Another One? Woman Kicked Out of Business for Breastfeeding

A Denton, TX woman was kicked out of a local Regis salon at Golden Triangle Mall when she attempted to breastfeed her crying 8-month-old infant in the salon. Robyn Nair, reportedly, was the only customer in the salon and would have been completely covered by the salon smock. She says she was told, “We do not allow that, and I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” with her hair half-cut.

According to a report from WFAA Dallas-Fort Worth,

Not only did the hairstylist violate her company’s policy by asking Nair to leave; she also violated state statute which says that wherever a woman is authorized to be, she’s authorized to breastfeed.

 

“We welcome mothers and children,” said Regis spokeswoman Susan Evans in a statement. “We do not have a policy against breastfeeding. This employee acted incorrectly.”

The relevant bit of law is in the Health and Safety portion of Texas code, § 165.002. RIGHT TO BREAST-FEED. A mother is entitled to breast-feed her baby in any location in which the mother is authorized to be.

In another disturbing story out of Texas, “Mom pushes for policy change after daughter’s rapist returns to Grand Prairie schools,” one woman reports her surprise and outrage when her daughter’s rapist suddenly turned up back in her school after apparently making an early completion of his sex offender rehabilitation. The report notes that she was not informed, and the school itself may not have been told that the offender was returning to class because juvenille services officials say it’s their policy to notify the school only if the offender is transferring to a new school district. Huh?

Indiana Governor Signs Workplace Lactation Bill into Law

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has signed into law a bill to support lactation in the workplace and make it a little easier for breastfeeding women who return to work. The law requires that employers with 25 or more employees “to the extent reasonably possible,” provide “a private location, other than a toilet stall, where an employee can express the employee’s breast milk in privacy during any period away from the employee’s assigned duties” and “a refrigerator or other cold storage space for keeping milk that has been expressed; or allow the employee to provide the employee’s own portable cold storage device for keeping milk that has been expressed until the end of the employee’s work day.” Good start, Indiana!

WIC Program (Barely) Increasing Access to Fruits & Veggies

The WIC program to improve low-income women and children’s nutritional status is being revised, and it is finally going to cover produce (other than carrots - did you know that baby carrots were explicitly excluded?). What’s the big improvement? A whopping $8/month in produce coverage. Read more in my post at Our Bodies Our Blog.

News Round-Up, 11/24/07

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer talks about “first-period kits.” I looked at some of the links (especially this one, which includes 5 thong liners) and thought, “Boo. I could do a better job of this.” Who wants me to make ‘em a first period kit?

Women. Cardboard boxes. Apparently they’re the same thing, and should be considered equally.

Young girls learning to “articulate safe boundaries” with regards to sexual activity is apparently “mumbo jumbo,” according to a Fox News whatsit. In other news, people on cable news shows talk past each other.

Crafty and decorative - the tampon turkey.

I can’t find it on their website, but Feministing says that the Family Violence Prevention Fund is looking for women who have had partners sabotage their contraception or otherwise try to control their reproduction to share their stories. This follows a study which found that adolescents’ abusive partners often tried to force them to become pregnant.

More bad news for women in Afghanistan.

Also, 10,000 women in Uganda die of pregnancy-related causes every year.

The Labor Nurse would like to know how to best educate the public about nurse-midwifery, and to draw people to the profession.

RH Reality Check tells you who to contact to support legislation that would restore campus and clinic contraception pricing.

Miss Landmine Angola 2008

More drama in the Virginia abstinence-only sex ed debate.

The Lactivist has her own blog drama going, on the topic of weaning, but it’s also about choice, individual decision-making vs. group norms, and whether an advocate blogger should be held to higher standards. More discussion here.

Unilever is no beauty.

In Georgia, two boys, ages 8 and 9, and being held on charges of kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl.

Jezebel picked up on my recent douching post at Our Bodies Our Blog.

Keep your appendages crossed for Missed Conceptions.

PushedBirth on Texas VBAC debate. The hospital in question decided to allow VBAC but not guarantee that an anesthesiologist would be immediately available in case surgery is ultimately needed. Isn’t that hilarious? “Ha, ha, women, we’ll let you try this thing that works more often than not, but if it goes wrong, you’re the one who’s going to suffer.” Oh, wait - aside from the threat of missing anesthesiologists, some docs just aren’t going to allow women to try it, anyway, because of the policy. But it’s not an “official ban.” I try not to swear on this blog. West Houston Medical Center is making that very, very difficult.

In completely unrelated news, the husband got a mention in Knoxville’s alt-weekly for his work as audio engineer for a recent recording.

Assorted Goodies

My most recent post at the OBOS blog covers a new breastfeeding advocacy group, donations to the U.N. Population Fund, external influences on pregnancy, and weird news of the day.

You all can let me know if you get tired of the pointers to over there, but I’ll probably keep posting them anyway, since the content is so closely related to this place.

