A copy of yesterday's NY Times coverage on the ABC nurse in...

Subject: [wicbfnet] FYI from NY times


June 7, 2005

'Lactivists' Taking Their Cause, and Their Babies, to the Streets
By AMY HARMON

The calls for a "nurse-in" began on the Internet mere moments after
Barbara Walters uttered a negative remark about public breast-feeding on
her ABC talk show, "The View."

The protest, inspired by similar events organized by a growing group of
unlikely activists nationwide in the last year, brought about 200 women
to ABC's headquarters yesterday. They stood nursing their babies in the
unmistakably public venue of Columbus Avenue and West 67th Street. They
held signs reading, "Shame on View," and "Babies are born to be
breastfed." Ms. Walters, who remarked a few weeks ago on the show that
the sight of a woman breast-feeding on an airplane next to her had made
her uncomfortable, said through a spokesman that "it was a particular
circumstance and we are surprised that it warrants a protest."

But the rally at ABC is only the most visible example of a recent wave of
"lactivism." Prodded by mothers who say they are tired of being asked to
adjourn to the bathroom while nursing in a public space, six states have
recently passed laws giving a woman the right to breast-feed wherever she
"is otherwise authorized to be."

An Ohio bill saying a woman is "entitled to breast-feed her baby in any
place of public accommodation" passed last month over the objection of
one representative who wanted to exempt businesses from liability for
accidents caused by "spillage."

"I really don't know any women who 'spill,' " said Lisa Wilson, the
mother of a 4-month-old in Fairview Park, Ohio, who helped organize a
nurse-in at a local deli to support the bill.

Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, held a nurse-in
on the Capitol's Cannon Terrace last month as she reintroduced federal
legislation to amend the Civil Rights Act to protect women from
employment discrimination for using a breast pump or feeding their babies
during breaks.

Nursing mothers are pressuring businesses, too. Burger King has declared
that mothers are welcome to nurse. Starbucks - the target of a
letter-writing campaign that asked "What's more natural than coffee and
milk?" - has, too.

The moves come as the number of American mothers who choose to
breast-feed has climbed to about 70 percent in 2003, the last year for
which information was available, from about 50 percent in 1990. Many
otherwise apolitical women say they found themselves unexpectedly
transformed into lactivists after fielding a nasty comment or being asked
to stop nursing in public.

"We're all told that breast-feeding is the best, healthiest thing you can
do for your child," said Lorig Charkoudian, 32, who started the Web site
www.nurseatstarbucks.com after being asked to use the bathroom to nurse
at her local Starbucks. "And then we're made to feel ashamed to do it
without being locked in our homes."

But Ms. Walters is not the only one who might prefer not to be confronted
with breast-feeding at close quarters. Legislators, business owners and
family members are debating how to reconcile the health benefits of
nursing with the prevailing cultural squeamishness toward nursing in
public.

In interviews and Internet discussions, hundreds of women recount being
asked to stop nursing in public spots, including the Children's Museum in
Huntsville, Ala.; a knitting store in the East Village; a Radisson Hotel
lobby in Virginia; a public bus in Los Angeles; and a city commission
meeting in Miami Beach.

"It's nothing against breast-feeding, it's about exposing yourself for
people who don't want to see it," said Scotty Stroup, the owner of a
restaurant in Round Rock, Tex., where a nursing mother was refused
service last fall.

But the new generation of lactivists compare discomfort with seeing
breast-feeding in public to discomfort with seeing interracial couples or
gays holding hands.

"It's like any other prejudice. They have to get used to it," said
Rebecca Odes, co-founder of "The New Mom" blog, who attended the ABC
protest. "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."

Whether to breast-feed in public, many nursing mothers say, is not simply
a matter of being respectful of another person's sensibilities. They cite
research by the Food and Drug Administration showing that the degree of
embarrassment a mother feels about breast-feeding plays a bigger role in
determining whether she is likely to do so than household income, length
of maternity leave or employment status.

The American Academy of Pediatrics urges women to feed their babies only
breast milk for the first six months, and continue breast-feeding for at
least an additional six months. If its recommendations were followed, the
group estimates that Americans would save $3.6 billion in annual health
care costs because breast-fed babies tend to require less medical care.
But while more women are breast-feeding for the first few weeks, fewer
than one-third are still nursing after six months. Some doctors attribute
the decline to self-consciousness and the difficulties of finding spaces
where nursing seems acceptable.

"To many mothers, breast-feeding runs up against sexual attitudes toward
the breast," said Dr. Lawrence Gartner, who leads the academy's research
on breast-feeding. "That reduces the prevalence of breast-feeding, which
is a bad situation because duration of breast-feeding is an important
factor in children's health."

Even mothers who are committed to nursing say they are shaken when
confronted with the hostility or consternation of strangers observing
them.

"People make you feel like you're doing something dirty, almost," said
Rene Harrell, 26, of Chantilly, Va., who said she was recently asked to
leave a Delta airport lounge in Atlanta as she nursed her 8-month-old
son, Elijah.

Once on the plane awaiting takeoff, she said, a man across the aisle
complained loudly about her into his cellphone as she continued to nurse.

The scene, said Ms. Harrell, reminded her of the one Ms. Walters
described, which she read about on an Internet discussion board.

"It's just, where would you like me to go so I don't bother you by being
here?" Ms. Harrell said. "He was not on solids. It's not like I could
have given him something to tide him over. He needed to eat."

Marilyn Yalom, the author of "History of the Breast," says Americans'
views of the breast has changed over time, and could change again. More
than in other countries, she said, the breast is seen here as a sexual
object.

"We live in a very mechanistic society and almost anything that doesn't
come out of a package is somehow suspect," Ms. Yalom said. "So milk that
comes out of a real human breast, we're not very comfortable with, it
brings us too close to our animal nature."

The nurse-in at ABC was perhaps the largest of the dozen or so held
around the country over the last year.

"I have the right to breast-feed my child without getting nasty looks,"
said Patricia Lechuga, 32, who said she watches "The View" every morning
while breast-feeding her 10-month-old daughter before her nap. "So many
people watch the show, I was just so disappointed in them."

On the Upper West Side, it was hard to find anyone to disagree with her.

"Are there people who are against breast-feeding?" asked Rich Flisher,
39, a neighborhood resident passing by the nurse-in. "I do prefer it if
you're discreet, but hey, I'm behind you. Go go go."

Veronica Tingzon

CCE, CLE, sitting for IBCLC in July

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