a badge for ironing and quit your day job for breastfeeding

A couple of things in the news this week, or that I found this week, have caught my attention.

Female Merit Badges: Kinda cute, Kinda sexist, Retro
Linked today on Jezebel.com, the article is titled Female Merit Badges Represent 'Rites of Passage'


Maternity Leave Linked to fewer C-sections and Increased Breastfeeding: Found an article while on the UC Berkeley campus. Talked to Lan about it and applauded her plan to take time off before the birth and maybe up to a year after as well. A good quote from the top of the article:
"One study found that women who started their leave in the last month of pregnancy were less likely to have cesarean deliveries, while another found that new mothers were more likely to establish breastfeeding the longer they delayed their return to work."

and another

"'We don't have a culture in the United States of taking rest before the birth of a child because there is an assumption that the real work comes after the baby is born," said Guendelman. "People forget that mothers need restoration before delivery. In other cultures, including Latino and Asian societies, women are really expected to rest in preparation for this major life event.'"

At least CA has a more enlightened view (legally) of what us preggo ladies need. So yay? on that.

and OH! the higher up the ladder the lady is (who is/was preggo) the more control she has over both the time off and how she feels about it. Read on!

"Researchers found that women who took less than six weeks of maternity leave had a four-fold greater risk of failure to establish breastfeeding compared with women who were still on maternity leave at the time of the interview. Women who took six to 12 weeks of maternity leave had a two-fold greater risk of failing to establish breastfeeding.

"Having a managerial position or a job with autonomy and a flexible work schedule was linked with longer breastfeeding duration in the study. After 30 days, managers had a 40 percent lower chance of stopping breastfeeding, while those with an inflexible work schedule had a 50 percent higher chance of stopping."