WIC

The WIC office was a location we had been trying to contact throughout the project, and after photographing Cara at AMD (funny, she was with me from A-Z locations. . . or A-W as it were). This WIC office was willing, and before I even got into the office (getting turned around on the "grid" of downtown several times. . .all those One Way streets are to blame I'm sure) Cara had talked with the individual mothers, asking if they were in fact breastfeeding mothers and if they'd be willing to allow me to photograph. This particular location offered a much more diverse group than I was able to have throughout the project, based mostly on the lack of diversity in our area. Here we had an Indian mother, a few Hispanic mothers, a husband and wife pair, he was Middle-Eastern, and an African mother, who was our only nursing mother in the group. Thankfully she was willing to allow me to photograph her, but only with a blanket covering, until she and I talked a bit and I was able to show her the types of photos I was taking, at which time she felt more comfortable (and she's not the only time this happened) with allowing me photographs of her nursing without a cover. There was also a class about to start when we got to the WIC office, so this shoot was very quick and I also photographed a few of the signs to show WIC's take on the importance of breastfeeding.WOW. . . what a project. A few more posts to come now that I've waited long enough for the Call to Action to be published. . . poster work and the Call itself to be posted next.

U of U Hospital

Elizabeth Smith (with the UBC) helped me get into this location and navigate which areas of the hospital would be allowable and accessible for photographing. She even found us new mom and babies. . . yep babieS. . . less than 24 hour old twins, Maya and Sage to photograph, I think mom's name was Julie. What a fun opportunity. We photographed three locations, pediatrics, Obstetrics and Labor & Delivery Recovery unit. The University of Utah hospital is the only "Baby Friendly" hospital in Utah, having taken the WHO/UNICEF steps necessary to become baby friend, which is quite an accomplishment. Read more about it here It was difficult not to make the photographing of these twins into a portrait session. . .I love newness, freshness, breastfeeding and portraits that capture it all. I resisted and wasn't as happy with my result as I would have been had I just given in to my desire to portrait photograph them instead of "project" photograph.

Tin Angel

Apparently the forerunners in posting the International Breastfeeding Symbol way before the Breastfeeding Cafe project in August, Tin Angel is an awesome natural and organic bistro. At some point in it's early history the owner of the Tin Angel apparently printed out and posted the International Breastfeeding Symbol, before it came in sticker form. You've got to love a supporter like that. A fellow La Leche League leader tipped me off to this, made all of the arrangements and even found me a second modeling pair. She also entertained my children for the hour or so we were photographing that day. Katherine & Gwen, Cheryl & Charlotte

Streamline

It was great to see the variety of businesses contacted for the "Our Baby Friendly Community" back in August. Auto shops and breastfeeding just seem to go hand in hand, right?! Heidi and Juliet