I find it interesting whenever breastfeeding makes the news.
It seems to me that the decision goes along with any woman's right to choose: bottle or no bottle. What I find most amazing, however, is that issues related to this choice creates such polarized reactions in women who have "being moms" in common.
Breastfeeding in the news seems to be cast in such binary ways: either it's a completely natural thing (mind you, La Leche League can tell you many have a heckuva time with it--nothing universal about it) or an unnatural obscenity (people get offended by the idea of functioning flesh--that it's somehow arousing, or disgusting).
Today, for instance, is another example of a binary choice: should a nursing mother have to accommodate the testing conditions of non-nursing women, or men? A judge's ruling came down and granted additional time for a woman with a 4-month old to take her 9-hour medical exam to accommodate breaks so she could pump breastmilk. There was quite a hue and cry when the decision was being considered--is it a right to breastfeed? Or a privilege?
I guess I'm amazed that in this day and age people still don't like human beings to do what human beings will do--including deciding to do things "inefficiently" or "unnaturally" (that could refer to either type of feeding in my book)
What are other people's reactions when they see that breasts (functioning ones--not tabloid ones) made the news?
Unfortunalty I am not
Unfortunalty I am not surprised. I know we get most information from TV news and it is not a surprise that mostly men run these stations. Men being men I suppose....
I think people were upset about the woman wanting to get breaks for pumping because she has gotten other special requests - for other things. She sounded very high maintence.
KarilouMomof2 is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Tempe. Her daughters are 9 and 6.
Breastfeeding is such a hot
Breastfeeding is such a hot topic -- in the polarizing kind of way. But what makes it so is not the men behind the news scene, but rather the women who lash out at each other, defending their choice and condeming those who follow a different path. It's unbelievable. And very, very sad.
Just the other day I was talking to a colleague of mine who runs a news web site about how big breastfeeding is as a news topic. He said that he once hosted a radio talk show where the story came up about a mom who was arrested for breastfeeding her 8-year-old son in public. The talk show ended up lasting 3 hours because of all the callers calling in to voice their opinions. He said it was crazy.
I've tackled the topic of breastfeeding a couple of times on my blog -- once about being on anti-depressant medication while breastfeeding and more recently about hospitals that have stopped giving free formula to new moms. Both times I was blasted by many who had extremely strong feelings about my posts, and I was so surprised. Pretty sad that we have to get so divided on an issue that is so personal....but I guess that happens quite a bit these days.
DesertMom
http://ppdsurvivor.blogspot.com