It's been hard for me to read that babies are not welcome at some
breastfeeding seminars, when I've been pushing to get babies permitted at
other kinds of seminars as well! I'd like to see babies welcome at work,
too, when it's safe.

There was a time when women weren't permitted in universities, places of
business and government, etc., in part because it was felt they would
"distract" the men from their important professional activities. And people
with disablities were considered a problem, because they'd need special
facilities, and would have to take extra breaks perhaps, and would distract
others.

My dream is of a world where babies would be welcome and present at any
seminars, conferences or other events their mothers wanted to attend. If
that was the situation, people would soon get used to their presence - just
as the men adjusted to having women around at work. There are lots of noisy
distractions at the non-baby seminars I've been to - everything from planes
overhead to paging systems to construction in the hallway to cellphones and
talkative people in the audience. We just deal with it. We can get used to
babies too.

I have on rare occasions stopped the talk I was giving to say to a mother
"Your baby doesn't seem very happy sitting here. You can take him out for a
walk in the hall. I'll be giving out handouts at the end, and I'd be happy
to talk to you then if you're worried about missing something." I can give
the same or a similar message at the beginning of the talk if I think it
might be needed, too.

To me, making the world more welcoming for babies and mothers is an
important step along the way to making breastfeeding the norm in our
society.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html