The ultimate flashmob: Hundreds of mothers breastfeed in front of shoppers

By Daily Mail Reporter

From : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

A bold group of mothers gave a new meaning to the term 'flashmob' when they bared their breasts at a major shopping centre today to raise awareness of breastfeeding.

More than a hundred mothers of all ages - some accompanied by their partners - descended on the Trafford Centre in Manchester to feed their babies in front of stunned shoppers to promote the start of NHS-backed National Breastfeeding Awareness Week.

The proud women bore all in full view of customers sitting in the shopping centre cafes to highlight the health benefits of breastfeeding.

Flashmob! Hundreds of mothers and their infants descend on The Grand Staircase at The Trafford Centre in Manchester today

A stunned onlooker said: 'It's not every day you see that many breasts while out doing your shopping. I suppose it's a good way of getting people to listen to the message. I fully support them.'

The Trafford Centre is backing National Breastfeeding Awareness Week 2011 - which runs from Sunday 19th to Saturday 25th June, backed by the NHS Infant Breastfeeding Services - and has recently refurbished its breastfeeding facilities for shoppers.

One mother, Jade Fitzmartin, 18, from Atherton, Greater Manchester, said: 'It's great to get together for such a good cause as we all know how important breastfeeding is. The flashmob was a really exciting thing to be part of, although in normal circumstances I would probably prefer to use the breastfeeding facilities here.

'All new mums should take it seriously as an option when midwives and health visitors discuss it with them.'

Nature's best: The event is to help publicise National Breastfeeding Awareness Week, which runs until June 25

Organiser of the flash mob event, Alison Healey, Breastfeeding Coordinator at NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan, said there were a number of advantages linked to choosing to breastfeed.

These included a lowered likelihood of common health complaints in babies such as diarrhoea, ear and chest infections and eczema and an improved immune system.

'The likelihood of a healthy life for babies is greatly enhanced by parents choosing to breastfeed instead of feeding their baby with formula milk.

'When a new mum chooses to breastfeed she is also greatly benefitting her own health as it can also help her to lose the weight she might have gained in pregnancy and lower the risk of some cancers.

'New mums should feel proud of their decision to breastfeed and know that they can get support from their local Midwives and Health Visitors.'

Gordon McKinnon, Director of Operations at The Trafford Centre, said: 'We're a family friendly centre, which means we're fully supportive of mums who make the decision to breastfeed. If they require a comfortable, private space in which to feed their child we have four sets of dedicated facilities including our new Laura Ashley-designed breastfeeding suite, but we consider most public spaces appropriate and our retailers are equally understanding.'

The T-Mobile Royal Wedding - Dance Procession

Uploaded by lifesforsharing

Watch the wedding entrance dance to top all wedding entrance dances. T-Mobile's Royal Wedding Dance celebrates the marriage of William and Kate with the help of a host of royal look alikes and music from East 17! T-Mobile wishes William and Kate a long and happy marriage. Join our Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/tmobileuk

NASA employees make a human spaceship in the Kennedy Center parking lot

by NASAKennedy

Employees at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., took a few moments to assemble for a historic aerial photo Friday outside Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. Thousands of workers stood side-by-side to form an outline of a space shuttle. The event was organized in honor of the Space Shuttle Program's 30-year legacy.



If a recognizable person appears in this video, use for commercial purposes may infringe a right of privacy or publicity. It may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA employees of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any other manner that might mislead. Accordingly, it is requested that if this video is used in advertising and other commercial promotion, layout and copy be submitted to NASA prior to release.

Breast-Feeding Canadian Moms Create Flash Mob at Mall

Selena Ross

From: http://www.aolnews.com/

 

Canada is up in arms about breast-feeding and whether it's really OK to do it in public. And with the help of blogs and Facebook, angry moms are taking it to the streets -- or to the mall, in this case.

About a hundred mothers in Montreal staged a "nurse-in" protest at a downtown shopping complex last week, breast-feeding simultaneously before a curious crowd of reporters, mall security guards and passers-by. The event was retribution, they said, for a store that had thrown out a mother for breast-feeding earlier this month. This week, they began a petition drive to protect the rights of women to breast-feed in public in the Quebec province.

Selena Ross for AOL News

These four breast-feeding women were among about 100 who took part in a "nurse-in" at a Montreal mall on Jan. 19.

It all started when Shannon Smith, a 36-year-old mother of three, stopped by a children's clothing store in the mall on Jan. 5. When her youngest started crying halfway through the trip, Smith retreated to a semi-secluded kids' corner and nursed the baby under a blanket.

She said she was surprised and upset when a female employee of the store, Orchestra, came over and told her to stop.

Smith left humiliated. But her embarrassment quickly turned to anger, so the next day she created a blog, breastfortheweary.com.

