Here's another one. Please read, you lovely Lactnetters.
Royce Anderson, RN, IBCLC, CD (DONA) in downright hot and humid Oklahoma
City
Can you believe this?
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Sunday, June 19, 2005
Sorry, mother's milk belongs under wraps
By JONNA SPILBOR
If I could be a cop for just one day, I wouldn't arrest people for minor
infractions like rolling through traffic lights at desolate, late-night
intersections. Instead, I would drive around in a paddy wagon, filling it up
with people who engage in activities that are perfectly legal, but so
utterly annoying they ought to be outlawed.
For example, there ought to be a law against making noise while chewing soft
foods, holding up a grocery line because you forgot the milk and reclining
your seat on trains and planes, unless the person directly behind you is
either (1) a stuffed animal or (2) completely invisible.
Yet, it's simply a fact of life that humans will engage in a long list of
legal yet torturous behavior, leaving the rest of us little choice but to
scowl and bear it.
I'm here to say unequivocally, wholeheartedly, and with every ounce of
maternal instinct washing over my being like a prickly rash - breast-feeding
in public should not be one of them.
Bloated bosoms took to the streets of Manhattan en masse recently when 200
lactating women, calling themselves "lactivists" collected their hungry
infants and staged a "nurse-in" in front of ABC's television studios to
protest a passing comment made by famed journalist Barbara Walters.
Walters, while chatting with her coffee klatch on her daytime talk show,
"The View," casually mentioned how she felt "uncomfortable" on a recent
flight, having been seated next to a woman who was nursing a baby at her
seat.
Other than cashing in her first-class ticket, there wasn't a darn thing Babs
could do about it. Federal law, as well as laws in at least 35 states, allow
nursing mothers to breast-feed wherever they are otherwise lawfully
situated. Restaurants, retail stores and yes, airplane seats included.
Public suckling may be perfectly legal, but should it be?
In New York, for instance, which happens to be a very breast-friendly state,
exposure laws make it a crime for a woman to bare that portion of her breast
that is "below the top of the areola" unless she is exposed for the purpose
of breast-feeding.
The implied expectation of the law is this: The public has every right to be
uncomfortable, indignant and even call the police at the sight of a
bare-breasted woman basking in her bareness. But once a woman adorns the
same bare breast with a 10 pound hungry person, the rest of us must
gushingly accommodate her, or get the hell out of the way.
Just because you give a boob a job doesn't magically change society's
long-ingrained attitudes about public nudity. Why then, does the law - and
nursing mothers - expect the rest of us to embrace a stranger's desire to
express milk from her bosom while seated six inches from our burrito?
I know what you're going to say. A baby's gotta eat. Sure. But until your
child can chew, he doesn't need to eat with the rest of us.
Look, I'm no prude, but I do think there are certain, perfectly healthy
activities that are simply too private for public consumption. Pap smears do
a lot of good too, but you won't catch me having one in Macy's window.
One "lactivist" in attendance at the protest was quoted as saying, "People
don't want to see it because they feel uncomfortable with it, and they feel
uncomfortable with it because they don't see it."
Apparently, circular reasoning is the one negative side effect of
breast-feeding that "lactivists" don't talk about much. Personally, I no
sooner want to observe a woman breast-feeding her baby in public, than I
would want to witness her conceiving her baby in public. Forcing me into
becoming an audience to a public showing for which I didn't buy tickets, is
an invasion of my rights - is it not?
Perhaps baby isn't too happy about it either. I imagine the bond between
mother and child, especially during the first year of life, is a beautiful,
magical force like none other.
If breast-feeding contributes to that bond, why would a mother want to
detract from the experience by doing it while walking the dog or having her
hair done? Just because the law allows you to, bonding with baby is not
something that should be multitasked.
Jonna M. Spilbor is a Rhinecliff-based attorney. Write her in care of:
Poughkeepsie Journal Opinion Page, P.O. Box 1231, Poughkeepsie, NY,
12602-1231. Or in care of: [log in to unmask]
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