Winning International Symbol for Breastfeeding:
You may have heard about the woman who was kicked off a Delta airplane for breastfeeding her baby. Basically she was nursing her child in the second to last row, in a window seat, next to her husband. They were the only ones in that row. The flight attendant offered her a blanket to cover up more, she declined, and the flight attendand stated that she was offended, and had them removed from the plane. Yikes! I can't imagine how much noisier flights would be if babies were not allowed to breastfeed. And Max for one is not able to nurse under a blanket, nor should he have to. Yes, the mother could have taken the blanket just to keep the peace, but how will change ever happen if all we do is placate ignorant people and cater to them being "offended" by something as simple as feeding a baby? This woman was made to feel ashamed and embarassed, as if she was doing something wrong. Ugh. Not only that, but if this attitude of breastfeeding as something gross, shameful, dirty, etc. continues, we will see young people, new moms, soon-to-be-moms making a choice not to breastfeed their baby because they are embarassed, or they think it is inconvenient, when clearly it is the healthiest thing for babies. That would be sad.
So today there was a nurse in across the country at Delta ticket counters everywhere. Not only to say "Shame on Delta!" but to call for congress to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act which would allow all women to nurse in public regardless of which state they live in (currently different states have different laws). At PDX (Portland Airport) there were 40 mamas with their babys! Of course Max and I were there, too. There were many reporters, photographers, and journalists. We made it on all the local news stations today, and apparently there were a few people from the Associated Press, so we could even have made it national- like USA Today, which has been covering the story closely.
You may have heard about the woman who was kicked off a Delta airplane for breastfeeding her baby. Basically she was nursing her child in the second to last row, in a window seat, next to her husband. They were the only ones in that row. The flight attendant offered her a blanket to cover up more, she declined, and the flight attendand stated that she was offended, and had them removed from the plane. Yikes! I can't imagine how much noisier flights would be if babies were not allowed to breastfeed. And Max for one is not able to nurse under a blanket, nor should he have to. Yes, the mother could have taken the blanket just to keep the peace, but how will change ever happen if all we do is placate ignorant people and cater to them being "offended" by something as simple as feeding a baby? This woman was made to feel ashamed and embarassed, as if she was doing something wrong. Ugh. Not only that, but if this attitude of breastfeeding as something gross, shameful, dirty, etc. continues, we will see young people, new moms, soon-to-be-moms making a choice not to breastfeed their baby because they are embarassed, or they think it is inconvenient, when clearly it is the healthiest thing for babies. That would be sad.
So today there was a nurse in across the country at Delta ticket counters everywhere. Not only to say "Shame on Delta!" but to call for congress to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act which would allow all women to nurse in public regardless of which state they live in (currently different states have different laws). At PDX (Portland Airport) there were 40 mamas with their babys! Of course Max and I were there, too. There were many reporters, photographers, and journalists. We made it on all the local news stations today, and apparently there were a few people from the Associated Press, so we could even have made it national- like USA Today, which has been covering the story closely.
Edited to add: here are some links to news reports. You can see us in some of them!
The photographers loved Max, with his "Got Breastmilk?" t-shirt on. Of course there was too much going on for him to nurse, but when we got home he quickly ate, and fell asleep. Ron took this sweet picture of him, resting his hand on my hand. No blanket covering...is this offensive??? 
