Last week, I had an opportunity to attend EXPO West, the premier trade show for the natural products industry.  With more than 53,000 attendees decending upon the Anaheim Convention Center, EXPO is usually buzzing with the latest and greatest in healthy, natural, organic and fairly traded products.  This year, did not disappoint.  There were smartly packaged ‘boxes’ of water, probiotics a’ plenty…. and enough snack food to feed ‘a billion’ kids. 

‘Tweeting’ EXPO was an enlightening experience. Having first covered the show as a podcaster (The Radio Mom) I found myself more connected to the people behind the brands this year. At booth after booth, event after event, I met people with whom I had been interacting for the last year and a half on Twitter. In most instances this was a pleasant experience.  Many companies expressed enthusiasm and excitement about the role of socially conscious moms in the social media space.  They talked about how much they appreciated our ‘re-tweets’ and product endorsements…They loved the fact that my kids loved their products. 

There are brands that I am now more inclined to buy after having met the people who work there.  I love, for example, how nice the folks from Earth Friendly Products and Stonyfield Farms were to my girls.  I love Nubian Heritage–their products–their mission.  The folks from Froose were sweet.

At the same time, I met people representing brands that I am now less inclined to buy–simply because I’ve personally interacted their brand representatives.  Let’s just say….I’m not a fan of the ‘Who cares about customers/consumers…We’re in Whole Foods!’ kind of attitude.  Securing a contract with a major retailer is no excuse to discount the value and importance of the people who actually purchase a company’s products.

As an expectant mother of two, I want to feel good about the products that I purchase for my family.  I want to support companies that treat their employees well….that give back to the community…that attempt to make it a little easier for moms to ‘go green.’  I saw lot’s of companies like this at EXPO this year.  I came away from the show appreciative of how far the natural products industry has grown over the years and yet aware of the opportunities for even further growth.

Our slogan at MOMbo Media is ‘connecting moms to brands and causes they can believe in.’ As a ‘mom tweeter’ at EXPO West this year, I was happy to share our favorite natural product finds with more than 10,500 followers on Twitter.  These were good, ethical companies that I felt good about endorsing…brands that I personally believe in.  At MOMbo, we don’t do it any other way.

Ten years after a relentless assault of unprecedented natural and manmade disasters, a new report released by Save the Children’s U.S. Programs reveals that only seven states are meeting crucial minimum standards to ensure that schools and child-care facilities are prepared to respond to the needs of children during a disaster.

The report, “The Disaster Decade: Lessons Unlearned for the United States,” was released at a D.C.-area child-care center by Mark Shriver, Save the Children U.S. Programs Managing Director, along with actor and advocate Julianne Moore, Artist Ambassador.

“The past decade is defined by unrelenting and unprecedented disasters that left children unprotected in schools and child care,” said Shriver.  “The most vulnerable Americans in the most vulnerable settings are made more vulnerable because of government inaction.”

Commissioned by Save the Children and conducted by Brown, Berkley and Tucker, the report reviewed four standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that only seven states — Arkansas, Maryland, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Alabama and Vermont — are meeting four key standards.

The four key standards identified by Save the Children include evacuation and relocation, reunification and plans for special needs children at child-care facilities, as well as multi-hazard plans at schools.

Save the Children is calling for immediate action at the federal level to better protect children through a five-point plan:

1. Establish national disaster preparedness standards for child-care centers and schools.

• Establish an Office of Children’s Advocacy at FEMA.
• To ensure child-care centers can rebuild and restore services more quickly following a disaster, make them eligible for federal disaster aid.
• Establish a White House Commission on the effects of the recession on children.
• Create a federal public awareness campaign to educate families about protecting children during disasters.

“Enacting this plan will help ensure that when disaster strikes the effects on our children don’t become a disaster in their own right,” said Moore, who lobbied Capitol Hill on Wednesday for enactment of the five-point plan.

Save the Children is also calling on the public to get involved by signing a petition supporting the five-point plan to protect children during disasters.

Go to http://savethechildren.org/disaster-decade for more information and to sign the petition. The full report can be found at http://savethechildren.org/disaster-decade-report.

