Let's move to Norway

[Janice in Canada]

FYI - Norway gives 2 hour nursing breaks to workers!

See link for full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/21/in...pe/21NORW.html


Norway has revolutionized a woman's right to breast-feed.
Mothers breast-feed when and where they want: buses, parks, cafes, stores. With rare exceptions, none leave the hospital without breast-feeding or dare ask for infant formula as a substitute. For trouble at home, the phone book obligingly lists a company called Breast-Feeding Help.

Working mothers also get a break: two hours off a day to breast-feed their child at home or in the office. Breast-feeding at the desk is not off limits.


Janice

[Greaseball]

I'd love to move there because they are more child-friendly in general. For example - a full-time workweek is considered 20 hours. In divorce cases, visitation rights are awarded to the child rather than to each parent, so the child gets to decide who, when and where. Spanking is illegal. One year paid maternity leave for both parents...sliding scale education and daycare for all...socialized medicine...among the lowest infant mortality and cesarean rates, and among the highest life expectancies and homebirth rates...

Children are seen as members of society there. Buses don't make mothers take children out of strollers - they are given extra time to board. Public restrooms have child-size toilets.

[mom2tig99Nroo03]

that is awesome!

[Quirky]

I Norway! It's a beautiful country. I lived there from 1973-77 and again from 83-85, in elementary and high school.

Greaseball, where are you getting the 20 hour workweek thing?

Just FYI, though, things weren't always so progressive there....my youngest sister was born there in 1975, and my mom was a) induced so her OB could go on Easter vacation and b) not allowed to use her Lamaze breathing during labor because the L&D nurses had never heard of it and threatened to gas her if she tried to use it. And my sister was over 9 pounds, too.... I don't think the nurses were too supportive of my mom breastfeeding, but hell, by that point she had faced down ignorant nurses in maternity wards in rural Texas and North Carolina, so she didn't care.

[Greaseball]

My stuff comes from "Children First: What Society Must Do - and is Not Doing - for Children Today" by Penelope Leach.

[nemom2boys]

What a timely thread. I was feeling frustrated the other day about some problems I've had with nip. I asked my husband if he could get a job in Norway. He has worked there before and loved the country. Unfortunately, he told me that he would never want to work for the guy who owned the Norwegian company dh's company was working with. I love the stories and pictures my dh has of Norway. Couple that with what I know of childbirth and breastfeeding in Norway and it sounds like a dream! My husband warned me that I would probably resent the government over there, though. They are very involved in people's day to day lives. I'm a libertarian, so I suppose that would be very hard for me. On the other hand, as long as the government agrees with me, I guess that's fine! ;-)

[*LoveBugMama*]

Hi, all!

I am a Norwegian, living in Norway. Has lived here all my life.
And YES, Norway is a great country to live in. (Rated nr. 1 on the UN`s list this year.)

But some of the things Greaseball said aren`t quite right...

A full work week is not 20 hours, it is 37,5 hours. 7,5 hours a day, 5 days a week.

We get 1 year paid maternity leave. Not one year for mom and another year for dad. But we are allowed to decide by ourself WHO stays home during that year. Dad HAS to take 4 weeks (if he isn`t able too, then mom loses 4 weeks), and mom HAS to take the 6 first weeks after birth, though.

There is NOT childcare for all. But there will be, 2 years from now. Now there is for most that want to, but not for all.
There is a maximum price for kindergarden in Norway. Noone should pay more than 350$ a month.
Single parents pay way less.

About homebirth: that is way wrong!! Almost NOONE has a homebirth in Norway!
The Netherland on the other hand, has a very high homebirth rate.

Norway has the highest percent of breasfeeding moms in the world, I think, so that is a very good thing.

Come on over, ladies! There is room for all of you!

[Greaseball]

Perhaps I was thinking of Switzerland?:

[*LoveBugMama*]

Don`t cry, Greaseball!!

You would be surprised to know how many times I have to tell people that

"No, not all Norwegian women are 6 feet tall and blond"

" Yes, we DO have prisones, and people actually commit crimes here too"

"No, All Norwegians don`t get a free car"

"Yes, we DO lock our doors at night"

"No, the polar bear does NOT walk around in the streets"

"No, not all Norwegian women go topless all summer"

"We actually DO shave our legs sometimes"

I could go on and on....



I once saw a story in an American Newspaper (online) about Norway.
And most of what they said was just not true.
Or, it WAS true, but just to a minority of Norwegians:

They said things like
"All Norwegians get a free car". Wich ofcourse isn`t true. But you CAN get a free car if you are physically disabled and need a special car to be able to drive.

"No Norwegians lock their doors at night." Not true.
But if you live in a very small town/village, like I do now, you don`t always lock your doors at night.

It seesm like people just wants to make us look even richer and weirder than we really are!

Norway is a great place to live. Its a safe place to live. Its a rich place to live.

But it isn`t heaven. Everything isn`t perfect.


Don`t feel bad.

[Greaseball]

I hear that in Canada they don't lock doors. This was true of my aunt - we had been planning this trip to see her for months, and when we get there no one is home so we call her cell and she says she FORGOT! And will be out of town for a few days! But her house was open (nice house in rich neighborhood) so at least we had a place to stay. She had been burglarized not long ago, but still did not lock her house.

I am of Norwegian descent and although I am blond, I am only 5'1".

[wombat]

I've heard food is so expensive in Norway, maybe Norwegians have an economic incentive to BF

[*LoveBugMama*]

Food IS expensive here!

And our taxes are quite high.

But all in all, I feel I get a lot for my taxmoney.

I really don`t know WHY Norwegians BF. Its just the way things are done here.
If you are able to BF, then you do. Ofcourse someone decides that they don`t want to, I guess, but I have never personally met/heard of a person that decided to NOT BF if she was able to.