Ask Amma

Posts Tagged ‘society’

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Disposable Pads: The Medium and the Message

In What on 11 May 2015 at 8:00 pm

What, in your opinion, are the pros and cons of disposable pads?  (If there are no pros you can list only cons.) 

 –   A blogger in Chandigarh

women talking shadowWhen asked to write about the pros and cons of disposable menstrual products, I remembered what a friend told me when she decided to give cloth pads a try.  Her mother was aghast.  Why do you want to do all that washing every month? she asked.  I was so glad when disposable sanitary napkins appeared in the market, I thought at last my daughter won’t go through all the same toil I went through during those bloody periods.

Why indeed?  Her daughter, my friend, proceeded to list the various negative health and environmental impacts of disposable pads and said that she didn’t want them next to her skin, she didn’t want to generate so much trash, and she wanted to practice a solution that would be affordable on a modest income.  That it would provide livelihood locally pleased her as well.

Her mother relented.  If disposable pads had so many cons maybe the time spent washing cloth was not wasted after all.

But was that, in fact, the only pro? Read the rest of this entry »

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New La Leche League Leader in Town

In News & Notes on 3 November 2014 at 8:01 am
Please join AskAmma in congratulating Chetana Amma for completing the training to become a certified La Leche League Leader.
La Leche League, an organization founded more than 50 years ago when breastfeeding rates had dropped close to 20% in the United States, has helped many millions of families get adequate information, technical, emotional, social and political support to defend the time, space, nourishment and respect for women’s bodies that improve our confidence and enhance our ability to breastfeed.   My mother was a member and I saw the difference it made for her and for my sister.   I too benefitted from the personal support of a La Leche League leader when I experienced difficulty with latch-on in the first days of my daughter’s life.

In India there are communities where women have been breastfeeding for generations, with plenty of support from their families and neighbours. Increasingly however, women are finding themselves without critical support for breastfeeding in the time of need.  Breastfeeding rates are dropping in urban as well as rural parts of India. Read the rest of this entry »

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Becoming Nanna …

In Field Notes on 4 October 2014 at 3:22 pm

Anand takes a moment to collect his thoughts on the journey to becoming Nanna to three-week-old Anagha. 

Anand's newborn daughter Anagha.

Anand’s newborn daughter Anagha.

Life has always been kind to me. Fortunately I never had a big testing moment and I think one of the biggest decisions if not the most for me was about the place where my baby would be making it into the world. Thanks to my friend Chetana Kulkarni, who is leading advocacy efforts on natural birth and breast feeding awareness as part of Banglore Birth Network, me and my wife Anusha Debbadi made an educated decision in choosing Healthy Mother Sanctum.  Their website is http://healthy-mother.com/.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Has your baby doubled her birth weight?

In How on 13 September 2014 at 1:12 pm

When do babies double their birth weight? 

I’ve heard this question so often these days, yet it was not a topic that came up regularly when I was a new mother.  When in doubt, blame the internet.  Sure, we had plenty  internet in 2003 but we didn’t have such ready means of comparing baby weights and collecting ever more factoids over which we could check our status and see how well we were or weren’t keeping up with the Joneses.

So, compared to the new mothers of today who give their babies age  in weeks and continue giving the age to the tenth decimal place,  I actually don’t know exactly when my daughter doubled her birth weight but I can say it was between the age of 7 and 8 months.

Babies on the train. It is unclear whether they have doubled their birth weight.

Babies on the upper berth. It is unclear whether they have doubled their birth weight.  But they are enjoying the train!

Read the rest of this entry »

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Arise, then, women of this day!

In Art, Call to Action, Poems on 11 May 2014 at 8:05 am

Let us rouse ourselves once again with the urgent proclamation of Julia Ward Howe for peace on earth, responsible society and solidarity among women. 

