National Nurse-In Planned
November 17, 2006 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under activism, law, nursing in public, toddler nursing, travel
The media frenzy over the woman kicked off a plane for breastfeeding continues.
Mothering magazine has an exclusive web interview with the mother, Emily Gillette, who says in part:
I’d like to see the idea of breastfeeding introduced in a sentence without having to use words like “climate” or “issue.” I’d like people to stop taking it upon themselves to decide what age is appropriate and what age isn’t for women to continue breastfeeding. I’d like our society to stop comparing breastfeeding to sexual acts, defecation, genital exposure, and treating it like an attention seeking act. I’d like breastfeeding not to have to be a statement of defiance, but a message of love.
More details of the event are revealed:
It was 10:00 at night when, after a three-hour delay, Emily Gillette and her family gratefully boarded flight 6160 from Burlington, Vermont to New York’s La Guardia. Heading to the city to rendezvous with relatives from abroad, Emily took her window seat in the eighth row of a nine-row plane, next to her husband. She began to discreetly breastfeed her baby before takeoff, aware that nursing helps babies regulate air travel’s pressure changes. Within moments, she was asked by the sole flight attendant to cover up with a blanket. Citing her right to nurse, Gillette calmly and politely declined. The flight attendant then told Gillette, “You are offending me,” and proceeded to have a ticket agent board the aircraft to remove Emily and her family. The Gillettes quietly gathered their belongings and left, after unsuccessfully appealing to the pilot and co-pilot for help.
Delta ticket agents (including the agent that told the Gillettes they had to leave the airplane) then attempted to communicate with the crew to reverse the flight attendant’s decision, to no avail. The co-pilot came off the plane and spoke with the family, apologizing for their removal but claiming that there was nothing he could do to change a flight attendant’s decision made in the cabin of an aircraft.
Lactivists at the Mothering magazine message boards are scrambling to organize a national nurse-in at Delta counters around the country on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 10 a.m. For more details see this thread.
Having recently completed a pleasant flight with my 22-month-old nursling (see Traveling with a First Class Nursling), I’m shocked by how Emily Gillette and her 22-month-old were treated. If that happened to me I would be mortified and horribly upset. Does that mean I’m going to trot down to Delta on Tuesday? I don’t think so (although I would have gone to the original nurse-in in Burlington International Airport where the incident occurred). A rookie flight attendant made a terrible mistake. The incident has gotten a lot of attention, the airline has responded, and I’ve signed the petition. There are all kinds of lactivists. I advocate breastfeeding through information, support, and my own example as a mother who readily nurses in public, anywhere and at any time. I suppose if I knew there would be a large group of nursing mothers gathering at my local airport, I might attend, but for now I am content voicing my opinion through my computer.
Will you participate in the national nurse-in, and if so, at which airport?
That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!
Espcially with the new liquid restrictions, I have never been more relieved to be a nursing mother.
And really, a mother’s right to nurse is nothing compared to a baby’s right to eat! I make 3 long-haul flights every year with my children. and for 3 out of the last 4 years, I have had a nursling with me. But, I have never flown with Delta and now, I never will.
There is no comfort in this kind of ignorance.
Strangely, I don’t find and comfort in the fact that the flight attendant has probably ended her career with this.
Kate, the really sad thing is that the flight attendant was merely “disciplined” (no further explanation given). The only consolation is that I’m sure she’ll never harrass a nursing mother again.