Today I am thankful - Sheila, Mary and my Girls

March 8th is International Women's Day - the 100th anniversary. As I was educated through the 1970s, I was influenced by the women's movement - from the media, my teachers and the women in our family circle. I knew women could do whatever they wished and that nothing should be allowed to hold them back because of their gender. Any career was able to be aspired to. There was no need for modern women to be tied to the kitchen-sink by their apron strings.

So - I became a mother before I turned 21! (And on the day after IWD!)

And today, I am very thankful:

- for Shelia Kitzinger, the birthing and breastfeeding guru, whose writing inspired me to to question "because that is how it is done", who taught me it was my body, my baby - and who gathered me in her arms when I explained the circumstances of my three caesarean births when I met her in person 20 years later! (You can find my youngest child being born on the cover of her book Politics of Birth)

Yvette and Sheila

- for Mary Paton, the founder of the Nursing Mother's Association, who first inspired five other women and then led them to establish one of the most long-standing and successful women's groups in Australia. From her, I learned there is nothing that women cannot achieve and that mothers need mothers. She continues to inspire me today as she steers our Association to our 50th Anniversary commemorative book and I am proud to be part of her team.

Me & Mary @ Hot Milk 2007

- for my daughters, Melissa and Kaitlyn; my nieces Lynden, Sarah, Rachel and Diana and all my young friends of their generation, who have grown up secure in their equality, with futures ahead of them to do whatever they desire, with the same rights to aspiration to their brothers!

Melissa & Kaitlyn - sisters are doin' it for themselves!