"That Child Is Breastfeeding Her Doll!"

It always amazes me that, in this day and age, people are shocked by breastfeeding behavior. We've all heard stories like the Delta Airlines embarrassment where a woman was kicked off a flight for breastfeeding her child and not complying with the flight attendant to "cover up." The outrage sparked by this situation was impressive--discussions on talk shows, angry mothers staging "nurse-ins", devoted online chat rooms--I was thrilled to see so much backlash against an airline for such irresponsible behavior. After that, I had fantasies of being on a flight where that happened and throwing every little bit of legislation in the flight attendant's face. And in my household, my 7-year-old daughter wouldn't let it go..."Mommy, I just don't understand! Why would they kick her off for feeding her baby? Does that mean I can't bring snacks on the plane anymore?" Thinking that nothing could be worse on the breastfeeding advocacy front, and after explaining to her that there are ignorant people in the world, I came across an even more shocking event...

My 3-year-old's preschool teacher had a beautiful display of photos she had taken throughout the year of all of the children in the class. In one picture was a gorgeous curly-haired redhead. She was holding a doll on its side with the head in the crook of her arm, tummy-to-tummy with her shirt raised slightly and lovingly staring down at its face. The flock of mothers around this picture couldn't get over how wonderful this picture was. While everyone was commenting to her mother about how much they loved the picture, another mother passing by yelled, "Oh my God! Would you look at that? That child is breastfeeding her doll! How inappropriate is that to put that picture on the wall? That's terrible!" Everyone just looked at her and dispersed. No one wanted to comment. No one wanted to deal with the situation--just like the Delta story. I didn't speak up. I should have. My fantasy could have become a reality, and yet, I froze. Part of my job is to promote and protect breastfeeding. I won't let the next chance get away from me.