As families across the United States celebrated Mother’s Day, the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) released the first-ever national report on prison nursery programs.  These programs allow incarcerated women to keep their newborn babies with them in prison for a finite period of time.  The report also looks at community-based residential parenting programs, which allow women to serve criminal justice sentences with their infants in a non-prison setting.

The findings of the report reveal that while the number of prison-based nursery programs is growing, such programs are still relatively rare.  Every state has seen dramatic increases in its women’s prison population over the past three decades, but only nine states have prison nursery programs in operation or under development.  Of the nine prison nursery programs in existence or in development, four were created within the last five years.

Chandra Villanueva, Policy Associate at WPA and author of the report commented, “Prison nursery programs keep mothers and infants together during the critical first months of infant development, and the research shows that these programs produce lower rates of recidivism among participating mothers.  As we recognize the benefits of prison nursery programs, we must also increase our investment in community-based alternatives, which allow for maternal/child bonding and enable women to address the issues that brought them into the criminal justice system in the first place”

Research highlighted in the report indicates that these programs benefit mothers and children.  Dr. Mary Byrne, Professor at Columbia University says, “Prison nurseries offer needed services to a population of women and infants who might otherwise be overlooked. However, additional community prevention programs, alternatives to incarceration, and seamless follow-up programs are needed.”  Dr. Byrne is the author of the first longitudinal study of maternal and child outcomes for prison nursery participants; her study is featured in the WPA report.

The WPA report profiles existing and soon-to-open prison nursery programs in nine states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, New York, South Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia,  and also looks at community-based residential parenting programs in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Vermont.  Residential parenting programs operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Connecticut , Florida , Illinois , Texas , and West Virginia are also discussed.

The report suggest that many women who are parenting infants in prison nurseries could be doing so in the community instead.   The profile of women in prison nurseries is nearly identical to that of participants in community-based programs.  Women in both types of programs are serving relatively short sentences for non-violent offenses, and will continue primary caretaking responsibility for their child(ren) upon release.   Further, most women in prison nursery programs present little risk to public safety.

Tina Reynolds, a former participant in a prison nursery program in New York, and the founder of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), underscored this finding: “While I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend the first months of my son’s life with him while serving my sentence in prison, it was not without sadness felt for my other son who was in foster care. I often questioned if the time I spent in prison wouldn’t have been better spent learning about myself and my children in community-based family treatment.” 

Between 1977 and 2007, the number of women in prison in the United States increased by 832 percent.  According to data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in 2004 four percent of women in state prisons and three percent of women in federal prisons were pregnant at the time of admittance.  In 1999, BJS reported that six percent of women in local jails were pregnant at the time of admittance.  As the number of women in prison has skyrocketed over the past 30 years, states have had to consider what it means to incerate women, many of whom are pregnant or parenting.

Dr. Angela M. Tomlin, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, reflected on the nursery program at the Indiana Women’s Prison, saying, “The experiences that mothers and babies have in the nursery are vital because one of the most important things we can do for a baby is to support her to have a strong and healthy relationship with her parents. Once a baby feels safe in a relationship, everything else—from cognitive skills, to school readiness, to positive mental health later in life—grows from that foundation.   For mothers, a strong attachment to her baby may reduce the likelihood of recidivism. The prison nursery is an investment in the future, one mother and baby at a time.”

The report, Mothers, Infants and Imprisonment: A National Look at Prison Nurseries and Community–Based Alternatives, is available online at www.wpaonline.org.

I’m one of those mothers who love Mother’s Day. I can’t wait for the homemade gifts, the breakfast in bed drenched in syrup and sticky kisses, and it is always the day I plant my garden with my family.

But a few years ago, Mother’s Day became so much more than those wonderful sticky kisses  –  it became a day that I stand in solidarity with mothers around the world to demand a safe, bountiful and meaningful  life for all the world’s children.

I stand side by side with Julia Ward Howe, one of our great founding mothers, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and also penned the very first Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. She called on women to “arise,” and wrote, “as men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.” She goes on to say, “Let them meet first as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace…” 

Wow. That’s where Mother’s Day originated. In the courageous arms of the mothers and grandmothers of the Civil War. It wasn’t Hallmark after all.

