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Times Online
August 22, 2002
Rights for women and babies
An MSP wants to fine bars and cafes in Scotland that ban breastfeeding mothers
A LAW making breastfeeding a right in restaurants, bars and cafés is long overdue (report, August 20). I have breastfed three children for seven months each and understand how difficult it is to feed a baby in public places.
Restaurants and shops will usually direct you to the toilet to feed a baby, where you are forced to sit in a grubby cubicle usually with another toddler in a pushchair by the washbasins.
I believe it has a lot to do with the British attitude to breasts and breastfeeding ? i.e. that breasts are solely sexual organs. When feeding my children in Ireland I have always been left to get on with it. Children are an accepted and welcomed part of society there and a feeding mother is regarded part of the natural order of things.
As a breastfeeding mother, I always wore loose fitting clothes and only the most determined voyeur would have been able to detect a feeding child under a billowing blouse. Hats off to Marks & Spencer, however: by them I have always been shown the utmost courtesy and offered a large changing-room in which to feed my baby. This, however, is a rare occurence. Generally, one is treated as if one is some sort of exhibitionist.
We are told to breastfeed our babies to ensure the best start in life, but it seems that only applies if you never leave the house. A breastfed baby feeds on demand and therefore it is not always possible to feed a child when it is convenient. A hungry baby screaming at the top of its lungs is far more of an irritation to other diners and shoppers than one that is happily feeding under its mother?s shirt.
Denise Hartley, Billericay, Essex
I?m not a show-off
AS a radio presenter on Radio 2, I frequently make known my views on breastfeeding. I find it sad that we should need a ?law? but perhaps if it highlights the importance of breastfeeding then it will be doing some good. I breastfed both my boys until they were two years old ? tandem feeding sometimes. I have breastfed anywhere and everywhere, including during a trip on the Millennium Wheel! I have never encountered disapproval and never been asked to leave any cafe, restaurant or public place not for any kind of ?show?. I, like most women, breastfeed purely to provide nourishment or comfort to the baby. It?s totally discreet, I don?t think there?s been even a flash of boob!
Janey Lee Grace, Old Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Freedom of choice
IF people want to look at Page Three of The Sun in private, that is of course their business. If people want to breastfeed their babies in private ? or in a space specifically allocated to that purpose ? that is of course no problem either.
But I find breastfeeding in public offensive. Managers of pubs and other businesses have got a perfect right to ban breastfeeding on their premises. Elaine Smith is wrong to want to fine them for doing so.
Anthony Woodrow,
[email protected]
Bad for babies
ELAINE SMITH, the MSP for Coatbridge, seems to be promoting women?s rights at the expense of their infants. She has failed to think of the consequences of her proposals.
Rather than a legal right for mothers to feed their babies in public, I would suggest a law forbidding the carrying of infants into any premises where smoking is permitted. The very idea of hazarding the health of a baby to the atmosphere of the average Scottish pub cries out for Babies? Rights legislation.
David Mowat, Liverpool
America?s incredulity
NEVER let it be said that the UK (and Scotland in particular) is not as silly as America when it comes to indulging in political correctness.
Breastfeeding in public? That?s an actual issue for debate?
C. Howard, Los Angeles
Scotland?s shame
WELL DONE, Michael Gove (Comment, August 20). You have articulated my unexpressed disappointment in the people of Scotland. As an American of Scotch-Irish decent, I have lived in Great Britain for 12 years and observed with increasing shame the mindset of my Scottish forebears.
Jim Russell, Horsham, West Sussex
Rights for men
MEN should have a similar right to urinate on the urge into a bucket in a restaurant, against a designated open wall, tree or lamp-post.
In a closed place, the smell of fresh human milk is no less strong or unpleasant than the smell of fresh human urine. If women?s breasts are not to be regarded as simply sexual, then neither should men?s penises. Both should be exposable in public.
Henry Williams, London W2