Wow, it's been a while!

I apologize about the absence, but it's been a crazy six months.  I think everyone would be happy to hear that I'm getting back into the swing of things and we're moving along well!

Here are some of the things you've missed:

* We've been offered by a wonderful law firm to have our incorporation and c3 status filed pro bono -- so look for us to be a c3 by year's end.
*We've filled 100 bags and have orders for over 50 more
* We have completed a very successful fundraiser and are organizing three or four more!


Things are really moving right along here and we're so excited about it!

Advertise in our Calendar!

Hey all!  It's reaching the end of October and I'm still looking for companies who would be interested in our 2011-2012 fundraising calendar.  Do you do direct sales (Tupperware, jewelry, purses, etc) or own a store in the Central Florida area?  You should advertise with us... Here's some details:

*We're looking at an INITIAL distribution of 2,000 copies (both paid and free) throughout the Central Florida area, but primarily concentrating on Orange, Seminole, Lake, Brevard and Volusia.
*Our calendar will have a shelf life of over 20 months!  We will be offering these for sale, initially, in April of 2011 and our 18-month calendar lasts through the end of 2012.  Keep your name on people's minds for almost TWO YEARS.  It's unprecedented in advertising opportunities.
*By our estimates, our calendars will primarily go to either pregnant women or women with children, in the age range of 20 - 45 years.  We hope to also reach out to the grandmothers who are supportive of breastfeeding.  As we all know, women are the ones in the household who make the majority of the decisions... it's an ideal demographic for local companies hoping to spread the word on their products.

Our advertising rates are very reasonable -- ranging from $500 down to $25 -- and exceptional when you look at the demographics, size of initial distribution and shelf life of the calendar. 

Who should advertise in here:
*Lactation consultants
*Doulas and midwives
*Doctors such as pediatricians and OBs along with opthamologists, optometrists and dentists
*Children's boutique owners
*Massage therapists, yoga studios, chiropractors
*Any breastfeeding supportive company
*Online and Central Florida companies looking to increase awareness of their business locally

Month sponsorships are only $200 and if you purchase your spot by November 10th, I'll even help you design your ad for free (just send me your logo and any information you'd like on the ad).... Think about it -- get your business in front of an ideal demographic for 30 days completely by yourself.  It's an amazing deal!!!

Giving our bags out!

Hey all!  It's been a while, so I thought I'd update everyone on what we've been doing...

The Lake Mary Farmer's Market went well -- we gave out a few bags to pregnant women and talked about our mission with quite a few people.  It definitely was great spreading our message to people outside of the 'natural' birth community in Central Florida. 

My husband and I ran in Orlando's Race for the Cure, helping to bring awareness of the ways to prevent and detect breast cancer before it takes yet another life.  I finished with a clock time of 28:35 -- not terrible for my first 5K after my baby girl was born... especially considering I haven't really been training all that much... I think the last time I ran was two weeks ago!  I'll post pictures soon :)

Lastly, I spoke with Annie at our local IFAS extension and she's going to be giving out 25 of our bags!  Hoorah!  We even spoke about setting up a free seminar to debunk some of the myths that surround breastfeeding.  How cool would that be?!

Anyway, gotta run... hopefully I'll be able to post some cool pictures of the Farmer's Market and the Race soon!  Take care all!

Jen

The Farmer's Market and MORE Breast Cancer Awareness Advocacy

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who helped out with the Farmer's Market today.  We sold a few items, gave away a few bags to pregnant women (or people who knew them) and helped to spread awareness of our cause in Central Florida.... plus I got to spend a few hours outside during an absolutely gorgeous morning...

Seriously, it was a big success!  :)

I wanted to pop on here and remind people that we have beautiful handmade items for gifts.  Baby showers, Christmas presents, birthday gifts -- we have gorgeous, handmade burp cloths, bibs, blankets and onesies at fabulous prices.  Many of our items match and most can be custom-ordered (if you see a design and would like a matching blanket, bib, etc for a set).  Everything is handmade locally and almost everything is donated.  If you are interested, please let me know.  I can give you a list of places where we'll be or I can meet you somewhere and show you what we have in stock.

Thank you to everyone for your support.  Without our wonderful volunteers, supporters and cheerleaders, we wouldn't be able to accomplish our goals.

So, now I'll leave with another little factoid about breastfeeding...  We already mentioned that multiple studies have shown that breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer in moms... did you know that it also decreases the risk for it in girls who were breastfed as infants?

Women who were breastfed as infants, even if only for a short time, showed an approximate 25% lower risk of developing premenopausal or postmenopausal breast cancer, compared to women who were bottle-fed as an infant.
Source:  Freudenheim, J. "Exposure to breast milk in infancy and the risk of breast cancer."  Epidemiology 1994 5:324-331

Some other food for thought as this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month...  Help Prevent Breast Cancer -- BREASTFEED!

A study by Yale University researchers showed that women who breastfed for two years or longer reduced their risk of breast cancer by 50 percent.

Among both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, risk of breast cancer decrease with increasing duration of lifetime lactation experience although the effect was consistently stronger for premenopausal women.
Source:  McTieman, A., "Evidence of Protective Effect of Lactation on Risk of Breast Cancer in Young Women."  American Journal of Epidemiology, 1986

After controlling for age at first full term pregnancy and other potentially compounding factors, parity and duration of breast feeding also had a strong influence on the risk of breast cancer. Compared with parous women who never breast fed, women who had breast fed for 25 months or more had a lower relative risk.
Source:  Layde, P.M., "The Independent Associations of Parity Age at First full Term Pregnancy, and Duration of Breast Feeding with the Risk of Breast Cancer."  Journal of Clinical Epidemiol, 1989.

