I was glad to hear the piece on All Things Considered yesterday. It didn't
seem designed to inflame the discussion of breastfeeding but rather to
explore the issue of bfing in public with two reasonabvle points of view. I
felt it was similar to Roxanne Roberts' commentary in the Washington Post
(to which I haven't yet been able to construct a response). I thought,
"Well, this is a fairly healthy presentation. Nobody is saying "don't nurse"
or "don't nurse in public." They're arguing for consideration of other
people's point of view...and I'm willing to consider it...AS LONG AS women
DO have the right to breastfeed wherever they have the right to be with
their children!

I just sent this email to NPR:

*************
Jennifer Ludden's Sunday evening story (8-22-04) staged a debate between an
Illinois mother who won legal protection for breastfeeding in public and a
female editor who urged nursing mothers to cover up. But surely in the
hierarchy of human needs there's a difference between protecting the right
of a woman to care for her child as she goes about her business, and
respecting the preference of a spectator not to witness something he or she
finds disconcerting.

Babies are unpredictable. This is one reason breastfeeding protection laws
have to get specific about what body parts can be exposed. Despite a woman's
best efforts, there could be a flash of nipple. If the mother is trying to
be discreet, then let the spectators reciprocate by trying to be polite. If
they are afraid of what they might see, they don't have to watch.

It's a hard job being a mother, and even with the best of pre-planning, many
a mum finds herself needing to comfort her nursling when she's away from
home. A typical situation is an outing with an older child or children: just
as she gets them settled at the library story hour or in a booth at the
burger place, the baby starts to fuss. This is NOT a good time for a mother
to be constrained to pack everybody up and move to a more discreet location.
This is a time when she should be able to do just what a bottle-feeding or
pacifier-using parent would do: offer the baby his favorite consolation and
spare everyone within earshot the sound of her baby in distress. Does it
take a law to assure her right to do this? Then let's have the law.

If it comes down to a choice between having rights and having manners, I'll
go for rights. . .but I think we can aim for having both.
*************


Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
LLL Leader Reserve
working for WIC in South Jersey (Eastern USA)
Co-coordinator, Women & Work Task Force, WABA

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