Today I'm pleased to share a guest post by Lucia, on her experience nursing at Six Flags over the summer. As she points out, Massachusetts is one of only four states that provides no legal protection for mothers who are harassed for nursing in public.
Update: It now looks like we may soon have a law protecting nursing in public in Massachusetts!
I breastfed my son for 14 months. I can't believe how shy I was back then! I wouldn't nurse in public for a long time and then I started nursing in the car. Then I started nursing in the doctor's office, then in secluded areas at the mall or at babywearing meetings. Before I knew it I was nursing everywhere and anywhere without a care in the world about who saw me. It was very liberating. When I discovered I was having twins I figured there was no possible way to nurse TWO babies discretely (and there isn't!) so I threw all caution to the wind. I was convinced that living in the most liberal state in the union made me "safe" from the dirty looks and jeers and even discrimination that I read about online. I was so terribly wrong.
It was August 2008 and my family and I met with a cousin and her family at Six Flags New England. We had a lovely day planned together with her older son and twins my son's age. Her boys are big Wiggles fans so we quickly found our way to Wiggles World. I decided to nurse one of the twins while in the S.S. Feathersword and Henry's Splish Splash Playground. The attendant came up to me and told me to stop. I asked her why and she told me that this is a children's area and I might offend the other parents. I was invited to walk halfway across the park to use their nursing station, however but I found this unacceptable. I told her that I had the right to nurse anywhere I had the right to be and I was not going to stop to go someplace and hide to do it. She continued to argue with me until my daughter finished her snack and I covered up. I told her that in any other state she would be in violation of the law for harassing me and she said I'm sorry but you still have to stop. It was embarrassing and infuriating to say the least. I kept thinking, what if they did this to a less confident mother? I know women who go to the bottle in public because they can't stand stand the glares and the comments, but that was there and this is Massachusetts! This can't be happening!
The experience has changed me quite a bit. I wear nursing tops all the time so no one can accuse me of being indecent, and I ask if it's okay to nurse someplace. I shouldn't have to ASK if my child can eat, after all no one asks if they can give their formula fed baby a bottle. It hurts me so much that we are still so behind the times. I wrote to Six Flags and never got a response. I recently put in a call as well. I contacted First Right about the situation and they found out that it is Six Flag's policy to have all nursing mothers use the baby care area for breastfeeding and nursing in public is against their rules. The baby care area however is not equipped to handle tandem nursing which is what I do 90% of the time with my daughters. I called my state rep and the speaker of the house but Massachusetts still doesn't have a breastfeeding law and there seems to be no hope of getting one passed this year.
I've had so many people tell me online how I was over reacting about this legislation getting passed. I had long discussions about how "no one would do that here" but guess what, it does happen here. It happened to me. Now I take nothing for granted and I hope and pray that with the new year we'll have a new law protecting moms like me (and you) from this kind of discrimination. Talk to your senator and congressman about getting this passed into law and even if it doesn't stop close-minded people and businesses right away, at least we have the protection of the law behind us.
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