This article HAS ME STEAMING!
If you wish to respond, and I hope you will!, please address correspondence
to
John Brewer, editor and publisher, Peninsula Daily News
letters to the editor: [log in to unmask]
Is Breast-feeding Political or Private issue?
Woman says public mothers are feeding their egos, not babies.
by Betsy Hart
It's true that breast is best when it comes to feeding a young baby.
But why has it become a political experience to be shared with the whole
community?
I have four children, including an infant and I have breast-fed each of
them. Occasionally, I did so, very discreetly, in public, just as thousands
of new mothers do every day. People rarely notice. Or if they do, they
think little more of it than appreciating the mother's discretion.
In other words, good manners generally prevail on both sides.
But that's not enough for the breast-feeding activists.Yes,
breast-feeding is natural and even wonderful. But so are a lot of bodily
functions on doesn't draw attention to in public.
Legal Guarantee
Nevertheless, according to a recent report in the Associated Press, the
activists continue to push lawsuits in many states that would guarantee all
moms the "right" to nurse anytime, anywhere. (Is there anything these days
that's not a "right?")
Such legislation is unnecessary for those moms who simply want to
nourish their infants unnoticeably and without making a public statement.
There laws are for women who think the personal really is the political,
who want to use such laws to flagrantly display their 'rights'--and often
way too much of their breasts. (Something I've witnessed too many times)
The Associated Press reported that one woman in California, a place with
a sweeping "anytime, anywhere" law, was told not to breast-feed in a Borders
bookstore and has since settled a lawsuit over it.
But just imagine for a minute, in the granola-crunching,
Birkenstock-sandal-wearing environment of a California Borders bookstore,
where people are focused on their double-lattes and relationship"how-to"
books more than anything else, how offensive and flagrant a breast-feeding
mom would need to be to actually be told not to do it.
Private Room?
Another California woman, reports the Associated Press, was
breast-feeding her infant at her older child's elementary school when she
was asked to use a private room instead.
She and her lawyer are now seeking to "educate" the school system on her
breast-feeding rights.
But why was being asked to change venues so scandalous?
I don't have a problem with my kids seeing other moms breast-feed if
it's done decorously, but other parents might--especially if the moms are
proudly or otherwise exposing a little too much flesh.
Why couldn't that mom respect the rights of those parents as she
(supposedly) wants her own "rights" respected?
Because breasts have become political. And perhaps nowhere is this more
evident than in the workplace.
A Hooters employee is suing because she says her managers humiliated her
for pumping breast-milk. (How a woman who works at Hooters could suggest
she's humiliated by anything is beyond me)
She's hardly alone, according to the Associated Press, since there are
more and more lawsuits being launched against companies for not
accommodating mothers who want to pump and store breast milk during working
hours.
Never mind that this is a process that can easily over-run or not wait
for, a breaks, and which often invites other problems.
Many employers, particularly the small businesses where the vast
majority of these pumping-moms work, just don't have the luxury of providing
private rooms for these mothers, yet the moms complain if they feel they
have to do it in the bathroom.
Well, sorry, but having myself pumped, I can tell you that is one sight
I definitely want to be spared watching other women perform.
Yet, viewing workplaces as nurseries instead of business establishments
is increasingly in vogue.
That's one reason Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. is self-righteously
demanding that breast-feeding "rights" in the workplace be included in the
federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Meanwhile, I see more and more articles in parenting magazines about
"pumping" at the office.
Via Fed Ex
One advertisement explained how a woman on a business trip could pump on
the road and send her milk home via Fed Ex and lots of dry ice. That way it
can stay fresh for two days. Wow, thanks mom.
All of which makes me think that too often the women demanding their
"rights"to pump their breast milk at work are really just trying to assuage
their guilty consciences about leaving their infant in childcare with
strangers 10 hours a day.
In any event, as for the mythology that there is a general problem
facing moms who publicly breast-feed, but who do it discreetly and with
consideration for the sensibilities of others, nice try.
The truth is, it's really only a problem for those women trying to feed
their egos or their politics more than their babies.
Ann Marie
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