One of the great things about living in DC Metro is easy access to the free quality museums that line the National Mall. It's also a great resource for house bound parents experiencing a little cabin fever, especially in these winter months, for getting out with small children. I have had many such excursions with my spouse and children, but none of them included a security guard saying the baby should be breastfed on the toilet...
...unfortunately that's what happened to a friend of ours. In her own words...
I was trying to nurse my daughter in the lower floor at the Hirshhorn Museum . We were quietly on a bench near the escalator, and just a few people were around us. Less than a minute after I began nursing, a security guard rushed over to us and told me that I should nurse her in the restroom. I checked the restroom and couldn't find any chairs. So, I returned to the bench and explained that to the guard when he came again. The guard then suggested I sit on the toilet if I couldn't find a chair. I moved to another bench and then another – bigger, muscular -- security guard came over and said, "Mom, you cannot do that." We simply left. -- Norika Aita
I suppose what happens next is another textbook example of how the internet and social media are impacting way we conduct our daily lives. Or is it "transform the outcomes"? Certainly, without the conch shell horn effect this affront very likely would have been one of those quiet indignities lost to time, filed away in just one persons recollection. Still someone must sound that conch shell horn and in this instance one such person was my spouse.
Having breastfed both our children past 1 year of age, it is safe to say my spouse has a definite opinion on the benefits of breastfeeding for the child's immunological, physiological and emotional health. Plus it's a lot easier than lugging around all the gear associated with bottles and formula. We live in Maryland, so does Aita, where the law is quite explicit on the matter...
Md. Health-General Code Ann. § 20-801
(A) A MOTHER MAY BREAST-FEED HER CHILD IN ANY PUBLIC OR PRIVATE LOCATION IN WHICH THE MOTHER AND CHILD ARE AUTHORIZED TO BE.
(B) A PERSON MAY NOT RESTRICT OR LIMIT THE RIGHT OF A MOTHER TO BREAST-FEED HER CHILD.
SB-223 (rtf document)
And it turns out the Washington D.C. law is just as explicit...
“A woman shall have the right to breastfeed her child in any location, public or private, where she has the right to be with her child, without respect to whether the mother's breast or any part of it is uncovered during or incidental to the breastfeeding of her child.”
D.C. Ann. Code § 2-1402.82(c)(1)
In fact, there are 44 states with some law on the books that allow a mother to breastfeed in any public or private location, all of which have been collated online by the National Coalition of State Legislatures.
So after Aita related her story to her friends in a Rockville Mom's Club mailing list, my spouse picked up that conch shell and posted on D.C. Urban Moms, she contacted the organizer of a previous Nurse In at a mall in Frederick, MD through it's Facebook site. That was pretty much it for her, she put down that allegorical conch shell and watched the process snowball. Another Mom in the group picked up the conch shell and actually organized the Nurse In, it was promoted through the other Nurse In's Facebook site, a debate enflamed the DC Urban Mom's list...
Catching wind of the incident and the building momentum, the Hirshhorn apologized to Aita. The apology was accepted but as the Hirshhorn Nurse In organizer told the Post...
"We're not protesting against them; this is not to give them a black eye. The fact that they apologized is wonderful. But the nurse-in wasn't organized to elicit an apology. What happened to Nori happened because there was a lack of education and awareness. We want to ensure it doesn't happen to anybody else again."
So on Saturday morning, I, my spouse and our two children found ourselves driving down into DC just as we have on countless weekends before. We arrived before the 10AM Hirschhorn opening and quickly found the other Rockville Moms in the gathering crowd of other "lactivists" rich in strollers and baby bjorns ( I myself bearing our youngest so). There were also cameras with big lens, pads and pencils, microphones and videocams that indicated the media had gotten wind of the Nurse In .
As the doors opened the bag check line was at least 10 stroller deep, so it took a few minutes. The guards were professional in their inspections and we were through without much delay. Now what? Well, most of the babies weren't quite ready to feed yet as most had been fed earlier to ensure a tolerable car ride into DC, and our youngest has already weaned (though is young enough looking to tangibly imply that he will soon breastfeed). Surely, it was only a matter of time, so why don't we take in some art in the meantime? Up on the third floor we perused a variety of reclining figure sculptures and a roomful of the de Kooning Woman series, a disturbing video by Cyprien Gaillard and a painting my elder son insists depicts a BeyBlade duel. When we stepped out of our isolated gallery we found that every bench in museum was occupied by nursing couples. Mom's chatted, babies suckled, men tailed siblings through the art. Security guards secured, conferred but otherwise left nursing people to their own devices. Reporters reported, Cameras clicked. My guesstimate of a little more than a hundred people was comparable to the media guesstimate . The atmosphere seemed festive and after a few more rounds of art and friends we quietly left for home...