They say it takes a whole village to raise a child. I am a first generation immigrant mom with no extended families within five-hour direct flights from my city, but, still, I have my village—the local parenting support groups.
The first time I experienced the power of a support group, my first child has just turned 6 months old and I have been back to work for three months. That was a hard time. I chose to breastfeed, but the company refused to provide lactation accommodation that was required by California law.
I went to a breastfeeding support group and complained to other moms. I was looking for nothing more than a moral support; to my surprise, I got much more than encouraging words—the group even put me in touch with pro bono lawyers who settled my case.
Without the resource from the breastfeeding support group, I could never have imagined standing up against my abusive employer. After that, I continued to participate in different parenting support groups. Parenting support groups are my village, it may not be the village with mothers doing the washing or kneading bread side by side, but certainly a village with like-minded mothers get together and fight for one another’s family: maternal justice. Paid family leave. Affordable childcare and early education.
When a teacher at our local Chinese school used candy and soda as rewards, we obtained a student wellness policy from the school district and communicated with the school as a group. When some white kid at community park told my child that “Trump will kick you out of America,” I cried—not alone, but with moms in my village. And then we guaranteed our children, as a group, that we would build a better America for them.
I like my village, because the moms here exist for each other. I knew a mother who organized protests against the unreasonable price of EpiPen while her own insurance fully covered the medication and the price increase wouldn’t affect her family a bit. She was fighting for others in her village.
Do you have a village? Leave a message and let me know. Are you looking for a village? Your local breastfeeding support group is a pretty good place to start. If you live in San Diego, here are some resource: SDCBC 2021 Resource Guide
**The original version of this post was published on San Diego County Breastfeeding Coalition's newsletter on Mar 15th, 2021. It is an updated version. Photo credit to Mu-huan Chiang.
Comments
Post a Comment