If women who do not breastfeed or who breastfed for less than 3 months were to do so for 4 to 12 months, breast cancer among parous premenopausal women could be reduce by 11%; if all women with children lactated for 24 months or longer, the incidence might be reduced by nearly 25%.
Source:  Newcomb,P. etal. "Lactation and reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer."  N Engl J Med 1994; 330(2):81-87.

An increasing duration of lactation was associated with a statistically significant trend toward a reduced risk of breast cancer.
Sources:  Newcomb, P.A. et al. 1994 Lactation and a reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer.  The New England Journal of Medicine 330(2):81-87. (P Byers T, et al. Lactation and breast cancer: evidence for a negative association in premenopausal women.  American Journal of Epidemiology Vol 121, pp664-74, 1985)

Siskind V, et al. Breast cancer and breastfeeding: results from and Australian case-control study.  American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 130, pp229-36, 1989

Save 2nd Base -- by breastfeeding!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month!

Did you know that numerous studies have shown that breastfeeding your babies can decrease the chance you develop breast cancer?

So, let's save those ta-tas!  Commit to breastfeeding :)

Pssssst... who wants to see our bags?

Ok, I've been wanting to post this since last night... our bags!

They're not 100% finished -- I still need to add the local resources like our wonderful lactation consultants and there are a few companies who have told me they are in the process of sending us items -- but I doubt they'll ever be 100% done...  why?  Because I'd always like to be adding more sponsors and items!

Anyway, what's in them?  Here you go:


**A large tote bag with our logo (approximately 16x12x4")
**A 27 oz stainless steel water bottle with our logo
**A pair of 100% merino wool nursing pads
**A hot/cold compress filled with rice, flax seeds and lavender
**A copy of Mothering Magazine (issue 154, Breast is Best)
**A large folder of information with:

• Tips and tricks for dealing with sore nipples, engorgement, clogged ducts and mastitis
• A "Breastfed Baby" placard for the hospital
• Three handy quick reference cards for milk storage and how to know the baby is getting enough
• Nutrition 
• Pumping tips (including information on GetPumped, another local nonprofit)
• Laws regarding both workplace pumping and breastfeeding in public (in Florida)
• When to start solids
• Local resources like group meetings, LLL info and lactation consultants... online websites... great books to read...
• A gift certificate for a nursing cover (for those mommas who don't feel comfortable nursing in public without one)
• ... and more!

**An informative latch dvd
**Nipple cream from MotherLove
**Full-sized Nursing Tea from Weleda
**Lanolin sample from Lansinoh
**Sample of either Classic or Hard Rock soap from Rockin Green
**Free shipping from Milk Nursingwear (with a $75 purchase)
**Free shipping from Expressiva (first purchase only)
**Coupons for free classes from Gymboree's Play and Music centers plus 20% off coupons 
**Informational brochures from Bravado, My Brest Friend, Moby Wrap, Bye Bye with Baby, Eco Diaper Service, MotherLove, Weleda and Ameda 

Wow and that's just the beginning!  I can't wait to see who else is interested in joining our project...  Let me know what you all think!  :)


Oh, and by the way, we ARE selling some of these items to help raise funds for more bags.  The Stainless Steel Water Bottles are $12, the tote bags are $3, the wool nursing pads are $7.50 and the hot/cold compresses are $6.50 each or two for $12....   These are the current prices (if you let me know during the preorder time, you'll get the discounted price) :). 

Nursing in public stories...

Ok, readers, confession time...

I've never had a bad experience nursing in public.

My daughter is just over 7 months old and I've nursed everywhere one could possibly imagine.  Restaurants, malls, parks, festivals, grocery stores, my car (when a convenient bench and air conditioning was not to be found), various places at Disney and Universal Studios.... and I've never had a negative reaction.  Oh sure, some people might have rolled their eyes but I don't pay attention to people enough to really notice... and no, I don't use a cover.  To be fair, I tried... but I guess I don't have the manual dexterity necessary to cover myself and nurse a baby at the same time.  I think I used one twice before it just made me AND my daughter hot and angry...  plus, I have a feeling that a nursing cover just screams "I AM BREASTFEEDING A BABY, HAVE A LOOK" .  Scroll down to a previous post I made about nursing at Harry Potter at IOA and you'll see that nursing in public can be incredibly discreet... I doubt many people even knew what I was doing.

Anyway, the ONLY reactions I've ever experience have been positive.  Once, at a Boston Coffee House a guy came up to me and started talking about how his wife is 38 weeks pregnant with their first child and how she was planning a birth at one of our local birth centers.  He mentioned how nice it was to see someone nursing in public and raising awareness.  An older woman at a bbq joint let me know how wonderful it was to see younger women nursing in public -- she had a great statement that I won't be able to get quite right... something about how our country is a sad mix of puritans and cowboys.  One of the funniest NIP stories I have happened when I was nursing my daughter at a mall playground while my preschooler played.  A little girl, about 18 months, walked over to me, stood close by and stared at me.  When her mom came over, she laughed and said that she had just weaned her daughter.... we made jokes that she was 'standing in line'... I mean, heck, hers work... I'll just have some at that tap!

So, ladies (and gentlemen, too, if you want to share your wife/girlfriend/friend's story)... do you have some nursing in public stories?  Funny, good, bad, sad, whatever... share!