Mothers’ Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870

Artist: Emeka Okoro. From Fine Art America

Artist: Emeka Okoro. From Fine Art America

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, Read the rest of this entry »

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We are the mothers of food sovereignty

In Call to Action on 8 June 2013 at 3:32 am

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(Jakarta, June 7, 2013) Cheers of “Hooray for peasant women! We are the mothers of food sovereignty!” launched the IV Women’s Assembly of La Vía Campesina

IV International Women’s Assembly for the construction of a peasant-based and popular feminism.

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A String of Jasmine

In Why on 10 May 2013 at 7:56 pm
“Give J___ Auntie a string of flowers,” my mother-in-law told me.  Suddenly I grew tense with a sense of not knowing what to do. 
 
string-of-jasmine-768x499I had a long string of jasmines which I had cut into small pieces and was giving out to my daughter’s friends at her Sankranti party.  My mother-in-law and a couple of her friends were sitting on the sofa. 
 
I busied myself in the kitchen so as not to have to respond to her instruction right away.  Away from the crowd, I reflected, why had I become tense?  I realized that it was because I was not sure how I could give flowers to J___ Auntie, while K___ Auntie was sitting right next to her.  Then I realized that the solution was simple, give flowers to both J____ and K____ Auntie. 
 
Why had this obvious solution not struck me right away?  Why had there even been a “problem” requiring a solution? 
 
Let us go back to the instruction, “Give J___ Auntie a string of flowers.”  In giving this instruction, my mother-in-law had made an assumption.  Someone who had not made that assumption might have had two questions:
 
1) Why had she instructed me to give flowers to J___ but not also to K___ Auntie?
2) Why hadn’t she herself given out the flowers? 
 
For both questions, the reason stems from a distinction made between a married woman whose husband is alive and one whose husband is no longer alive.   My mother-in-law had instructed me to give flowers to J___ Auntie because both of us fell into the former category.  She did not give out the flowers, nor did she ask me to give flowers to K____ Auntie, because she and K___ Auntie fell into the latter category. 
 
Upon hearing her instruction, I felt the tension of being unwilling to follow it, but it took me some time to unpack all this to understand why.  Once I understood, I saw the way.  I picked up three strings of flowers and gave one to each – my mother-in-law, J____Auntie, and K_____ Auntie.  Taken by surprise, K___ Auntie immediately asked, “why me?”  I just smiled.  My mother-in-law explained, “she doesn’t believe that there should be that difference,” and put the flowers into her hair.  K___ Auntie replied, “Yes, these customs should change.”
 
(originally written for the monthly newsletter of Association for India’s Development)
 

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Breastfeeding – done yet?

In When on 3 July 2012 at 8:09 pm

My family and friends don’t get why my son needs to nurse so often. I am an older mom and my friends with kids don’t seem to have breastfed much or don’t remember – it was all so long ago. It doesn’t help that I am not getting much else done … I am a type A personality who till last month hardly spent a waking hour at home. No one is asking me to use formula, but they don’t seem to understand why breastfeeding takes so much time! Isn’t he done? they will ask, and I get tense, as if I have to know the answer. I am hoping to continue nursing for years (not just months) and I need positive responses and positive images to keep up my spirits! – new mom in Chicago Read the rest of this entry »

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Is it true that you are still …

In When on 1 July 2012 at 3:29 pm

This article originally appeared in 2006.

Is it true that you are still …
May 2006 / Mumbai

A woman interrupted me last night as I was taking printouts of the petitions we were planning to send to the Prime Minster to stop the Sardar Sarovar project from going up to 121 m. Urging me aside, she told me, “As early as possible you should stop breastfeeding her.”

Nursing my daughter while attending a meeting.

Nursing my daughter while attending a meeting.

She was probably not the only one who noticed when my daughter nursed during the meeting, but she was the only one to state her views so directly.  Unprepared for such a confrontation, I simply said, “I am very busy, and I am not going to stop breastfeeding now.” Seconds later, more crisp responses filled my head … Read the rest of this entry »