breastfeeding

Members send in stories all the time about their local adventures in breastfeeding. There are ones worthy of cheers (eg, stories of employers who are pumping-break friendly) and ones deserving jeers (eg, getting kicked off a plane and out of restaurants for breastfeeding).

On International Women's Day Saturday, I started thinking about moms around the world and then moms in our own United States of America. As the mother of four children, I've spent a lot of time over the years breastfeeding babies, and so I wondered: Why do moms in the U.S. still lack a guarantee of some paid maternity leave so they have time to bond with their bundles-of-joy?

This breaking news story from Charlotte, North Carolina has me truly outraged and ashamed of my home state: a Brazilian woman was jailed in Charlotte on Friday for immigration charges, and has been denied the opportunity to pump breast milk for her son, who is younger than two months old.

You can imagine what it means for a breastfeeding infant and mother to be separated and needlessly denied the opportunity to at least pump her milk to be delivered to the baby.

The Charlotte Observer reports that Danielle Ferreira's baby Samuel is "crying incessantly and keeps spitting up baby formula."

I feel intensely angry about this situation, but rather than compounding that with helplessness, I am doing what I can to at least magnify the awareness of this situation. I have reached out to local advocates and my legislators. Now that you know, is there anything you can do to help?

Doctors agree that breastmilk is best for infants, but their own licensing board isn't following doctor's orders. Sophie Currier recently learned that when it comes to supporting breastfeeding, many of our leaders--whether they are in the medical establishment (as in Sophie's case), business sector, or elsewhere--still don't "walk the talk." You see, Sophie was denied breast pumping breaks during her nine hour medical licensing exam. She's not alone. Even in this day and age when the medical evidence is clear that breastfeeding is best for infants, women are regularly denied the time and location to pump.