I’ve blogged here:
http://mommyblawg.blogspot.com/2006/11/delta-lactivism-update-todays-nurse-in.html

I am all for praising companies that really get on board with breastfeeding, but this statement sounds like a platitude. Was the flight attendant reprimanded? Disciplined in any way? Was the family who was escorted off the plane compensated in any way? Will Delta be paying a fine for violating the law? Makine a donation to La Leche League? Handing out cards to all passengers clarifying the rights of mothers with a phone number to call if anyone messes with a mother?

According to the article in the Vermont newspaper, the flight had been delayed by over 3 hours and it was after 10PM when this woman tried to settle her 22 month old for take off. I am sure that everyone, including the flight attendants were tired and crabby, but taking it out on a mother and a 22 month old is pretty low.

I will, as you direct, call Delta on Monday and thank them for the statement, and to ask them to support the legislation before Congress. But I am also going to chide them for 1. taking so long to get on board with supporting mothers and 2. not clarifying that I can nurse on a plane WITHOUT being asked to cover up. I will be nice. Just meticulously clueless and needing repeating over and over what I am supposed to do if someone asks me to cover up. Cause their statement doesn’t say I can actually show tit, just nurse. I won’t mention that my daughter weaned a year ago.

Thanks for taking the lead on this one.

Elizabeth Allemann, MD

I am very thankful to have flown innumerable times with nursing little ones and never (yet) encountered such hostility.

Kim Lee, MD, MSc, IBCLC

Annie in CA

Contacts:
Maria Pokluda Tel: 972-745-8523 Cell: 214-684-1275 Email: bpokluda@yahoo.com
Amy Philo Tel: 214-705-0169 Cell: 817-793-8028 Email: amyphilo@yahoo.com

Nursing mothers and their supporters will be gathering on Friday, December 1 at 10 AM, at the Delta ticket counter in Terminal E of DFW airport.

On November 21, mothers and other advocates took part in a nation-wide nurse-in at roughly 40 U.S. airports. Like all of the rallies across the country, the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Nurse-in supported the right to breastfeed in all public and private locations, anywhere a mother and child might be, regardless of any issues of discretion. There was no formal national organization sponsoring this event, but amazingly, hundreds of mothers and other supporters turned out nation-wide. Unlike the rest of the nation, however, the supporters at the DFW Airport rally were harassed, insulted, and threatened with possible arrest by members of the DFW police (Department of Public Safety officers), and then asked to leave.

Though the right to breastfeed already exists, many people are unaware of this right, or may choose to challenge this right, or otherwise intimidate and cause discomfort for nursing moms, posing a great threat to the continuation and exclusivity of breastfeeding relationships and compromising the health of mothers and children, and the economic well-being of the society.

The goals of this Friday’s nurse-in are:

• To insist that the DFW Airport Police (DPS) apologize to the attendees of the November 21st rally for the unacceptable comments and threats, and provide documentation that training is being implemented to educate all DPS officers about the laws concerning breastfeeding in the state of Texas (specifically Texas Health And Safety Code Chapter 165 Section 002, which states “A mother is entitled to breastfeed her child in any location in which the mother is authorized to be,” as well as the definitions of indecent exposure and disorderly conduct). The DPS should ensure that in the future, officers will protect, rather than endanger breastfeeding relationships, by refraining from engaging in harassment of nursing moms and their children. The police should not approach breastfeeding mothers, but rather the mothers should be left alone.
• To hold Delta accountable for the removal of Emily Gillette from one of their flights and to insist that training procedures will be put into place to ensure that all staff at Delta and its subsidiaries will uphold and support a child’s right to breastfeed.
• To call for airlines to revisit their breastfeeding and transport of pumped breast milk policies, to support traveling families and working mothers who must travel for business and be separated from their children. Current policies about liquid items, which restrict the amount of pumped breast milk allowed on board with mothers who do not have their babies with them, compromise the health of babies who depend on pumped milk, and force mothers to dump precious breast milk that they have pumped while they were separated from their children. This situation is especially harmful for babies whose mothers already have difficulty pumping enough to meet the child’s needs during times of separation.
• To call for immediate passage of pending federal legislation that offers civil rights protection for breastfeeding women in the workplace, and new federal legislation to protect the right to breastfeed whenever and wherever mothers and their children are allowed to be, regardless of whether any part of the mother’s breast might be exposed during or incidental to the feeding. This legislation will clarify rights that already exist, and nullify any business policies or laws throughout the country that are already in place or might come into existence, which would infringe on a mother and child’s constitutional right to breastfeed (For example, Tennessee law protects a mother’s right to breastfeed a child in public only as long as the child is younger than 13 months of age).

The issue of breastfeeding rights goes far beyond a woman’s right to nurse – it also encompasses a basic human right for children, the right to eat and to receive comfort and nurturing at the breast.

The Nurse-ins have been coordinated by volunteers.

For more information about this event, contact Maria Pokluda or Amy Philo directly.

I surround myself with other moms that feel the same way so we become all equally shocked when a mother is denied the opportunity to nurse.

I choose to breastfeed (2 kids) because it is the best choice for me and my family. I wasn’t thinking that “Woo hoo! I can show my breasts off in public!” If that was my goal I’d be dressing like Britney Spears.

If someone wants to sneak a peak while I am nursing, I say go for it! My breasts hang low, they’re lop-sided they leak and are streaked with stretch marks. So if someone finds them interesting to look at then I say they are the perverted ones because I definitely shouldn’t be one to be flaunting my breasts to anyone but my nursing kids!

I breastfed for 15 months. I breastfed on at least 6 flights, always when taking off and again when landing to relieve ear pressure for my son, and again when it was time. I support breastfeeding when/where a baby is hungry.

If I had a choice to hold up a blanket, which one can certainly do and give our infants plenty of room to breathe, or to leave an airplane, I’m sorry, but I would go with the blanket. To put my family out, to put my child in a stressful situation when there was a simple alternative, seems like a much worse choice than picking up a blanket. She even had her husband there to hold it up so it wasn’t even over the baby.

This sounds suspiciously like someone trying to make a buck. Sorry if that offends anyone; that’s how I read it.

I think the airline was wrong to ask her. I think the family was wrong to react that way. I would sign a petition if I knew she did the right thing. They didn’t just kick her off; she chose to leave.