Not a great week for breastfeeding.

Here's a round-up of some disheartening breastfeeding news from this week:

Myspace.com has removed the picture at right from a Tacoma, Washington woman's page because it "violates MySpace policies against nudity and sexually suggestive images."  Myspace also threatened to delete her page if she continues to post the picture.  You can sign an e-petition asking Myspace to reverse this action, and see see some comments about the issue at this Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog.

A Pennsylvania mother was asked to cover up while nursing at a mall, and then threatened with being "banned" from the mall when she declined.  The full story is here.  A nurse-in was held at the mall on Saturday (2/24) and hundreds attended (video).  Here's bit of her story:

At this point the first security guard came back to get involved. He asked why I couldn't move the breastfeeding into a more private location like the bathroom.  My husband asked him if he liked to eat on a toilet seat in a public bathroom.  The security guard replied that I didn't have to sit on a toilet. My husband asked where should she sit, on the floor?  The security guard replied that I could stand in the bathroom. My husband laughed and said "obviously you've never breastfed."

A mother in Michigan wrote in to Angela at Breastfeeding 1-2-3 with her story of being prohibited from nursing her son at his day care in front of other children and required to use a separate space.

And, as I wrote about below, a mother in Ohio told her story of being charged more by her day care because her baby was being fed breastmilk.   

Here's hoping that next week brings some better news!

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Comments

[onetinkerbell]

I read the article about Leigh Bellini being asked not to breastfeed at the mall and I was appalled. I can't believe that anyone would ask a nursing mom to move to the bathroom. I have to say that she handled it better than I would have because I would have told the security guard where to go with some choice, unprintable words. The idea that breastfeeding in public would bother anybody is ridiculous. Case in point:

On Valentine's Day I went to my daughter's 1st grade classroom to read and to help with the Valentine party. The whole class knows about Gwyneth because it was a big deal for Maeve when she was born and the class made "birthday cards" for her. It was our first time volunteering in the class so it was the first time they'd all seen her. During the party Gwyneth needed to nurse, so I put her in the sling, draped a blanket over us (sorry, I'm well-endowed and a nursing shirt and sling don't do enough to cover my breast) and walked around the classroom with her nursing. Not one of the children was bothered by it. In fact, only one of them asked to see her, but he didn't ask about the nursing - he didn't even ask what she was doing. I just told him that he couldn't see her right now and he was satisified with that. None of the other children were at all interested in what I was doing or what was going on under the blanket.

So here's my question: If 1st graders, who are capable of asking embarrassing questions or pointing out things (particularly when we don't want them to notice), weren't bothered by me nursing in their classroom why are adults bothered by nursing in public?

As an adult I'm not concerned with my child seeing a nursing mother nurse her baby in public, just as I'm not concerned with seeing someone feed her child a bottle in public. I'm not offended by it, either.
I am offended by young men whose pants don't cover their behinds and who show off their boxers. Come to think of it, I'm concerned with all low-riding pants, as I've seen much more than I should have seen when people have bent over. That bothers me much more than a breastfed baby.

Which would you rather see? A small part of someone's breast with a happy baby latched onto it, or parts of our rear-ends that used to be covered up - with or without underwear? Personally, I'm going for the breast. At least I know it's clean.

One more theory - all of those people who are offended by public breastfeeding: do you think they're jealous because they were bottle fed?