Pwitty Pweeze? Wit sugar on?
I must admit that I also find some of the hang-ups on display in this whole thread regarding breastfeeding must be relics of the puritan days. Here in Europe nobody even bats an eye when they see a mother breastfeeding in public. And there is none of this silly “covering with a blanket” problem either. I think most babies would be perturbed by the fact that they can’t see anything while feeding. I know my kids always liked to look around while suckling (at least until they fell asleep). Then again, most of the beaches in Europe would probably have to be closed also, because we not only allow topless sunbathing, you can sometimes see pre-pubescent children running around naked!!!
Oh, and my wife is from Brazil (also South America) and it also considered normal to take pictures of the mother breastfeeding and quite often the parents bathe together with the children. Most families are quite poor in Brazil and there is no need to waste bath water. No one would ever consider the pictures mentioned in the OP as kiddie porn. And before taking the children away from their parents there would have to be a lot more proof of deviant behaviour than just some pictures of nekkid kiddies.
>> I regret to inform you that, judging from some of the responses in this thread, consideration for others is apparently dead
I agree. Puritanical people have lost any consideration for mothers doing what God intended. And the worst part is they claim God is on their side not realising they are a minority. In most of the world, including the USA, normal people are not disturbed by this. I say the puritans need to get a life and stop being offended so easily.
You know, I find in actual practice that the majority of people care more about babies not screaming than a mother exposing a bit of breast. For one thing, all the patrons and employees can hear the screams, but only a few can actually see the baby nurse.
I did make concessions to being in public: I only had one breast out at a time and made an effort not to have more of my bra visible than needed, I did not let my nipples air dry after nursing, I did not apply lanonlin right there before switching breasts, I did not undress or even unswaddle Loren. You see skin to skin contact is important and so often for nursing we remove her clothing or unswaddke her so as to get as much skin next to my skin and I caress her while I nurse. I also refrained from singing or saying anything other patrons might choke on, like “Here’s your dinner, it’s your favorite flavor, mommy flavor!” I did not however cover my breast or my daughter’s face and head. She likes to look around as she nurses; she tends to try move anything covering her view.
Some letters from the Observer’s readership in the wake of the first article
Some more letters, after the case had been dropped.
Short version. Lots of parents in the area, and worldwide, wrote, called, and otherwise showed the state how pissed they were. One of the local moms in an attachment parenting group played matchmaker between one of the local talk-radio shows and the lawyers in the case and a lot of it cleared up around that time. A fund was started to help defray any costs(they had over 10,000 dollars in bail they had to cover) for the family even though the lawyers were working pro bono. Not sure how much money was actually raised. I haven’t seen any mention of a criminal record or record of the investigation and how it may affect the family in the future. Supposedly the officers were upset the case was dropped, so it appears they were actually convinced a crime had been committed.
Just another overall example of how justice is sometimes best served in the full light of press exposure.
Enjoy,
Steven
Actually this is true for several reasons:
A baby must do very little, with most types of artificial nipples, to remove milk and swallow it. Left alone, most bottles will drip-drip-drip and no effort required at all.
In contrast, mother’s milk must be extracted - literally expressed - from the milk ducts under the aureola. Babies don’t suck at the breast so much as compress, compress, compress. (If you’ve ever hand-milked a cow or goat, you’ll understand the imagery.) This requires active jaw movements and specific tongue placement. Some dentists say they can see the difference between the teeth/jaws of breastfed babies and those who never do nurse at the breast.
A breast pump will never be as efficient as an effectively-nursing infant, because the pump can only apply suction. Compression is not possible. Furthermore, human milk is, medically, considered a live tissue. This is why it’s illegal for me to pump milk for a neighbor’s baby and provide it, pasteurized or unpasteurized. I certainly may not sell it to anyone for any reason. I may, as with blood products, donate it after careful screening, and with the donated milk meeting specific guidelines, to be handled in a specific way by the recipient group (like the Mother’s Milk Bank in Denver, to which I donated over 1000 oz.)