Written at a time when our country was still healing from the ravages of war, partisanship and economic strife. She wrote this when women had no political voice or rights, and 50 years before women got the right to vote. She was truly a mother to be proud of - courageous, just, and committed to a peaceful and prosperous world for all women and their children.

So, as I am enveloped by the sweetness of Mother’s Day, I will allow myself to be pampered and cared for. But, I will also raise my voice to bring dignity to all mothers and remember the original intent of this auspicious day, when mothers were initially called to greatness by the Mother of Mother’s Day.

This spring 100+ Mother Leaders across the country will celebrate Mother’s Day by signing pledge cards, collecting post cards, and meeting with their members of Congress to joyfully demand a more just and equitable world for all. To add your voice to this beautiful collaboration of mothers and others, find us at Stand for the World’s Children.

Stacy Carkonen is an advocate and Mother Leader in Sumner, Washington. For more information: www.standfortheworldschildren.org 

Before I became a mother, viruses and other ailments came and went but rarely hit my radar.

Since the birth of my daughter things have changed. I’m more conscious of my own health and safety and have developed an unnerving knack for anticipating and preventing the most bizarre risks to her wellbeing.

The ongoing sensationalized news about human influenza A (H1N1 or swine flu) could tap into any mother’s deepest fears for her children. Although I share my life and my daughter with a logic-driven scientist who assures me the chances of our catching the virus are currently minute, in my weaker moments I worry a little.

I discovered this morning that it’s not just me. The highly educated, well-traveled and worldly friend I met for brunch with her baby today asked if we should offer the customary Swiss three-kiss greeting, or skip it because of swine flu.

I scoffed and kissed as usual.

But after using the toilet I washed my hands, then pulled my new antibacterial gel out of the diaper bag and wiped mine and my little one’s hands for extra protection. And again when we got into the car before heading home. And let’s be honest: I’ll do it when we’re at Baby Gym and anywhere else public this week, and have given the sitter strict instructions about using the gel with the little one any time she takes her out.

My friends and neighbours with small children are all equally conscious and concerned. 

So far, logic and calm are winning in our house. We remain vigilant in the usual ways (washing hands, covering noses and mouths when coughing and sneezing, etc) but won’t change our lives and become hermits until the virus goes away as some news reports seemed to suggest we should.

If you’re feeling nervous and wondering what you can do to keep yourself and your children safe, start by avoiding most of the news reporting about the swine flu. Instead, go straight to the source. Swine flu information ‘command central’ is at www.who.int. This is where the media go for information, and where any changes will be reported first. If you read what’s there, you’ll get the facts ma’am, nothing but the facts.

And between routine checks of the WHO’s influenza A site, follow the advice now being given in the UK: “Catch it, bin it, kill it!” Meaning: use tissues to cover nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing, throw all tissues away as soon as possible after first use, and wash your hands as soon as possible. If everyone follows these basic hygiene rules, the virus will have a much tougher time spreading to a friend or loved one near you.

Anne Ferguson has been writing about health and related topics for nearly 15 years.  Most recently, she joined the ranks of accredited freelance writers for the World Health Organisation, where she is working on advocacy documents to help reduce national and global rates of maternal and newborn mortality.  Originally from Canada, Anne currently resides with her family in Geneva, Switzerland.

Last week, Scholastic media announced the “Be Big In Your Community Contest” as part of its ongoing Clifford The Big Red Dog® BE BIG!™ campaign  to support civic engagement. The national contest invites kids of all ages, teachers, parents and community leaders to submit a BIG idea that demonstrates Clifford’s Big Ideas (Share, Help Others, Be Kind, Be Responsible, Play Fair, Be a Good Friend, Believe in Yourself, Have Respect, Work Together and Be Truthful) to enter for a chance to win a community grant to be used towards implementing the winning proposals. One (1) grand prize entry will be honored with a $25,000 community grant and ten (10) runner up entries will each be honored with a $2,500 community grant (via HandsOn Network affiliate organizations or designees) from the Be Big Fund. The mission of the Be Big Fund is to recognize and reward others for their BE BIG actions, catalyze change in local communities and provide resources to share BIG ideas.

