Woman Kicked Out of McDonalds for Breastfeeding

My son was breastfed, not by me I might add. His mother was a very conscientious mother and also belonged to the La Leche League for a while. I don't know too much about the merits of breast feeding but I figure that it's what nature provided for the nourishment of our children so, in normal circumstances. and perhaps in abnormal ones too, it's the best there is.  I do remember reading some of my ex wife's books sometimes and learned that the area around the nipple produces its own type of antiseptic, a sort of  protection for the baby; nature is remarkable stuff.  And years ago I seem to recall an issue, I think it was in Indonesia where Nestle, the giant food company was sending sales representatives around in white coats trying to get poor women to stop breast feeding and buy their formula, they wore white coats to give the impression they were medical personel or doctors but they were not.  The problem was, as I remember it, in the former colonial world where capitalism is incapable of developing the social infrastructure necessary for safe drinking water, the water they have access to is not the best and the children would get sick.  Breast milk was a much more reliable food source. In fact, my kid was rarely, if ever sick as I recall.  I remember one time being at a party once and for some reason he came back to mum for a hit at the pump.  It appeared to me that it was not an issue of feeding but simply seeking comfort in a moment of distress.

Another mother made some comment about "weaning" the child and my wife at the time responded by pointing out that her child was drinking Koolaid.

The US is a very, very conservative country when it comes to anything to do with the human body and bodily functions. The way I figure it is that the powers that be in this country cannot see a woman's breast as anything other than a sex organ, or should I say it is more profitable to portray it as this and only this.  When I was in Iraq in 1970 I was on a train on the way to Baghdad and used to sleep on the rail carriage floor as I took the train from Ankara which took a while.  I remember waking up in the morning with people's feet all around and over me and the first thing I see is an Iraqi women breast feeding her child. No one paid a bit of attention to it.

But last week in Glendale Arizona, two women and their kids were kicked out of a McDonald's because one of the women was breast feeding.  Arizona law  “entitles a mother to breastfeed in any public place where the mother is otherwise lawfully present.” although having to make a law to allow it speaks volumes. The McDonald's in question claimed that evicting the mother was a mistake, that  “It has never been our policy to ask nursing mothers to leave our restaurant......All employees are required to comply with local, state and federal laws.” 

The McDonalds didn't get away scot free though.  A group of mothers organized a "nurse in" to protest the action much like in the image below.  "The assistant manager followed them out to the parking lot, wrote down her licenses plate number. She felt very harassed and threatened, her kids were scared." says one of the organizers.

Women defending their right to breastfeed in public

For those of us from other countries these extremes in the US are somewhat mind boggling. The US is probably the porno capital of the world but it is still seen  as something weird for a woman to breast feed in public.  A woman of 18 can appear in a porno film, a young man of 18 can go to Iraq and kill people or be killed, but neither of them can go down the liquor store and buy a beer or go to a bar for a drink.

You can see a short news clip on the issue here.