Rally for Breast-Feeding Rights

On the busiest travel day of the year, The Washington Post ran a front page business story about a mom who had been kicked off a Delta Air Lines flight for refusing to cover her baby's head with a blanket while breast-feeding, despite any specific Delta Air Line "Refusal to Transport" justification. The article, Mothers Rally to Back Breast-Feeding Rights, described "nurse-ins" held on Nov. 21 at Reagan National Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport by more than 100 breast-feeding moms to protest the lack of support for nursing in public. The protest was important enough that individual women took time off from work to participate, according to The Post. The incident was reminiscent of last June's New York City protest by 200 "lactivists" in response to Barbara Walters's complaints on ABC's The View about a woman breast-feeding next to her on an airplane flight. According to the New York Times, several states have enacted legislation to protect moms' right to nurse in public.

What's the fuss about here? Why is it important to be able to breast-feed in an airport, a public park, the movie theater, a restaurant? Why do some people find public breast-feeding offensive enough to call for a nursing mom to be arrested, covered with a blanket or removed from an airplane or other public spot?

The medical community is clear about the rewards of breast-feeding, with the World Health Organization recommending that infants be breast-fed exclusively until at least six months old. Many pediatricians and La Leche League, a lactation support group, recommend breast-feeding for far longer. The benefits are so indisputable that many women feel pressured to breast-feed their babies even when they don't want to. Yet there are woefully few private rooms in public areas (or on planes) to breast-feed.

The message to moms is clear: You must breast-feed in order to be a good mom, but don't let us see you breast-feeding. Well, frankly, this is kind of hard. Many infants need to be breast-fed every hour or so. Many women would rather breast-feed at home or in private, but a breast-feeding mom simply cannot get on a plane or a train, go to work, watch her older children at the local park or run errands without stopping to feed her baby or pump.

So, the point of the rally: Nursing a baby is a normal, healthy part of motherhood. It needs to take place in public places sometimes. Note to Barbara Walters, Delta Air Lines, etc: Get over it! Look away if you must, but give breast-feeding moms a break.

By Leslie Morgan Steiner |  November 27, 2006; 9:00 AM ET  | Category:  Moms in the News
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