed information that goes a little deeper into how to accomplish the different practices that come along with ancestral parenting.

What I Like About the Product:

I will first say that I love that this comes on an audio book. For a very busy "attached" mama like myself I do not always have the time to sit down and crack open a book (although I long for those days again). It was nice to be cooking dinner and this playing on the iPad or through the phone on the way to work. I also like that this speaks to mothers of color.It encourages them to look back to their roots and "reclaim" them. Often times in our society we are told to parent against what we think is right and just do things because our friends, family, and society approves. This sometimes comes to the detriment of the baby. 

Now that it has become more popular to be more natural this audio book speaks to the new mama that is looking to be more natural in her approach to parenting and childbirth and it even goes into some detail about natural healing and the use of natural remedies and essential oils for alternate medical care.

Waymatea's voice is very calm and serene as she reads through the chapters. I find that her voice put in a mental state to want to learn and also when chaos was ensuing around me, her gentle voice actually providing some calm. No bellowing or loud speaking just calm. Her voice keeps with the theme of the book. Calm and connected.

I like how the book explains the author's journey into ancestral parenting. It reminded me of how I stumbled upon this information during my initial parenting journey. I had no idea it had a name I was simply doing what felt right! It was nice to hear someone else as shocked as I was and experienced that same "ah ha!" moment.

What I Did Not Like About the Product:

The book to me seemed like an intro into something deeper with all the topics that were discussed. I was actually looking forward to learn more about each topic in hopes to hear some things that I didn't already know but felt it fell short with that expectation. Maybe perhaps a series of audio books to go along with this that talks in lengths about each practice. As I mentioned earlier, to the new mama that is looking to see what this is all about this is great but I would have liked to see more detail, more depth, more  guidance to the practices. I would have also liked to see more examples demonstrated from the different cultures on each practice. There were some examples given but I would have liked to see more mamas of color represented.

I would have liked to see better resources for the information. I heard a quote from Wikipedia, for example, which is not a credible website. To me I knew the information and have done some research myself so I knew the statement to be true but good resources makes the information more credible. 

Overall: 

Overall I enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend this book to my readers and new mamas who are looking to get back to their roots and parent in a more natural way. I think this book is a great way to lay down the foundation to further knowledge of ancestral parenting and empower them to stand firm in their decision. The download was quick and easy and the attached information was easy to read. I am looking forwarding to seeing more from the author and I appreciate her for giving me the opportunity to be involved with this project. :)

Author: Waymatea Ellis of Waymatea Centre for Wellness

website: www.ancestralparenting.com 

the audio book is available for download via the website!

"Today was a bad day mama but tomorrow is a new day"

Have you ever woke up in the morning and just had a "feeling" that everything was going to go wrong? Well if not I envy you. I have had that feeling several times and yesterday that familiar feeling returned. I have to wake up early because I have to get my girls to sitter and school which is on the opposite side of town and then drive 45 minutes out of my way in the other direction because job likes to waste my gas and not pay me for it. So as usual my phone alarm goes off at 5:15 am and I wake up and stretch grab my phone to shut it off and of course check Facebook :) When I tried to get up I realized I was still "attached" to the baby so now I have to somehow encourage her to come off BUT stay asleep for at least 15 minutes so that I could shower quick. Needless to say because this day was predestined to go bad my plan did not work well at all. She stayed "attached" until 545am. I need to be out of the shower at this time so that I can wake my Retired Nursling (RN) up so she can go down and have breakfast while I get Baby Nursling (BN) dressed.

I jumped into the shower very quickly. So quickly it was still warming up while I was lathering up (the worst!). I jump out, wrap the towel around me, and went back into the bedroom to wake up RN. She of course starts to whine and fuss. I encourage her to get up and go potty then go downstairs so I can make her breakfast. Once that task was done I run up to throw clothes on myself and then to wake up BN. Now about a few weeks before BN decided she wanted to start potty learning  but I have not had a weekend to sit and dedicate to her newest milestone so when we are at home we let her go with out bottoms and she tells us when she needs to poop and pee. We also sit her on the pot as soon as she wakes up and before she goes to sleep at night. This morning nothing different I woke her up took her pants and diaper off asked her if she wanted to "put pees in the toilet" she smiled and said "yesh" and away we went. I sat her on the pot and instantly she peed. She smiled so big she is always so proud of herself and I am so proud of her. She is a smart cookie. I asked her via sign language if she is "all done" and she says "yesh". I go to grab her and she grabs the toilet seat for dear life and refuses to get up. I asked her again if she was done (including words with the sign) and she said "yesh". I go to grab her... same thing! I'm frustrated because we are completely behind schedule so I back off, I push her stool under her feet in case she feels she's actually done when before I come back and I travel down to check on RN.

