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Subject:
From:
Nancy Jo Bykowski <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 14 Apr 1997 23:05:22 -0400
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At this weekend's LLL of Illinois Area Conference, I attended a session
about helping employed mothers.  The speaker, who was a physician who had
breastfed after going back to work, made a comment during her talk that I
thought was interesting.  She said that while she rarely hesitated to
breastfeed her baby at work while others (both men and women) were in the
room, that she made it a rule not to pump in front of men, only in front of
women (and even then only in more private locations).  There were nods of
consensus around the room when she said that, and a few people commented
that they had encountered the same thing.

Normally, I would have let this go by without comment, but this time, I had
just heard Kathy Dettwyler's talk about "Beauty and the Breast" the previous
day.  (Hi, Kathy.)  So it struck me as curious and I started to wonder about
what kind of cultural assumptions are in action here.  Another LLLL who was
at the session with me suggested that maybe it's because the nipple may be
exposed and you can see the milk, which comes out quickly during let downs
and only dribbles at other times, thus revealing the breast as a functional
object instead of a sexual object.  And there is also that tendency to think
of bodily fluids as . . . um . . . unhygienic.

I asked a very unscientific audience of one male (my dh) about it, and he
said that maybe it's because a pump seems vaguely like some kind of sex toy.
:-)  (Very unscientific and revealing the bias of the subject interviewed.)

Or maybe it's just another cultural thing and women are only uncomfortable
about pumping in front of others because it isn't something that they are
used to seeing.  Maybe with practice and familiarity, women would become
more comfortable about pumping discreetly anywhere, just like many of them
become comfortable with breastfeeding discreetly anywhere.

What do you all think?

Nancy Jo Bykowski, LLLL in northern Illinois
Managing Editor, New Beginnings
mother of Emily (19), Noelle (11), and Adam (7)
(not a new member of the list--just a skimming lurker)

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