Category: buy Lyrica in mexico Feminism

Kent County Council slashes support for breastfeeding mothers

July 25, 2017

Dramatic cuts planned by Kent County Council could be set to hit the county’s already low breastfeeding rates. The cost-saving measure, planned to start from January 2018, would involve slashing services by up to 76% and would limit access to breastfeeding specialists. Currently, Kent families can access breastfeeding support at 40 locations in Kent a week – 17 specialist-led clinics and 23 peer support groups. They are all open to everyone, and include access to different tiers of experienced and knowledgeable experts. Mums can speak to specialists – International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs), as well as seek support and advice from both Breastfeeding Counsellors and Breastfeeding Peer Supporters.

In a move to save £404,000, Kent Country Council plan to limit access to  IBCLCs, remove funding for Breastfeeding Counsellors and heap the responsibility for breastfeeding support on Health Visitors instead, at redesigned ‘Baby Hubs’. These Baby Hubs are planned to be ‘multi-thematic’ and will likely not include the ability to take along infants older than a year. Second time mums will likely find this a struggle, as will Peer Supporters, who often have their own children with them as they provide mother-to-mother support. There will be only 3 hubs per Kent district.

Based on figures from NHS England’s Statistical release of Breastfeeding Initiation and Breastfeeding Prevalence, published in September 2015, around 72% of mothers in the county of Kent initiate breastfeeding*. However, across the UK, sustained breastfeeding rates are shockingly low, as Public Health England found less than half of women who initiated breastfeeding continue after two months.

Tannice feeding her daughter

Tannice Hemming, a graduate Peer Supporter and mother to a 17 month old daughter is shocked by the changes:

“In 2013, Kent County Council (KCC) held a consultation on introducing the services as they stand in 2017. They said that 98% respondents to that consultation agreed that KCC needed to ‘fill the gaps in community breastfeeding support so that there is access everywhere in Kent’. A whopping 100% agreed KCC needed ‘to provide a specialist service where women who are experiencing more difficult problems can receive help and advice’.

It’s clear that these swathing cuts are simply about cutting costs and ignore the very real benefits to Kent families that the incumbent provider, PS Breastfeeding CIC, have provided. Cuts to the service will mean fewer Peer Supporters (who will be renamed Infant Feeding Peer Supporters) and a reduction in breastfeeding rates across the county. Many women who instigate breastfeeding run into issues – some that can be addressed by Peer Supporters and some that are best dealt with by Lactation Consultants. Newborn babies require feeding 8-12 times per day, so making access to specialist Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) referral-only will sound the end of many breastfeeding relationships. Mothers dealing with pain and potential tongue tie issues need to be seen as quickly as possible. This simply is not good enough.”

Alex with her two children

 

Alex Da Costa, a mother of two in Sevenoaks, said she struggled to articulate how disappointed she is by the cuts. Her second child, a daughter, was born in December last year. Having struggled to exclusively breast feed her first-born, a son, she was keen to get all the support she could with her daughter.

“My daughter had a shallow latch and is sensitive to new surroundings plus I had my 4.5 year old to look after so I could have easily walked away from it if it hadn’t been for the amazing ladies at the breastfeeding Clinic. I went numerous times (once I went to one in Tonbridge as I couldn’t wait till the one in Sevenoaks happened) and have been even twice recently, even though she’s now 7 months old, as there are different challenges as she changes.

If it wasn’t for the drop ins I wouldn’t have lasted 6 weeks, the fact I am still breastfeeding at 7 months is all down to the support given by the Breastfeeding Peer Supporters and Lactation Consultants. Breastfeeding is time critical and cutting down the clinics and making seeing a lactation consultant by referral only would harm breastfeeding rates and cause mothers and babies undue distress. You don’t have time to wait to see someone if you are struggling. The fantastic support we have in this area is that there is a Clinic nearly every day within easy driving distance so mums can get the help they need without having to wait or panic about their babies. Breastfeeding can be tough. Don’t make it tougher. This is a short sighted decision which will do a lot of damage.“

Concerns are that the re-designed ‘Baby Hubs’ will be a busy, noisy and distracting place for new and more seasoned breastfeeding ladies alike. New mothers especially can feel vulnerable and having to work on their baby’s latch in a ‘Hub’ full of other people who are not there for breastfeeding support is likely to be overwhelming.

