Back in December, the city of Dallas opened its Community Baby Cafe, which provides resources not for eating young children, as the easily confused might be led to believe, but for nursing them. Research has made the benefits of breastfeeding increasingly undeniable, so the city decided to launch CBC as a free resource to educate new and expectant mothers on the hows and whys of nursing, and to provide a comfortable place to do so.
It's been wildly successful, says Mary Jo Williams, a lactation consultant at CBC.
"It's like going to Starbucks or Panera Bread, and you're sitting with the girls, drinking a cup of coffee," she says.
Like that, except better for your child. Nutritional considerations aside, did you know that store-bought baby formula sometimes contains bug parts? Yep. That's why Williams refers to it as "beetle juice."
This August, the city will wade a bit further into breastfeeding advocacy when the CBC sponsors its first Big Latch On.
According to the press release (the most surprising I've received from City Hall), the "synchronized breastfeeding event in multiple locations," which was launched in New Zealand in 2005 and migrated to Portland, Oregon (of course) in 2010, will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 4 at the CBC, scenically located at 8202 Spring Valley Road, just behind O'Reilly Auto Parts.
Mothers are encouraged to arrive 10 minutes early, find a comfortable spot, and prepare for the signal. On the half hour, babies are to latch on for a full minute while cafe staff count nursing mothers for the official Big Latch On worldwide tally.
Dads are welcome. There's a lounge dedicated to men, free Wi-Fi, and lots of breasts belonging to sleep-deprived, probably short-fused moms. On second thought, the yard will probably need mowing.