"I'm pissed," she wrote. "My older kids were sitting in their stroller watching the movie when my youngest got hungry. So I fed her. She's 5 months old, and she eats breast milk. From my actual breast. Shocking, I know!"

With just the one post, the blog quickly started gathering hits -- almost 7,000 so far. A day later, a Facebook group had been created to organize the nurse-in for Jan. 19. Newspapers and blogs across Canada and the United States soon picked up the story, creating a national debate over whether Smith or the employee had been right.

Many commentators compared breast-feeding to eating lunch and even urinating, even saying it should happen in bathrooms. Parents fought back, arguing that babies deserve to eat whenever and wherever they are hungry, and that breast-feeding is convenient and healthy.

At 1 p.m., the appointed time for the nurse-in, managers at Montreal's Complexe Les Ailes shopping mall waited anxiously for the promised pack of mothers and babies to appear. They arrived en masse, like a nursery school flash mob, and the babies quickly got down to business as cameras clicked and mall employees handed out juice boxes and goody bags. Most mothers said they had heard about the event through Facebook or friends.

"I think that, basically, you should be able to do it anytime and anywhere," said Frances Moxant, 40, as she fed the youngest of her four children. "Even my parish priest tells us to go ahead and do it in church. Jesus was breast-fed -- he wasn't bottle-fed. So it's definitely all right."

Smith said she was happy with the turnout, especially with the many dads and grandparents who stood nearby. She said she had been shocked by the frenzied response to her blog, but tried not to read too much into the negative comments.

"I figure a lot of people just don't care," she said, shrugging. "A lot of people are pro-breast-feeding, and they don't talk about it because they just think it's normal."

The clothing store has apologized to Smith, blaming the mistake on a poorly trained new employee. So has the general manager of Complexe Les Ailes, Johanne Marcotte, who breast-fed her own two children in malls and has long instituted a pro-breast-feeding policy. In fact, Complexe Les Ailes has two dedicated rooms for nursing moms, which Marcotte said have been used by 20,000 moms in the past eight months -- something she knows because the rooms have traffic counters.

Rebecca Coughlin, 30, who came to the nurse-in with her 6-month-old twin daughters, said she likes the breast-feeding rooms but thinks it's unreasonable to expect women to pack up their children and walk across the mall with a screaming baby.

"I don't think there's any reason women should be relegated to a room," Coughlin said. "It's something that we should be encouraging women to do. The last thing we should do is create a stigma around it."

Most Canadian provinces, including Quebec, do not have laws explicitly allowing mothers to breast-feed in public, although courts looking at specific cases like Smith's have generally ruled in favor of nursing moms.

All American states except for Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia have passed laws allowing women to breast-feed in any public or private space, as well as several that exempt breast-feeding from public indecency laws or excuse nursing mothers from jury duty.

Shoppers at the mall last week looked amazed at the sea of nursing babies. But when asked if they felt uncomfortable having to walk by so many breasts on their lunch break, they said no.

"I don't have a problem with that," said Ulysses Montero, 34.

Moms who read Smith's blog vented about being called exhibitionists.

"Maybe we need to find something else for society to obsess about/sensationalize/demonize, instead of breasts," wrote a commenter named Sheila. "Preferably something that isn't part of my body. Oranges, maybe? 'Hey, lady, you can't eat that orange in here -- this is a respectable business ...'"

Flash Mob Wedding

A whole wedding in a mall …. flash mob style! [Ed. note: This is a nice cheap way to have a wedding, as you don't have to pay for the venue, and your guests are just the other people in the mall. So, also a little bit depressing, perhaps.]

The new Heathrow Airport Flashmob by T-Mobile

by admin

from http://www.hecklerspray.com/

If you were watching TV last night you will have found it hard to miss T-Mobile’s latest flashmob-based ad, which took place in Heathrow’s Terminal 5, in London.

The ad was shown simultaneously on 86 channels at 10.15pm, meaning that around one in six people in the UK will have seen it. In the event that you didn’t, here it is:

The mobile firm has a history of inviting people to flashmobs for a spot of public dancing. It then films them and turns them into ads. This one was filmed, edited and broadcast within 36 hours.

Hecklerspray hates hanging around in airports, but this would have provided some light amusement, in a Bobby McFerrin kinda way.

The T-Mobile flashmob ads have been seen by more than 26 million people on YouTube. What do you think of the latest one?

Huge Beach Flash Mob

Dancing in the Street: Hammer Pants Flash Mob Strikes Again!

Group of dancers wearing Hammer Pants moves on to flashmob Santa Monica Blvd and surprise hipsters waiting in line at a club.
It's HammerTime! http://www.aetv.com/hammertime