Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit in Chinese Zodiac, and we’re promised tranquility and calm, says AOL News.   That’s good news for politics, natural disasters and breastfeeding.  

Why?  Because for too many women, breastfeeding is fraught with UNNECESSARY pain, anguish, heartache, guilt, fear and a whole lot of negative emotions that should not be pave the way to motherhood.   That’s not to say that breastfeeding is supposed to be easy; it’s not.  Evolution designed breastfeeding to be challenging because it strengthens the bond between mother and baby.   Anything we do that takes work is something we’re that much more likely to fiercely protect, but it’s a fine line . . .  if the process goes beyond challenging to nearly impossible, such as can happen through a traumatic birth and breastfeeding experience, we see that mothers may suffer postpartum depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and disengage from the child.  Evolution certainly did NOT design birth and breastfeeding to be booby-trapped so viciously that the whole process backfires.

I couldn't find a steely rabbit picture so here's one of my son with the baby bunny we found behind the woodpile.

So a little calmness and tranquility could be a good thing for the millions of moms every year who initiate breastfeeding but are being prevented from achieving their personal breastfeeding goals.   Let’s hope that steadily and surely, more hospitals become designated Baby-Friendly, giving moms the birth and breastfeeding experience they deserve.   Let’s hope that the Surgeon General’s Call to Action is heard by doctors, nurses, employers, insurers and the 360 degree world that surrounds the new mother, and that they start seeing the benefits of being part of the solution, instead of being lumped in with the barriers.    Let’s hope that more celebrities like Jenna Elfman, Alysia Reiner and Kaitlin Olson share their breastfeeding story with us so that thousands of moms can be inspired, prepared and empowered. Let’s hope that laws in every state protects the basic human right to nourish, nurse and soothe our young.   Let’s hope that more companies join our alliance, and that grants and donations pour in to allow us to execute our plan of putting pressure on the booby traps and rewarding and recognizing the babes.  Let’s hope that our culture begins to not just tolerate breastfeeding and the use of donor milk, but accept, embrace and even celebrate it.   That would certainly give us all a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, quicker than you can say angora bunny.

But don’t think that means that breastfeeding advocates will be pushovers.   It’s also the year of the Metal Rabbit, and that little bit of steel “gives Rabbits more strength, resilience and determination.”   So I think it would be wise for the Booby-Trappers and Bunny-Squashers to take note:   We mean business.   Our charm and cuddliness is what makes us irresistable in getting what we want, and what we want, and will get, is a better, babe-worthy world for our sisters, friends and daughters, whether they breastfeed 2 days or 2 years.    We aim to increase our reach and to enlist YOU, babes, to advance this cause.   We intend to help you get your stories into the media, to spur more actual ACTION heeding the Surgeon General’s Call.   We intend to arm you with the tools to reach expecting women before they’ve been set up to fail.   We intend to unleash you, babes, upon your communities, to make lists of who is naughty and who is nice, so moms know who they can trust.   But we’ll need your help.   Because while it may take a village to help moms breastfeed, it takes a whole lot more babes to change the breastfeeding landscape. 

So put on your thinking caps, and roll up your sleeves!   With your help, we can mount a formidably intense force underneath the fun and fluff, and the booby-traps may not even know what hit ’em.

How are you going to bring your babe-ness to the Year of the Bunny?