How did we do it 50 years ago?
Earlier this month, President Trump signed the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 2018. Included in this bill is the bipartisan Friendly Airports for Mothers (FAM) Act.
The FAM Act will require all medium and large airports in the United States to provide one clean, private, non-bathroom lactation space per terminal after the security checkpoint in order to accommodate nursing mothers. The room must have disability access, a locking door, an outlet so women can pump, a place to sit, and a table or flat surface. This bill also makes provisions for a baby changing station inside one men’s and one women’s bathroom in each passenger terminal.
How old can you be and still be allowed to breastfeed there?
Just asking for a friend.
What the hell, why not? If they can install a $250K prayer room with foot baths at an airport for a certain segment of the populous we should at least offer a comfortable area for the lactation crowd…. https://tinyurl.com/ycnhowb4
Great. Now pass a law that makes at least one terminal in each airport safe from CNN
You mean a woman can’t have milk prepared before a flight? Seems like a idiotic new accommodation with the additional expense for people flying. This strikes me as just more stupidity.
Actually breastfeeding was discouraged 50 years ago, considered very old fashioned. The formula companies bombarded doctors with samples and promotional items such as teddy bears and diaper bags. I always preferred sticking close to home but these places seem a good idea so long as they aren’t used improperly. It was actually fun staying home a lot when the kids were babies. Not a burden to be tied to the children for a few short years.
Very true, dee. Back then, boobs were only meant for filling pointy bras. And even if there’d been breastfeeding rooms back then, they would have been required to have an ashtray.
It will be interesting to see how NPCNN and MSNPC spin this to show how Trump is a despicable misogynist. If they can’t the story will be ignored.
Yes, indeed. 50 years ago people did not fly all over the place anyway, especially not with an infant. Bottle feeding and stay-at-home mothers were the order of the day.
Yes this is a pro-family agenda. We need more American babies to replace ourselves. If young adults were encouraged to get married and start families earlier there would be plenty of time for women to start careers that would not need to be interrupted later on. That’s what happened to me. The women’s magazines always promote delaying motherhood and “juggling” career and family. I remember thinking that I was supposed to pump and seek out a day care center.
“The FAM Act will require”
Does this stop men who think they’re women from going in?
What stops other people from taking naps in there? lol
Will the TSA still harass the women with containers of milk when boarding a flight? Is someone watching them express the milk to prove it isn’t something else?
I’m glad they have someplace to do their bidness, but it seems like calling the gubmint’s attention on yourself for special treatment always ends up backfiring.
Dee, when reading the blurb, my immediate thought was those of us who breastfed our babies 49 years ago were thought of as weird and perverted. My OBGYN and the Pediatrition were happy that I was doing so, but the nurse/nun in charge of the nursery was “udderly” dismayed and gave me a horribly difficult time.
Honest to pete, she actually made me wash myself with alcohol, which obviously turned our daughter away from wanting to nurse and she also ordered jello water to be given to her on demand, when I told my OB at my six week check-up, he was livid. Because of this, I engorged and daughter started vomiting.
When I got home with daughter, my mom, who nursed us kids stayed with us to help out. She rode me for the week. Also, she thought washing myself with alcohol before and after every feeding was nuts, but the nun convinced me I was being unsanitary if I didn’t. I gave up after a week, when our daughter started vomiting with every feeding.
We went through testing numerous formulas with daughter not being able to digest anything other than powdered Nutramagen which was a bugger to prepare. Plus, EVERYTHING involved HAD to be steralized in the big old steam unit. Boy did the formula companies do a number on us.
Thank God for the nursing rooms and PDJT.
P.S. When our boys were born, I was ready for the B.S. and told any B.S. mongers where to stuff it. So was my doctor.
PJ- My sister went through such aggravation when she was breastfeeding. The nurses were nitpicking to the point where she got angry and just cut them all off. They had her on some daily crazy checklist.
They made something natural so un-natural.
This is BS. What is wrong with a Mom throwing a baby blanket over her shoulder and breast feeding the precious babe? We have to put up with assaults to our senses in so many ways these days. I’d rather smile at a breast feeding Mom than be behind someone in over the weight limit spandex.
I breastfed all three of mine and I never needed a special room anywhere to do it. A blanket I guess is a magical thing these days, because I could discreetly feed my babies under the cover of the magic blanket and nobody had a clue what I was doing.
I don’t really know why they need a special room now I see them walking around WalMart all the time with their tit hung out and a kid latched on.
50 years ago they treated women like freaks who wanted to breastfeed, today it’s went to the other extreme and they treat women who can’t or don’t want to breastfeed like they’re child abusers.
I don’t know how they did it 50 years ago but I know how I did it 40 years ago. Threw a blanket over my shoulder. I nursed my sons everywhere, even in restaurants, and no one was the wiser. Worked great.
I’ve been in airports and on ferry boats where mothers breastfeed with no blanket and just let it hang out afterwards. No one cared or hardly noticed.
Opinion: Real men are quite pleased to see a child being nursed by a loving mother.
MJA,
So sorry for your sister and any of us who went through that era of unnaturalness. That nun made me nearly nutty and probably forced me to nearly poison my baby girl. They treat pregnancy and birthing like an illness.
Our youngest DIL who is a doctor of pharmacology opted for a midwife for their 4 year old. Her own primary care doc is a specialist in integrated medicine because of an AI thyroid and gut condition. Smart girl. Very conservative in medicine and other things.
Old Racist Whitewoman,
My guess is that 50 years ago we were less likely to travel with our babies until they were weaned. The great new pumps were not yet invented (remember those horrid squeeze bulb pumps 🙂 .)
Our daughter who is 18 years older than our youngest DIL used to travel across country with her babies—- yes, with a blanket across her shoulder.
Our DIL, pumped for prepared bottles, and was stymied by the security restrictions of liquid or frozen product brought on to an airplane. The proper place for the breastfeeding rooms is after security check in My guess is that they will be used more for pumping than for feeding because of the stupid security restrictions. Hope the airlines also offer ice packs in the rooms. . Plus, there are a LOT of people who are derisive of public breastfeeding even with a blanket cover.
I have yet to be a mother, but my own mom (had 7 kids), used the blanket method and it worked great.
Her first two suffered from doctor and pediatrician interference (early 80s and formula was the THING) but starting with her 3rd she kicked that to the curb and breast fed each additional baby until 3 or so.
(I’m the 5th)
And might I add that her last 5 kids are better adjusted adults. No dis to my oldest two brothers but it’s true.