Breast Feeding in the U.S.A

[Alessan]

I’m not sure whether this should be here or in IMHO. Mods, feel free to do your thing.
Next month my wife and I will be visiting the U.S. after a three-year absence, partly because we miss the place, but mainly to show off out 5-month-old baby to my assorted relatives (including his great-grandmother). We’ll be there for about a week, dividing our time betwen Florida and NYC.

Now, our Pride & Joy is exclusively breast-fed, and we have no intention of changing that for the next couple of months. My wife has also been known to feed him in public, if the circumstances demand it; she’s always very discrete (sits in a secluded corner, covers his head with a cloth diaper, etc.), but when the baby has to eat the baby has to eat. What we need to know is, how common is public breast feeding in the U.S., or at least in Palm Beach county FL and Manhattan NY? Will she get dirty looks? Polite admonitions? Screams of horror?

She’s very nervous about this, and I need to reassure her.

[whiterabbit]

I don’t know about in the specific areas you’ll be, but I imagine as long as she is discreet about it, only a real jerk would say anything about it.

[cher3]

It’s fairly common and I doubt you would get anything beyond a dirty look from an ignoramus. A woman’s right to breastfeed anyplace, public or private, she otherwise has a right to be is specfically protected by law in most states, including New York and Florida.

And New Yorkers pride themselves on being able to ignore anything.

[Anaamika]

I can’t speak about Florida (who can!?) but I live in Upstate NY and often see mothers breastfeeding. Manhattan should be no problem.

[serious_lark]

Both in Canada and in the US, if the mom is discreet, breastfeeding in public is OK. My experience in Canada with breastfeeding my baby was being ignored by adults, but some young children wanted to watch what we two blanket-shrouded people were doing.

[Kent_Clark]

@cher3

And New Yorkers pride themselves on being able to ignore anything.

Just teach Pride & Joy to say

“Hey, what’re YOU lookin’ at? Yeah, dat’s right! I’m eatin’ here! Whatcha never seen a kid eat? You gotta problem? Fugeddaboudit!”

[Acsenray]

In public places, I doubt you’ll have any problem, but if you’re in someone’s house, it might be best just to discreetly slip into a bedroom or something. Most people I know would find it rude for someone to nurse in the living room surrounded by guests. And nobody would mind lending a room with a closed door for the purpose.

[Mtgman]

You don’t have to take our word for it. Check out the New York Times report of about 200 women holding a nurse-in at ABC headquarters in New York. They were protesting some anti-public breastfeeding comments on “The View”.

But the rally at ABC is only the most visible example of a recent wave of “lactivism.” Prodded by mothers who say they are tired of being asked to adjourn to the bathroom while nursing in a public space, six states have recently passed laws giving a woman the right to breast-feed wherever she “is otherwise authorized to be.”

An Ohio bill saying a woman is “entitled to breast-feed her baby in any place of public accommodation” passed last month over the objection of one representative who wanted to exempt businesses from liability for accidents caused by “spillage.”

"I really don’t know any women who ‘spill,’ " said Lisa Wilson, the mother of a 4-month-old in Fairview Park, Ohio, who helped organize a nurse-in at a local deli to support the bill.

Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, held a nurse-in on the Capitol’s Cannon Terrace last month as she reintroduced federal legislation to amend the Civil Rights Act to protect women from employment discrimination for using a breast pump or feeding their babies during breaks.

Nursing mothers are pressuring businesses, too. Burger King has declared that mothers are welcome to nurse. Starbucks - the target of a letter-writing campaign that asked “What’s more natural than coffee and milk?” - has, too.

The moves come as the number of American mothers who choose to breast-feed has climbed to about 70 percent in 2003, the last year for which information was available, from about 50 percent in 1990.

The La Leche League maintains a summary of the laws regarding breastfeeding in the US. The sections which may be relevant to your trip are as follows.

FLORIDA
Florida led the nation by enacting the first comprehensive breastfeeding legislation in the United States. The legislation not only exempted breastfeeding from criminal statutes, but created a new law that stated this important and basic act of nurture must be encouraged in the interests of maternal and child health. Finally, it provides for a breast-feeding encouragement policy for facilities providing maternity services and newborn infant care.

