Boycotting Walmart

Kaya was just 10 months old and this was Rene's first time out of Europe. I kept reassuring him he'd be fine, I spent much of my childhood in Florida, he's going to love it, and he'll find driving won't be that difficult after all. The roads are big and the cars are automatic. It was late at night when we finally arrived after delays. The first thing he did after exiting the airport area was try to turn onto the wrong side of the road on a major highway. Oops. Enter anxiety and quarreling here.

We got lost and drove 1.5 hours away from our intended destination. Kaya was screaming for her life in the back seat and we were tossing a giant map back and forth and getting tangled in it. We finally arrived at the hotel in the wee hours of the morning, just to be told it had been flooded and they reserved a room for us in a hotel. It's only a few miles away. There was no way we were getting back in that car so after a little intense discussion they got us a cab which took us straight to the hotel without any detour.

After we slept off the stress we got our rental back and decided to try to go some place and enjoy our vacation. We were intimidated by the vastness and unfamiliarity of America and weren't enjoying ourselves a whole lot. Until we figured out the route to Walmart.

Insert angelic singing here.

We were sorted. We pretty much spent the next week in Walmart, getting lost in it many times and reveling in the wonder of the huge shelves stacked high with colorful packaging and bold colors and fonts. The clothes were so cheap we bought a new suitcase to bring home as much as we could stuff into it. There was a Dunkin' Donuts near the entrance and lots of new food types with high fructose corn syrup which was a new wonder to us peeps from glucose syrup land. So we spent the vacation going from hotel room to Walmart to hotel room and so forth. It provided food, entertainment and miscellaneous other shopping.

We aren't the only ones. Whenever friends and family come to visit from Scotland, one of the first places they want to visit is, Walmart *insert angelic singing again*. In fact, after 4 weeks of crazy fixing up, packing up and selling our house, getting visas, saying goodbye and leaving the country for an International move with 2 young kids on tow and another one due in 5 weeks, on arriving in the freezing cold Northern Maine in the middle of a blizzard after not sleeping for about 50 hours, one of the first things Rene and I both wanted to do was go to Walmart. We were chomping at the bit. We had moved to the land with streets paved with cheese (or is it supposed to be gold? I watched too much American Tale) and we wanted to jump straight in to this beautiful, materialistic society. It was all such novelty.

I guess we bought into the golden arrow thing that they talk about on The Story of Stuff (click on it! It's a fun 20 minutes of online watching. The kids will enjoy it too)


Of course, the novelty wore off soon enough. We realized we are the poster family for People of Walmart . The obese couple with lots of unruly kids wearing pjs and sporting messy, unbrushed hairstyles. We started to notice how you walk into Walmart to do your weekly grocery shop and you enter some time warp. You come back out hours later hanging onto your sanity by a thread. In the interim, you've exhausted yourself walking around this miles long store, just to realize you forgot something back on aisle 1 and will need to go back for it, dragging unwilling children behind. You've become involved in more than a couple lovers tiffs over whether or not you should buy this brand or that or why they didn't check if we were out of paprika like you asked them to. And the People of Walmart around you are loving this free entertainment and don't mind at all if they start at you. You walk out the door frustrated, exhausted and confused as to how on earth you came out spending twice your budget after you planned it out so carefully.


I watched an interesting bit of propaganda recently called Walmart, High Cost of Low Prices. You can watch it online, and I suggest that you do. Click here to watch online via google video. It's also on netflix view immediately.

And Rene and I have decided to boycott Walmart for a year. Jan 2010 til Jan 2011. Hopefully by then we'll be quite out of the habit and won't go back to Walmart ever again. I'd like to say our reasons for this were noble. But mostly I am just so sick to death of shopping there. I can't stand the place. The produce is so bad. The store smells bad and is dirty. The kids almost always catch a virus after we've shopped there. We lose half a day of our lives just trying to shop for our basic needs every week. We always end up fighting. I grew weary of waiting in line for an excessive amount of time before the senile chic behind the counter finally remembers where she is and why and decides to start serving people. It's just. not. worth. it.

