2011 - Talk Birth

are very active and dynamic in feel, celebrating form and motion. Evolve is not a book of ”belly pictures,”
it is a book about women and their lives in the act of creation.
—
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes.
1. http://www.patrickstull.com/
2. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evolve/id452856295?ls=1&mt=8
3. http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/evolve...-enhanced-version/id453868817?mt=11
4. http://www.patrickstull.com/books/
5. http://www.patrickstull.com/exhibitions/evolve/
6. http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/evolve...-enhanced-version/id453868817?mt=11
Milk, Money, & Madness (2011-09-07 14:31)
In early August, I received a press email from Evenflo about their ”in-law feeding frenzy” video. While I
recognized they were attempting to be playful and funny, I chose not to share the video with my readers
because I found several elements of it problematic. Rather than recognize the opportunity to create an
internet stir over the video, I just wrote back to the company and told them, ”I try not to encourage the
notion of other people having a chance to feed the baby, so I do not plan to use the video myself—I would
have been more pleased with it if somehow mom stood her ground and helped in-laws see that there are
other ways to be involved with the baby other than by feeding it expressed milk. I don’t promote the idea
that mothers need to pump, ’just because.’” Considering what a controversy has now boiled up this week
over [1]Evenflo’s ”funny” breastfeeding video, I confess I sort of feel like I missed my opportunity for a major
wave of blog traffic by exposing the ad and expositing on the problems therein when I received it in August!
;-) However, when considering the controversy, I thought of some wonderful quotes I’d saved to share from
the book Milk, Money, & Madness and so I’m sharing them instead.
Dia Michels is one of the co-authors of Milk, Money, and Madness and I’ve actually heard her speak twice—
once in 2003 when I was pregnant with L and then in 2007 at the LLL of MO conference. I’m surprised
at how thoroughly riveting a book about the ”culture and politics of breastfeeding” can be and I highly
recommend it to breastfeeding and women’s health activists.
In perfect response to the Evenflo video, we have this quote:
”Babies need holding, stroking, dressing, bathing, comforting, burping, and, within a short time, feeding
solids. Dad can do every one of these. The desire to participate should not be confused with the need to
give the baby the best of what each partner has to offer.”
I hear from people SO often that they want Daddy to be able to participate in baby care by giving the
baby a bottle. There are LOTS of things that fathers can do for their babies, other than feeding—bathing,
snuggling skin-to-skin, diaper changes, playing, babywearing, and just plain walking around holding the baby
while mom takes care of her own needs.
And, here is an excellent quote with regard to public breastfeeding/breasts as sexual objects:
”When the attitude is taken that a woman’s breasts belong to her and no job is more important than
caring for one’s young, the confusion between breastfeeding and obscenity goes away.”
257