• Last updated 1/8/12 by Mama Renew

I received this beautiful email from a dear friend recently and she has been gracious enough to allow me to share her words with all of you.  While I am admittedly a huge Secret Garden fan, and just about anything referencing it makes me ridiculously happy (anybody read The Forgotten Garden?), her words touched me deeply. Of the many gifts of motherhood, one of my favourite discoveries has been the depth of friendship possible when we speak openly about our journey.  The walls we so carefully build for ourselves are clambered over, dismantled, broken down time and time... read more

• Last updated 1/9/12 by Bunmi Laditan

Facebook continues its war with Canadian breastfeeding activists by Jodine Chase Vancouver, January 9, 2012 Canadian mother and Vancouver breastfeeding activist Emma Kwasnica has been banned by Facebook for posting pictures of breastfeeding. Kwasnica says Facebook has an ongoing campaign to rid its site of photos of nursing mothers. There is an occasional flip-flop. Today in the UK the American social media site apologized for deleting several breastfeeding-related photos from UK-based Facebook accounts – photos of little girls pretending to breastfeed their... read more

• Last updated 1/9/12 by Mothering Editorial

Cynthia Good MojabIssue 117, March/April 2003 Making informed decisions about complex and controversial health issues, such as vitamin D supplementation of breastfed infants, is inherently challenging. When evaluating information, mothers may wish to consider the goals, potential biases, and sources of funding of health organizations, researchers, healthcare providers, and vitamin manufacturers; the depth, breadth, and limitations of the information on which public health policies are based; whether a recommendation might be out of date or applicable in only some... read more

• Last updated 10/18/12 by emilyfrischmann

By Christine Gross-Loh Issue 113, July/August 2002 Six tips to help you wear your baby comfortably and safely. 1. Try several types of carriers. Different ones serve different purposes. Soft structured carriers such as the Ergo are popular among many babywearing parents. Wraps, such as the Moby or GypsyMama are also very versatile, and gorgeous to boot. I highly recommend buying or borrowing a few other types as well. I consider a ring sling to be all-purpose and easy to get baby in and out of, a soft structured carrier or mei tai helpful for longer... read more

• Last updated 1/5/12 by Hoyamum

We hear an awful lot about breastfeeding being great for babies and great for moms.  It reduces the incidence of all sorts of illnesses such as ear infections and gastroenteritis in the baby and ovarian cancer in mothers.  Breastfeeding is the biologically normal way to feed a baby, and as such it promotes optimal human development.  But breastfeeding is about more than the milk.  There are some hidden benefits of breastfeeding that researchers can’t quite test or pinpoint with double-blind trials.  I thought I’d name just a few for me, and perhaps you’d like to add... read more

• Last updated 12/30/11 by Bunmi Laditan

Two days ago thousands of mothers flocked to Targets across the nation like they do every day but this time, with breasts full & nipples poised to launch a milk attack against the retail giant. The demonstration or “nurse-in” was in response to a lactating female being asked to feed her child in a changing room, away from public view, rather than in a corner of the store days earlier. Upon hearing this news, leaking women from all over the United States descended upon their local Tar-zhays with babies and proceeded to feed them from their private parts as a way of saying... read more

• Last updated 12/20/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Christine Gross-LohIssue 122, January/February 2004 Is mothers' milk harmful for our babies? Recent headlines about toxins in breastmilk might have us think so. Two studies, published in August and September 2003, indicated that American women's breastmilk contained polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), commonly used as flame retardants in many consumer products, at levels 10 to 100 times higher than those previously detected in European women.1 Such information might give mothers pause when it comes to nursing their babies. Is breastfeeding still the best choice... read more

• Last updated 12/20/11 by Mothering Editorial

Breastfeeding your baby gives you both so much, and yet it can also leave you with neck and shoulder tension. Here are two poses that help relieve upper body tension. 1. Stand erect. Reach your right arm up and over your head to cover your left ear. Pull your head gently toward your right shoulder as you keep your left shoulder even. Hold your head for a count of 10. Release and let your head float up on its own. Repeat on the left side. 2. Clasp your hands behind the middle of the back of your head with your elbows flared. Bow your head toward your... read more

• Last updated 12/20/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Christina RosalieIssue 144 - September/October 2007 His eyes are like a seal pup's, huge and round. He is swallowing the world with them. Drinking the images of my hair, the window frame, the branches I gathered and put in a jar on the dresser, their yellow buds swelling. His small, flannel-wrapped body fits into the crook of my bent knee as I sit hunched at my desk, trying to write. For a few brief moments he is quiet, watching me with his unguarded, two-month-old gaze. Late-afternoon light falls on us through the window, and outside, the first green signs of spring... read more

• Last updated 12/20/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Stephanie OndrackIssue 137, July/August 2006 It took a few months of mulling the topic over in the back of my mind before I came up with some reasons. The evidence is soft, even circumstantial, but I think it all adds up. And I concluded that even Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with its progressive left-coast attitudes, embodies the traits of a bottle-feeding society. In some cases, this is only because we belong to a larger community. But still, if the bottle fits... The incidences of bottle homage are often subtle enough that we do not see them. They operate... read more