Nurturing Life Giveaway – Breastfeeding

Nurturing Life

These two words define and drive everything that Motherlove does, from their organic farm in Colorado, to their herbal care products, the educational classes taught by founder Kathryn Higgins, to the Nurturing Life Foundation, Motherlove’s non-profit which supports mothers and children all over the country.  So it’s no surprise that Motherlove has had such a beautiful, long-standing relationship with The Leaky Boob, extending their support of mothers and children to our Leakies and their breastfeeding journey with their babies.  The Motherlove website sums it up well:

Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 11.06.13 AMWhat is Nurturing Life?
It is fostering an environment where development, growth, and health are encouraged, and doing so in each facet of our life, including each stage.  True beauty can emerge in your life and others’ as you nurture life in yourself, your friendships, romantic relationship, through pregnancy, birth, in your relationship with your children, and more, and yes, even your garden.

“At Motherlove, we use Nurturing Life as our mission statement because nurturing moms and babies together is essential for both to thrive.  During pregnancy, moms are reminded minute-by-minute of this relationship and we typically focus on our health and wellbeing because it’s tied to our child’s life.” (Nurturing Life – Self Care for Mothersby Motherlove Herbal Company)

To wrap up this series of Motherlove giveaways that has touched on the ways mothers can intentionally nurture life through pregnancy and postpartum, through the ups and downs and aches and pains, we now focus on breastfeeding.  It is only fitting as we are celebrating World Breastfeeding Month right now.

Every new mother’s story is her own, whether it is very similar to other mothers’ experiences or appears to be completely opposite.  Every relationship between a mother and her baby should be free to develop in their own particular way, at their own particular speed.  There is no template that will fit every mother-baby relationship.  The Leaky Boob recognizes this and welcomes every mother, whether they bottle-feed, use SNS, breastfeed for a day or for years, whether their baby-days are in the distant past, or even if they never had a baby.  All are welcome.  And Motherlove also recognizes this reality, ready to meet mothers and babies where they are, encouraging them to pursue the Nurturing Life, and providing quality and safe products for whenever a need arises for them.

To help celebrate World Breastfeeding Month, Motherlove is collaborating with two other TLB sponsors, specializing in nursing necklaces, so that Mom and baby both get a prize this week!  Freja Toys and KangarooCare are each offering 3 beautiful necklaces, which means you could be one of the 6 prize winners for this giveaway.  Varja from KangarooCare wanted to share this heart-warming message about her breastfeeding journey with all of us:

“I knew I would breastfeed since the moment I found out that I was going to have a baby.  And I did it.  I nursed my first child for 4 and a half years, and the second for 2 and a half.  I breastfed during pregnancy and then 2 kids at the same time.  My breasts produced milk for 5 years non-stop.  Some might say this is too much, and others that this is nothing special.  But to me, breastfeeding is a real miracle.  I am a vegetarian and I was told that I would never be able to give birth to a healthy baby and then breastfeed.  But it was not so.  I am convinced that breast milk is not just clear liquid with a specific chemical composition; it is love.  Liquid love.”

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Motherlove, KangarooCare and Freja Toys are coming together to offer 6 prizes for 6 lucky Leakies!

 All six prizes start with a Motherlove Nipple Cream salve.  

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Then the breakdown is as follows:

Prize 1: a KangarooCare Fox Nursing Necklace, from Apple Wood

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Prize 2: a KangarooCare Organic Nursing Necklace in Cream & Oatmeal, from Juniper Wood

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Prize 3: a KangarooCare Simple Rainbow Nursing Necklace, from Oak Wood

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Prizes 4-6: a Freja Toys Organic Cotton Nursing Necklace, winner’s choice of color.

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Good luck to everyone!  Please use the widget below to be entered.  The giveaway is open from August 13, 2014 through August 20, 2014.  A big thanks to Motherlove for their ongoing support of TLB and all breastfeeding women; and thanks also to KangarooCare and Freja Toys for making this giveaway a whole lot more fun!  Please be sure to visit their Facebook pages (Motherlove, KangarooCare, Freja Toys), follow Motherlove on Twitter, and thank them for their support of TLB and this giveaway opportunity.

This giveaway is restricted to U.S. residents only.

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Freja Toys Giveaway

If you aren’t familiar with Freja Toys, drop everything and go check them out here!  We are long-time fans of their charming Ukrainian crocheted toys, and would have their complete collection if we could.  Freja Toys has been a sponsor of The Leaky Boob for quite a while, and we’re excited to bring you this opportunity to get to know them a bit better, and offer you a chance to win some adorable toys too!

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TLB: We were thrilled to have Freja Toys join The Leaky Boob community as a sponsor earlier this year! We own a couple of your dolls already, and just love all the precious toys you make. What is the main thing that you would like our Leakies to know about Freja Toys? 

Tanya: Our toys are very popular among kids and adults. All our products are unique and full of warmth and love. They are made from natural materials and are absolutely safe for your kid’s health! And our main goal is to give joy to kids and their moms and to make the world around happier and kinder! We often receive words of gratitude from our customers. They are a great source of our inspiration!
IMG_0362_08b18ae1-ecd7-4964-8cab-e72d670d2307_1024x1024TLB: What is the inspiration behind your name? 

Tanya: My great-grandmother’s name was Freyja Amundsen. She was originally from Scandinavia. She was a marvelous needlewoman and had a talent in knitting! I’m sure I inherited a great deal of her genes in this respect. I took a great interest in knitting since I was 7 years old. And this passion still hasn’t passed! So I decided to name my brand in honor of my great-grandmother 🙂

TLB: Could you tell us a bit about how your toys are made? 

Tanya: Primarily we produce a stockinet (machine knit) of wool yarn and cotton thread. Thus we get a base of our dolls. Then we make the dolls’ body and clothes. The dolls’ body is knitted with the multicolored stripes which imitate a t-shirt, lingerie and shoes. The dolls’ skirt, dress or pants are removable.  The dolls’ hair of cotton thread is completely handmade and each doll’s face is embroidered by hand. Handwork is our key distinction and advantage, particularly at the stage of the toy’s design and decoration.
Our nursing jewelry, teething toys and crochet baby rattles are also made completely by hand.
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TLB: Since this is The Leaky Boob after all, do you have a favorite breastfeeding tip you could share with us?

Tanya: Trust your baby! Don’t look for answers outside, just listen to your little one. 

TLB: One more question: if someone in the U.S. wanted to order some toys for Christmas, how soon would they need to put an order in for it to arrive on time? 🙂

Tanya: Last date for Christmas orders is Dec 5th. Unfortunately we can’t guarantee that your package will come on time for holidays if you place your order after that date. The shipping time to US takes 2 – 3 weeks.
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Tanya is giving away 3 Babywearing Dolls and 3 nursing necklaces to 3 lucky Leakies. Every winner will get a babywearing mommy/daddy doll with a baby doll of their own choosing and one of the petite nursing necklaces (our bestseller!)
Retail Value: Dolls $42.00 – $45.00, Nursing Necklaces $20.
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Currently Leakies can find these and other knitted dolls and nursing/breastfeeding necklaces FrejaToys items in the www.frejatoys.etsy.com website.
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Good luck to everyone!  Please use the widget below to be entered.  The giveaway is open from December 3, 2013 through December 10, 2013.  A big thanks to Tanya and FrejaToys for their ongoing support of TLB and all breastfeeding women; please be sure to visit them on Facebook and thank them for their support of TLB and this giveaway opportunity.  You can also find them on Pinterest!
This giveaway is open to international entries.

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