The Scottish government took a stand on this issue in 2004 and made it illegal to prevent a woman from breastfeeding her baby in public. Here's a link to the letter of the Law.
Simply put, if a child is allowed in a place, then no-one can obstruct the feeding of that child (by breast or bottle). This led many in England to call for a similar law (see this article from 2005). And in Wales, doctors called for such a law in 2006.
While we're in the archives, here are some webchats on Mumsnet with:
- Health Secretary Alan Johnson in 2008;
- Gwyneth Lewis (maternity adviser to Health Dept, a doctor) in 2009;
- Of course, Gabrielle Palmer in 2009;
- and now Ann Sinnott in 2010.
In Summer 2008, the government have simply clarified that breastfeeding in public (in shops, libraries, cafes, etc) is not illegal. Anyone suffering in this way can argue that such attitudes have been illegal in England (& Wales) for more than 30 years under the Sex Discrimination Act. This is regardless of the child's age. In addition, a new law adds an additional level of cover for anyone feeding a child aged less than 6 months. (See an article on this here).
Breastfeeding in Public on the Isle of Man, meanwhile, remains an offence. (An act to normalise this was recently delayed, to the embarrassment of right-thinking residents.)
Images of Breastfeeding online
Facebook are surely discriminating against breastfeeding mothers? Some who have posted photographs of their breastfeeding, have had the images deleted & the mothers are also threatened with an end to their account. Many other non-breastfeeding photos are allowed to remain, even though they show much more flesh in a highly sexualised way. (For example - the Playboy page on Facebook has almost 4 million members and shows highly sexualised photo/video content, never mind the comments. And they have the gall to complain "Since Facebook won't let us post nude galleries on our page, we put one together for you on our site! Click here to access this nude gallery.")
A group on the site was formed as a petition.
The blog PhD in Parenting has written comprehensively about the FB issue, explaining carefully to FB why images of Breastfeeding humans should be allowed to remain online in a community support group.
In October 2010, FB again banned harmless images of breastfeeding women. More recently, a victim of FB's practices has written about her experiences with the Leaky B@@b.
Facebook also seem to view the image of a leaf as a moral issue. Here's the viewpoint from Hathor - the issue is putting many sensible folks off using FB altogether.
Breastfeeding in Public
Why should UK law be changed? BFLG has some thoughts on this.
Interesting to read the comparison of European countries: some countries such as Ireland, Scotland, France where AIM's have been advertised and hospitals have not been supportive of BF turn out to have very low BF rates (<50% at birth). Others, such as Norway or the Czech Republic, where AIM advertising is not allowed and hospitals are very supportive turn out to have very high BF rates (>90%).
Etiquette advice!
Discussion on hiding away - Guardian, 2009. And remember the Breastfeeding Chair?
2010 - the debate continues, see article here by Kate Evans.
Jan 2011, found the advice on breastfeeding on board P&O cruise-ships is that "we would prefer that actions such as these are done in the privacy of your stateroom", though they can hardly ask you to leave, eh? (Though ironically they will provide free follow-on milk for babies 6 mths plus.)
Advertising of Formula milk
Online anyone with an interest in babies will be bombarded with adverts for Aptimil and Gate Baby Clubs - with surveys, 'helpful' advice, free toys etc. Yes, it's illegal, as they are not allowed to target women directly. But no one will prosecute so they continue.
More info and examples are available from BFLG, particularly wrt Cow&Gate. The formula helplines do offer advice on breastfeeding. This is part of their marketing - it is very important to reach women who are breastfeeding as the vast majority of them (in the UK) stop before their babies use ordinary cows milk at 12 mths. Women who use formula after starting to breastfeed have a strong tendency to stay using formula for longer than women who start off formula feeding.
On an individual level these ads probably don't work very well - very few people will see one ad and decide not to bf. However they may well join the baby club for the freebies and this will work in a subtler way. Freebies and ads and clubs and so on work on the culture, changing outlooks and promoting familiarity with a brand name.
A leaflet on pregnancy, for example - from Cow&Gate. Cow&Gate sell nothing and produce nothing related to pregnancy. The leaflet did not even mention the range of milks. But it did present Cow&Gate as the experts, which again is part of a wider marketing strategy.
An interesting page about those companies which break the WHO code on marketing of baby products.
It is often said that women are judged for formula-feeding. (Occaisionally leading to hateful comparisons with Nazis/Gestapo) However, in fact many feel the need to judge health professionals who are expected to know something about breastfeeding (... but know very little)... and those who aggressively advertise formula, and baby food for those under 6 months.
Useful links -
Breastfeeding Manifesto;
Nursing Matters (advocacy group);
Report a violation of the code for marketing artificial infant milks.
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