this could have been me...

if you've read my post from august 7th, you know how i feel about breastfeeding. i know i've said before i don't consider myself a 'lactivist', but maybe i'm just in denial.

because when i read about this following news story, i got really pissed off:

'A New Mexico woman who was kicked off an airplane departing from Burlington International Airport after she breast-fed her 22-month-old daughter has filed a complaint against two airlines with the Vermont Human Rights Commission...

...Gillette said she was seated in the second-to-last row, next to the window, when she began to breast-feed her daughter. Breast-feeding helps babies with the altitude changes through takeoff and landings, Gillette said. She said she was being discreet -- her husband was seated between her and the aisle -- and no part of her breast was showing.

Gillette said that's when a flight attendant approached her, trying to hand her a blanket and directing her to cover up. Gillette said she told the attendant she was exercising her legal right to breast-feed, declining the blanket. That's when Gillette alleges the attendant told her, 'You are offending me,' and told her to cover up her daughter's head with the blanket.

'I declined,' Gillette said in her complaint.

Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached the Gillettes and said that the flight attendant was having the family removed from the flight.

Gillette said she didn't raise her voice -- not wanting to make a scene in the current jumpy air travel atmosphere -- and complied with the ticket agent, crying as she exited the plane.' ~Burlington Free Press

you see, that woman could have been me. that family getting kicked off the plane could've been our family. i have nursed cadence on every flight we've ever been on, and there's no way in hell i'm using a blanket to cover up. why? how would YOU like to eat your meal with a blanket smothering your face? when you're nursing, one of the orifices you use for breathing (your mouth) tends to be occupied, and therefore you have mostly your nostrils to depend on for your oxygen intake. even if i WANTED to use a blanket, cadence would just pull it off. even when i try to cover my boob to be discreet while we're in public, if my shirt or sweater covers her nose at all, she'll pull that sucker right up and turn her mommy into an exhibitionist.

...the really stupid thing is that had the mother NOT been nursing her toddler, there is a good chance that toddler would've been crying and fussing and disturbing the other passengers at takeoff, esp. with the pressure changes. that mom was doing those around her a FAVOR by nursing, not to mention doing what was best for her child.

i know i may be boring some of you who cannot relate to the nursing mom's dilemma, but i feel it is important to do my part to let ordinary folks like you (sorry if i offend by calling y'all ordinary...) know what nursing moms experience. until flight attendants like the one on that delta flight are not offended by the sight of a breastfeeding mom and child, until the average jane and joe can look at a nursing mom and child in public and think nothing but positive things about it, until the public can see nursing as being the most natural thing for a mom and child to be doing, i'm gonna keep talking about breastfeeding, lactation, boobs, nipples, sucking, lansinoh, breastpumps, nursing bras, proper latch, let-downs, antibodies, extended nursing and child-led weaning.

and it's not that i'm trying to get y'all to agree with me, per se, but to get y'all merely used to the idea of boobs being used for nourishment and that being perfectly natural. i don't believing in guilt-tripping women into breastfeeding. there are reasons women don't and can't breastfeed. however, i believe strongly that women should make the choice based on correct information, and i believe that the current environment in our society and workplaces does not promote breastfeeding.

alrighty, i'll get off my soapbox now...