Anyone doing anything to help raise awareness?

I just ordered Kate a shirt that says "Breastfed baby, stick around for the show!" A little inappropriate, but pretty fun. I'm in a small town, so we don't have and LLL or API group. I know a lot of cities have nurse-ins to help raise awareness and encourage nursing.

I'm not part of LLL so I honestly don't know if there's anything going on around here. I ought to check their website & see if I can find info, though. I saw a picture on another site of a baby in a shirt that said "Boob Tick" and Rob & I both agree we need that for Linda.

Is the purpose to raise awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding for the baby, or to make it more socially accepted?

I find, at least around here, pretty much everyone knows and agrees that breastmilk is by far the best thing for a baby. It's doctors that aren't real supportive of it. Some are, but others are more like, "well do it if you want to, but here's a formula sample for when you decide to give it up."

Also, it would be great if the WIC guidelines were changed to encourage breastfeeding moms to continue to do so. We received WIC last time and although we won't this time it's still frustrating to me that you can get either over $100 a month in formula vouchers, or they'll add carrots & tuna to your grocery vouchers for a breastfeeding mother. Carrots & tuna! And they never offered to help me pay for the breastpump rental or even for the breast milk storage bags, which would have been very helpful, to feel supported in the choice to continue pumping & feeding breastmilk that way.

But, as for individual women, I think a lot has been done to help them know & understand the importance of breastfeeding.

It is to make it socially acceptable to feed your baby the best possible thing. If we see it, then we can accept it. I want my daughter to grow up and not be embarassed to nurse her hungry baby. Might be a lofty goal, but I want to do my part. It is also nice for people to see that normal people nurse their children. Business women, students, involved people that still have lives, yet breastfeed. I think it is a misconception that you have to be a stay at home mom to do it.

WIC is a joke. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the milk and other trivial not that healthy foods, but like you said the alternative is $100 of formula a month. All of their literature says "breastfeeding is best" in big bold letters. Don't you think they could give us more of a hand? Maybe help me out with my fresh and frozen veggies, whole grain bread, lean chicken breasts, and other stuff that is on my list. I don't even get the cheap, sugary cereals, calorie laden frozen OJ, or peanut butter that isn't lowfat. Sounds like they are going to revamp the program, but not anytime soon.

On the other hand, the office congratulated me on making it to 4 months. I asked what percentage of people in our county breastfeed to six months, they told me 5%. I am still in shock over that. They said about 30% make it to 3 months, then it drops off big time. You would think since these are low income families, that they would do the cheapest, healthiest option.

Better get off my soapbox. I always end up WIC bashing when I really do appreciate what they do for families like me.

I know what you mean, WIC does some good things and they do try to educate women about good nutrition, but you're right, the foods they offer are not very healthy. Our local offices last year started giving vouchers to go to the local farmer's market and get X pounds of fresh fruit and X pounds of fresh veggies, so that was a definite improvement over the low-fiber sugary cereals and sugary peanut butter only.

Perhaps breastfeeding is viewed differently in different geographic areas of our country. Here, it is not considered odd or something for only stay-at-home moms to do. I worked in day care with infants for quite awhile, and we had several breastfeeding moms. (Truthfully we hated it because it was a PITA to keep everyone's milk straight when they wouldn't label it properly! but we had to keep that to ourselves!!)

I've had two different breastfeeding moms say very cruel & mean things to me about bottle feeding my daughter, which IMO is just as horrible as making someone feel odd or embarassed to be breastfeeding. It's a very personal decision, based on many factors, and I think most moms really do try and do the best they can for their babies.

It would be so much more cost effective for WIC to offer something other than so much formula automatically. It's ironic isn't it? They congratulate you and then turn around and their policies don't reflect their own goals.

Have you had to go to the BFing class they offer? What a joke! I had to go when I was pregnant. It was me & another pregnant girl, with a lactation specialist who handed us a bunch of pamphlets and said, "call me if you have any problems." Then about FIVE MONTHS after my daughter was born, a different lact. specialist called me at home to see how it was going. Very bizarre program.

When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I checked to see if the hospital OB clinic where I was receiving my care offered breastfeeding classes. They did--but only and specifically for African-American women. If you're white, Asian, Latino, what have you, you were screwed.

I can't speak about WIC because we've never recieved it. I do know that the program varies somewhat by location, because back home my cousins would get vouchers for produce from the farmer's market, something not typical in my understanding.

But the truth is, most healthcare professionals do indeed speak out of both sides of their mouth when it comes to breastfeeding. The attitude seems to be "Well, breast is best, but if you don't want to, that's OK too." Again with my first daughter, my roommate decided the second day she did want to try to breastfeed her son, and she had to come to me for help.

And don't even get me started on the total ignorance of most people who work with new mamas when it comes to breastfeeding! Or the pediatricians afterwards, who expect all breastfed babies to gain weight at the same rate and on the same schedule as formula fed babies, and push mamas to supplement with formula or rice cereal when they don't really need to...!