When Sarah Kaplan got wind that Facebook deleted pictures of mothers nursing their babies because the popular online social networking site deemed them obscene, she wouldn't stand for it.
Kaplan, a self-described lactivist - someone who does whatever she can to protect and promote breastfeeding - and owner of the just-opened nursing and maternity wear store 'evymama,' decided to contact the media.
"Great works of art, like the Madonna, are considered beautiful," said Kaplan, 30, at her store last Friday morning. "If it's in a museum, it's art, but it's obscene if it's contemporary. A photograph of a mother breastfeeding is not obscene."
Since Facebook closed the account of one Canadian mom, an Edmonton mother of three boys, ages nine, four and 20 months, lactivists have been e-mailing and posting messages. There has even been a group called "Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" set up to campaign for a new site policy.
Kaplan opened her store on Annette street in an effort to encourage women to breastfeed while dispelling myths and changing opinions. There are few like it in North America. New York has 'The Upper Breast Side,' which can be found in Manhattan, but "there is no nursing store in the city," Kaplan told The Villager. "It's unheard of. It's mind-boggling that no one thought of it sooner."
Kaplan, mom to son Remy, seven months, and three-year old Talya, said Toronto has a 94 per cent breastfeeding initiation rate, meaning women intend to breastfeed and want to, but most don't get the assistance they need.
"There are lots of myths," she said, "like 'Your skin is too sensitive' or 'You're a redhead, you shouldn't nurse.' They're not getting the right information."
Evymama offers latch clinics and everyone who works at the store is either pregnant or a mother. It doesn't hurt that Kaplan has a love of fashion. An avid reader of Vogue magazine, she and her sisters would design clothes for their dolls growing up.
Nursing clothes, Kaplan said, did exist in the 1970s and '80s in some form, but "it was pretty bad stuff - mostly sleepwear. It's come a long way in a short period of time," she said. "Being a mom has become sexy again."
Breastfeeding 101:
- The Canadian Paediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend it.
- Breastfeeding promotes bonding between mother and baby
- Breastfeeding decreases mother's risk of breast cancer
- Breastfeeding decreases baby girls' risk of developing breast cancer later in life
- Breastfeeding is associated with higher I.Q.
- Breastfed babies have better motor development
- Breast milk contains immunities to diseases and assists in the development of baby's immune system