Breastfeeding Images Banned!

Recently I have been following the story of photos of breastfeeding mothers being removed from social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space. Now it seems that YouTube has removed a video of breastfeeding mothers, banning The Great Breast Fest Montage released by The League of Maternal Justice, a mother´s group whose mission is

To use the power of the mom internet community to expose the injustices perpetrated against mothers everywhere and to exact vengeance through aggressive finger-wagging and online shaming.

The video was removed by YouTube for inappropriate content and inappropriate nature. I still find it incredible that, in this day and age, people are so uninformed and bigoted about such a natural process. Bill Maher, an American comedian who hosts a late night talk show recently compared public breastfeeding with public masturbation!

Personally, I´ve never directly had problems when I’ve been breastfeeding in public, although I´ve certainly had plenty of sideways glances. I´ve always taken the view that if me breastfeeding my child makes other people uncomfortable, that´s their problem, not mine. It has bothered me more when my paediatrician has asked if I am still feeding Chiq (who´s nearly 11 months old) – with that slight but noticeable emphasis on “still”, or when my mother tries to hide her shock when I remind her I fed Guerita till she was 22 months old, and intend to do the same with Chiq. I guess she was from a generation with very little support for breastfeeding and consequently gave up when things seem to drying up after a few weeks.

The one place I did censor my feeding was when we lived in Saudi. This is a country where a flash of bare ankle, wrist or neck is considered pornographic. I have no doubt that whipping a boob out in a restaurant would have landed me in jail, probably with a few lashes to go with it. I remember once watching a Saudi woman on a plane trying to breastfeed her baby. I was amazed that she was even breastfeeding at all, as bottles and full time nannies seemed to be so common there. She struggled away, draping a heavy blanket over her head and the baby creating a cocoon for them both, so that all that could be seen was a shapeless form. I sat across the aisle, comfortably (and discretely) feeding Guerita, probably shocking them all!

My lifestyle here in Mexico means I am not as often in a position to need to breastfeed Chiq in public. Our trips out tend to be short and her routine is fairly predictable these days so I can plan around her feeds. Not that I hesitate to feed her when I´m out and about, if necessary. I´m sure it shocks some people, partly because to be still feeding a baby her age is not common here, but it all goes over my head. I choose not to notice if someone else has a problem.

I know that combating prejudice and discrimination against breastfeeding in public is not always as simple as to not let it bother you. There are loads of examples of women being asked to leave a place, to take the baby into the toilet to feed them, or generally being harassed about feeding their babies, like these examples:

• Kirstie Marshall being evicted from Victorian parliament for breastfeeding her newborn
• The uproar when Kate Langbroek breastfed her son on live national television on The Panel
• Delta airlines ejecting a passenger for trying to breastfeed her baby, prompting rolling breastfeeding sit-ins at Delta counters around the US, dubbed “lactivism” (love that term!)
• This story about a woman in the US who was harassed and bullied while feeding her baby in her local hospital

I find the Delta airlines example particularly concerning. I´ve travelled a lot with Guerita and Chiq and breastfeeding them on take off and landing is essential! Not to mention when you´re on a long haul flight, you have no other choice but to feed them – they can´t go 24 hours without food after all.

So, I´ve put The Great Breast Fest button in my sidebar and I´m now following the League of Maternal Justice´s campaigns. If only I´d known about their call for breastfeeding photos, I would have sent in a great one I have of me feeding a newborn Chiq, sitting up in bed, while Guerita sits beside me trying to feed her baby doll the same way (although the doll was aimed more at the bellybutton than the breast – we´ve since corrected her anatomical misunderstanding!).