Breastfeeding Chair!
This came across my desk last week… (thanks Candace and Emily!) Breastfeeding Chair for Public NursingStudent Sitting on Breastfeeding Solution How’s that for a title, huh? huh? Solution? What was the problem? that’s what I want to know!
xox,
Heather
wiffersnapper said,
July 25, 2008 @ 5:06 pm
All that chair needs is a nice neon sign over it saying, “LOOK, everyone! A breastfeeding mother!” Good Lord. I sat in a local pizza parlor today and nursed my youngest while surrounded by men on their lunch breaks, and I don’t think any of them even noticed. I thought far enough ahead to wear a big t-shirt and just sorta draped it around her face, then continued my conversation with my friends like it was the most natural thing in the world. I have found that the less fuss I make over what I’m doing, the less fuss everyone else will make as well.
The comments on those articles are amusing… especially the guy who seems to think that babies feed on a timer. (”Feed them before you go out, and then get home in time to feed them again.”) If only it were that simple! We went to a reunion last Sunday, and it was like 95 degrees out. Baby nursed four times in one afternoon- she was hot and thirsty! Heck, so was I- there wasn’t really anything either of us could do about it, so I fed her when she asked!
I think, if anyone ever took a poll, most people would rather see a mother discreetly nursing than hear a screaming baby. It’s just that simple.
julie said,
July 25, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
At the big arts festival we have here, some breastfeeding advocates made a breastfeeding station for nursing mothers and their children. It was inside a government building, in a curtained tent, partitioned off into rooms with more curtains… they had the feel of dressing rooms. It was actually a lot like the cartoon. I thought it was so stupid I purposely nursed right outside the building.
I was also thinking that a chair like that actually makes nursing less discrete and further encourages the isolation of nursing mothers.
After we had our nurse-in a few years ago, there were comments about feeding before going out. The amount of ignorance about how breastfeeding works is profound. People need to know that to encourage a new mother to wait to nurse her baby is to endanger that child’s food supply. To me, that’s just wrong. I also heard the comment about just bringing a bottle with you. I wanted to answer, “YOU go ahead and just TRY to give my child a bottle. Go for it! Good luck to you! And by the way, before YOU go to the store, stop by the farm and milk a cow into a cup for later. Because it would just bother too many people if you simply used a drinking fountain. I know it’s inconvenient, but hey when it comes to the comfort level of fellow adults, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Drives me nuts that there are so many places where people want to pretend they aren’t mammals. Get over it. grrr.
occitania said,
July 26, 2008 @ 2:19 am
I’ll bet that that design student doesn’t have any children, hasn’t nursed, and probably none of her friends has either … it smacks of one of those things that seem like a great idea before you have children…
…it’s a bit like when academics who’ve no personal experience of breastfeeding or mothering do “research” and get the wrong end of the stick. Some things just need to be experienced in order to be fully understood…
(Oh no … now I’m going to start on male midwives, OBs, and breastfeeding and parenting ‘experts’ who’ve never had children…)
Back to topic — the best antidote to this sort of silliness is to nurse your babies anywhere and everywhere — whenever they need it. Mine have been nursed up the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building, in Westminster Cathedral during Mass and on the wall outside Buckingham Palace as the Guard changed. Of course people noticed in all these places — and they simply smiled: What’s nicer than seeing a happy mum and baby / babies?
bunnywhack said,
July 26, 2008 @ 3:04 am
its people trying to make money out of a perfectly natural free resource its the same with expensive nursing clothes expressers titty tents and now this chair why cant they just leave well alone ah because they can make money off it
sheepdoc said,
July 26, 2008 @ 6:47 am
We were at Chuck E. Cheese yesterday. I walked by a woman nursing behind one of those big fabric things - they look like vinyl. A recent discussion on “modesty” (um, no its shame I’ve never seen someone hide a baby given a bottle behind a screen -although my friend who watched her neighbor’s child did only give him bottles in her sling in public bc she couldn’t bare the thought of anyone seeing her give formula to child who wasn’t even hers!) someone said she loved how she and her baby could see each other but no one else could see her breast.
So, I’m 5ft tall. The thing is those things are open on the top. So, if someone taller walks by - which if you’re sitting down is almost everyone over 4ft tall! - you’re breast is just hanging there uncovered since you don’t have your shirt pulled down like an unashamed breast-feeder. I decided not to say anything since I didn’t want her to breast-feed less but I thought it was pretty funny she had this ugly vinyl thing that shouted “I’m breast-feeding and ashamed about it! While not actually covering up at all.
