Carnival Cruise Ship Officers Tell Breastfeeding Mother to "Cut it Out!"



On a recent Carnival cruise, North Carolina mom, Crystal Silvas, was nursing her 9 month old daughter aboard near one swimming pool area, when two of the ship's officers began flailing their arms at her in front of other passengers. "The men in white started waving their arms really high and saying to 'cut it out!' and told me I couldn't feed her anywhere outside my stateroom," said Silvas, and added, "It was absolutely the most humiliating moment of my life.

Deeply hurt by the experience, Silvas said the experience "ruined her vacation" and that the weeks following have been "the most stressful" she can imagine. Silvas is mom to two adopted children and reached out to Carnival about its breastfeeding policy, but did not receive a straight answer for two weeks. At that time she reached out to news station, FOX 46 Charlotte, who obtained results for Silvas within hours.

The cruise line has since apologized, and this is Carnival’s complete statement in response:
Guests traveling on a Carnival cruise are free to breastfeed in any location on board. We sincerely apologize if your viewer was given information to the contrary or made to feel uncomfortable. We are further researching this and will ensure the shipboard team is clear that women are free to breastfeed in both public and private areas of the ship. 

Carnival has also offered Silvas and her family a complementary cruise to compensate for this bad experience.

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Related: 

The Breastfeeding Group (for nursing mothers and IBCLCs): FB.com/groups/Breastfed


Encouraging breastfeeding items, bracelets, and 'thank you for nursing in public' cards: DrMomma.org/2007/02/breastfeeding-info-cards-etc.html







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Menstrual cups for healthier bodies, happier periods!


Menstrual cups are soft, bendable, reusable, more comfortable, and so much better for our bodies! For those who'd otherwise use tampons, check out the wide variety available today by Googling 'menstrual cup.' There are wide varieties to select from: http://astore.amazon.com/peacefparent-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=58

Women who opt for pads instead may find they love 'moon pads' (soft, washable, reusable pads) vs. plastics.  Many options exist today for healthier bodies and happier periods.

This post was originally live on Facebook. Image courtesy of GladRags.


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Babies Aren't Soldiers

By Melissa Cline
Read in Spanish here

Melissa and her beautiful son.

Back in the day when our baby was colicky, my dear husband (who spent 10 years in the Army and National Guard) commonly suggested that because we had tried everything we knew to do to help him, we should just put our son in his pack-n-play and shut the door. (He thought that this would help me to be less upset about not being able to stop our baby's crying.)

When our son was 8 months old I finally figured out a way to get my husband to really understand why I was so opposed to forcing our baby to cry-it-out (CIO).

Here's how our conversation went:

Hubs: I figured our son could cry in your arms, or cry in his bed - there's really no difference because nothing else is working.

Me: There is a difference to me and to our baby. All that a little baby knows is whether or not someone responds to his needs. I wouldn't want to teach him that it is of no use to ask for help because no one will come anyway. We don't even teach SOLDIERS that! We tell them that someone will always come for you - we don't leave a man behind.

Hubs: Babies aren't soldiers.

Me: Then why would we ask them to be tougher than soldiers?
 
Hubs: Hm. I never thought of it that way. Good point.

Thank you for all you've done at peaceful parenting to help me get to the place where I feel so confident trusting my parenting instincts.



"Cry-it-out does not lead to 'sleeping through the night' - it results in learned helplessness."

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