ABOUT ME

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I’m Melodie and here’s a few things about me and what I might write about.

I’m a married mom of two beautiful girls (3 and 5) and a step son (16).
I’m 6 ft tall. People always comment on this when they meet me so I’m letting you know up front so you are too surprised if we ever bump into each other. Don’t worry, I won’t wear heels.
I’m an activist/advocate for breastfeeding, homebirth, midwifery care, VBACs, eating nourishing whole foods, vegetarianism, and the environment.
I am a successful HBAC-er (I had a Homebirth After Cesarean) and did it under the care of midwives.
I practice attachment parenting, which I also refer to as natural or instinctive parenting.
I breastfed my oldest daughter until the eve of her third birthday, I tandem nursed for five months and I am still nursing my two and a half year old.
In school I was the “nice girl” and I haven’t really outgrown this nice little adjective.
I believe that breastfeeding is one of the most important things we can do to raise healthy children and contribute towards a healthy planet.
I wore my babies.
I bed share.
I used cloth diapers (but disposables at night).
I am a WAHM. I do family child care out of my home.
My career background is in mental health and addictions.
I’m a wannabe student. I’ve just applied for my Masters in Social Work.
I’m passionate about cooking from scratch (vegetarian and vegan food), nutrition and health.
I love eating real, whole foods but I suffer from a nasty sweet tooth. Pretty cakes are my biggest weakness. Oh, who am I kidding?? Any cakes are my weakness!
I prefer butter over margarine.
I’m trying to decrease the soy consumption in our house.
I love Twitter. I visit it often.
I retweet a lot. That means if I like your post I will retweet it on Twitter. So get yourself a button to make my life easier, okay? I also give credit where credit is due.
I wish we didn’t own a TV.
I’m addicted to Grey’s Anatomy.
I love Etsy.
I love to shop at thrift stores.
I’m a nature-lover and aspire to raise our girls to know, love, and respect the Earth and all of its inhabitants.
I know a thing or two about herbalism.
I’m a homeschool advocate but currently send my daughter to public school.
I identify as Pagan but have a keen interest in and deep respect for all other religions and spiritual beliefs.
I was born and raised and live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It rains here a lot and hardly ever snows (I like snow) but I wouldn’t live anywhere else.
And last but not least, I’m not an expert on any of my interests, but I am passionate and educated. I value the power of mom-to-mom support and I love to be helpful so I encourage you to ask me anything you want, however, I don’t always have the answers, and when I don’t know something I will tell you and direct you to someone who will know. I often use Kellymom, Jack Newman, and La Leche League for my information on breastfeeding. Everything else I share on this blog is a product of my experience, and that of the many breastfeeding moms I know. Since no two of us are alike, please take what works for you and leave the rest.
The reason I use the picture below as my avatar is because when I found this painting on Flickr, I fell in love with it. It is me to the core, except if I’d had it commissioned for myself I would have replaced the horse with a carrot (it’s the vegetarian thing). I even think the woman in this painting kind of looks like me. And then I got permission from the artist to use it in whatever medium I wanted and he told me I didn’t even need to give him credit. Wow! I give him credit anyway. He’s flikr on Flickr.

The Purpose of Breastfeeding Moms Unite!

The purpose of this blog is to create a community where breastfeeding moms come to read, ponder and discuss a myriad of topics related to breastfeeding and to give and receive support from other moms. You will find that I more often write about the “Why” and “What” of breastfeeding rather than the “How To.” (Once a psychology major, always a psychology major). I like to share my experiences of breastfeeding and encourage participation from my readers to do the same. I am also completely open to disagreements. It takes all kinds of thoughts, ideas and beliefs to make our planet interesting so feel free to be yourself here. I’m not easily offended.

Why do I write Breastfeeding Moms Unite!?

To stimulate thought on the social, ecological, health , and everyday issues surrounding breastfeeding. To give other breastfeeding moms a place to feel safe, accepted and empowered for choosing to breastfeed.

My mission is to use Breastfeeding Moms Unite! to help make breastfeeding mainstream again by actively advocating for breastfeeding rights and exposure in our society, culture, and the media, including the internet. I think we can change the world, or at least the way the world thinks, by publicly breastfeeding our children (of any age), and supporting public breastfeeding practices.