• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

Coal miner's wife and child. Pursglove, West Virginia. 1938 Sept Here's the funny thing about these photos: During this time, it was the poor mothers who stayed fast to the natural art of breastfeeding, whereas metropolitan mothers and those who had better access to health care went to doctors who pushed formula and subsequently convinced them to feed their babies artificially. Now in 2008, poor, rural mothers statistically do not want to have anything to do with breastfeeding and mothers who are better off economically breastfeed in higher numbers -- what a... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

One of the aspects of life in the 30s and 40s and before is that breastfeeding was so natural that countless moms breastfed in the midst of families, friends and, yes, even strangers. Look at this mom who breastfed even in full view of a photographer, a veritable stranger, who was hired by the government to take photographs of American life. This is a coal miner's wife and child while discussing conditions of house, lack of steady work for husband. Bertha Hill, West Virginia 1938 Sept. read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

I've been doing quite a bit of reading on historical breastfeeding of late just to give some context to the photographs I have been sharing with you. Thank goodness for Google Book Search or else I wouldn't be able to find as much great information as I have. This morning I was fixated with a book called Don't Kill Your Baby. Many of you probably know it very well. In fact, I have read it before, but it seems that every time I re-read I find a fact or a point that I've missed before. I thought this quote was quite telling about how breastfeeding rates began to... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

So! As usual I have succumbed to yet another hiatus. I am trying to blog more regularly about historic breastfeeding, but life keeps getting in the way and before I know it a day has turned into a week and then a week has turned into a month. Yada. Yada. You've heard it before... To help me gain more energy and focus, I've enlisted the help of my good friend, Penny of BottlingHealth.com, to assist me with my food choices and meditation. There is so much that I want to accomplish in my life, but at the moment, everything is really stagnant and I find myself with... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

In the early to mid twentieth century there was constant conflicting medical advice about how a mother should feed her baby. At least now every major medical association (to my knowledge) recognizes that breast is best. But back then, the advice was not as cut and dry. Below is a WPA (Work Projects Administration) poster encouraging mothers to breastfeed. It was distributed in New York and created in 1938. However, as the below poster reveals, other agencies and states had another agenda entirely. This is a poster from the Cleveland Division of Health and FDA... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

By Jeremy Adam Smith Need a good cry? Get a bunch of fathers together in a room and ask them about paternity leave. You’ll hear about the first times they held their children, fed them, and bathed them. For example, listen to the DadLabs guys talk about their leaves in the three-minute video above. You’d have to be made out of stone to not be moved by their stories. But if you ask a roomful of dads about paternity leave, you likely also hear heartbreaking stories about how they didn’t get any—and the disasterous effects the lack of leave had on their... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

Dear Mamas, Please tell me what you think of this idea. In the course of reading comments I have been very touched by hearing from women who want to cloth diaper but are really low on funds and can’t afford to get that stash together. If you have some cloth diapers that your baby has grown out of, would you be interested in being matched up with a cloth diapering-wannabe mama who is in need of receiving some? I’d be willing to put you in touch with each other. Let me know. UPDATE: What a great response! So far I’ve matched up 27 mamas in need... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

Again...breastfeeding in public: No big deal! Here is a mother hulling berries while she nurses her infant. Her other children sit beside her, also at work. Little Mabel Cuthrie [i.e., Guthrie?], 4 yrs. old started working last year. Location: [Seaford?, Delaware?] May 1910. read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

Leone, who’s almost five months old (already? How is that possible?) has discovered how to blow raspberries. She’s also started noticing her out breaths. These spectacular wonders of her natural self are particularly fascinating at 4:00 a.m. In other news, she can sit up by herself for about a quarter of a second before falling on her nose and flattening it into Silly Putty. And she grabs things. The lip of the plate while she’s sitting on my lap at the table, the bamboo flute on the windowsill, the junk mail advertisement. She holds onto what... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

Hello, lovely mamas. Today I am giving away three cloth diapers. 1) Soft Bums Giraffe Print PerfectFit One Size Daper with an organic bamboo insert… 2) SmartiPants light blue One Size Pocket Diaper with Insert 3) Newborn Bambino Mio Trial Pack, containing 1 polka-dot cover, 1 cotton prefold, and one flushable liner To enter, please leave a comment stating your preference as to which diaper you’d like to win–and feel free to leave your favorite cloth diaper tip (on washing, drying, getting out stains, etc.),... read more