Carrying Mels Story
Hi everyone!
I've loved reading about your recent experiences with the 6 meter slings in France. I became thoroughly converted to the cult of baby wearing when my Sidonie was a howling 2 month old. No other baby carrier worked for me and she is still slung (slinged?) daily at 10 months.
I have to say that they are a HUGE hit here in "Brew City", Milwaukee, our new home of one month. I brought back 8 six meter slings from Paris and three are already spoken for. I'm attending an LLL meeting tomorrow night and I'm sure the others will be gone then. My husband and I are going to go into the 6 meter sling business because we want to spread the word that a mama CAN nurse her baby (discreetly if preferred) while walking and be comfortable and free to be active.
One of the slings was purchased by my friend who is a pregnant chiropractor. After showing her the features of the Six Meter, she looked at how S was positioned and was astonished at the excellent and safe support for mother and baby. She is so excited to use it and to tell her patients that there is FINALLY a sling we can really use!
People here have been so curious and amazingly interested in our babywearing. Old women come up to me with tears in their eyes remembering their nursing days and teenagers love the fact that S is eye to eye with them and so responsive to their attention.
Perhaps the best reward we've had this month is the time that my husband who brings S to my work so I can nurse her during my lunch hour, was catcalled by two women. He was walking across the street with S in her sling and two women at the stoplight declared him "the best father in the world" with whistles and cheers. These are good times!
We miss you all terribly and really hope that you're enjoying parenthood and slinginess as much as we are. I'm staying on the forum to read all of the new adventures and look at photos and hopefully to come back to Paris very soon.
Love, M. & S.
Monday 7 April 2008
Welcome to the anglophone natural parenting community in France
Beyond Breastfeeding.
The ANPA was created in response to a growing demand for an alternative to parenting organisations and “experts” that encourage artificial feeding, artificial nipples, parent-child separation, vaccines and letting babies cry it out alone, commonly know as “sleep training” and other common trends in parenting practices. We have a forum that is for discerning parents. It is for parents whose babies and children’s and consequentially the family’s well being is priority. The parents on our forum believe that being in contact with like-minded parents is part of the network that promotes conscious, educated parenting.
Our parenting choices are based on the golden standard of real milk, the human kind, and our support extends to parents who share the same standards and want to go beyond. We welcome breastfeeding mothers or mothers who have breastfed until their children wean from the the breast naturally. We believe that offering our breasts as sexual objects is a personal choice, and every woman's right. (not to mention fun) but that feeding babies with breasts is not a question of choice, but of making a stand against the power of marketing over ignorance and isolation. If you think you "can't" breastfeed or "couldn't" please see www.allaitementpourtous.com or any qualified IBCLC or an LLL leader.
This website offers a very small selection of documents and testimonies that are available on the forum PLUS a photo gallerie offering a glimpse into our lives as active parents, free, independant of bottles, (except the champagne kind of course) push chairs, cots, painful front packs and lots more of the expensive equipment that we used to think we needed to be happy parents.
Lots of us have had serious breastfeeding problems, so some of us have a lot of experience with the breast pump kind of equipment, that sometimes is necessary to save a compromised breastfeeding process. (its a bit of a paradox, but we consider the breast pump equipment an investment towards future freedom)
On the forum you will find more documents, and testimonies that can be useful to many stages of parenting, from pregnancy and giving birth to child education.
In our forum you will find real support, with attachment parents, backed by research based information. We know we are definitely the minority in our parenting standards. We know that our parenting choices can trigger guilty feelings, hostility or even aggression from parents, organisations or “experts” that don’t have the same values or education so we recognise that support in our choices is vital to our strength and well being as individual parents and families.
Although there are no rules to natural parenting, there are concepts that we all agree on that are mentioned in the ANPA charter.
To be sure the ANPA is for you, you may ask for a downloadable copy of the charter/quesionnaire. If you do agree with our basic philosophie, please fill it in and send it to astharte@gmail.com
The 25€ annual membership is payable by cheque or paypal. A year's membership, gives you access to the forum, the lending library, the open house dates, meetings, brunch dates, and all the information and support that comes with it.
If you have any questions you can contact ANPAinFrance@gmail.com
All the best to you and your family, and welcome among us.
ANPA members
The ANPA was created in response to a growing demand for an alternative to parenting organisations and “experts” that encourage artificial feeding, artificial nipples, parent-child separation, vaccines and letting babies cry it out alone, commonly know as “sleep training” and other common trends in parenting practices. We have a forum that is for discerning parents. It is for parents whose babies and children’s and consequentially the family’s well being is priority. The parents on our forum believe that being in contact with like-minded parents is part of the network that promotes conscious, educated parenting.
Our parenting choices are based on the golden standard of real milk, the human kind, and our support extends to parents who share the same standards and want to go beyond. We welcome breastfeeding mothers or mothers who have breastfed until their children wean from the the breast naturally. We believe that offering our breasts as sexual objects is a personal choice, and every woman's right. (not to mention fun) but that feeding babies with breasts is not a question of choice, but of making a stand against the power of marketing over ignorance and isolation. If you think you "can't" breastfeed or "couldn't" please see www.allaitementpourtous.com or any qualified IBCLC or an LLL leader.
This website offers a very small selection of documents and testimonies that are available on the forum PLUS a photo gallerie offering a glimpse into our lives as active parents, free, independant of bottles, (except the champagne kind of course) push chairs, cots, painful front packs and lots more of the expensive equipment that we used to think we needed to be happy parents.
Lots of us have had serious breastfeeding problems, so some of us have a lot of experience with the breast pump kind of equipment, that sometimes is necessary to save a compromised breastfeeding process. (its a bit of a paradox, but we consider the breast pump equipment an investment towards future freedom)
On the forum you will find more documents, and testimonies that can be useful to many stages of parenting, from pregnancy and giving birth to child education.
In our forum you will find real support, with attachment parents, backed by research based information. We know we are definitely the minority in our parenting standards. We know that our parenting choices can trigger guilty feelings, hostility or even aggression from parents, organisations or “experts” that don’t have the same values or education so we recognise that support in our choices is vital to our strength and well being as individual parents and families.
Although there are no rules to natural parenting, there are concepts that we all agree on that are mentioned in the ANPA charter.
To be sure the ANPA is for you, you may ask for a downloadable copy of the charter/quesionnaire. If you do agree with our basic philosophie, please fill it in and send it to astharte@gmail.com
The 25€ annual membership is payable by cheque or paypal. A year's membership, gives you access to the forum, the lending library, the open house dates, meetings, brunch dates, and all the information and support that comes with it.
If you have any questions you can contact ANPAinFrance@gmail.com
All the best to you and your family, and welcome among us.
ANPA members