Nursing Moms Rally at Airports

[NVMojo]

Remember the mom in "Farenheit 9-11" who had to drink her bottled breast milk at airport security? This is the backlash story!

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -

Carrying signs with slogans such as "Best in-flight meal ever," scores of mothers breast-fed their babies at airports around the country Tuesday in a show of support for a woman who was ordered off a plane for nursing her daughter without covering up.

"It's about raising consciousness about our culture's sexualization of the breast. Breast-feeding needs to be supported wherever and whenever it happens. Babies don't know the meaning of `wait,'" said Chelsea Clark, 31, wearing a "Got breast milk?" T-shirt as she nursed her 9-week-old son at the Burlington airport.

About 25 women turned out for the "nurse-in" at the airport, parking themselves near a ticket counter in a peaceful - but not-so-quiet - demonstration. Similar protests were held at airports in Boston; Las Vegas; Columbus, Ohio; Nashville, Tenn.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Hartford, Conn.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Louisville, Ky.

Some of the women carried signs that read, "Don't be lactose intolerant" and "Breasts - Not just for selling cars anymore."

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/nov/21/112104245.html

[yellowcanine]

1. Some of those breast milk "containers" may be too large to get through security.

[NVMojo]

4. naughty!!!

[EFerrari]

2. "Not just for selling cars anymore!"

:rofl:

[electron_blue]

3. good for them!

[shanti]

5. yessssss!

you go, moms!

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Nursing Mothers and Airliner Security

I have a quirky take on nursing mothers on commercial aircraft. As I see it, TSA personnel and airline crew ought to be relieved if the woman is nursing. After all, if Baby-kins is tanking up, clearly that wasn't a bomb in Mummy's brassiere.

:silly:

[jhain]

7. Brave Moms

They are also reducing our national health care costs for the YEARS to come. Nothing makes a healthy adult like breastfeeding as a baby.

[LostinVA]

8. I love this: "Breasts - Not just for selling cars anymore."

[customerserviceguy]

9. Peaceful protest

the hallmark of a free society. More power to these women!

[Bigmack]

10. One group NEVER to screw with...

lactating moms.

1. They know they're doing the right thing by their kids, so it's a rational anger response.

2. They get all kinds of good brain chemicals and hormones while doing it, so it's mildly addictive.

3. They have the "mother bear" instinct to protect their cubs from interference.
Imagine a grizzly in a leaky nursing bra.

A combination NOT to be fucked with.

Go moms!

[tblue37]

11. Mothers Rally to Back Breast-Feeding Rights

Delta says it's sorry it happened, and that the airline supports a mother's right to breastfeed on a flight. Apparently the problem was the flight attendant, who said that she was offended by the sight of Ms. Gilette nursing her child! It seems there was no complaint from other passengers at all.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101316.html

According to Gillette's attorney, Elizabeth A. Boepple, the family boarded a flight from Burlington, Vt., to New York on Oct. 13 after a two-hour delay. On board, Emily began to nurse her toddler daughter in her window seat before takeoff. Gillette's husband, Brad, sat in the aisle seat to provide his wife and their daughter some privacy.

A flight attendant handed Emily Gillette a blanket and said, "You need to cover up. You are offending me," according to Boepple.

Gillette refused, saying, "No, thank you. I will not put a blanket on top of my child's head," according to Boepple.

Moments later, the Gillettes were escorted off the plane by a ticket agent and put on a flight the next day.

[ulysses]

12. aauuugh! breasts! hide the children!

Jesus Screaming Christ but we live in a nation of idiots.

[Toots]

13. I would think a public display of someone showing love and nurturing

would be offensive to Republicans. I goes completely counter to their philosophy of "rather be feared than loved"

[Berry Cool]

14. Whether this flight attendant is Republican or not, we don't know.

What we do know is, this flight attendant is probably offended by the sight of other people breathing.

On edit: I'm doing a little research on this story, and you know what I'm discovering? Even in the stories about the flight attendant being disciplined, the attendant is never identified, either by name or by sex.

In other words, it seems to me that a lot of people are assuming that this flight attendant was female. Maybe--just maybe--the flight attendant was male.

It would certainly explain a lot, if that were so. There are plenty of men out there who still haven't got on board with the idea that a woman's breasts aren't always all about sex, and the fact that you see a slight hint of one when a woman is breastfeeding DOESN'T mean she is trying to "flash" you. Really.