Because human milk contains living leucocytes and other immunity-assisting factors, it must be handled carefully to preserve them. It should not be stored in glass, because certain things in the milk cling to glass and are lost. It should not be microwaved, but warmed gently in a water bath. It should not be shaken, only swirled gently if it has separated. Freezing destroys many of its useful properties. (Which is not to say that if these conditions can’t be met, formula is just as good or better…even frozen breastmilk is better for human babies than formula, because the proteins in it are species-specific.)
(I have said before that I pumped for one of my twins for 21 months. Much of what she received was frozen, sometimes for months, as her needs slowly overtook my ability to supply. However, she is tube-fed. I’d have given an arm and a leg to simply nurse the kid. She couldn’t tolerate cow’s milk proteins, and I refused to feed soy - besides which she was immunosuppresse and needed all the help she could get - so formula was not an option for her.)
But yes in fact, the “tried-and-true tits” method is best when available because those immunity factors will not have a chance to be altered or damaged, and the risk of contamination is eliminated. Besides the simple mechanical issues for development of jaw, tongue and teeth.
That’s the problem. When the puritans sit next to you at restaurants they give you dirty looks but give them a gun and a badge and they’ll take away your children. As the aticle says: One writer from Alabama described it as “jack-booted thuggery.” It’s a proud moment in Texas history when residents of Alabama are appalled by our heavy-handed government
:mad:
What else needs be said, aside from my desire to inflict direct and life-altering amounts of pain on the clerk, the cop, the DA, the judge, the shrink, and the idiots in this thread who think that breasts are bad?
Well, I think the clerk did right- because as was said at the beginning of this thread- you can’t expect, and we don’t want- minimum wage clerks making those kinds of judgement calls. There was enough doubt for him to make the call. Fine. However, we DO expect & indeed pay our Police, DA & such to make those sort of judgement calls, and they fucked up big time. The DA & Judge should be recalled, and the officers should be punished.
Burping in public, when you have gas is perfectly natural, and something you have to do, but one can attempt to be somewhat discreet about it. In the case of breastfeeding, the comfort of the baby & the mother come first, of course. If one can- given those considerations- be discreet, then great. If not- again- Mom & baby come first.
Oddly, the sight of a woman breastfeeding does nothing to or for me either way.
OTOH, the sight of a woman lactating is a turn-on. Is this anything like normal? I am not a sick puppy, am I?
why the HELL did we want Texas in the Union in the first place?
And, if we don’t need them anymore, how the Hell can we make them go away?
Paging Dan Savage…
-Ya know-some babies just won’t take a bottle! This whole thing is just another stab at women (ah! my femeinist side is taking over!) come on people, what would you do if your own mother trying to KEEP YOU ALIVE (ok a little darastic…but still!) was told that feeding a helpless little baby was illegal. Yep I bet you’d be screaming your little head off.
-Ya know-some babies just won’t take a bottle! This whole thing is just another stab at women (ah! my femeinist side is taking over!) come on people, what would you do if your own mother trying to KEEP YOU ALIVE (ok a little darastic…but still!) was told that feeding a helpless little baby was illegal. Yep I bet you’d be screaming your little head off.
Ya know, some babies just won’t take a bottle! What would you be doing if your mother who was trying to KEEP YOU ALIVE (ok that might be a little darastic) was told that feeding a helpless little baby was illegal because it was dirty. You know, some people just can’t afford pumps. They have their own pumps built right in!
There is nothing wrong, per se, with finding breast feeding gross. Heck, I think alot of things are gross.
What IS clearly wrong is thinking that the breast feeding mom needs to curb HER behavior, when what really should happen is that the person who is grossed out needs to curb THEIR behavior, which might include not eating in restaurants or making other public appearances which put you at risk of being grossed out…god forbid…if your that sensitive. And I love when it’s fuckin’ men…fuckin’ wusses.
I know people who are grossed out by the beach. They hate the sand, the smells and even the views of beach-goers. It is most rational for them to stay home. It is not rationale for them to cry about dress codes (no swimsuits!) and for them to lobby to have the beach paved, because the bugs and crabs are icky.
'Well, no need to even stay home. How about just not stare at the woman breastfeeding? How about looking at the person you are dining with? Or the art on the wall? Or the plate in front of you? Or, if it is so bad he cannot help oggling, how about trading seats?