News Apr 11, 2012 at 4:00 am

City's New Breast-Feeding Regulations Would Fine Prudish Businesses

Comments

1
I am glad to see that someone is standing up for the rights of children and mothers alike. I personally didn't chose to breastfeed my children but take no offense when someone does. It takes all of one minute to pull your child aside - remind them that it is a natural part of how a baby eats and ask that they not stare - and urge them back to their normal activities. Kudos!
2
Thanks for reporting on this, Cienna. It's worth mentioning that I don't think I've ever seen a woman breastfeeding in a public place uncovered. This can't possibly be a wide-spread problem. People who can't handle the sight of a baby eating as God intended is the actual problem, and I'm glad that's been identified.
3
| eating as nature intended

FTFY
4
"What's the big deal about covering up?" The big deal is that it's inconvenient, degrading, shaming, and unfair. Mothers should be able to feed their babies without hiding it. What's the big deal about seeing a breast?? They're feeding their babies, not slapping you in the face with it.
5
I completely agree, and that's why I also advocate allowing public nudity and sex. It's just how god or nature intended it afterall! Can we poop in the street now too? It's just a natural part of the eating cycle you prudes!
6
Are you teling me Harrell doesnt have more important things to do? Really?
7
Great blog concept "The breast feeders of Seattle". Nothing beats a summer of taking public pictures of breast feeding women.
8
Great blog concept "The breast feeders of Seattle". Nothing beats a summer of taking public pictures of breast feeding women.
9
Infant mortality rates are unacceptably high in Seattle for native and African American babies. With tight government budgets, an increased number of women breastfeeding cuts down on social services (like formula through WIC)and increases health of babies in the first year. This law IS important as one part of a greater effort.
10
I breastfed my two kids for a combined total of six years. We spent a lot of time in parks, in restaurants, in stores, in coffee shops. (Hey, Trader Joe's! It's us! The wine-aisle breastfeeders!) I can't remember anyone ever saying anything, but if they had, I would have invited them not to look. If breastfeeding offends you, don't look. It's not like they have magnets. Just go eat your breakfast, and let my kid do the same.
11
I was shocked when I learner this was even an issue. I breastfeed my six month old everywhere and have never had anyone say a word about it.
To the person who said they've never seen a baby nursing uncovered. There's a good chance you have and didn't notice. A lot of the time it just looks like they're sleeping facing towards their mom.
12
@6 What could be more important than making sure people have their rights protected. Especially, considering the attacks on womens rights that have been coming from the republicans.
13
Hummm, well, where I'm originally from, (Not the United States, obviously..) there are often public "baby rooms" where mothers can breast feed their babies and change diapers, etc, in discretion at malls/department stores and train stations and such, so this sort of thing has never been really an issue. (at least as long as I know.) And normally, mothers in my country prepare milk, (breast milk or not), before going out with their babies because they know some people will get "offended" by breast feeding action. I personally have never seen a mother breast feeding right in the public eye, so I'd probably get shocked a bit at first, but look away.. It's just too much of an "intimate" act to perform in public for me....Rather uncomfortable feeling, to be honest.. Well, it's a cultural difference, I guess... But, when you know that there are certainly people who will get uncomfortable with being around this intimate act, and if you care about others, wouldn't you prepare the milk before leaving the house? Or is it too much of a tedium for you? I'm just wondering...
14
@13 Some people need to be offended.
15
@13:

Pumping is a pain. It's dreary. It's also time consuming. Why would I shove one more thing into a day already full of baby-related tasks to avoid offending someone who could just look away?

To me, that's the key: You can choose to look, or not to look. Me, I don't much like seeing men in Speedos, so I don't look. I don't really like to watch frat boys hit on drunk girls, so I don't look. You also have that option. Why is your comfort and convenience more important than mine and that of my baby?

16
Never stops being amazing how comments reflect that people actually believe that America and Americans are so full of common sense. be it totally cool to be able to grab a child and nothing else and hit the road (no bag no formula no diapers no food no nothing) and just take your shirt off and feed your baby as its comfortable. The precedent is made that mothers may go topless. and once again it seems people are lost on the view that that relates to their age gender social status and economic ladder.

As my man boobs are bigger than Dolly Partons and the hair on my nipples rivals that of whats on the head of Don King, Can I pull my shirt off any where any time and massage them as they "need" it?

My self would the need to dawn a light fabric to cover up as I breast fed and knowing of the imbalances of mothering women who are undergoing radical changes in short periods of time I can only hope I could manage anything.

But none the less I am left with what seems to be a topples acceptance of any time any place for breast feeding mothers? Milk can squirt and milk can drip and baby's can burp up.
17
@16 - please, for heaven's sake, see a therapist. Reading the Stranger is not the same as actually getting real help.

Good article. I didn't think this sort of thing would have been important because it has never impacted me, but I get why it makes a difference now.
18
Does merely holding a baby legalize a bare breast? Will bare breasts now be permitted in strip clubs? Will we have bare breast bars and taverns? A new Seattle perversion?
19
Okay so here's the deal. Breasts were invented solely for feeding infants. That's why they exist. That is what their function is all about. Cultures apply specific meanings to things like body parts, some cultures think a bared neck is sexually alluring, some an ankle, etc. These overlays of culturally defined meaning don't change the fact that the neck is designed to support and mobilize the head, the ankle to aid in walking. Just because a culture defines something in a certain way doesn't mean that's what that thing *is*. In our culture the female breast is fetishized: hidden, displayed, propped up, mashed down, made sexually important. But at the end of the day, the breast is about baby food. So if a woman wants to use her breasts "in the way that God intended," what culturally-limited human has the right to tell her otherwise?
20
@17 if you didn't get before you can stop acting like you get it now? this law allows a woman to whip out a tit anywhere and feed a baby.

Nothing against breast feeding but much against the over all intelligence of Americans who come from every nation, religion, and background?

Women have breast fed all the time about anywhere and its really not obvious as you cant really see a tit or a baby feeding unless you flop a tit out and don't bother to cover anything?

As you may need a "law" to do anything you may need a "law" to take a shit or sneeze or cough or ejaculate?

Its "legal" now to breast feed your baby?

I guess its the lack of contrast thinking deeply embedded in the Microsoft bionary code brains of the Seattle crowd that only understands 01010101 that impedes anyone from asking the questions of "why" we need law's that lets women feed baby's in public and/or in privately owned establishments? 010101?010101?

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