I daresay some of you will disagree but anyway...I think one important
consideration conference-holders should deal with is presence of breastfed
babies.
I feel that as potential society-changers with our attitudes towards
exclusive breastfeeding for six months, attachment parenting (many of us),
breastfeeding on demand etc. etc., we ought to be more baby-friendly at our
conferences. Putting out a token notice, "quiet breastfed babies under
three months are welcome" is rather like threatening an attendee that her
baby must show up with ID and must not squeak or both will be expelled! If
mothers are nervous as soon as they walk in, of course babies are going to
sense this and start screaming!!
I would expect breastfeeding women to be unwelcome in a conference on
international banking perhaps - but surely we can show some tolerance
towards mother baby dyads at OUR conferences? Surely all of us are so used
to the baby background noise that we can lighten up a little.
I know I shall get responses saying people pay a lot of money of they can't
hear we get complaints, etc etc. But I think we should ALL - attendees
included - stand behind our baby friendly position on this one. And it
certainly an issue that has to be dealt with one way or anther, because
lots of breastfeeding women attend these conferences.
At the very least, organizers should be sure that the hotels have changing
tables in the rest rooms (or provide a changing table), and provide some
extra space - even toys, how revolutionary - at the back for mothers who
bring their babies. Our LL conference last year offered a pumping room for
mothers who did not bring their babies. Creches are great too if they can
be arranged on site.
Most mothers are painfully aware that if their baby makes noise this will
be a distraction, and few would sit in the front row with a screaming baby.
Having convinced you all (?) I now admit that I speak from the biased
position of a mother who was asked to leave a LLL sponsored conference
because her 4 month old (at 3 pm) began to complain. I was actually in the
corridor at the time, not the conference room (and he wasn't THAT bad).
It was my first ever lactation conference and I was SHOCKED at the lack of
any baby friendly facilities at all. (No changing tables, no nothing!)
I was terribly upset - and very much comforted by the fact that so many
attendees around me came out in my support! Quite a controversy at the
time....
Anne Merewood