292 Comments

Because it’s hot & stuffy… that’s why you shouldn’t have to cover up.

I have never seen a woman nursing in public that wasn’t classy about it. I’ve never seen a women whip the whole thing out and leave it flopping around for all to see. Let’s give moms a little credit around here and assume that they are being discreet. Let’s face it, the baby is covering the “sensitive” parts and all you can see 99% of the time is the curve of the breast… something that women show off on a daily basis.

[Reply]

The invitation to this blog states: “Please share your own breastfeeding tales of triumph and embarrassment here..” It did not invite an argument or debate over whether or not what this woman did was appropriate. Stick to the topic…which was designed to be supportive. If you don’t support the topic, post on another blog.

[Reply]

Delta is simply wrong. We should be able to feed our children anywhere, any time we need to. I have never seen anyone with a “breast flopped out” as a previous person wrote. You do not need a blanket to be discreet. For goodness sake, in some fashionable outfits, you can see more breast than you will from a nursing mom! I’ve nursed and pumped many places, and will continue to do so. I fully support the mom who was kicked off- she should stand up for her child & by doing so, will hopefully help the rest of us nursing moms, too.

[Reply]

That was exactly my thought. Not everyone needs/wants to see a woman’s breasts in public– baby hanging off of it or not. The woman obviously wanted to make an issue about it, or would have accepted the blanket, and Delta was completely in their rights to make a more comfortable experience for the rest of their customers.

AND to support your point, there are much bigger fish to fry as working moms!

[Reply]

While I understand the concern for others while breastfeeding and the thought that putting a blanket over the baby would be easy enough, I for one have a baby that would not breastfeed easily if I threw a blanket over her. She would not stay latched on and be even more upset.

Babies have sensitive ears and breastfeeding is the best way to comfort them on take-off and landing. It relieves pain in a way that nothing else really can. And, for everyone else’s enjoyment, it keeps them from screaming and crying. So the basic notion of breastfeeding a baby on a flight should be allowed, period.

I recently flew for the first time without my husband “buffer” to Washington, D.C.(with him I’ve flown to California and Bahrain, breastfeeding my then 4 and then 9 month old son respectively the whole way without a complaint or even a stare of disapproval). My return from D.C. was literally 11/14/06 on a Delta flight.

On the way there, I was by a window and discretely nursed my daughter on the side away from people. On the way back, I was in the aisle seat in a three-seat row with a man sitting in the window seat, making breastfeeding a little more difficult. I did have an open seat between us though. So, I moved to the middle seat with the intention of nursing my daughter slightly sideways so that most (if not all) people would be shielded from our view. With a little hesitation I apologized to the man beside me saying that I would have to nurse my daughter and that I hope it was okay. At first I wasn’t sure of his response, but mid-flight, when my daughter was happy and it was apparent that I was doing what I needed to to keep her happy, he told me that he had 3 children, understood and that it was absolutely okay.

I only offer this because I am astonished that this happened to a woman on a Delta flight the day after I did the same thing – no blanket just being discrete and arguably in a less-discrete situation. It makes me wonder – did someone complain loudly to motivate the flight attendant to be so insistent? Not to say that should the reason, but otherwise it makes no sense for it to have been such an issue for the flight attendant to bring it up!

[Reply]

I am a BSN RN and a childbirth teacher as well as a doula. I breastfed all three of my children for 2 to 3 years each. Breastfeeding is the single most benficial thing himans can do for their children. It always amazed me that we have no issue with giving kids cow’s milk (for baby cows) but somehow breastfeeding is “gross”. Breastfeeding reduces rates of childhood cancers, allergies, on and on. It also raised IQ scores by 13 points on average.
A friend of mine was nursing her 3 week old discreetly at a Las Vegas restaurant. She was asked to go to the “coat closet” to nurse becuase it was upsetting the patrons ( A 500 lb man was sucking down crab legs next to her and was making a huge mess). When she refused she was escorted out by the sevurit guard. She walked outside to find a woman in pasties and a g string handing out flyers for the strip joint down the street. She was so disgusted.
Ladies- DO NOT BE EMBARRASSED- be empowered to fight for this most basic mammalian right that we have to do what is best for our babies and educate others. We have the lowest breastfeeding rate of any country on the planet Earth. How backeards we have become in how we have babies and how we take care of them.

[Reply]

This makes me so sad… women getting down on each other for FEEDING THEIR CHILDREN. We need to stand up for each other and our babies!

If you don’t like to see it, don’t watch. It really is that easy. What is not as easy is trying to keep a blanket on top of a squirming baby. It gets hot in there, and they don’t often feel like having a blanket over their head.

The fact is, whether or not you enjoy watching, that mother had every right to breastfeed her child, covered or not. The law in Vermont says:

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 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.
Effective date, March 15, 2003.”

That is black-and-white.

[Reply]

I cannot beleive the insensitive emails on this board. I think every breastfeeding mother knows that it is not easy to breastfeed and I can only imagine how much harder it would be on a plane trying to keep a blanket over you. This woman was in a window seat next to her husband, anyone who saw what she was doing must have been trying to see. The messages on this board are just perpetuating the attitude that breastfeeding needs to be hidden and is something to be embarrassed of and that is the reason that many women choose not to breastfeed or choose to stop before the recommended 1 year. If women felt they could breastfeed when and where they needed to without judgement, more women would do it and stick with it. It should be a woman’s choice to put a blanket on or not. How much breast is exposed while a baby is feeding? No more than I see in some lowcut shirts and bathing suits. Give me a break.

[Reply]

My oldest son is 11 now. I breast fed him on airplanes, sidewalk cafes and in line to get out of jury duty at the Santa Monica courthouse. It never occured to me then that it would be a problem and it wasn’t. Have things gotten that much worse in the last ten years?

[Reply]

My daughter is now a beautiful twelve-year old girl, and I nursed her until she was a few months shy of four. Early in her life, I took her to the local shopping mall so I could have a change of scenery, and she, of course, needed to nurse during our excursion.

I very discreetly proceeded to find an out-of-the-way bench (that was, coincidentally, located in front of a maternity and nursing clothing outlet), to nurse her. Within a few minutes, an irate older man began “huffing and puffing” at me about my “blanket covering me fully” nursing. He was insisting that I take my daughter to the bathroom and nurse her there. My only response went something like this: “I am certain that you don’t eat your dinner while sitting on the toilet, and I choose to not ask my daughter to do so, either.”

That ended the confrontation immediately.

I think the lesson in all of these stories is that there will always be people who are uncomfortable with choices we make for ourselves and our families- whether they are about breastfeeding, schooling, or otherwise. I have always found it best to respond politely, as necessary. We sometimes forget that we are all in this together – whether or not we agree about various issues. It can be difficult to swallow one’s pride, but a moment of educating others in a positive way so they will truly “hear” us, is often more valuable than confrontation in all of its forms.

[Reply]

Leave a Comment