drcris
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09:42:31 am on August 27, 2008 | # |
On a topic close to my heart, it seems that breastfeeding is being controversial again. A employee at a South Australian shopping centre was harrassed by security and police after expressing breast milk behind a curtain in the parents’ room. A parent made a complaint to centre management about a woman toplessly eating her lunch (!). She eventually had to deal with both police and centre security.
These issues seem to occur relatively frequently. It seems bizarre that a person expressing milk can be told that the room is only for those feeding their babies. It is a marker of the weirdness in our society. It seems that we are really happy to be openly “green”, but breasts are still too scary for the public.
On a personal note, I was really happy to breastfeed in public, but I was continually amazed by people giving me evil looks and storming off.
Decay of societal expectations and norms like this is a medical topic, as they are why people give up breast-feeding. There is remarkable pressure (from medical and nursing staff) on mothers to breast feed , and then the world tells tells them that it is deviant. Which creates unresolvable conflict. Surely we can offer our new parents something better.
I wonder if it is just Australia, or is the whole world like this?
rlbates 12:27 pm on August 27, 2008 | # |
No, it’s in the US too. Some women do it very discreetly, others seem to “make” an issue of it.
bessieviola 8:07 pm on August 27, 2008 | # |
Nope, it’s absolutely the US as well. I have much sympathy for that mother, being a woman who expresses exclusively. I think you hit it on the head when you said “There is remarkable pressure (from medical and nursing staff) on mothers to breast feed , and then the world tells tells them that it is deviant.”
I’ve had a lot of people look at me strangely when I tell them that I plan to breastfeed for one year… apparently anything past 6 months is seen as exceedingly strange.
Great post!
DrCris 1:00 am on August 28, 2008 | # |
It’s sad when normal, healthy behaviours become atypical, or even shunned. And don’t get me started on the treatment of those with chronic illness (like depression, for example).