Fla. Stat. Ann. § 383.015
1993 Fl. ALS 4; 1993 Fla. Laws ch. 4; 1993 Fla. HB 231

The breast feeding 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. A mother may breast feed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether or not the nipple of the mother’s breast is covered during or incidental to the breast feeding.

Fla. Stat. 800.02, 800.03, 800.04

Statute language omitted. These statutes exclude breastfeeding from various sexual offenses, from the definition of an unnatural and lascivious act.

Fla. Stat. § 827.071 (Child abuse statute)

(g) “Sexual conduct” means … A mother’s breastfeeding of her baby does not under any circumstances constitute “sexual conduct.”

Fla .Stat. §383.016, , 383.016, 383.311, and 363.318

Section 383.016 of the Florida Statutes, provides for a breast-feeding encouragement policy for facilities providing maternity services and newborn infant care and authorizing use of “baby-friendly” designation. Sections 383.016, 383.311, and 363.318 of the Florida Statutes relating to breast feeding, administration of maternal and child health programs, education for birth center clients, and postpartum care for birth center clients, requiring encouragement of breastfeeding.
…
NEW YORK
New York was the first state in the nation to enact any form of breastfeeding legislation. As far back as 1984, NY exempted breastfeeding of infants from their criminal statute. Then, in 1994 NY led the nation by enacting the most progressive breastfeeding legislation in the United States – amending their civil rights act to grant mothers an absolute right to breastfeed in public.

Note that NY also has a law that allows under certain circumstances mothers who give birth in prison, or who are nursing a baby, to have the baby with them in prison while the baby is less than 12 months of age.

NY Penal Laws § 245.01, 245.02

§ 245.01. Exposure of a person

A person is guilty of exposure if he appears in a public place in such a manner that the private or intimate parts of his body are unclothed or exposed. For purposes of this section, the private or intimate parts of a female person shall include that portion of the breast which is below the top of the areola. This section shall not apply to the breastfeeding of infants or to any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment.

§ 245.02. Promoting the exposure of a person

A person is guilty of promoting the exposure of a person when he knowingly conducts, maintains, owns, manages, operates or furnishes any public premise or place where a person in a public place appears in such a manner that the private or intimate parts of his body are unclothed or exposed. For purposes of this section, the private or intimate parts of a female person shall include that portion of the breast which is below the top of the areola. This section shall not apply to the breastfeeding of infants or to any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment.

NY CLS Civ R § 79-e (Article 7 Miscellaneous Provisions).
1994 N.Y. ALS 98; 1994 N.Y. LAWS 98; 1994 N.Y. S.N. 3999

§ 79-E. Right To Breast Feed.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a mother may breast feed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether or not the nipple of the mother’s breast is covered during or incidental to the breast feeding.

In Texas the Department of Health and Human Services gives out business-card sized copies of the statute protecting public breastfeeding. La Leche League leaders often have them and give them out to anyone they see breastfeeding to encourage the practice and make sure women know their rights. These cards can be used, and are encourged to be used, as evidence of state law if confronted by a business owner/manager or other individual.

Might not hurt to print out those sections from the La Leche League site though and have your wife keep that sheet of paper in her purse. Not that I think she’ll need it in FL or NY, but just for her peace of mind.

Enjoy,
Steven

[MsWhatsit]

Have breastfed publicly in several different states in a variety of locations, and have never once received a negative comment or even a nasty look. Of course, I try to be discreet, but I don’t run and hide in the bathroom or anything either. My guess is, she’ll be just fine.

[Excalibre]

In Manhattan I doubt you’d get funny looks if you breastfed off of her.

I don’t think backwards attitudes towards breastfeeding are prevalent in an urban area anymore.

[Barbarian]

A doctor, a lawyer and an engineer walk into a restaurant and whip out their boobs.

It’s not the first line of a joke, it’s what my wife did this afternoon when she met some friends who also have kidlets. My wife has yet to cover up when feeding, and nobody has said boo in the past two months to anything she’s done-- although we haven’t changed a diaper on the table of a Manhattan eatery