Jezebel Can Suck It (But Can’t Breastfeed)

I get a guilty pleasure kick out of Jezebel. They have just enough content that seems vaguely feminist, vaguely pro-women, and somewhat health related that I have it in my feed-reader and keep an eye on the content. I appreciated their link to my cheeky review of the P-Mate. I think, however, that they really got it wrong with their recent post, “Breast Intentions.“

In pointing out this Slate piece on breastfeeding and IQ, and a mama mentioning that she knew of many tikes who “nursed into toddlerhood,” associate editor Jessica trots out this tired old theme:

I will paraphrase an early Sex and the City episode on this one. If they’re old enough to ask for it, you probably shouldn’t be breastfeeding them anymore.

First, a “toddler” is generally thought to be a youngun from 1-3 years old, or 15-24 months, depending on the definition. What are the breastfeeding recommendations for kids that age?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, and states, “There is no upper limit to the duration of breastfeeding and no evidence of psychologic or developmental harm from breastfeeding into the third year of life or longer.”

The American Academy of Family Physicians says, “The AAFP recommends that all babies, with rare exceptions, be breastfed and/or receive expressed human milk exclusively for the first six months of life. Breastfeeding should continue with the addition of complementary foods throughout the second half of the first year. Breastfeeding beyond the first year offers considerable benefits to both mother and child, and should continue as long as mutually desired.“

The World Health Organization says, “infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. Thereafter, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond.”

Before anybody jumps on this, the point of this post is not to make women who can’t breastfeed for physical, personal, or institutional reasons feel bad - it’s to highlight the negative attitudes that create social barriers for women who do choose to continue the beneficial breastfeeding of their child in accordance with these recommendations. This perception of breastfeeding women as kooks shows up in the comments thread for the post as well, with such lovely comments as:

-”My brother was breastfed till he was old enough to ask for it. EW. Mommy cut me off at 2 months because I ‘bit’ her. Allegedly. And my brother is still a Momma’s boy brat!”
-”By the way I’ve always suspected a lot of people who breastfeed 3 year olds and encourage their kiddies to sleep in bed with them are doing this because of their own attachment issues, not necessarily their kids’ benefit.”

So, yeah, Jezebel, why don’t you keep perpetuating “Eww, gross” stereotypes while being completely uninformed about the issue and posing as a kind of alternative gossipy site for smart-ish women. Heckuva job, Jezzie.

Universal Orlando Staff Harrasses Breastfeeding Mama

Security staff at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL threatened to boot a woman from the park for breastfeeding her baby, telling her to cover up or get kicked out.

Universal is reportedly issuing an apology to the offended mama:

“The specific team members involved will also be apologizing to the guest. Our policy is to allow breast feeding in our theme parks and while we provide special, enclosed, air conditioned locations for the comfort of our guests, we do not require guests to use these locations.”

Oh, how nice, Universal “allows” breastfeeding. Perhaps they should brush up on Florida law, which not only explicitly allows breastfeeding, but exempts it from “unnatural and lascivious act” prohibitions, and says a little nipple isn’t going to kill anyone. The law in part:

383.015 Breastfeeding.–The breastfeeding of a baby is an important and basic act of nurture which must be encouraged in the interests of maternal and child health and family values, and in furtherance of this goal:

 

(1) A mother may breastfeed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether the nipple of the mother’s breast is uncovered during or incidental to the breastfeeding.

On a related note, some stupid local news station in Florida is polling folks on the question, “Should Women Be Allowed To Breastfeed In Public?” At present, 35% say “no.” Looks like a few more folks need a referral to the state law on this matter.

Thanks to Kat for pointing out the story.

Pump and Type: Katie Allison Granju Talks About Working While Breastfeeding

Katie Allison Granju had returned to work following the recent birth of her baby, and writes about both the privileges she has that allow her to do so and the challenges she and other breastfeeding women face in the workplace, with a list of suggestions for improving the situation.

News Round-Up, 9/24/07

Because, realistically, too many interesting things are whizzing through my RSS feeds while I’m puttering around in the garden.

Merck has halted an HIV vaccine trial because the vaccine doesn’t seem to work.

HPV vaccine may protect against more than 4 strains of the virus.

I could use some sham acupuncture right about now.

For 75 percent of women seeking treatment for a persistent yeast infection, it’s probably something else.

Tips for making a mammogram less unpleasant. None of these include making it less smashy.

Researchers are looking at purging disorder, an eating disorder separate from the more well-known binge and purge of bulimia.

Babeland has amusing Durex condom ads.

Bill Maher is not so funny when it comes to breastfeeding.

Missouri Court of Appeals rules that “a state law allowing criminal and civil action against a person who harms a pregnant woman and her fetus does not permit the prosecution of a pregnant woman for causing indirect harm to a fetus.”

