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Attitudes to Breast Feeding in Public
By Sharon Fray
I was chatting with a group of
friends recently when the issue of breast feeding came up. I was taken aback
by the passion behind the stories they were relating about their experiences.
Not being a mother myself, I soon realised the issue of breast feeding was
indeed very complicated, so I thought I'd explore the issues further. I
decided to talk to Emma Patterson, the dietitian at Katoomba Hospital who
is involved with a breast feeding project in the Blue Mountains.
Emma said she got involved in the breast feeding project for several reasons. Firstly, breast feeding has nutritional implications Secondly, the dietitians' department had not done much work in this area (and most of the work previously was directed at trying to increase the length of time women breast feed and they wanted to tackle the issue from a different perspective). Thirdly, though the grapevine in Katoomba, a rumour spread that a woman was asked to leave the K Mart canteen whilst breast feeding, so she went to the change rooms where she was followed and asked to leave even there. (I spoke to Chris Reeves, the Manager of K Mart who said that he wasn't the Manager then and that he had no knowledge of the alleged incident. He also stressed that this is not the attitude of his store, and that he would go out of his way to make sure that a woman who needed to breast feed her baby was comfortable, "she could even use my office if necessary"). Another trigger for the project was around the same time, when a breast feeding mother was asked to leave a Sydney court room.
The project initially ran a couple of focus groups with women in Katoomba and Emma said she was overwhelmed with the number of women who turned up.
The women spoke of positive experiences they had around breast feeding but when asked about their worst experiences there were heaps. Many of the women said they were made to feel dirty or they were being disgusting. They spoke of the dirty looks they would get from people if they breast fed in public, either on a park bench or in a cafe. One woman was asked to leave a restaurant because she was breast feeding or to stop, but when you have a crying baby stopping isn't an option. In Katoomba, many women rely heavily on public transport and one woman travelling had a baby who was screaming its head off. She was concerned for the other passengers so she breast fed her baby and was asked to leave the bus.
As a result of the feedback, the breast feeding project conducted a survey to see if service providers, cafes and restaurants would allow mothers to breast feed, if they had private facilities for the purpose and how they felt about this issue. They found 80% didn't mind if a woman breast fed; 15% said they didn't mind if the mothers were discreet and not upsetting staff or customers; and 6% said "no way". One cafe owner compared breast feeding with going to the toilet and said "you don't go to the toilet in public so why should a woman breast feed in public?"
The issue of being discreet is an interesting one. In 1994 the ABC radio station 2BL had a talk back session on the breast feeding project and quite a few woman rang in to say breast feeding in public is OK if the woman is discreet about it. Obviously the sexualisation of women's breasts means that it's not OK to see them in public in our society. Sadly this means some babies don't get what many professionals feel is the best food.
The project discovered in their research that some older women had a problem with women who choose to breast feed in public, older men didn't mind and teenage men agreed it was OK, but felt embarrassed if a woman started to breast feed in front of them. People that said they didn't mind also followed this by placing conditions on their acceptance. For example, some said it's OK but not if the babies are over a year old. People have very different opinions on what is acceptable.
Based on the information received from the survey and focus groups, the project set about trying to create a supportive environment in the Blue Mountains where women could breast feed if they wanted to. They developed a resource sheet about where women could breast feed with impunity, which proved to be very successful They also produced a sticker which could be displayed in local restaurants that were "breast feeding friendly". Unfortunately many cafes and restaurants in the area didn't want to display the sticker because they were scared they would turn away other customers who were against breast feeding.
Maggie Deane, the child and family nurse at Lawson Community Health Centre agreed that without community support, women may well cease breast feeding early, which she said is a shame because breast milk is the best thing for a baby. It contains a hormone which give mothers that fuzzy nurturing feeling and increases the bonding between mother and baby. It also helps prevent babies from getting gastroenteritis and other nasty diseases which formula milk cannot prevent. Breast feeding allows a mother to pass some of her immunities on to her baby. Breast milk also changes in taste and consistency throughout the day depending on what mother eats. Formula babies don't get this variety.
This is not to say that people who bottle feed will not have healthy babies, however. It's just that a mother's breast milk is the best a baby can get. So, by not supporting mothers in our community who choose to breast feed it would seem we are denying them all the positive aspects of breast milk.
If you would like any information about the project contact Emma Patterson on 80 6407.
For further information about breast feeding, or difficulties you may be encountering contact the child and family nurse in Springwood or Lawson Community Health Centre.
To contact the Village Views, send us an e-mail to: bmvv@hermes.net.au