Comments on: Breast-feeding mom kicked off plane for reminding fellow passengers that humans are animals.

By: Why are humans so repulsed by the idea that they are animals? | Dangerous Intersection

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:02:10 +0000

[...] my own skeleton my not-so-distant ancestors, ubiquitous synonyms for poop the common aversion to breast feeding or this description of the work by a Martian [...]

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:59:45 +0000

This is ridiculous. I cant stand the people that frown upon breastfeeding in public. I would understand if I was pulling it out and showing it to everyone, but breastfeeding is what God intended us to do to feed our kids. I have bottled fed my son with formula because he was in the NICU the first three weeks of his life, and I am currently nursing my five month old daughter and both are just fine! I am modest when I nurse, but I still get looks of disgust. Sorry but I am going to feed my baby when she is hungry! I am not going to deprive my daughter her food to spare someones feelings of embarrassment. They can endure me nourishing my baby or they can hold her why she cries in hunger!…..

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:41:24 +0000

Dozens of nursing mothers crowded into a downtown Vancouver H&M clothing store over the lunch hour on Thursday to protest the way the chain treated a breastfeeding mother last weekend. Here’s the link.

By: Ham Bone

Ham Bone — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:05:08 +0000

Did someone say the female breast are a sex part and compared them to the penis? The breast serves the purpose of feeding the child, not to be inserted with a penis. Males also have nipples always shown in public.
The problem is not breast or even nudity itself, but people are not mature enough and too dirty minded to handle it in some countries. Maybe the woman didn’t like the idea that something natural and normal should be treated like something obsene?

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:38:32 +0000

A Harvard student must be given extra break time during a medical licensing exam to pump breast milk, a Massachusetts appeals court judge ruled yesterday. For more, see the NYT.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:04:41 +0000

I agree with Deb about not being too quick to judge moms who give their babies formula. I have a 10-month-old, and I am still limping along with a low breastmilk supply. Not such a bad problem now that my girl is eating solids/table foods, but, believe me — it was a huge problem for me (postpartum depression because of it) and for her when she was a newborn. She kept losing weight on breastmilk alone, and finally we HAD to give her formula or she would have suffered. I kept giving her what breastmilk I could, pumping like a maniac when I went back to work (dad’s a stay-at-home), popping first Reglan and then domperidone (from New Zealand because the FDA bans it for lactation in the US) and supposedly lactogenic herbs, and supplementing with formula when necessary, which was quite a bit. I had my comeuppance, and I will never again judge a mom who is feeding her child formula.

Oh, on this topic: Breastfeeding isn’t dirty. Look the other way if you must. I never felt comfortable doing it in the wide open because I tend to be a private person (except on blogs with intelligent people), but it would have been legal if I had.

Another thought: breastfeeding presents an odd Venn diagram that takes in both hippies and homeschooling, conservative/evangelical Christians. And Jews. And liberal Catholics. A very diverse following! (I am a United Church of Christ Christian and a political liberal.)

Thanks for reading, and happy Labor Day Weekend, everybody!

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:31:35 +0000

Human babies should drink human milk, right. All experts agree that human milk is better than cow milk for human babies. Far better. But don’t try to spread the word effectively or the corporate infant formula lobby will smack you down. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20523460/

By: Deb

Deb — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 19:46:09 +0000

I think it is utterly ridiculous all the fuss being made over feeding a baby. Obviously this woman was within her rights to nurse her child. It isn’t as if she was running down the aisle flashing people for a ..”gone wild” video. Chances are more breast is exposed at beaches than was being exposed on that plane.

I even understand that some people (not always fundies) are a bit taken aback at first. Most people of my generation did not grow up seeing this in public. So when at first they encounter it they may be a little taken aback. Some of them may worry that there kids who also did not grow up seeing this publically will notice and ask questions. Some people just dont like answering those questions. But the good ones get over that real fast. I have a friend who nursed her kids and my youngest asked and I answered. No big deal. Time will show that the more it goes on the less “shocking” it will become and in time no one will give a second glance to the breast but maybe start concentrating on the innocent baby in front of it

However I think it is also ridiculous to insinuate that all mother’s who do not nurse are uneducated to the matter, lazy and oh one of my favorites, equal to child abuse by giving the baby a bottle of forbidden formula.

Deciding to have a child, your birthing plan (be ready to throw to the wind if medically necessary) raise a child, nurse a child, bottle feed a child are all personal decisions. I gathered all the facts and talked to several moms and doctors and made my decision from there. Never assume that because you see a bottle the parent is neglectful, lazy, or dumb. Never assume that you know at a glance what is going on and has gone in that person’s life. I see a baby and I look way beyond the nipple in the mouth, natural or synthetic. If you have babies, you hold ‘em and you love ‘em!

For the record I dont think a nursing mother should be required or expected to use a blanket to cover everything. There is nothing wrong with offering one but sometimes it is just too hot or stuffy or will quickly become so for the baby. Would you want to be served a dinner at a restraunt and then asked to cover yourself with a blanket while you eat?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:48:47 +0000

As a mother who has just taken her eight month old baby on a flight, breastfeeding your baby is pretty much neccessary and can be very difficult. In order to keep your baby’s ears from popping, you have to breast feed them on take-off and landing, so there’s two feedings at least. Personally, I am always crazy neurotic about it. Oh god, did my nipple just show?!? Give me that blanket! Argh, she pulled it down, oh no there’s that nipple again, Damn. It’s really hard for nursing mothers, so if you have a problem with this neccessary act, just look away. Unless your child’s asleep, blankets usually don’t help. Either they don’t like them or they find them extremely interesting, and there you go, no more blanket and the nipple is right out there for all to see because now the baby’s mouth is full of, what, that’s right, blanket.

By: Srinivasan S.R.

Srinivasan S.R. — Sun, 20 May 2007 11:46:30 +0000

I agree with the reasoning that a nursing mom should be allowed to feed her child anywhere even so in religious places. After all, it’s human life we are talking about, people. We can’t let a child go hungry. When a mother has breast milk to give and is in a position to do so, why all this nonsense about obscenity?
There are so many sites that make pornography available on the net and there is no one to do anything about that! Millions of people die due to hunger and starvation in the 3rd world countries and there aren’t people doing anything about that… then similarly there should be no fuss made on breastfeeding too.
Afterall, the breasts are part of a woman.They have milk ducts due to which they look like that. Men too have breasts and nipples but when a man goes topless on the beach, no one says anything about it.
Finally, every woman/guardian who has a child and has breast milk has every right to feed the child at anytime and anywhere.