Tannice Hemming added her experience of the current breastfeeding clinics:

“My daughter was born with a tongue tie – something that no midwife or health visitor even suggested or checked for. I went to a breastfeeding clinic and saw a Peer Supporter who suggested that a Lactation Consultant check her. She didn’t get the tongue tie divided until she was 4 weeks old and I was experiencing real nipple trauma – pain and blistering. I felt comfortable and supported when I was in a room with lots of other women who were there to seek guidance on breastfeeding. I worry that the redesigned baby hubs – where you might not be able to bring your older children – will be a place I wouldn’t feel comfortable expressing worries or having a bit of a cry. The drop-in clinics as they are are welcoming and comfortable places where you feel ok experimenting with different feeding positions and getting a good latch. Confidence can be a big issue for breastfeeding mums and I can imagine the re-designed baby hubs won’t be the best place for getting your breasts out! I also imagine Health Visitors won’t have as much time or expertise as the dedicated breastfeeding specialists have.”

If xanthan gum is chosen instead of guar gum, the solids content may be between 40 and 70 g/tablet (a). Peer Supporters, Lactation Consultants and Breastfeeding Counsellors who currently provide the service to Kent families are urging families to get in touch with Kent County Council, who are currently undergoing a consultation. A new campaign website, keepkentbreastfeeding.org has been set up to help publicise the planned cuts and urge people to respond to the consultation.

More information on the changes will be forthcoming on this site and others. See Kent Baby Matters for more details on the changes.

Facebook action groups have been set up for each of the affected areas:

Maidstone and Malling

Dartford and Gravesham

Thanet

Swale

Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay

Shepway

Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells

Ashford

*Breastfeeding initiation rates, as found in the NHS England report, by NHS Trust

Dartford & Gravesham 69.8%

East Kent Hospitals 70.1%

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells 80%

Medway 67.6%

Rimmel make Zooey look like Phooey

February 20, 2012

So today on Twitter I saw some people retweeting a picture of Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer; New Girl; Yes Man) into my timeline

I clicked, absent-mindedly, not expecting much apart from a really skinny version of Zooey – nothing much different from your average photoshopping.

OK, photoshop guys, if you've done so much IT DOESN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE ZOOEY DESCHANEL ANYMORE you've gone too far:

 

I was wrong. Here is that abomination.

Zoeey Deschanel photoshopped in Rimmel lipstip Advert

This seems to me to be a whole new ballgame: a complete ‘shopping of her face – if they don’t like the face they’re hiring, surely they should choose another?

Here’s what Zooey normally looks like

Probably photoshopped a bit, but this is what Zooey normally looks like

So, I decided to photoshop a photo of myself, to see how different I could make myself look. I’m not particularly good at photo editing, but here’s a gif of what I came up with:

Me from 2007, re-done and photoshopped to resemble someone else!

2007 me, 'shopped to make me appear thinner and younger. Slightly more alien. Blink and you'll miss it.

But I wanted to see what the new ‘me’ might look like as per Zooey’s advert. Again, photoshop isn’t my strongest skill, but here I am, fully ‘Rimmeled’…

 Why not try it yourself, with your Facebook photos?

Is Mock the Week really sexist?

January 31, 2012

(Reposted from The Custard TV)

Nadine Dorries last night complained about Mock the Week being part of a ‘sexist’ BBC agenda. But, with the example of Mock The Week, could she be right?

Nadine Dorries argues Mock the Week is sexist

Nadine Dorries argues Mock the Week is sexist

Chortle, reporting on this today, have done the maths. It doesn’t look good.

