Time Cover

[PiKA2001]

What's up with the breastfeeding frenzy going on lately? I've noticed commercials, magazine covers, and print ads everywhere promoting breastfeeding the last couple of months or so.

[pbear19]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

What's up with the breastfeeding frenzy going on lately? I've noticed commercials, magazine covers, and print ads everywhere promoting breastfeeding the last couple of months or so.

I believe it is a bit of backlash, although the backlash is getting way more press than the original issues did. Over the past year or so there have been a large number of incidents of women who were discreetly breastfeeding in public and were kicked out of the store/restaurant/whatever that they were in, with virtually no apologies from the associated corporate offices. Those incidents got a lot of press in the "breastfeeding community," if you will, but not much elsewhere.

And when I say discreetly breastfeeding, I mean that they were completely covered up and nothing at all could be seen, yet the women were kicked out. In at least two of the incidents I can recall off the top of my head, an employee at the respective store/restaurant threatened to call the police. In one incident, the police said they would have arrested the woman, in spite of the law in that state that allows public breastfeeding.

So, if you ask me, a few too many moms got mad about being treated like criminals for feeding their kids, and a "breastfeeding is beautiful" type movement has been the response.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by pbear19

I believe it is a bit of backlash, although the backlash is getting way more press than the original issues did. Over the past year or so there have been a large number of incidents of women who were discreetly breastfeeding in public and were kicked out of the store/restaurant/whatever that they were in, with virtually no apologies from the associated corporate offices. Those incidents got a lot of press in the "breastfeeding community," if you will, but not much elsewhere.

And when I say discreetly breastfeeding, I mean that they were completely covered up and nothing at all could be seen, yet the women were kicked out. In at least two of the incidents I can recall off the top of my head, an employee at the respective store/restaurant threatened to call the police. In one incident, the police said they would have arrested the woman, in spite of the law in that state that allows public breastfeeding.

So, if you ask me, a few too many moms got mad about being treated like criminals for feeding their kids, and a "breastfeeding is beautiful" type movement has been the response.

I see. I hadn't heard about those women getting kicked out of establishments for breastfeeding. Thanks for the schooling.

[Munchkin03]

Also, it's the 20th anniversary of the publication of this book about Attachment Parenting--it's the first instance in which that term was used. AP is about way more than breastfeeding--babywearing, bedsharing, and natural unmedicated childbirth are just part of it. It's all about increasing the attachment between parent (usually mother) and child.

AP obviously has its critics. One of the primary supporters of AP--she helped write several books about it and has been known as an AP expert recently "came out" about her son's drug addiction (from which he eventually died), and that kind of opened the floodgates about whether or not AP is such a good idea--regardless of the fact that teen drug use can happen to anyone.

Elizabeth Badinter just wrote a book about how that kind of attachment isn't good for the kids, it's not good for the marriage, and it's not good for the mother's well-being, especially if she's trying to develop some sort of a career.

I think a lot of it's that the kids who were first parented like this are coming of age and the question is about whether or not it works.