Mommy, why can’t I eat?

Before I had my daughter, I was pleased to learn that I could feed her wherever I deemed appropriate (or necessary) — that my ability to provide nourishment for my child was protected by state law. Effective April 23, 2004, Colorado protected a woman’s right to breastfeed anywhere she has the right to be. Here’s just a snippet of the legislation:

C.R.S.25-6-302. Breastfeeding.
A mother may breastfeed in any place she has a right to be.

from C.R.S.25-6-301:
(2) The general assembly further declares that the purpose of this [legislation] is for the state of Colorado to become involved in the national movement to recognize the medical importance of breastfeeding, within the scope of complete pediatric care, and to encourage removal of societal boundaries placed on breastfeeding in public. (emphasis added)

Read the full legislation text on La Leche League’s state-by-state summary of breastfeeding law.

I’m not a lactivist by any means. I have many friends who feed formula to their babies, and I don’t acuse them of poisoning their children. While I question the wisdom of Nestle’s big move into Africa telling mothers that formula was *superior* to breastfeeding (yeah, right), I also don’t think that the big formula companies are evil and out to destroy humanity.

I have frequently nursed my daughter in public — or at least I did, until she became adept enough at solid food that she didn’t NEED breastmilk while we were out. And (gasp!) I didn’t even use a blanket to cover her up. I quickly learned that covering my daughter’s head (and thus, being less vigilant about the placement of my shirt) was a recipe for flashing the public, as she *hated* to have her head covered. Perhaps some people saw me and scorned, but if so, no one ever approached me about it. In fact, many (older women especially) praised me for nursing my daughter.

All of this lead-in is to point out two recent news stories here in my great state.

1. A woman was breastfeeding her child at a park. I don’t know the specifics — was she exposing her breast openly (which, btw, is LEGAL), or was she covered. She was issued a ticket by a park ranger for public exposure of genitalia. Leaving aside the fact that she was protected by law, since when are breasts genitalia? The ticket was later reversed, but the parks never did issue an apology. Story here.
2. A young couple tours the state capital. The couple’s five-month-old son becomes hungry, so the mother finds a sofa, settles in, covers herself and the baby with a blanket and feeds her child. The receptionists (the only other people in the room) suggest that she might be “more comfortable” feeding her baby in the basement — the basement that lacks air conditioning, happens to be under construction, and is thus *filled with construction workers*. Story here.

In this second case, the reception area in question happened to be for the governor’s office. Now, this part makes me wonder if the family set this up as a test after the other recent hoo-hah about nursing in public (god, I love that the acronym for that is “NIP”). But, even if it were a set up…whaaaaa?

As I said, I’m not a “lactivist” (Hathor will have a field day with this one), but FTLOG…let the woman feed her baby!