Not to get too philosophical about fashion, but I think the rise of the mommy cool meme as expressed in the T-shirts says a lot about today’s generation of moms. That view was confirmed when I talked with Kristin Bennett, who is senior director of research and trends at the Intelligence Group. She explained that Gen Y and Gen X moms like myself are making an “extreme commitment” to parenting. These moms are relishing their roles and are happy to tell the world about it by wearing a T-shirt that advertises they are moms. And the T-shirts let them do it in a hip, ironic way that reminds people that they still have a strong sense of self-identity, too.

Kristin’s views were echoed by Liz Gumbinner, co-founder and editor of Cool Mom Picks. Liz, a mom of two who was raised in Larchmont and whose folks live in Cortlandt Manor, explained to me that parenthood isn’t just a phase of life anymore, it’s a culture. “And with any culture comes marketing,” she said.

Here’s where the T-shirts come in. A really nice part of the trend is that I haven’t seen big companies hopping on it — yet. Most of the T-shirt makers I’ve encountered are moms, some looking for a way to run a home-based business so they can be there for the kids. A good place to start your surfing is RoleMommy.com, which is run by Beth Feldman of New Rochelle. Her soft and fitted shirts are bedecked with glitter and rhinestones and feature sayings like “I don’t do cupcakes” and “I need a playdate.”

Another local T-shirt designer is Joy Rose of Hastings, a rocker who plays with the band Housewives on Prozac. She’s created shirts that say “Mom is not my real nameâ€? and “Women do not have an expiration date.” I also had a great time talking with Eileen Schneidman, a Wilton, Conn., stay-at-home mom of three and co-founder of Planet Mom T-shirts. (That’s Eileen at right.) The site has a wide array of embroidered T’s with funny sayings like “Whine? No. Wine? Yes.”

If you are more the crunchy-granola type mom, check out PeaceLoveMom, where you can pick up shirts with feel-good messages like “Happy mom” and “Lucky mom.” If you like a light touch is more your thing, Jestations has maternity shirts that boast “Dropping folic acid” and “Made with fresh eggs.” If you want to get political, Georgie Tees has a “Make babies, not war” T-shirt.

A popular site with celebrities, according to Danielle Friedland, publisher of the Celebrity Baby Blog, is Little Showoffs. Shoppers there include Gwyneth Paltrow (“Yoga mama”), Marcia Cross (“Mommy of Twins”) and Melissa Rivers (“Hottie mommy”). Another hot site with celeb moms is Logan & Blue, which makes custom embroidered shirts. Tori Spelling has a “Body after Liam” T-shirt that she wore on “Entertainment Tonight.” Another celeb favorite is the “Loving my Buddha belly” shirt from Preggers n’ Proud worn by actress Kate Hudson.

You also might like Mothers In Love with Fashion. (You can be forgiven if this brings to mind the racier translation of that acronym.) My favorite there was the “Daytime swinger” T-shirt with the image of a swing set. I also liked the “Supply” and “Demand” set for mom and baby from Milkdudz.

If you have a favorite place to buy “mommy T-shirts,” let us all know. And if you have one that you like, send me a picture of you wearing it and I’ll post it on the blog. Also, what do you think of this trend? And would you wear any of the shirts?

In contrast to professionals who can shut their office doors or visit a corporate lactation room, lower-income moms are often forced to pump in bathrooms — if they are allowed to pump at all.

The Times explored this story because government health authorities are waking up to the benefits of breast milk and encouraging women to nurse as long as possible. Current recommendations advise moms to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of baby’s life — a goal that’s hard to achieve if you must return to a job that makes pumping nearly impossible.

I cannot imagine what it’s like to pump in a smelly bathroom stall. It was hard enough for me to combine pumping and a job — and I had the benefit of working from home much of the time during my daughter’s first year.

Though I’ve mentioned some of my travails with pumping before, the full tale of my year of pumping can wait for another day. But I just had to draw your attention to this story because I think it’s so important for everyone to understand the challenges faced by working moms who want to provide breastmilk for their babies. My Pumpkin was premature, so there never was a question for me about whether she would get all the breastmilk I could produce. It was my No. 1 goal. But for many moms who rely on service jobs to put food on the table, getting a paycheck is the No. 1 goal — and, sadly, breastfeeding has to take a back seat to that.

When we became new parents, we were blessed to receive emotional support, many gifts and all sorts of help from family and friends. What was so surprising and wonderful was how Pumpkin inspired acts of kindness in strangers — as we found out last summer during a heat wave very similar to this week’s.

Just about a year ago, temperatures were also in the high 90s. With the heat came a blackout for parts of the Lower Hudson Valley, including my home.

The power went off at 5 p.m. on July 27 — a date that’s special in my family for being my daughter’s due date. But Pumpkin had already come into the world three months earlier at the beginning of May.

She weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces, when she was born. On the night of the blackout, she had been home from the hospital about three weeks. She had already tripled her birth weight to 5 pounds, 8 ounces. I believe a big reason for her healthy growth was receiving breast milk, which I had pumped while she spent nine weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at White Plains Hospital Center.

By 8 p.m., I was a bit frantic about the 70-plus bottles of breast milk I had stored in my freezer. It was irreplaceable because I didn’t think my supply would increase from the modest amount I was producing. Just that day, for instance, I fed Pumpkin in part on milk I had expressed on May 12.

My husband, who was stuck at work in New York City, called NYSEG to ask when the power would be back on. The answer was 3:30 a.m. The representative also said there was nothing the utility could do to help us.

Then my husband called our local fire department and told them about Pumpkin and how as a preemie, she needed that breast milk. Within minutes, the fire chief was at our house. Within a half hour, he and his crew had set up a portable generator on the patio and moved the fridge so that it could be plugged in through the window.

The fire chief told me he sympathized with our predicament in particular because he had a 5-month-old baby of his own. His son, who weighed 8.5 pounds at birth, was a whopping 19 pounds on that July 27.

A year later, I don’t mind the heat wave because it brings sweet memories of that night, sweltering in the glow of a flashlight with Pumpkin on my lap, serenaded by the hum of a generator keeping my milk safe for my baby to drink another day.