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Executive Director, Mom2Mom Global Military spouse stationed overseas in Germany Mom of 4
Amy Barron Smolinski, MA, ALC, CLC
Blog Post List
May 14, 2019
We can't believe this is still happening. Renowned photographer and Navy spouse Shannon O'Hara is no stranger to managing travel while lactating. But yesterday, Delta Airlines violated their own policy which states "Delta fully supports a woman’s right to breastfeed on board Delta and Delta Connection aircraft and in Delta facilities. Breast pumps are allowed on board. At the airport and if you prefer, many airports do offer private lactation rooms or spaces. Ask a Delta associate if you need assistance locating one at an airport." Shannon was forced to gate-check her personal item bag, even...
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November 8, 2018
UPDATE: The U.S. Breastfeeding Committee Paid Leave Constellation has crafted a sign-on letter requesting that legislators fix the gaps in the MPLP. Please read , sign , and share the letter to help us address these critical issues. When the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 was passed, the DOD touted it as a progressive step forward for military familie s, especially highlighting a promise to expand paternity leave from 10 days to 21 days. We published our analysis of the language in the bill, which revealed that it did not quite live up to the hype. We now offer our...
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August 7, 2017
I breastfed my twins for 19 months, until they self-weaned. (You can read about that experience here. ) Shortly after their second birthday, we moved to Germany when my husband got orders to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. One day, I popped into the lactation room to change a diaper, and found a flier for something called Mom2Mom Breastfeeding Support. I contacted the person on the flier and signed up for a free training to become a Peer Mentor. I was excited by the opportunity to support other moms, and I was drawn to the mission of Mom2Mom “to help each mother reach her individual...
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July 10, 2017
One of the things that makes me proud to be a mother of my generation is watching us start to buck the social norms and do whatever it takes in order to get what we want and deserve for our families. All growing up, we were told that as women, we could do whatever we wanted, we could have both a perfect family and a high-powered boy-style career, easy peasy. So now that we are here, trying to have families and careers, we are realizing that having our cake and eating it too is perfectly attainable…until you add everyone else’s expectations and limits into the mix. We are expected to...
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March 27, 2017
Paid Family Leave for military families has rapidly changed in the past two years, and the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act brings even more changes. While some of these changes appear to be improvements for military parental leave, several points of the new law have left us with some serious concerns. First, a bit of history. For years, the Department of Defense authorized NO maternity leave , only 6 weeks of “convalescent leave” for female active duty servicemembers after giving birth. In 2015, the Navy and Marine Corps established a policy of 18 weeks of paid maternity leave for...
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February 6, 2017
Being a new mom in a military family presents particular challenges. The military needs to address these situations head on with more family-friendly policies like stronger and consistent paid leave policies.
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