“Chortle has analysed the line-ups over all ten series of Mock The Week, going back to 2005, and found that fewer than ten per cent of the panellists have been women. Taking host Dara O’Briain into account as well, just 8.3 per cent of people appearing on the show are women.”

Dorries is, however, a little late to the Twitterstorm as this debate’s been raging there for quite some time. In fact, last year, as far back as September, several bloggers and Tweeters were debating this very subject with whoever is behind @Mocktheweek, sometimes into the small hours of the night, and @Daraobriain himself.

 

But this debate even goes back as far as 2009 when, in an interview with the Telegraph (more on them later), O’Briain, responding to Victoria Wood’s comments about comedy panel shows being testosterone-fuelled hives of elitist menfolk, said:

“There is a very small representation of women stand-ups on Mock the Week,” says the 37-year-old Irish comic. “But that’s because women just don’t do stand-up. A few do it, and a few ****ing good ones do it. But there’s a 90 per cent, 10 per cent split the entire way down the industry, from the Edinburgh Festival to the open mic level. Every [panel] show I’ve done we’ve torn our hair out trying to find female comics and there is no industry more hungry for women to be involved. But there just aren’t that many female stand-ups.”

Sexism is a funny thing

I was at a comedy/science/music event just last night and noted just one female comic/scientist/academic on stage. The news that Nadine Dorries was up in arms about an old Mock the Week episode got me thinking about this problem. What is it with female comics? Where are they all?

Sexism across professions

So, there are a few things to consider. Is the comedy circuit any different to the general population? Look at other professions and you’ll generally find that there’s a problem with institutional sexism in the majority of high-level/high-profile jobs. Let’s look at one profession: lawyers. One blog, thelawyer.com put female senior partners at 29% (in 2006), from a pool of 40% women yet, as Susan Calman, a lawyer-turned-comic puts it, the UK Supreme Court has just one woman.

Let’s not even get into the clergy.

Are women funny? Awards, however they’re awarded, are of course not a good indicator of real success in comedy – many winners of comedy awards may provoke hilarity to you but leave me cold. But let’s have a look at the last 20 years of Edinburgh Comedy/Perrier/Foster’s Comedy Awards for best newcomer (instituted 1992, which is handy).

But that’s not easy either. It looks to be that sexism is really quite rife in the world of comedy. Both the 2002 and 2009 awards have been criticised for “lazy”, “myopic” and “insulting” choices and for being English-centric, choosing mainly white, English males. But let’s look anyway…

L-R Josie Long (2006), Sarah Millican (2008), Roisin Conaty (2010)

We had to wait a whole 12 years in the best newcomer category for a woman, Josie Long, to win 2006’s award. The trend jumped a year into 2008 – Sarah Millican and again in 2010 – Roisin Conaty. Will the trend continue in 2012?

So, are women just not funny? Perhaps a look at DVD sales could help more than awards? After all, don’t people vote with their wallets?

Looking at this week’s ‘special interest’ DVD sales (to the 4th Feb 2012), only one female comic’s DVD appears in the top 40 (Sarah Millican). Considering the article I’ve just unearthed from November 2011, she’s lucky to chart so high, as it looks like women aren’t really in common parlance when it comes to even recommending DVDs for Christmas stocking fillers. Of the Top 20 DVDs recommended by The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish, not one was a female comic’s offering. Looks like Millican’s 2008 win hasn’t done her too many favours.

So, with the information we have, it’s difficult one to prove or disprove whether it’s sexism or whether women are really just not funny, but taking the amount of women IN comedy into account won’t tell you the whole picture. What of the comedy population? I’m guessing it’s probably not as equally split as the general population, but this is likely due to a self-fulfilling prophecy – people think women aren’t as funny as men therefore fewer women get into comedy. Mock the Week is generally replete with male guests, the same funnymen churned over and over ad nauseum. In fact, we don’t get too many new guests from either sex popping up all that often either.