Thankfully here in Lincoln we have many other options. And Rene and I are having fun visiting the other grocery stores and choosing our favorites. We might need to visit a few places now instead of getting everything from one place. Kind of like how it used to be, the butchers, the bakers and the candlestick makers. We have one place we prefer for produce, another for grains etc. It won't cost a whole lot more than shopping at Walmart if we plan properly and go to the right places. We're buying more local produce and supporting smaller, local businesses.

Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware that Walmart is being made a bit of a scape goat in this. It represents the epitome of American capitalism and extreme consumerism. It's not just all about Walmart. But this is a little thing we can do that can be a small contribution to a big issue. Lots of small contributions can have a big impact.

And it's such a relief to drive past Walmart (hold the angelic singing voices please, they're driving me crazy) and know that we don't have to go in there!

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Something is different.

Something's not right. I am a fan of summer. Summer is my favorite and my best. I love the heat, the playing in water, the ice cream, the crashing into an air conditioned home after sweating it out all day. I love getting sticky with sun lotion and drinks tasting too watery because the ice melts. I love having to wear shoes because the ground is too hot for the soles of your feet. Yard sales, picnics, barbecues, hand held fans, sun stroke. It's all good.

I love this stuff.

























And because I love Summer so much, and I'm not a fan of Winter; Fall is usually depressing for me. I love the leaves and the beauty. But it always feels like death to me. Partly because I remember the life and death of my firstborn in the fall of 2001. So the look and feel of fall bring back some mixed up memories and throw me in a rollercoaster of emotion.

But even before then, fall could bring me down in the dumps. The chill in the air, the death on the trees, the darker days and longer nights. In the middle of enjoying Summer, I've always found myself dreading Autumn.


But not this year. Something is different this year. This year I've noticed myself thinking forward to Halloween or Harvest time or raking up leaves, with excitement brewing up inside. What's up with that? Lately when I've been realizing the Summer must end soon, instead of grieving, I've been feeling anticipation and joy and a whole new sense of ambition and motivation.

This was so eerie to me, so I had to get to the bottom of it. Ok, I noticed that accompanying these positive feelings of my least favorite season were always memories of last fall. So the key must be somewhere in there. I ran my mind through memories of last year.

The pumpkin patch







The yellowing leaves



Dressing up



Bringing out sweaters




And as I remembered these things, I felt so good inside. Like I had just taken a drug. That warm, content, excited feeling which starts deep in your gut and resonates across your shoulders and through your whole body. I feel alive. It's wonderful. What is it about last fall that's causing such wonderful memories?

Did anything significant happen last fall?

Why of course it did. This happened last fall. September 18th, 2008 - I had the most amazing birth experience. I had my first son, at home, in the water, with only my husband and eldest daughter with me. It was peaceful, intimate, exciting and perfect. And oh my, the buzz.

I enjoyed my other births, as much as one can enjoy pitocin induced contractions while being strapped to a bed. I was happy to meet my little babies and I love newborn days.

But nothing could compare to the feeling of giving birth using only the normal, natural hormones and chemicals which God built in. And wow they are amazing chemicals! the adrenaline and the endorphins and the love hormones. I just felt on top of the world. It was the most amazing high.

People often ask, "why would anyone want to give birth without an epidural? It must be some sort of martyr mentality"

And if you can't grasp how amazing it feels to experience birth with all the natural lows and then incredible natural highs, then you will find it difficult to understand why anyone wouldn't want to numb the pain of labor.

I felt like I could conquer the world. I had done something incredible and I felt like I had super powers. I had created a little being and brought him into the world. He was mine. The Drs didn't give him to me. I made him and I brought him to life, and played a part in this incredible miracle of life which God set into motion.

