Sustainable Mothering » Mothering

Curb Your Enthusiasm About the New Federal Workplace Pumping Law

Jake — Tue, 11 May 2010 00:53:59 +0000

The workplace pumping provision of the federal health care bill sounds like great news for women who pump breast milk in the workplace. Who could complain about a federal requirement that all employers give reasonable unpaid breaks to employees who need to pump for their nursing infants? On closer examination of what the law actually [...]

Frontline’s War on Selectively Vaccinating Parents

Jake — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:40:53 +0000

A recent episode of the PBS program Frontline was called "The War on Vaccines." The title alone should have been the tip off that the producers' goal was to inflame and incite – to assume this was an entirely adversarial discussion between diametrically opposed viewpoints. But I knew that my colleague Jennifer Margulis, Contributing Editor [...]

Not Another Blog Post About Breastfeeding and Weight Loss

Jake — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:16:28 +0000

When I was pregnant with my first son, I gave myself permission to eat as much as I wanted. On some level I decided "you're eating for two now" could reasonably be interpreted as "you're eating for twelve now." Having had a long history of binge eating and binge dieting, being pregnant gave me a [...]

A Podcast with Me from the 2007 La Leche League International Conference – Still Timely, I Promise

Jake — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:48:53 +0000

Back in July of 2007, I gave a session on Breastfeeding and the Law at the La Leche League International Conference in Chicago. Good session, if I do say so myself, which you can buy on CD here. [Disclaimer: I don't make a cent if you buy it.] While at the Conference, I also did [...]

Jury Back in Drunken Breastfeeder case … Oh, Wait, She Didn’t Get a Jury

Jake — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:22:23 +0000

As promised, here is an update on Stacey Anvarinia, the North Dakota women who pled guilty to child neglect for allegedly breastfeeding her six-week-old daughter while drunk. For more on what appears to be a startling lack of evidence, see my post here. My suspicion that Anvarinia pled guilty as part of a deal for [...]

The “Drunken Breastfeeder” Case: Will the Real Felon Please Stand up?

Jake — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:56:17 +0000

When I read the Associated Press story this past June about the guilty plea for "child abuse or neglect" by a North Dakota woman alleged to have breastfed her child while intoxicated, a few things leapt off the screen at me. I wondered why this mother had pled guilty. As a lawyer I know that [...]

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Jake — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:35:44 +0000

I woke up this morning shaking from a nightmare. My jaw hurt from grinding my teeth. My palms were sore from clenching my fists.

I knew immediately that it had been a bad dream but it has been difficult to shake off. In it, I was in a hotel room in a foreign city with my [...]

Helping Your Kids Combat Homophobia on The National Day of Silence

Jake — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:51:30 +0000

Today is the 2009 National Day of Silence, a day to protest bullying and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in schools. Begun in 1996 as a student protest at the University of Virginia, it has grown to participation by over 8,000 middle and high school, colleges and universities, throughout the U.S. While [...]

What to Do When a Woman Breastfeeds Near You on an Airplane

Jake — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:44:03 +0000

Seems odd to me that people are confused about what to do when a woman is breastfeeding her child on an airplane. If you have ever walked on a plane with a small child, you know that look on people's faces – that look that says "please, please don't sit next to me." No one [...]

Salma Hayek Puts Another Woman’s Hungry Baby to Breast

Jake — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:41:59 +0000

I have been seeing offensive headlines about Salma Hayek for a few days. "Salma Hayek Feeds the World!" It seems every time a celebrity makes a comment about breastfeeding – usually about losing weight – it generates more press than an embassy bombing. When I realized that this story was about Hayek putting a starving [...]