“Be Big In Your Community Contest” submissions will be accepted on the Clifford BE BIG website or via standard mail today through June 26, 2009 and is open to all legal residents of the U.S. Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of judges from Scholastic Inc. and HandsOn Network based on the following criteria: feasibility, creativity, sustainability and impact. 

Dear MOMbo,

I have been secretly visiting your site now for a few months, even though I am not a mom though. The truth is that I am terrified of becoming a mom. It isn’t so much the diapers or sleep deprivation…The real fear is that I’ll repeat a cycle of emotional abuse.  I don’t want to parent like my parents.  What are the best ways to get over this fear?

A Reluctant Mom

Dear Reluctant Mom,

First, I want to affirm you for thinking deeply before making the commitment to be a mother. Motherhood is not an easy role, and it is made harder by any lingering wounds from our own childhood. The good news is you have already completed the first steps to getting over your fear. You have recognized the fear and have named it. In addition, you understand the source of the fear. While it is true that most abusers have themselves been abused, it is not true that all who have been abused become abusers.

Some important questions for you: Have you ever sought counseling in recovery from your past abuse? Have you experienced healing from the grief most abused children experience from not having the parents they needed? Have you seen a tendency in yourself to repeat the patterns from your childhood?  These are difficult questions to consider, but they are important in your breaking the cycle of abuse.

The cycle of emotional abuse can be broken. Healing often begins with the understanding that you were just as abused as children who are bruised and battered physically. Adult children who have survived physical and emotional abuse often report that it was harder for them to recover from the emotional wounds than from the physical scars. Acknowledging that you were abused and that it was not your fault are key to healing.

Two more questions: What has given you cause to fear you will repeat the cycle of abuse? Do you have any anger management issues as a result of your abuse?  If you are concerned about how you will manage your anger in the face of the difficult and sometimes stressful task of raising a child, a good counselor can help you work through the old anger that is most likely the root cause of any current outbursts.

You are wise to be concerned about repeating your parents’ patterns, since we often tend to parent as our parents did. Please know that there also are many of us who have made a conscious decision not to repeat our parents’ harmful behaviors. Raising a child does take a village, so my advice to you would be to surround yourself with lots of people who love you and who will hold you accountable for being a loving mother.

Cycles of abuse can be broken by acknowledging the past abuse and by learning new ways of coping with stress and tension. You were taught harmful ways to cope with life. In order to conquer your fear, you will need much courage. In Healing the Scars of Emotional Abuse, Gregory Jantz writes, “There comes a critical time in each person’s life when the truth is accessible. Faced with it, you can either run and hide, denying it, or you can face your truth, accept it, and grow stronger.”

I pray that you face this “critical time” in your life surrounded by people who love you and who stand beside you as you “face your truth.”

 Sharina Smith, MOMbo TV

Sharina Smith currently serves as the senior director of marketing and communications for Southwest Baptist University.  She and her husband Chuck have a combined family of four children (11, 12, 14, and 17). She is passionate about reading and good grammar and is a media junkie– reading several newspapers, blogs, and magazines each day. As an emotional, physical, and sexual abuse survivor, Sharina seeks to encourage women on their healing journey. Learn more about Sharina at sharinasmith.com

Parents as Teachers takes a simple approach to parenting: in our view, parents are the experts on their own children. They know what makes their children “tick”: what frustrates them, what encourages them, and what makes them smile. As their parenting resource partner, our role is to offer child development information that helps parents understand their child’s behavior and progress. In turn, this helps parents make good decisions.

Sometimes those decisions are not easy. Consider this: preschool children are the single largest television audience in America, spending more time watching TV than any other single activity except sleeping! And while the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 1 to 2 hours of television viewing per day, the average U.S. household’s TV is on between 4 to 6 hours every day. Could your household make it through TV Turnoff Week?

Little children do not watch television like adults.

Different learning style

Toddler and preschoolers experience TV differently because they don’t learn like adults. Small children are active learners; they need to move, maneuver, smell, touch and repeat as they learn. Television, primarily a visual experience, offers little opportunity for interaction.