The dearth of women in comedy is something that Jo Brand has spoken about before – in fact in reaction to Victoria Wood’s comments surrounding panel shows, saying:

“One practical problem is that there are far more male comics than women. When I started on the circuit there were about 200 male standups and about 20 female – roughly one woman for every two and a half panel shows.”

So is it the BBC or Mock the Week who is sexist? I’d argue neither – it’s part of the self-fulfilling prophecy rearing its hilarious head, meaning that bookers, promoters and event organisers seem to be giving the audience what it thinks it wants: testosterone, dick jokes and willy-waving.

But it’s not just Nadine Dorries who’s concerned about the diversity in panel shows and news/current affairs programming. A report, primarily about age representation commissioned by the BBC  and released today by the Creative Diversity Network, states:

“[…] some panel shows were also criticised for rarely having women represented or only having ‘token women’ on their programmes. Comedy shows, such as QI or Mock the Week, as well as current affairs programmes such as Question Time were implicated in this.”

Many have suggested that Mock the Week should be providing more opportunities for up-and-coming women. I couldn’t agree more.

Female skeptics.. where they at?

August 19, 2011
I struggle with the reasons why there aren’t more ‘big-name’ female skeptics but I’m loathe to put it down to sexism, patriarchy, misogyny or that women who put themselves online get abuse.

Let’s face it. The world is full of dicks. Men and women – we can all be total arsehats. To each other, to ourselves. I’m not condoning people who act like tools online. I have to admit that I’ve been rude online. I’ve been more snippy with someone that I’d likely be in real life.

But men get abuse too. It’s just different. It’s because we have historically lived in a sexist society that people feel it’s ok to be rude about a woman’s appearance yet call out a man’s opinions as being wrong rather than attack his appearance.

It’s the reason that in this revolution of HD television Moira Stuart and Arlene Phillips get ditched in favour of women who are younger and prettier yet men like John McCririck, Bruce Forsyth and John Sargeant still get work. Why shouldn’t they? If they’re talented at what they do, you might say, well, then, they should still be on screen. Yes. Agreed. As long as that is applied to women too. Which it isn’t.

Essentially as a human race we’ve been programmed to take people at their face value BEFORE we listen to what they say. If you’re pretty you’re listened to more than if you’re considered unattractive. This is not fair. It’s not right. But it is the way it is. I’m not being defeatist here. I’m being realistic.

That doesn’t make it right. I’m not saying that. I’d love for all this to change. For men and women to be equal. For even the notion of gender to go away. Who cares if you have a penis or a vagina or even if you don’t identify as a man or a woman?

All I’m saying is that by saying that a woman getting abuse due to her opinions is also because she’s a woman suddenly makes you bullet proof from criticism BECAUSE you have a vagina. And that’s wrong too. Because you are a person. Like anyone else. And you have a right to be treated with respect but also to have your opinions pulled apart.

I hate the idea that it seems that various criticisms thrown at women are suddenly termed as misogyny. Some of it is. Ignore that. Those are the people who are really not worth your time. Ever seen the moronic comments under a silly YouTube video who post utter shit and can’t think for themselves? They actively enjoy being dicks – they do it for a laugh. They are called trolls and they absolutely LOVE being called out. Because it gives them more ammo to come online and call you a dog or a bitch or a cunt. Don’t give them the satisfaction.

I’d rather put my efforts into skepticism – evaluating evidence. Calling worthless people out seems to just create a furore and more opportunities to attack. I always find women who rise above the idiots come out of things a lot more sane and happier if they don’t feel like they’re being persecuted just because they’re a woman. Not to say that there aren’t genuine woman haters out there. I know there are. I’ve met them. They didn’t get much of my time.

I consider myself a feminist in that I want equality. That means having the same right to be insulted as a man is.

I don’t expect many people to agree with me, apart from, perhaps THE MEN. And I fully expect to be accused of ‘mansplaining’, but that’s OK. It’s just my take on it. Change my mind. With rationalism and proper arguments. Or just call me a bitch. That’d learn me, eh?

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