Good Morning Everyone. I’m here are the 3rd annual Breastfeeding and Feminism Symposium in Raleigh, NC. This is my first try at live blogging, so bear with me! It looks like it’s going to be a great conference, lots of big name activists and academics (Barbara Katz Rothman for example) and some interesting topics on the agenda.
As I mentioned before, I’m most excited about the reproductive justice connection–and am interested to see how the framework is woven in. Stay tuned for more!
Next week I am attending the Breastfeeding and Feminism Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is the third year this event is happening, and to my delight this year’s topic is Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice. The Symposium is being sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Greensboro, specifically the Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care and the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness.
I’m looking forward to seeing how these advocates, educators and breastfeeding specialists bring in other reproductive justice issues into their work on breastfeeding. I will be live blogging from the Symposium, so stay tuned for more from the presentations next week.
Go here for more information about the Symposium. If you happen to be in the North Carolina area next week, think about attending!
Women’s Enews reported last week that women still struggle for their rights to breastfeed in various states. Many of the fights involve the rights to breastfeed in public and efforts to remove breastfeeding from indecent exposure laws and regulations. Even in states where breastfeeding is protected by the law, women are being penalized for doing so in public, being kicked out of restaurants and other public places.
Some responses to these legal challenges have included “nurse-ins,” where large groups of women gather to breastfeed in a public place (a spin off of the kiss-ins used by queer rights activists).
In addition to the challenges that breastfeeding mothers face, the CDC reports that while the number of women choosing to begin breastfeeding is up, the rates of women exclusively breastfeeding (no formula or other liquids) are still falling short of what is desired.
“The increase in mothers choosing to initiate breastfeeding is good news because it provides health benefits for women and decreases the risk of some early childhood diseases among infants,” said Dr. William H. Dietz, director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. “But it is still quite alarming that mothers and infants are not receiving the full health benefits most associated with exclusive breastfeeding.”
Check out my related blog on Feministing about research into baby formula that could prevent obesity.
Radical Doula 