I’m not so sure about this mudflap girl campaign from the Wyoming Libraries, but it certainly is getting attention.

Jezebel talks hairy pits. Which, so you know, are completely natural in both men and women. Ahem.

Christine rounds up the Aurora, IL Planned Parenthood controversy.

Brownback thinks women seeking abortion have no idea what they’re doing.

REBIRTH gets all riled up about education and birth.

Facebook Deletes Breastfeeding Photos for “Obscenity”

Facebook has been deleting members’ breastfeeding photos, and even banning members, because of the “obscenity” of breastfeeding images.

Some members have responded by setting up the group, “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!,” which has almost 16,000 members as of right now. Most people recognize, I think, that Facebook has the right to make decisions about what people can upload to the site, and preventing the pictures from appearing doesn’t actually prevent anyone from breastfeeding. The objection is to the perceived hypocrisy of allowing photos of bikini-clad girls revealing far more skin to remain while removing breastfeeding photos and banning members who continue to post them, and the implication that breastfeeding (even when no nipple is exposed) is obscene or needs to be hidden away because there is something wrong about it.

What I’d like to know from Facebook (and haven’t received a response to yet):

1) Are breastfeeding photos removed by Facebook by Facebook staff examining the site, or only if other members complain about them?

2) Is a complaint enough to cause a photo to be removed, or is there some judgment on Facebook’s part as to whether the photo can remain?
If photos are automatically removed just because someone complains, that’s not a very good system - people with personal or agenda-driven grudges would be making it unnecessarily unpleasant to be a Facebook member, which I doubt the site runners want to do, as a business strategy. If Facebook folks are making some kind of judgment as to whether the complaint is valid, the following two questions are important. The USA Today blog entry linked below reports that “‘an investigations team’ within the customer service department decides whether a particular image qualifies as ‘offensive content.’” This lends support to the idea that Facebook is being ridiculous, judging a small bit of flesh being used for a natural purpose of feeding a child as offensive when broader swaths of the same for titillation purposes are judged as fine, and could in fact change course on this issue.

3) If a breastfeeding photo does not show any nipple (which the majority would not), why is it considered obscene?
Breastfeeding does not equal nudity. One almost never sees nipple, given that a kid is latched on. How is this line drawn, given that photos that do not reveal anything but the sides of breasts or less are being removed? 1/2 a breast? 3/4 of a breast?

4) Are other photos, such as of women in bikinis or shirts that may expose as much breast as or more than breastfeeding does, removed for obscenity if someone complains about them?
If one were to complain about bikini photos, would that cause removal of the photos to the same degree as breastfeeding photos are being removed? If the terms of service prohibit nudity and obscenity, how is a breastfeeding photo any more nude or obscene than a photo of a woman in a plunging neckline or swimsuit? If Facebook is adhering to their “Photos containing an exposed breast do violate our terms and are removed,” line, why the seeming inconsistency?

Update: I received a response from Facebook to the above questions. Not surprisingly, the answer doesn’t really address the meat of the issue:

Users are able to report any material on the site that they find offensive or annoying to them. We review the reported material and remove anything that violates our Terms of Use. If warranted, we will also warn the user and disable their account if the abuse continues. To view our terms of user please visit the link http://www.facebook.com/terms.php. Let me know if you have any further questions.

So, does that explain why breastfeeding is obscene but girls in bikinis are not? Why showing almost no boob or more boob but no nipple is off-limits? Nope.

Coverage elsewhere:
The Star (Canada) profiles a woman who was banned from Facebook related to this issue

TechCrunch - because it’s nice when breastfeeding issues make it out of the mommy and lactivist blogs.

Strollerderby’s MetroDad on this Babble blog puts it directly: “C’mon, Facebook. Get with the f**king times, man. You allow underage teenage girls to put up photos of themselves in their skivvies but you remove photos of mothers who want to share subtle photos of themselves breastfeeding their children? What the f**k?”

USAToday blog points out that a banned member was told her account could not be reactivated under any circumstances. All over a little breastfeeding. And who knew USA Today had a blog? Thanks to Kleinheider for the tip on this one.

One Small Step for Breastfeeding is thr blog of Karen, a banned Facebook member. Browse the August and September archives for her posts about her Facebook experience.

Jezebel - Jezebel, you were doing okay until you called the lactivists “retarded.”

Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog reminds us that MySpace did the same stupid thing earlier this year. Can I get my social networking without the hypocrisy and boob-fear, please?

Facebook Observer kind of misses the point, asking “why don’t the lactivist’s[sic] start their own social network?” Because breastfeeding is nothing to be ashamed of or protected from. That’s why so many states have established laws stating that women have a right to breastfeed anywhere women otherwise have the right to be - because women shouldn’t have to close themselves off from the world and pretend that babies get fed through some kind of invisible magic.

A Mommy Story has a good rant.