Different viewing patterns

Preschoolers have different viewing patterns due to their cognitive and linguistic growth. They pay more attention to what is showing on the screen, and the constantly changing stream of pictures, words and movements is difficult for their young brains to assimilate.

Different filtering skills

Little children don’t have the skills or experience yet to distinguish reality from fantasy; that comes from interacting with other people and playing with toys they can touch, feel and manipulate. But even the gruesome violence of TV isn’t the most damaging, say researchers. That kind of drama may desensitize young viewers, but it is the glorified violent acts by superheroes that are more of a concern for children.

Think watching TV is a passive activity? Think again. Both a child’s body and mind are

actively at work as he watches TV. Muscles are tensed, the cardiovascular system is at its peak, and the young brain is working to digest the flurry of motion, sounds and images flashing before it. This combination of inactivity and tension is physiologically demanding.

It’s not all bad news!

Developmental researchers have also found that viewing positive, pro-social television can increase the pro-social attitudes and behaviors of children…especially when parents watch with them. Educational and quality TV programs can promote children’s intellectual development and imaginative play; the key is parental involvement.

TV Turnoff

The average child in the U.S. watches 4,000 hours of television before he starts kindergarten. Could your child go a week without TV? Could you? TV Turnoff Week can be an opportunity to test your resolve!  

Smart TV viewing

·         Be timely: Set time limits for how much TV will be allowed, and keep it turned off when no one’s watching.

·         Be choosy: Be selective not only about what children watch but what adults in the home watch, too.

·         Be vocal: If something looks unrealistic, say so. Or ask, “Do you think that could really happen?”

·         Be innovative: Use TV to expand a child’s world. Watch shows about new places, people or things.

Pat Simpson is the Marketing Communications Director at The National Center for Parents as Teachers.  Based in St. Louis, Parents as Teachers National Center is the resource and backbone of Parents as Teachers, parent education and early childhood development program serving parents throughout pregnancy until their child enters kindergarten, usually age 5.  The nonprofit National Center oversees more than 3,000 programs offering Parents as Teachers services nationwide as well as in several other countries.  For more information about Parents as Teachers, visit www.Parentsasteachers.org.

I almost bought an iPhone…..seriously….I did.  My husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year and without hesitation, I answered.   We visited the Mac store…read internet reviews and talked to all of my trusty mom friends who bubbled and gushed about the functionality of the phone that does ‘everything.’  I read Twitter tweets from mompreneurs who  had turned the ‘trapped in the car with sleeping children’ scenario into a prime work opportunity.  Now when the kids fell asleep, they simply pulled out their handy dandy phones–answered emails, wrote blog posts and caught up on social networks. 

As a naptime activist (….and Chief Mom Officer here at MOMbo) I routinely find myself working at odd hours.  Late nights….early mornings.  Like most children, my two munchkins often fall asleep in the car. The thought of parking it…rolling down the window, pulling out my iPhone for two hours of uninterrupted work was enough for me take off running to the Mac store….or at least it should have been.

For some reason, though, there was a hesitation that I couldn’t shake. Was it the ‘cutting and pasting thing’….the lure of the Blackberry Storm..or was it something else entirely.  My husband loves talking on the phone….I hate it….hmmm…maybe that was it.  Whatever it was, was enough to make me hold off on purchasing an iPhone.

A couple of weeks went by……

Then……

The kids took another long nap in the car. There was work to be done…emails to answer…and there I was.  Laptop—at home….no wireless internet connection.

That was it!  I was SO getting an iPhone. 

The next day, we drove to the store.  My husband circled and circled, trying to find a parking space. We couldn’t find one.  Ha! Everyone wanted an iPhone.

Now the next bit is somewhat fuzzy….I can’t even tell you how it happened.  My husband somehow ended up talking to a friend of ours—a friend who just happens to be an amazing technophile. He mentioned something about taking me to get a phone so that I could get more work done without having to carry around kids and a laptop. He said something about an iPhone..twitter….emails….and then there was silence…..

