Catholic Fire

Can you imagine being told to breast feed your baby in an alley ? After spending $150 at a store and requesting the use of their fitting room for privacy and comfort? That's what happened to Texas mom Ashley Clawson. She had just spent $150 at Victoria's Secret and she asked the salesperson if she could go into the fitting room to breastfeed her 4-month-old son. The employee said no and offered up the alley outside because "no one usually goes there." Wouldn't you think that a woman's store like Victoria's Secret would be pro-woman? Contrast this with the Pope's attitude about breast feeding in the Sistine Chapel! Following complaints issued by Ashley Clawson, the store issued this statement: "We take this issue very seriously. We have a longstanding policy permitting mothers to nurse their children in our stores and we are sorry that it was not followed in this case. We have apologized to Ms. Clawson, and we are taking actions to ensure ...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis assured mothers that breast-feeding their babies in public, even during a papal Mass in the Sistine Chapel, is OK. No chorus is as wonderful as the squeaks, squeals and banter of children, the pope said during a Mass in which he baptized 32 babies on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 12. "Some will cry because they are uncomfortable or because they are hungry," he said during his brief and unscripted homily. "If they are hungry, mothers, let them eat, no worries, because here they are the main focus," he said. Continue reading.

New research at Malmö University Hospital has revealed that mothers who have more children and especially those who breastfeed their babies have a significantly lowered risk of arthritis later in life. Use of oral contraceptives, on the other hand, is of no benefit. The study , which was funded by Lund University, The Craaford Foundation and the Swedish Rheumatism Association, wanted to determine whether breast-feeding or the use of oral contraceptives(OC) could affect the future risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a community-based prospective cohort. Researcher Dr. Mitra Pikwer found that breastfeeding for more than a year reduced women's risk of rheumatoid arthritis 54% and breastfeeding for at least a month tended to reduce the risk 26 percent. Moreover, women who gave birth to more children tended to be at lower RA risk, with a 13% reduction for each child they had. MORE