Good news comes with Bad News

If you are checking in to see where we are at, I called the Deputy Director of Operations at the zoo on Monday to follow-up on our letter requesting a meeting. Voicemail, urg, left a message, and still have not heard back. Sara and I will be contacting Bill (see the Omamas article) to continue the conversation. We’ll definitely keep you posted!

The bad news is that I was at a small mom’s gathering in Hillsboro on Saturday night. I (of course) mentioned the blog and mission. One of the moms commented, “Oh, I was nursing my baby there last year when a zoo employee came out and told me I had to move!”

I gasped. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. Maybe it was because I was on a bench outside of the farm where there were classes going on, I don’t know . . .”

Oh, that is soooo not good for so many reasons. I don’t need to list all of them here – we all know them. But the most important one to mention is that the law is on our side. We have the right to nurse in public – and this zoo employee was way out of line. It sealed the deal for us that the zoo most desperately NEEDS at least one nursing room on zoo grounds. NOT a first aid room that doubles as a nursing room, but an official space dedicated to nursing moms with their children.

Stay tuned. . . . .

Mamas on a Mission is in the news!

On Monday, I spoke with Noelle Crombie, a journalist for the Oregonian and one of the authors of Omamas, the Oregonians parenting blog located on their Oregonlive.com website. It is a wonderful site, written by mamas, for mamas. You can find the article she wrote about our mission to get the Oregon Zoo to add a nursing room here!

Although we have not yet heard from the zoo in regards to our letter requesting a meeting, from Noelle's article, it sounds like they expressed interest in meeting with us about creating a nursing room! Amy is planning on following up with the zoo today regarding our meeting request, since it has been two weeks since we sent the letter. I hope she will be able to share some good news!