Should public breastfeeding continue to elicit such an outcry?
Recently the media reported that a flight attendant ordered a mother off a commuter flight in Burlington Vermont because she was breasfeeding her 22 month old daughter. Apparently the flight attendant gave the mother a blanket and asked her to "cover up" and the mother refused. The mother said that no part of her breast was exposed and she was in the second to last row window seat with her husband seated in the aisle seat. See the complete report here.
I wonder why breastfeeding in public always seems to cause such a fury? The irony is that we see more breast exposure in ads, billboards, movies and television in a single day than we ever see when a mother is breastfeeding.
I have several theories on why public breastfeeding is such a hot button item.
- Not enough women breastfeed today so we are simply not used to seeing it.
- It is even more rare to see a mother breastfeed her child past 6 months or one year of age. So when mothers are seen breastfeeding a toddler, the general public is not educated about the benefits of long-term breastfeeding and often does not know how to react.
- The breast has become such a sexual object and the primary purpose has been lost. (See Men speak out for Breastfeeding!)
Given all of these possibilities, I still believe that mothers who breastfeed should be sensitive to the lack of education our culture has with public breastfeeding issues and be sure that they are covered as much as possible. However, I also believe that every breastfeeding mother has the right to feed her child no matter where she happen to be.
Brenda
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