ALLAITEMENT ET PARENTAL

Every day on my way to drop my daughter off to school I notice parents hustling and bustling trying to make it on time and get to work. It is a never-ending cycle, same routine day in and day out. Everyone rushing, no one speaking to each other unless they have their own click, or you're a lot like me and you don't feel like being bothered because you can't take on another friend or you don't have time. I know, making new friends at this point in your life takes work and effort. The majority of people I see the most are women.

 Have you been told by your doctor while pregnant that you are obese but, in your eyes, you look and feel good? First of all, I hate the word obese. It just makes me cringe as if your some kind of spectacle and doctors tend to use this word often to tell you in a nice way your fat. You call yourself curvy, thick or big boned especially if you're a woman of color. Yet as a pregnant woman, we have to take into consideration that what we eat may affect our pregnancy.  See most overweight women have no problem delivering healthy babies, however, obesity or being overweight by the doctor's standards during pregnancy puts women at risk for serious health problems such as preeclampsia, blood clots, gestational diabetes, blood pressure disorders, and heart attacks.

 As everyone begins to celebrate the holidays and the new year is fastly approaching, here we go with all the new year resolutions. What am I going to change this year? How is this year going to be different than last year? Why do we wait until the new year to work on ourselves? Every day we wake up is another day to work on ourselves and reflect on our lives. Who told us to wait for the new year to make these changes? Some of us might not have the luxury of making it to the new year. It's time for us to have the attitude of gratitude and began working on ourselves now. 

Do you ever wonder what it feels like to not be able to have a child? We assume that this is a natural process of the womans body but many women find it difficult to conceive naturally every day. Some women have the ability to conceive but are unable to carry a baby to full term. Sadly, miscarriages are a very common occurrence. According to miscarriage statistics, sources vary but many estimate that approximately 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage, and some estimates are as high as 1 in 3. When you think of what the role of a woman is you tend to correlate it with homemaker, mother, wife, caregiver and child bearer.  Mind you these are all worthy titles to live up to but sometimes unattainable. In many cultures, if a woman cannot conceive she is looked down upon, shamed in her community and made to feel inferior, as if having a child is her only identity.

If you have ever had a mammogram, it could be one of the most difficult examinations a woman will have to experience in her life. In this day and era, it is crucial that women are tested for breast cancer. I know someone who has either had breast cancer or died from breast cancer. Regrettably, I didn't believe breast cancer would affect my life until my aunt passed away a few years ago. She was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and had undergone chemotherapy to combat the illness. I was under the impression if you contracted breast cancer early you had a better chance at survival, but my aunt was defeated by this horrible disease and our family was devastated. We were taken by surprise how quickly cancer had spread to other parts of her body. It was one of the worse days of my life. I was forced to look at breast cancer in an entirely different way.