I dutifully went to the vote-for-your-favorite-breastfeeding-icon website, and subsequently sent this note to Mothering:
As a La Leche League Leader of more than 20 years and an IBCLC since 1990, I am on several e-mail lists that urged me to go to mothering.com and vote for an international breastfeeding symbol. I dutifully went to the site, checked out all the icons... and found myself becoming more and more antagonistic toward all of them. I didn't expect that reaction, so it took me a bit to figure out why I felt that way:
I always chose for myself where I did and did not breastfeed. When a symbol tells a woman *this* place is good, it's also implying that *that* place isn't so good. Too public, maybe? Too likely to make others uncomfortable? Come into the back room here, dear, where you'll have some privacy and invisibility. But breastfeeding should be acceptable absolutely everywhere! Some mothers prefer a chair and a cozy corner; others are happy to plunk themselves down in the store aisle or lean over to feed the toddler in the grocery cart. There are unlimited numbers of comfortable breastfeeding sites already. If we begin designating cozy corners, the public may become less and less tolerant of obvious breastfeeding. And, worse yet, a mother may be less and less likely to realize that she *can* sit in the aisle or feed her baby in the cart.
It would make no sense to have a sign telling me it was all right to hold my partner's hand in certain locations. Hand-holding, in this culture, is not a behavior that needs to be regulated or relegated. Signs noting "good" hand-holding locations would probably signal the end of public hand-holding. My younger child is 24. It's been nearly a quarter century since my friends and I discovered that we could breastfeed wherever we were. Does the interest in a breastfeeding icon mean we are losing ground?
I vote for no logo at all. Not now, not ever. If we must have a breastfeeding-related logo, then let's have one simply picturing an electrical outlet. Women will know, when they see the sign, that there's an outlet available for pumping... or for plugging in a dryer or recharging a cell phone. Their choice. If a woman prefers to push the envelope and pump on the subway, well it's not really different from breastfeeding there, is it? The location should be hers to choose. Personally, I hope she chooses the subway. That's a lot braver than my friends and I would have been. But in a quarter of a century, surely we should have made some progress!
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
Ithaca, NY USA
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