Oh No!

[austrya]

Baby talk cover stirs back talk

By Jocelyn Noveck

ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 1, 2006

 

 

NEW YORK

"I was shocked to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing on a wholesome parenting magazine -- yet another sign that Americans are squeamish about the sight of a nursing breast.

Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo -- a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile -- inappropriate.

One mother who didn't like the cover explained that she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it.

"I shredded it," Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, said in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast -- it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

It's the same reason that Mrs. Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public -- a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: "lactivists," meaning those who advocate for a woman's right to nurse wherever she needs or wants to.

"I'm totally supportive of it -- I just don't like the flashing," she says. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

Another mother, Kelly Wheatley, wrote Babytalk to applaud the cover, precisely because, she says, it helps educate people that breasts are more than sex objects. Yet Mrs. Wheatley, 40, who is still nursing her 3-year-old daughter, rarely breast-feeds in public.

"Men are very visual," says Mrs. Wheatley, 40, of Amarillo, Texas. "When they see a woman's breast, they see a breast -- regardless of what it's being used for."

Babytalk editor Susan Kane says the mixed response to the cover echoes the larger debate over breast-feeding in public. "There's a huge puritanical streak in Americans," she says. Since the August issue came out last month, the magazine has received more than 700 letters -- more than for any article in years.

 

Here's the cover:

 

 

Should nursing in public be allowed? Discuss...

[M. (hristine]

Just yesterday I looked at the current issue of Mothering, and the beauty of the cover made me cry:

 

 

I think women should be able to nurse babies any place that babies are allowed. It is a fucked up culture that thinks otherwise.

[Tweedy's Gurl]

Just yesterday I saw the current issue of Mothering, and the beauty of the photo made me cry:

 

 

I think women should be able to nurse babies any place that babies are allowed. It is a fucked up culture that thinks otherwise.

 

 

agreed.

 

 

and, i love the phrase "lactivists".

[ction]

I agree with you. But, when my sister-in-law plopped her boob out a few years ago to feed her kid (while sitting in my living room), I stared at a crack in the ceiling for about 20 minutes straight lest I see anything resembling a nipple.

[MrRain422]

I can't think of a more appropriate place to see a picture of a nursing mother than a magazine about parenting. That's pretty ridiculous.

[austrya]

I nurse in public, and have yet to have someone tell me to move it to the bathroom.

 

I'm actually waiting for someone to do it though. Let them suffer the wrath of Christy. bwahhhahahahaha

[cryptique]

Yes, nursing in public should be allowed.

 

That cover is less risque than those of most of the magazines in the racks at the average grocery checkout line every week. The way it's shot, it could just as easily be a woman's elbow as her breast. (Why a baby would be suckling an elbow, I can't say, but that's beside the point.)

 

The woman who said she'd shredded the cover is a fucking idiot.

 

This was my favorite part:

 

Yet Mrs. Wheatley, 40, who is still nursing her 3-year-old daughter, rarely breast-feeds in public.

"Men are very visual," says Mrs. Wheatley, 40, of Amarillo, Texas.

Way to rub it in.

[groselicain]

I nurse in public, and have yet to have someone tell me to move it to the bathroom.

 

I'm actually waiting for someone to do it though. Let them suffer the wrath of Christy. bwahhhahahahaha

 

What do you do if someone stares, though? Just wondering.

[austrya]

hahaha

 

I didn't notice that part before.

 

It's kind of like the story not too long ago in Ann Arbor where a lady was nursing at the YMCA near the pool and was kicked out because there was a sign that said no food or drink allowed. They said it wasn't sanitary. WTFever, she wasn't even in the pool. Don't they know that she was probably leaking milk all over the pool before she nursed her kid? Plus, they'd have to kick all the little kids out for peeing in the pool too. That's what chlorine is for. Plus, her two other kids were swimming. Was she supposed to take them out of the pool and let them shiver with her in the bathroom while she nursed?

 

In Ann Arbor of all places.

[embiggen]

she is nursing a 3 year old?

[austrya]

What do you do if someone stares, though? Just wondering.

 

I did have someone stare once, but that's it. I use a cover and people don't even realize I'm doing it.

 

The person who was staring was a teenage boy and he kept walking past me and getting closer and it was creeping me out. I went and sat somewhere else. I was at my son's baseball game. My husband said he was trying to sneak a peak. He said teenage boys did that. Who knew?

[Tweedy's Gurl]

I did have someone stare once, but that's it. I use a cover and people don't even realize I'm doing it.

 

The person who was staring was a teenage boy and he kept walking past me and getting closer and it was creeping me out. I went and sat somewhere else. I was at my son's baseball game. My husband said he was trying to sneak a peak. He said teenage boys did that. Who knew?

 

teenage boys trying to get a peek at a boob? never!