MilkyMama07 said,
July 26, 2008 @ 6:57 am
Ugh… great, more breastfeeding discrimination. You know, if we were asking blacks or Hispanics or Jews or Asians or Muslims to sit in “special, discreet chairs”, can you imagine the public outrage? Yet it’s ok to ask nursing moms to do it? WTF??? Yeah, I’m all about not exposing my entire boob in public, but I don’t need a “special” chair to do it! I just need a shirt, my daughter, and my boob. No blankets, no chairs, no closet-sized rooms with nothing to do but sit there and stare at the walls/curtain. Here’s the comment I posted:
This doesn’t solve anything! This just makes it worse. And the major failing point of this chair is if you’re breastfeeding an older baby/toddler, you won’t have room to do it! And on top of that, it’s just going to raise more discrimination against breastfeeding women. As though we don’t have hard enough of a time already. It’s bad enough they want to close us in closet-sized rooms at the mall with nothing to read or anything, but now they want to confine us to our own “special” chair? Nursing women, take a cue from Rosa Parks: Breastfeed anywhere! Defy the public perception that breasts are sexual! It’s not about our right to breastfeed in public, it’s about a baby’s right to eat!!!
ddrplant said,
July 26, 2008 @ 9:22 am
I prefer a private, quiet place to feed my nine month old, but we’ve nursed everywhere, anytime. We nurse under a blanket for two reasons: she nurses better that way (she is so easily distracted and often won’t focus on eating otherwise) and I feel more comfortable that way. Just because we prefer to nurse under a blanket or in a lounge doesn’t mean we’re ashamed of breastfeeding. After all, sometimes the blanket makes us more noticeable, especially when my baby gets SO excited to nurse as soon as she sees it… It is simply the public nursing method that works best for us. I understand all babies and moms work differently so I respect other mom’s choices too.
I’m all for nursing lounges and the like: of course, nursing-friendly spots shouldn’t be mandatory, but I don’t think the intent is necessarily always as evil as some of you make it out to be.
mamaof5 said,
July 26, 2008 @ 11:21 am
my dh just said “those f*** stupid people. what are they going to do? face it to a wall?” lol they want to hide it yet draw a lot of attention to it. silliness.
heather in tucson
stefiko said,
July 26, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
Funny idea
I just googled nursing cover (never saw one in my life) and am a bit shocked. How could I talk with my baby when he is under something like this? Or…how could he try to catch my glasses, put his fingers into my mouth, pull on my earrings…so much fun to miss!
I’m a German in the Republic of Georgia (Caucasus) and as it’s about 40° C (ähmm… about 100° F) in the day, I wouldn’t dream to breastfeed under any kind of cover. Thanks to USSR-trained doctors, there are not a lot of women breastfeeding here and so far I haven’t seen anyone doing it in public (except other Germans). But, although I’m more or less the only one, I have only received very sweet comments and some curiosity. Ok, maybe my Georgian husband is a little bit shy about it
Has anyone noticed that with nursing tops there is coming out much more booby than by just pulling up the shirt?
wiffersnapper said,
July 27, 2008 @ 2:30 am
Stefiko- YES! And, it seems to take longer to get her latched on with a nursing top, too! The best thing I’ve found is just to wear a shirt with buttons, then unbutton from the bottom. You may show a little belly, but that’s about it.
I think what most folks are upset about is the fact that someone was disturbed enough about nursing in public to actually invent a chair. Wouldn’t the baby hit her head on those side panels? Our local mall has park-like benches in the middle of the their halls, and I’ve nursed on those lots of times, as have other mothers. And all the times I’ve done it, and spoken to other people who’re doing it, none of us have ever said, “Gee, I wish there was a special chair for this!” It’s really pleasant to just sit there nursing and watch the people walk by.
mrs.mama21 said,
July 27, 2008 @ 1:14 pm
Oy, a mother sitting in that chair might as well have a flashing sign over her that says “Stare at me!!!”
When I nurse my little one, it would be nice to be seated comfortably out in public, but I sure as heck dont want to draw everyone’s attention to it by sitting in a huge gaudy chair. I just want to feed my baby and go about our day! Having a special chair for breastfeeding doesnt make it more “discreet”. It announces to everyone in the room that you’re nursing, and then you have to deal with the gawky type folks, and the people who are trying too hard to make it clear that they are NOT gawking, lol. If we just go about breastfeeding naturally, hardly anyone would notice!
Julinda said,
July 28, 2008 @ 6:05 am
At our county fair the last two years they’ve set up a “nursing mothers’ station” and I was worried at first that it was a concealment thing especially when it was described as a tent. But it turned out to be one of those screen tents, and it had some chairs, tables, and coolers full of bottled water inside. Oh, and a fan. So it was fine. It didn’t get much use - NIP is pretty rare in this rural area - but it was a good thing. Except I didn’t want to use it because it called attention to nursing. Which would be a good thing but I’m kind of shy about it. Not that many people would have seen me - there weren’t many people there.