[Toots]

15. You know a lot of Liberals that would be offended by this do you?

:shrug:

[Fierce]

21. I had people give me the hairy eyeball

and make snide comments at me when I was breastfeeding at a party function.

[JNelson6563]

16. Breastfeeding should be allowed anywhere

but, as one who nursed both my babies, I always threw a little baby blanket over baby. A little modesty is recommended.

Julie

[vanlassie]

17. A blanket over the baby?

Even in the desert where it is 110 degrees? Even in a hot airplane if the air is not circulating during preflight? Even if the 22 month old will grab it away in two seconds flat? Even in the summer at the public pool?

Why a blanket? Is there something to hide?
Just asking.

[miss_american_pie]

19. My first wouldn't tolerate that

As soon as he could use his hands, he'd reach for the blanket and pull it off. Before he could do that, he'd rear his head back and scream. Caused much more of a scene than quietly nursing without the blanket, and I gave up on trying to force him to pretty early on.

The second didn't care if he was covered or not.

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

18. "Offended"????

So it's "offensive" to feed your baby in public? Pu-leeze. I've breastfed all 3 of my kids...my daughter is still going strong at a little over a year old. She wouldn't keep a blanket over her head for more than 2 seconds unless you were playing peekaboo with her. I'm willing to feed my daughter - and do it discreetly - anywhere she needs to eat. And my state doesn't even have legislation on the books yet, except for jury duty exemption. Whether that ignorant flight attendant knew it or not, Ms. Gillette should have been okay per Vermont law, as follows:

Vt. Acts, Chap. No. 117 (2002) finds that breastfeeding a child is an important, basic and natural act of nurture that should be encouraged in the interest of enhancing maternal, child and family health. The law allows a mother may breastfeed her child in any place of public accommodation in which the mother and child would otherwise have a legal right to be. The law directs the human rights commission to develop and distribute materials that provide information regarding a woman's legal right to breastfeed her child in a place of public accommodation. (S.B. 156)

I believe New York also has something similar. As do 35 other states.

[cali]

20. That flight attendant

chose the worng state to pull her little snit in. I know Rob Appel, head of the HRC here. The conclusion of that investigation will be scathing.

[Berry Cool]

23. As I said, we don't know that it's a "her"

and the attendant has already been disciplined in some way. Which is a good thing.

But obviously we've got a long way to go in educating people about the "breast doesn't always = sex" thing. *sigh*

[gorbal]

26. They broke the law in vermont, pure and simple

They should consider state laws before they kick people off planes.

[jhain]

30. A Current Summary of Breastfeeding Legislation in the U.S.

http://www.lalecheleague.org/Law/LawBills.html

[greccogirl]

29. The flight attendant should BE FIRED, period

and Delta should pay for the insult to this woman and her child. And make sure they don't pull this kind of crap again.

[deepthought42]

24. I believe MD has a similar law

There were women having a sit-in at BWI the other day to protest the incident and the treatment of breast-feeding women in general. I say go for it! :woohoo: Should I ever have children (and that's a big IF right now), I would like to be able to breast-feed my children whereever I feel comfortable.

[Dulcinea]

22. That flight attendant needs to get a life.

You'd think he/she would be supportive of anything that keeps a little one quiet on the plane! Hungry babies scream, you know. :shrug:

[tblue37]

25. Yep--My bad. I just assumed the flight attendant

was a "she." I think I just sort of reacted to the "panties-in-a-twist" aspect of the flight attendant's reaction. I also think that most men who react negatively to breastfeeding are a bit too intimidated by the procedure to tell a woman that she is offending them by nursing. The idea that a flight attendant would tell a passenger--a paying customer--that her completely legal choice to breastfeed her child on the plane offended him/her just strikes me as something more likely to come from a female than a male flight attendant.

I am just basing this on the reactions I have heard from people in general about breastfeeding in public.

And, yes, I nursed both of my now-adult children--one to 13 months, one to 21 months. I let them decide when to quit nursing, though I would probably have stopped nursing my second child at 2 years if she had not stopped on her own by 21 months.

[NickB79]

27. "Nurse-in" doesn't have any ring to it

But I don't want to offend with my name for it (hint-sounds like sit-in :-))

[Vidar]

28. Very cool.

[DarkTirade]

31. So now we're not allowed to bring liquids on the plane...

how the hell are babies going to get fed if they're NOT going to be breastfed?