If I'm having a difficult time in life, which I often do, lacking motivation etc, I just have to look at these newborn pictures or remember those early days and I am instantly infused with this sense of achievement and amazement and self worth. I can draw from the energies that I had back then, from that birth buzz.





I am woman, hear me roar.





Oh my gosh, look at that sweetness








It was about 11 months ago. And I can still tap in to those positive energies. How amazing is that? And I'm thinking this wonderful birth has cured my ill feelings about fall forever. So are you all convinced about natural childbirth yet? I'm just happy I'm embracing life in a new way, and am content to experience the changing seasons with my wonderful family, and empowering memories. yay.

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Dr knows breast

Have you ever been given unwanted advice, and tried to smile and politely ask to pass the bean dip? Unwanted advice can be as annoying as an obnoxious bloke playing Come On Ilene continually on the duke box while you're out on what was supposed to be a romantic date (do rah do rah yeah). So this advice comes at you, unrequested, just when you were moseying along quite fine by yourself...I hope at the very least that the advice is good.



Photo by Alaa Hamed @ sxc.hu

We should expect that the medical profession is all about encouraging breastfeeding....right? Especially considering all the health benefits associated with breastfeeding. It's natural to assume then that Drs, nurses, lactation consultants, pediatricians etc. should be all up to date with the latest and greatest breastfeeding information and advice....right?

Unfortunately, I have spoken with many women who feel they are not receiving good advice or encouragement from such professionals. I'm not trying to start a Dr bashing session here, as there are many wonderful health professionals who do an excellent work of promoting breastfeeding. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of bad advice going around. The worst thing is, we often find those in the medical profession to be intimidating and it can be difficult to overcome breastfeeding problems when we are faced with bad advice from those who should know better.

I think we need to address this issue; more breastfeeding education for Drs would be a fantastic start. To try to stop women hearing things like this:



Sarah: "With my first daughter; I had/have flat nipples and the "lactation nurse" took one look and informed me that I would never be able to nurse. I so wanted to go find that woman later, when I was tandem nursing."


Jane was asked how many ounces of breastmilk her baby was drinking at each feeding. She told the nurse that it was the oddest thing, but her breasts didn't come with ounce markings



Taylor: "When I first tried to breastfeed my son in the hospital, I was told by a nurse that I was too young to be able to produce milk, and that there was no point in trying. When I insisted on trying anyway, she rolled her eyes, stood there for a minute, and when I got him latched on (with my mom's help), she sighed, said, "Looks close enough" and walked out of the room."



Mary: "When Timmy was about 4 months old, I got a nasty case of mastitis, and called my doctor to get a prescription and the nurse who talked to me on the phone told me to make absolutely certain I DIDN'T nurse on that side at all until I'd seen the doctor and been on a prescription. I nursed anyway and told the doctor she needed to correct whoever was on the phone."



Barbara took her sick daughter in to see the Dr. The doctor sternly told her she had to stop nursing immediately, that it was the breastmilk which was causing her daughter's illness.
Turns out, her baby actually had a blocked intestine caused by the rotivirus vaccine which was later taken off the market.
She didn't stop nursing, they somehow figured it out, and her daughter is now perfectly fine.



Photo by Carin Araujo @ sxc.hu

Julie's lactation consultant volunteered some advice: "Don't ever let your 10-month-old fall asleep at the breast. I let my first child do that, but I was wiser by the time I had my second."
Julie replies, "this is my fourth child, and I know what works for my family. I'm here for a prescription, not parenting advice"




A new mom was told to try to estimate how much breastmilk her newborn baby was taking at each feed, and to make sure it was close to 3 oz.




Gladys: "The psychiatrist I saw there told me I was a "horrible, selfish mother" for taking anti-depressants while breastfeeding. She told me to immediately wean, or she would call DFACS and have them take my baby away. There was no benefit to breastfeeding over bottlefeeding, and I could hold her the same way and have the same bond."

Well, there's exactly what a new mother with postpartum depression needs to hear!



