My name is Miriam and I am a lactivist. At the moment it could be akin to admitting alcoholism, except people seem to have more sympathy for alcoholics than for someone trying to normalise breastfeeding. We have been called every name under the sun, accused of making mothers feel guilty for not breastfeeding, demonizing companies for not supporting breastfeeding and creating a culture of them and us.
In reality though, we are merely trying to make available the resources and advice that women NEED in order to have a supportive and encouraging breastfeeding relationship with their baby. We tend to forget that breastfeeding is normal:
“We must not let inverted phrasing by the media and by our peers go unchallenged. When we fail to describe the hazards of artificial feeding, we deprive mothers of crucial decision-making information. The mother having difficulty with breastfeeding may not seek help just to achieve a "special bonus;" but she may clamour for help if she knows how much she and her baby stand to lose. She is less likely to use artificial milk just "to get him used to a bottle" if she knows that the contents of that bottle cause harm.” Diane Wiessinger Watch Your Language Reprinted from the Journal of Human Lactation, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1996
The whole complete facebook company does not like breastfeeding , is that really possible that a whole entire company does not advocate and accept that breastfeeding is a normal nurturing imperative for the health and well being of babies? Is that really why they removed my account? .Is that why they removed some of my breastfeeding pictures? Is that why they have with little or no regard for the content. Do they really believe that breastfeeding pictures are pornographic or sexually suggestive. If it is nudity they are concerned about, (if there is a nipple, it's deemed nudity), surely there are other pages out there that have FAR more nudity than my two bumps, which rarely have nipple showing, because it is usually in my babies mouth.
I, as well as many of my peers, am basically trying to show that breastfeeding is not something to be afraid of. It is not some higher unattainable nirvana, its normal. The more people that see pictures of breastfeeding and feel inspired or less nervous about feeding their own baby, the more babies are being given what they are biologically pre-disposed to have, human milk for human babies.
This is the other issue with accounts being disabled that is not given consideration, in this insular society we live in, when my account was disabled I lost my main support system of like minded friends and this is actually more than just loss of a fun network site, because as a mother of two toddlers trying to raise my children in a conscious gentle way, some days it can be a life saving sanity site.
Next Saturday 22nd January 2011, there is a world wide protest on facebook, whereby people are going to log off facebook for an entire day, to protest about mothers accounts being disabled and pictures being deleted and support groups being removed. Will you support this protest group:
This is a page called Removed- The List it is an to index current links to "Bring Back..." groups/pages. Groups/pages and personal profiles that were deleted from Facebook for sharing videos and/or pictures which includes Birthing, Breastfeeding, Elimination Communication and Circumcision.
**UPDATE**
2012 Virtual Nurse In: http://www.facebook.com/events/223438821070846/
2012 Protest 6th February Worldwide Locations: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=324817760874621
**UPDATE**
2012 Virtual Nurse In: http://www.facebook.com/events/223438821070846/
2012 Protest 6th February Worldwide Locations: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=324817760874621
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