This is a guest editorial in the Asheville Citizens Times (NC) in response to
the response to the mother breastfeeding her baby at the pool a few weeks ago
and the following nurse-in.
Barb Whitehead, BS, IBCLC, RLC
Eastern NC

Mammaries: their proper use - and place
By SPECIAL TO CITIZEN-TIMES
Aug. 2, 2003 2:17 p.m.
By Barbara Byrne We have a group of women in Asheville who are actually using
their breasts in a manner for which they were intended, breastfeeding, and
what happens? They are asked to nurse their babies in a smelly public dressing
room. And these mothers were within their legal rights. In this society with
its emphasis on sex and its exploitation of women, we probably had to have a law
stating that women "can breast- feed in public even if there is exposure of
the breast." Man, the species, tends to forget that he/she is an animal. About
25 years ago I taught a third-grade class, with as part of the curriculum, a
unit on vertebrates. This is the group of animals with backbones. There are
five species in this classification: amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and
reptiles. Man, the species, is classified as a mammal. Man, the male is called man,
the female is called woman. Dog, the male is dog, the female is bitch. Cow, the
male is bull, female is cow. Not very consistent but true. The most important
characteristic that indicates that people are mammals is that, if we are
female, we can produce milk to feed our young. The female breast contains a gland,
actually a modified sweat gland called a mammary gland. It is from these
glands that our species takes it name, mammal. Now that some of you young joggers
have learned that the breast is a gland and not a muscle, I highly recommend a
sports bra when jogging. Of course you will be denying several decades of
Neanderthal males a trip to fantasyland, but you will be taking better care of
your body. That was a beautiful picture of mother and son that we saw on page
one of the Sunday, July 27, Asheville Citizen-Times. Between the picture and the
article we can probably conclude that this is a healthy, wholesome woman,
certainly literate and not afraid to speak out and demonstrate on a subject that
in America, man (the species) has lost track of: simply, why women have
breasts. She is proud of her body and is taking full advantage of her motherhood. I
would bet she is well-fed, well- clothed, well-housed and has a husband. Not
the norm in America today. Ms. O'Hara went so far as to take her problem to the
Asheville City Council. Does it surprise anyone that it was two councilmen
who replied? We have an increasing obsession by a certain segment of the male
population who believe that they have a right to tell a woman what she can and
cannot do with her body. I found these male observations most interesting. Both
men said everything that was good and right about breastfeeding, then let
loose with strong remarks for Ms. O'Hara. I don't understand Joe Dunn's talk of
"rights and being the only one on the planet." This is a mommy feeding her
baby. And what are these "new levels" that Carl Mumpower is going on about?
Breastfeeding is as old as time. Recently it was announced on TV that we could
expect sexier advertising because sex sells. Somehow this coincided with the advent
of the new breast implants which I find obscene. One does have a really full
screen these days. Your children see disrespect for, mistreatment and
exploitation of women every day on TV. It is too bad that the adults involved with the
nursing mothers didn't handle the situation better and take the opportunity
to do a little educating for the "pointing, laughing, rude comments, mostly
young boys group." It is possible that this was the first time some of them saw
breastfeeding. The negative response to the nursing mothers may, for some of
the boys, put these women in the same class as "babes," etc. And as we go from
mother's milk to other milk, it is very interesting to know that cows, like all
mammals, make milk to feed just their own babies. To keep milk production
high enough to feed humans, cows are artificially inseminated and given growth
hormones, and their milk is frequently contaminated with pesticides, hormones
and antibiotics. If I had young children today, I would think seriously before I
gave them milk from a dairy cow. And finally, the National Organization for
Women, NOW, convened a panel to present the latest research on silicone
gel-filed breast implants and called on the FDA to slow the approval process. Nearly
300,000 women received breast implants in 2001. The safety data on these
devices are still very limited. One in four women needs surgery within five years
because of problems related to their breast implants. Nearly half of silicone
breast implants fail within 10 years and three-quarters rupture within 20. And
there you have it. All of it related. I wonder how many more people would have
read this if I had titled it, "All about boobs?" Byrne is chapter coordinator
of Asheville NOW. She lives in Asheville



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