Cover-up exposed
Cover-up exposed
Breastfeeding in public a touchy issue
by Anne O’Connor
The medical world is notorious for contradicting itself about what is really the healthiest way to live. But in this highly contentious field, one area of universal agreement stands out: Breastfeeding is the best way to feed a baby.
There is no opposition here because the research is solid and clearly weighted in favor of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding babies and moms are healthier than those who don’t breastfeed, both while nursing and in terms of the child’s long-term health.
And yet, despite these rock-bottom and non-debatable benefits, the issue of public breastfeeding can get people into a frothy debate faster than you can say letdown. Last month, a Viroqua woman was asked to cover her breastfeeding baby at the McIntosh Memorial Library, and that news is finding its way through the informal but varied network of nursing moms and the people who care about this issue.
“This is tricky. It is absolutely vital for us to support breastfeeding women, and the only way we can do that is to allow them to feel comfortable breastfeeding anywhere, any time,” says Denise Doerr, a Viroqua homebirth midwife who breastfed her six children for a total of 25 years. “One of the main reasons women stop breastfeeding is because of our culture’s lack of support [The library incident] is a very good indication of that.”
And yet Doerr, like many breastfeeding supporters, acknowledges that the sight of a nursing mom can make some people uncomfortable.
Erin Murdoch was sitting in a rocking chair in the children’s section of the Viroqua library when a staff member came and asked her to cover her baby. Murdoch was too surprised to respond.
“I didn’t say anything; I was shell-shocked. I took my sweater and covered him up,” Murdoch says. “She could have approached it in a much more professional way. It was kind of demeaning. If she had come to me and said she was uncomfortable or someone was uncomfortable, would you mind covering up? I wouldn’t have minded. But the way I was approached made me feel funny and shocked. I got scolded at the library.”
Shirley Creager, the librarian who asked Murdoch to use a blanket, says she didn’t intend to offend Murdoch or anyone else. In fact, she says, her goal in asking Murdoch to use a blanket was to ensure that all the library goers would feel comfortable.
Creager, who is acting as interim director while the library searches for a new director, is the children’s librarian. She’s the one who organizes and runs the reading for kids and all the different clubs. She says that nursing moms and families are very welcome in the library and her only intention in her suggestion was to be respectful of both Murdoch’s nursing and her other clients who might walk in at any time. Creager says that she felt like the mom had a lot exposed.
“I tried to do it in a soft, gentle way. I just said, “Mom, could you get a blanket?” and I walked away. I didn’t want to confront her,” Creager says. “I don’t want to ruffle feathers but I have to consider all the other people in the library. We don’t want to offend anybody.” Murdoch says that, excepting two children she knew, she was alone in the section. Not that it mattered, she says, because she’s always careful.
“I would say I’m a very discreet nurser,” Murdoch says. “I come from the bottom. And he was actively nursing, so it wasn’t like he was off my breast. There wasn’t much visible. I responsibly assessed the situation: There wasn’t a random single bachelor guy there. There was no one I would have been offending. If I’m at the Co-op and there’s some older guy having a cup of coffee, I’m going to cover myself up. But that was not the situation.”
Creager says that the library doesn’t have a policy about nursing in public, but she wants to emphasize that moms and their babies are welcome. Other mothers have nursed at the library without incident, although Creager says that she did ask another mother to cover up. Creager feels torn. She wants to support nursing moms and she also wants to ensure that the library is comfortable for all the patrons.
And Creager isn’t alone in that dilemma. Staunch advocates and nursing mothers alike experience that dilemma on a regular basis. Doerr says that in a world that often focuses on the sexual aspects of breasts, it’s easy to forget that breasts’ actual function is to feed babies. “You’ve got this whole dichotomy,” Doerr says. “Nonlactating breasts are something to be proud of and show off, but lactating breasts are something to hide. And women are paying big bucks to have their breasts look like lactating breasts.”
With this backdrop as one of the challenges, policy makers and health care providers are working to educate people about the many benefits of breastfeeding and trying to make public feeding not only acceptable, but supported.
The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends breastfeeding, touting its superiority over any formula or other substitute. The World Health Organization says that breastfeeding is “an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants.” United States government agencies from Health and Human Services to the Food and Drug Administration, to the National Institutes of Health, urge that women breastfeed their babies for at least the first year of their lives. It’s a national goal to have 75 percent of moms breastfeeding their newborns by the year 2010, and to keep moms breastfeeding through at least the first year.
For people who understand the science behind the push, this is a no-brainer. The rationale from a public health standpoint is flawless: Breastfed babies are less susceptible to a whole set of infections; they have fewer doctor and hospital visits; their moms are healthier; and their use of medical resources is less than that of nonbreastfed babies.
Beyond the medical benefits, there’s a practicality to breastfeeding that bottle-feeding can’t begin to match. At 3 a.m., it’s far easier to lift a shirt and give a baby a breast than it is to wake up, go to the kitchen, prepare a bottle, and sit up administering it. But there’s a clear disconnect between all the glowing research and the plight of moms trying to feed their babies out in public. Across the state, moms are sometimes asked to leave a place or stop breastfeeding their babies. It’s situations like these that Wisconsin State Senator Fred Risser (District 26), is hoping to outlaw. Risser, along with Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (District 22), from Milwaukee, tried to pass a right-to-breastfeed bill in the past legislative session. The bill would have given a mother a right to breastfeed her child in any public or private location without any interference.
“Breastfeeding should be encouraged, not discouraged,” Risser says. “It’s good public policy. It doesn’t hurt anyone.”
So Risser was disappointed when Rep. Leah Vikmur (District 14) took the bill into her committee and, after a public hearing with a lot of support and no opposition, didn’t allow the bill to be taken to a vote, effectively killing the bill for the session. Vikmur, a pediatric nurse from Wauwatosa, says that she completely supports breastfeeding. She breastfed her own two children and spent much of her 25-year career teaching moms how to nurse. Her decision on the bill wasn’t about whether nursing is valuable, which is clearly the case. “I wasn’t convinced that it was the state’s role to solve this problem,” Vikmur says.
Vikmur was concerned about enforcing a fine that the bill calls for and she also believes that moms have changed the acceptance levels of public breastfeeding. They’ve done that, she says, without a government mandate, and that’s the way it ought to happen.
The language in the bill presented by Wasserman and Risser was almost identical to a bill that passed in Madison. And across the country, 39 states have some version of a right to breastfeed in public law. Risser says he’ll reintroduce the bill next session.
Murdoch, the Viroqua mom, just wants to feed her baby the best way she can. And she doesn’t want to feel uncomfortable or somehow wrong for doing so. “I don’t think that a mother should be made to feel that way,” she says. “Everyone can be accommodated in this situation. I try to be sensitive to everyone’s feelings.”
