Mother's Day

The flowers DH and the kids picked for me :) Wild flowers are my favorite



It was kind of a mother's weekend for me.

On Saturday I attended a local fundraiser for a midwifery practise starting up, with a friend and our two babies in mae ties attached at the hip :) It was nice to get out and do a "women" thing together, as I don't often get the opportunity to do so with needing to care for my disabled husband daily.

When we walked into the banquet hall, It was a room filled with slung babies from ages 3 weeks to 3 years old. Breasts were unhindered and milk was flowing everywhere. It was a sight to see! We both looked at each other and said, "THIS is how it should be"!

It was magical for me to witness and be a part of. Along with the delightful squeals of babies, laughter and even a few cries, everyone smiled and acknowledged the baby. No one turned to "shhhh" the baby or complain that they could not hear the speaker when the baby cried, or yelled out in delight.

Everyone was understanding when a mom got up to walk to the back of the room. By the end of the keynote speakers presentation there was a line of moms and babies ( and even a dad) slinging and swaying back and forth in time with each other to sooth and calm their little ones. It was like a dance, and it was beautiful.

In fact with all the baby noises, the keynote speaker would often stop and address the child personally at times, smile and then go on with his speech.

And who was the perfect speaker to have at a midwifery fundraiser, in a room filled with breastfeeding, slung babies?

None other than Dr. Jack Newman.



We all listened as he joyfully and honestly shared of himself his knowledge of breastfeeding, how weighting babies for knowledge of growth is useless, how growth charts comparing children are redundant, on starting solids when the child shows signs of being ready instead of a certain age, and how baby cereal should be skipped going straight to real whole foods. We listened to his views on child birth and safety and how the medical establishments are holding us as mothers back, hindering our breastfeeding by forcing us to pump in early days to measure ounces etc. He was a delight to listen to. I could have sat there and listened to him all day long.

I spoke to him briefly before and after his speech and gave him some archived copies of Mother's Milk Magazine which he was happily a part of from the beginning for the "Ask The Doctor" segment. It was an honour to finally meet him in person after three years of email correspondence.

He never leaves you feeling like he is a doctor know it all, who must be listened to, he is a peer and an equal, though is still found it impossible to call him Jack. To me he is the example of what ALL doctors should be, regardless of which field of medicine they are in. He never stops learning and he freely admits he is not perfect or right all the time. That is what a doctor should be, a person who listens and shares what they know to allow you to make the right choices. I know many with an MD behind their name who could stand to learn from him.

If you have never heard Dr. Newman speak in person, don't miss the opportunity if it arises! He is a wonderful soul, teacher, and guide cutting a path through the jungle of misinformation and malpractice of women, babies and breastfeeding in our medical society today. He is cutting a path to allow us as women and mothers to see our way through it easier.

For me as a buddhist mother, it was fitting that on Wessack, a buddhist holiday to celebrate the life of buddha,who was a wonderful teacher and guide from centuries ago, that I was in the presence of such a wonderful teacher and guide willing to share his truth with us.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be there yesterday among such powerful, positive energy.

On Sunday Afternoon we went for a drive to our favorite spot by the lake and just explored. Dh and DD picked me a bunch of wile flowers and I sat and tried to identify them with our wildlife nd plants book.

We saw a quit large garter snake and Dh got some cool pics of him as well, Hopfully we'll post them on DD's blog sa she now has expressed an interest in blogging what she learns through homeschooling, in case other kids might like to learn too. The cool part of that is she will need to research the stuff to teach others about it in her blogs, so she will be learning too :) Gotta love how life works that way :)