 

i have yet for this all to be an issue in my life (aaaaand it won't be for a while), but i think it's pretty goofy that we have sexualized the idea of the breast so much that we've forgotten what it's initial purpose is!

[cryptique]

I agree with you. But, when my sister-in-law plopped her boob out a few years ago to feed her kid (while sitting in my living room), I stared at a crack in the ceiling for about 20 minutes straight lest I see anything resembling a nipple.

When my sister-in-law visited recently, she'd been nursing my niece for three or four minutes before it occurred to me what was happening -- and I'd been staring at them the whole time. Oops. I'm pretty dense sometimes.

[Edie]

I never had a problem with it. I nursed my son until he was 3, though after the first year, I rarely did so in public since I only nursed him first thing in the am and before bedtime. It was awesome

[a.miller]

she is nursing a 3 year old?

[austrya]

Some people nurse for a few years. WHO actually recommends nursing until age 2.

 

I only planned on doing it until he was about 6 months. Now that he's approaching that age, I think I'll keep going until right before the next baby is born, or until he decides to stop, whichever comes first.

 

I'm about 6 weeks pregnant right now. Yikes.

[Edie]

Some people nurse for a few years. WHO actually recommends nursing until age 2.

 

I'm about 6 weeks pregnant right now. Yikes.

 

YAY!

 

What's weird is that a woman who is nursing a 3 year old is complaining about pictures of other women nursing. Most people who nurse that long you would think would have a healthy respect for it and defend it at all times.

 

Not to mention whether she stays in her house all day long, so as not to offend others

[EL the Famous]

"Men are very visual," says Mrs. Wheatley, 40, of Amarillo, Texas. "When they see a woman's breast, they see a breast -- regardless of what it's being used for."

 

I fully endorse the baring of breasts in public. Period.

[Dreamin']

I'm about 6 weeks pregnant right now. Yikes.

Congratulations!

 

My first is due in two months and I plan to breastfeed throughout my maternity leave (1 yr).

 

Fortunately, breastfeeding (or expressing milk in public) is protected under the code of human rights in British Columbia, so if I'm ever hassled, it's nice to know that there's legislation to back me up. I hope that will be true for all moms and babies someday.

[Edie]

Here are even more possible benefits. I certainly don't know if it is true, but in my limited experience, jake has never shown real separation anxiety.

 

Breast-feeding reduces anxiety into childhood

 

By Patricia Reaney

Thu Aug 3, 8:11 AM ET

 

 

Breast-feeding's calming effects seem to be long-lasting.

 

Years after being weaned, breast-fed children cope better with stressful situations like their parents' divorce than their bottle-fed peers, researchers said on Thursday.

 

"In children who are breast-fed, there is less of an association between parental divorce and separation and childhood anxiety," Dr Scott Montgomery, an epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in an interview.

 

Breast milk is full of nutrients, hormones, enzymes, growth factors and antibodies that are passed from mother to child.

 

Research has shown breast-feeding reduces infections, respiratory illness and diarrhoea in the child and cuts the risk of after-birth bleeding in the mother.

 

In an observation study published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, Montgomery and his team studied how breast- and bottle-fed 10-year-olds coped with the stress of their parents' marital problems.

 

The children were among 9,000 youngsters who had been monitored from birth for a major British study. Their teachers were asked to rate their anxiety level on a scale of 0-50.

 

There was a higher level of stress in all the children but the breast-fed youngsters coped better.

 

"The anxiety was much less obvious in children who were breast-fed," Montgomery said.

 

The researchers do not know why breast-fed babies were less anxious. They suggested breast-feeding could be an indicator of other parental factors or the physical contact between the mother and the child may have helped to reduce anxiety.

 

Breast-feeding could also influence the development of pathways in the body linked with its response to stress.

 

"The more we look at breast-feeding, the more benefits we see. As this is something that is, in evolutionary terms, normal it is likely to be important in normal human development," Montgomery said.

[austrya]

Congrats!

 

If you need any support while you're just getting started, let me know. The first two weeks are hard, but after that, it does get easier. I can't tell you how many times I almost gave up, but I'm so glad that I stuck with it.

[Tweedy's Gurl]

that's funny because i have severe anxiety issues and i know for a fact that i was breast fed....there i go again not being a statistic...

 

 

judy...canada rules, i'm so raising my kids up there.

[Dreamin']

If you need any support while you're just getting started, let me know. The first two weeks are hard, but after that, it does get easier. I can't tell you how many times I almost gave up, but I'm so glad that I stuck with it.

Thanks. Right now, I'm preoccupied with getting through the birth , but I've heard that breastfeeding can be really challenging for some moms. Wish me luck! ... I might hire a doula to help out.

[M. (hristine]

judy...canada rules, i'm so raising my kids up there.

Actually most states in the US have similar laws...

[Tweedy's Gurl]

Actually most states in the US have similar laws...

 

 

i should look up such things before i make statements, then.