‘Uh huh….Uh huh….yeah…Well no, not really….’

More silence….

‘Well, watching video clips….reading articles….’

Yup, more silence.

‘A netbook, eh? So, how big are they?’

And it  all just sort of went from there.

We drove away from the phone store without getting out of the car and set out to find a netbook. 

Netbooks are fully functioning laptop computers that allow you to connect to the internet anytime…anywhere. What is so incredibly ‘cool’ about them is that they are small enough to fit inside of a purse. With a 10 inch screen and normal keyboard you can literally bring your office with you….anywhere. The netbook that I ended up purchasing came with microsoft office, a media player, a built in webcam and the ability to connect to 3G or wireless. Needless to say…It had everything that I needed.  I did not have to get a new phone or change my existing mobile number.  No applications that I wouldn’t use.

So far, I am loving the ease of my new netbook. It weighs almost nothing, but performs just like our larger (and heavier) laptop. Now when the kids fall asleep in the car, I can roll down the window, pull my office out of my purse and do something productive.

 Kemi Ingram is the Creator of MOMbo TV.  She lives in California with her husband Chris and two daughters Abigail and Anna.

They are deeply traumatized people; they’ve seen horrific violence, murder; many of the children have survived abduction and either forced soldierhood or sexual slavery. The moral ambiguity of a conflict in which children are brutalized into committing atrocities has challenged the fabric of the society. Now these people are supposed to leave the camps, to go home. But no one is sure
where that is, or how to start over. Where there were once communities, there is nothing.

I traveled to Uganda at the request of a group of nurses who had established a small clinic in partnership with a Ugandan non-profit. Their clinic provided first aid and some medical services to the IDPs. Mostly they treated malaria. Malaria is such a huge part of living in Africa; there is nothing like it in the U.S. They wanted to add maternity services at the clinic, but they were out of their depth and budget. I traveled to visit their clinic and my board decided to fund a salary for one midwife. She would provide prenatal care to the patients at their clinic. That was in the beginning. Now we have this miraculous clinic with 15 indigenous staff members who serve hundreds of people each month providing medical care to women and children.  It’s a very different project than the one in Afghanistan, but it’s a great program.

October 2008 was a very exciting month for TSMP’s Ugandan staff. After much preparation, we began mobile outreach clinics in an area called Kamuda. Kamuda is a sub-county that includes 50 villages. The village closest to Soroti is only nine kilometers from town, but it is less developed than the IDP camps. A finger of huge Lake Kyoga reaches into Kamuda, and the people subsist on fish from the lake. As the pressure is turned up on IDPs to leave Soroti, many of them are trying to re-settle in Kamuda. Although the fish are abundant, adequate drinking water is a problem because there are insufficient wells. Most drinking water comes from the lake, so there is plenty of water-borne illness. The local leaders are working to organize the people to dig new pit latrines, as there is also no sewage system. Electricity is something that is only dreamt of. Going barefoot in and around the lake exposes the folks to a disease called bilharzia (its more proper name is schistosomiasis). There are two health centers for the 50 villages, but they are without staff or supplies. So every Thursday, the majority of our clinic staff packs up and rides out to Kamuda. 

A large number of needy people are getting help—people who otherwise have little or no access to medical care. An unanticipated bonus of this project has been the remarkable team building exercise it’s become for the staff. They love this project. Having the ability to reach out to the neediest Ugandans is something they take very seriously. 

Why is it that human beings living on the same planet that we live on have to live in a reality that includes no safe water, so much rape and physical violence, raiding militias, hunger, and always malaria, sickness, misery. I often stumble trying to illuminate something about the apparently obvious statement that these are people, human beings. What would you expect from the world if you and your community lost everything? We came into a world with such disparity already in play that we might not notice our responsibility to correct it. In the U.S., even the homeless can find safe water to drink.

Human beings live in grass-thatched huts on the dirt, without running water, without access to work or good healthcare. Human beings. Innocent women and children.   There are places in Africa that are in bad trouble,….and I believe we all have to stand up and help.

Jennifer Braun is Program Director at International Midwife Assistance.  To learn more about IMA, please visit www.midwifeassist.org.