Hazel's pediatrician told her that he "required" all of the children he saw to be weaned by 12 months because they shouldn't be allowed to ever ask to nurse. He also told her that the nutrients in breastmilk couldn't compare to baby cereal once babies hit 4 months, and that Hazel's son would fail to thrive if she didn't give it to him.



Francis: "I was told to pump and dump when I had surgery at 2 days postpartum.
Just how do you dump a *drop* of colostrum??"




Karen's pediatrician said that if she couldn't pump 32 oz in one day, she wasn't producing enough breastmilk. She told him, "I thought pumping was not a good indicator of breastmilk production." He said, "That's the only way to tell if a baby is getting enough."

I told my midwife what he said, and she said, "What? 32 oz? Does he think you are a cow?"



Gwen's doctor told her that she needed to wean her baby, because her monthly cycles hadn't returned.



Katherine: "One of my nurses in the hospital where I birthed, when I asked for breastfeeding help, told me I couldn't nurse until my milk "came in." She didn't seem to understand that colostrum was all he needed. I just told her I'd figure it out myself. Thank goodness I'd done a lot of reading..."



Wendy: "When my son was 9 months I went into the ER with a severe bladder infection and the Doctor there gave me a prescription. When I asked if it was a kind safe for breast feeding he said rudely "No, you've already breast fed for 9 months, that's enough. There are no benefits to breastfeeding after 9 months."

After getting over the shock of his rudeness (and a good cry) I asked him to find me a prescription that was safe."




Diane was told that she must be mistaken, she couldn't be breastfeeding her son because he was adopted...there was just no way. She replied, "Hmmm...that's funny. I have been for 2 years and he is thriving."



When Bridget's second daughter was just born, the doctor suggested that she might not have milk yet and that she might need to give formula. (Has he never heard of a thing called colostrum?)



Lynn's Dr told her that all infants need to be weaned at 4 months.





Debbie: "When I got pregnant with Milly, Anna was just barely a year old and still nursing about 5 times a day and a few times overnight. The PA at the OB's office informed me that I HAD to have Anna weaned within a week, or Milly would not get the nutrition she needed in my womb."



Abby: "The Lactation Consultant at the hospital had me in tears because she said that if my 37 week twins (who didn't stay awake for anything very long) didn't nurse for more than 10 min, then I couldn't "count" that as a nursing session"



Lucy was directly asked if her daughter was drinking cows milk at her 15mo check-up . She said no, but that she still nursed a lot. The Dr replied, "Well, you should consider weaning her soon. You know there's no real benefit at this age - it's mostly just water by now."
(Strange how this incredible milk, packed with nutrients, magically turns into very white looking water when your baby turns 15 months.)



A woman brought her baby with digestive issues to the Dr. The doc didn't look into the mother's diet, just labeled the baby as "allergic to breast milk" and recommended she switch to formula.



Natalie: "I don't know what class the Postpartum nurses around here took, but they all think you should apply grape jelly to the nipple, to entice the baby to nurse."



Jill: "The dumbest 'professional" advice I got was to make sure I waited long enough between feeding to "refill".. What's sad I believed it"

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Earth Day Booth

There was this really cool Earth Day even in Lincoln yesterday. We went along to support Nebraska Friends of Midwives who had a booth there.



I was in awe at the multitasking skills of some of the women who were able to nurse their babies in slings while educating the public at their booths and tending to their toddlers at the same time.



I was lucky enough to have Rene there with me to help with the kids so I was able to stay focused. I am an introvert, and the talking bit was scary, and I hope I didn't scare too many people off. But I eventually got into it and was having a great time talking to people about midwives and birth options and legislation in Nebraska. We met some very cool people.

Here's Sen Haar, the awesome senator who sponsored the bill this year which would allow CNMs to attend homebirths (only NE and Alabama don't allow this). So far the bills are still sitting in committee, for who knows how long.



And the kids were cute.

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