 She is eating cereal, doing an activity on the iPad, and humming a song. I ask her how she is if she needed anything else. She replies "no" with out looking up. I give her the countdown to be done and head back up the stairs. BN is still on the pot kicking her feet talking to the dog who looks just as frustrated with her being on the pot still as I am. "Okay ma'am you have to be done. We have to get dressed. You can not sit here all day. You're going to get hemorrhoids." I reach to grab her this time I make sure I get her hands before she can latch on to the toilet then I pick her up kicking and screaming and hitting and maybe an attempt to bite. In the most calm voice I can muster "Please calm down I understand you're upset but you must get dressed we have to go mommy has to work". while wrestling with BN I yell down to RN to be done put away her dishes and come upstairs to get dressed. No response, of course. I pick up BN (who has calmed down by now) and travel down the stairs to see RN took 2 bites of cereal and ate no fruit just sitting down tending to her game. "You need to come upstairs and get dressed now!" "But I am not done..." "I understand but you had 30 minutes and all you did was mess around we need to go now" (insert tears here). I wish I could give her more time to eat but we just do not have that kind of time in the AM.

So, of course I have to sit down BN to help get RN dressed (insert tantrum here). Now I have two  malfunctioning kids. By now I can feel me getting to my meltdown threshold. I try to breathe through it with out saying any words but I am still getting frustrated. We are late.... we are crying because we cant sit on toilets until our butts fall off and because we chose to play instead of it.....**sigh**

we move on to the bathroom where as in my head all hell breaks loose. RN has stopped whining and goes to brush her teeth. BN is happy as long as she is on my hip. I sit her on the counter top allow her to nurse while I brush my teeth and make sure RN does a good job at brushing her teeth. Once RN is down I tell her to sit on the toilet so I can fix her hair for school "Can I have my hair like Frozen? Like the braid?" "I do not know how to do that and I do not have time to look up how to do it and practice it. I just can not do that right now" (insert whine) "I am sorry honey I just can not right now". I place BN on the floor " Can you stand here really quickly while I get sister's hair together?" Nope (insert meltdown here) I try to pick her up and she does that thing that all toddlers know how to do when they become dead weight and just melt between your arms so they are hard to hold on to no matter how hard you try. I place her back on the floor and she melt downs harder...... Her sister takes this opportunity to tell me how mean I am because I wont give her "Frozen Elsa hair" and because to white and kick and fuss. This is where mommy looses her shit and has her own tantrum. "COME ONE GUYS YOU ARE KILLING ME HERE! GET IT TOGETHER! WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS TODAY OF ALL DAYS?!" This never works as you know so know they are crying louder and harder and the baby is crying so hard at this point there is snot coming out of her knows like a waterfall. In my proudest mommy moment i pick BN and I take her to the room and lay her down "WHEN YOU ARE DONE YOU CAN COME BACK! lay down relax" nope pissed her off even more and then she follows me back down the hall to scream louder and show me how well my idea to "rest" worked out. I proceed to do RN's hair who is still upset about the stupid Frozen hair. "WHY ARE YOU STILL CRYING OVER HAIR??" I brush her hair and braid her pig-tails and just sit on the tub and look at my two kids who are crying over God knows what at this point. I just look...wasting more time making us more late but I have no clue what to do. I yelled at them, I blamed them for us being late, I punished them for demonstrating feelings that they have no control over, but most importantly I lost my shit and lashed out on them verses helping them work through their emotions. The do not know how to handle their emotions because I do not even know how to handle my emotions... I freaking yelled at them.... several times! Some control mom!


I spent the entire day at work sad because I lost my shit. Even though I apologized to them both and they to me I still felt bad. I fell bad because I yelled I feel bad because I was not a good example I feel bad because clearly I am reflecting poorly on them. To most parents this is no big deal but this is a big deal to me because I vowed to be kinder, I vowed to listen, I vowed to be nice, to my children when they were born. I vowed to do better for them, I vowed to no treat them like I was treated by my parents and look at me..... I am no better and doing exactly what I said I would not.

I get home from work.... RN is in the middle of a current meltdown. She wanted cereal for an afternoon snack BUT she went to sleep and woke up at 5pm. The issue here is that dinner is at 530p-6pm. I can feel my stress threshold rise again and I want to scream because I left to work from this and here I am again in the middle of it. My lovely husband did what he could but I can see his frustration and I try to do my best.... Which sucked this morning. I put my stuff away and sat on the couch. BN crawled in my lap... she who got the grunt of my frustration and lashing this AM was excited to see me home... the only one. She crawled in my lap and signed for "Milk" and made her attempt at saying the word. I latched her and called RN over and she sat in my lap and laid her head on the unoccupied boob. I rubbed her head she settled down and said "Today was a bad day mama...but tomorrow is a new day" (this is what we say when we are not having a good day)