Woman kicked off flight for breastfeeding
Written on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 by Jessica
Remind me to never fly Delta.
I wrote an email to bitch:
I'm appalled that a family was kicked off a Delta Connections flight because the mother was breastfeeding. The flight attendant and the airline should've used better judgment. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15720339/I have to admit, I've written better complaint letters. What's this business about low-cut tops? Oh, well. I was pissed when I wrote it. I'm thinking about following up with a better-written paper letter.
If the airlines are going to start banning breastfeeding women who won't cover up, they'd better start banning women with low-cut tops as well. After all, a breastfeeding mother doesn't display any more cleavage than a low-cut top. The baby's head blocks most everything.
I'm aware that Delta and Freedom Airlines are different entities, but Delta should exert its influence to stop such nonsense in the future.
Update: By the way, I learned about this incident at Working Moms, a new site for (you guessed it) mommies who work.
Posted in
Breastfeeding,
Complaint letters
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They definitely need to train the flight attendants better if this is what they do! I recently flew delta (or a subsidiary) from NC to WI and breastfed my son on the flight. No one said anything to me, but the male attendant looked really uncomfortable asking me if I wanted snacks while I fed the baby.
May I mention though, that from the story I read, the flight attendant did give the woman a blanket to cover up....
...The woman refused. After that, she was asked to leave...
There are a lot of folks out there who are not parents (including a lot of women) who would not feel comfortable around a mother who is breastfeeding her baby, I am not kidding folks.
Even some mothers, before they had kids,felt uncomfortable with the idea of breastfeeding a baby...be honest now...until the kids came along and that "bonding" took place and from then on it became the most natural thing in the world...
I am not against mothers breastfeeding their babies...I am just giving my opinion about the other side of the issue.
Thanks.
Zoe
YAY! So glad you came over to Working Mommies!
That's some ka-ray-zee news, eh? Give it for my old state, VT, and the nurse-in they held!
My point was that there was no need to cover up because a breastfeeding woman has nothing to cover. Take me, for example: When I nurse my son, my shirt covers my breast, and his head obviously covers the nipple. A low-cut top is more revealing than a breastfeeding mother, but imagine the outcry if a woman in a low-cut top was asked to cover up or leave. Bottom line: The flight attendant was either uncomfortable with the idea of nursing in public or uncomfortable with the idea of nursing a toddler. (If I recall, the "baby" was actually nearly two years old. Although the World Health Organization recommends nursing babies until two years of age, many people in the U.S. are really weirded out by the thought of continuing to nurse much after the first year.)
I can't help thinking about Janet Jackson. Half the country didn't understand what the big deal was when her nipple made it on national television. But many of those same people are uncomfortable when they see a breastfeeding mother. I don't understand it.
I think that the woman should've just covered up a bit more. I doubt that she would've been given a blanket if you couldn't see her breast. I 100% believe in breastfeeding, but I also believe in being discreet about it.
A lot of people, including myself, get uncomfortable when a they can see the woman's breast while she's breastfeeding, but are comfortable to see a woman breastfeeding when she has a blanket covering her up.
If the woman was covering herself properly and was still asked to leave, then I would have a problem with it. But if the woman was exposed while breastfeeding and refused the blanket, then I don't feel sorry for her. She could've made things very simple for herself by using the blanket.
I do believe that a woman should use a blanket to cover up anytime she is breastfeeding in public.
But really, why should a woman be expected to cover her child under a sweltering blanket just to make others feel more comfortable about breastfeeding? Furthermore, as far as I know, airlines don't launder blankets between flights. It's not healthy for anyone to use those blankets, let alone small children.
In this case, the bottom line is that the woman was in a state (Vermont) where public breastfeeding is a right guaranteed by law. The airline acted illegally by removing her from the flight.