Did I ever tell you about the time...

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Tuesday, December 12, 2006

...that my breasts got me on South Korean television?

No? Maybe that's because it just happened this morning.

Seriously... Last week I got a phone call from a woman with SBS Korean Television. Apparently SBS has a tv program similar to our 60 Minutes or Dateline type shows that occasionally does documentaries. They were filming one this week that focused on breastfeeding and breast milk banking. (Apparently, South Korea has an abysmally low breastfeeding rates...)

The documentary team had found The Lactivist blog and knew that I was both a milk donor and a lactivist. She said that the film crew was hoping to have the chance to do some filming at the Mother's Milk Bank here in central Ohio and they wanted to know if they could interview me as well.

Yep...that's right. South Korean documentary film crew wants to talk about, and film my milk jugs.

As if it's not breaking enough new ground to be the first breastfeeder in generations on both sides of my family...or to run a lactivist blog, or to have all of my friends and family think of me as that crazy, crunchy, home-birthing lactivist. As if it didn't give folks enough of a laugh to have that photo of me nursing Emmitt make the AP wire after our Delta Nurse-in a few weeks back.

Now my boobs are going to be on TV half-way around the world.

Of course I said yes. ;) It's all for a good cause right?

So this morning, I spent about half an hour chatting with the producer about how I got involved in milk banking, why I built this web site, what I hope to accomplish through my lactivism and so on. (I wonder if I'll be dubbed or have subtitles...I've never been dubbed before...do you think it hurts?) The kicker was that the producer wanted to know if he could have footage of me pumping.

Now I've nursed in public all over the place. From malls to restaurants to stores to planes...if I've been there, I've nursed there. I've even pumped in some strange locations (remember the whole rifle range story?). What I've never done is pump breast milk with a camera man about six inches away filming close ups of the entire process. Praise God that I wore a nursing top today and could at least pump without my still-lovely post-partum tummy making it into the shot.

They say they'll send me a tape once the documentary is put together. Unless they dub the whole thing, I don't suppose I'll understand much, but it will be something unique that I can put with Emmitt's baby stuff. That kid's certainly going to have some stories that his school-mates don't...

"Look Emmitt...here's a picture of your first smile...and here's the picture of you just after you were born on that futon that you happen to be sitting on right now. Oh, and here's the Columbus Dispatch article from when we went to the nurse-in...oh yes and don't forget that South Korean documentary that we did where mommy showed all of South Korea what her breasts look like when she's hooked up like a dairy cow."

Yep...this kid doesn't have a chance of being normal.

I kinda like that.

Labels: Life as a Mom, Milk Banking and Sharing, Nursing in Public, Pumping Milk

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