Public Breast-Feeding Incident Sparks Controversy
A confrontation on Aug. 9 prompts the creation of a breast-feeding policy for downtown.
Photos
Downtown Silver Spring management has launched an initiative to educate customers and staff about breast-feeding after a mother was confronted about publicly feeding her baby last week.
The new effort outlines steps by Peterson Companies’ management, including, educating its staff about the law, handing out copies of the breast-feeding law, setting up an informational booth over the next few Saturdays with La Leche League in Silver Spring and requiring security guards to carry copies of the law.
The issue came to light on Aug. 9 when a Washington, D.C., mother was sitting near the fountain in the downtown plaza and her 11-month-old girl wanted milk. Jamie D. Smith tried to feed her baby discreetly.
“A security guard, who was pretty nasty, told me I had to leave [and] I couldn’t breast feed my baby because I was exposing myself,” said Smith, "and that if I didn’t want to leave, that I would have to cover my baby up completely.”
After Smith took her concerns to downtown Silver Spring Event Manager Lillian Buie, the incident set off an uproar among members of the Silver Spring Moms Yahoo Group.
Buie apologized for the mistake and said at no point would a mother be told she couldn’t feed her baby. But in this incident, other patrons complained to the management.
Some moms expressed how they were “uncomfortable and that the nipples were exposed,” Buie said.
Maryland law states that “a mother may breast-feed her child in any public or private location in which the mother and child are authorized to be and a person may not restrict or limit the right of a mother to breast-feed her child.”
Buie said she fully understands the law.
“No way we are ever going to say a woman can’t breast-feed,” Buie said. “I want this to be a community decision.”
Buie detailed the new policy in an email sent to Silver Spring moms on Friday afternoon.
lilkunta
8:42 am on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
"Some moms expressed how they were “ uncomfortable and that the nipples were exposed,” said Buie."
I dont believe this for 1 second. All BF moms are cognizant & DONT want every1 seeing their nipples.
“No way we are ever going to say a woman can’t breastfeed,” said Buie. “I want this to be a community decision.”
NO NO NO Manager Buie!
It does not need to be a community decision.
FEDERAL & STATE law supercede the community.
if you are going to listen to the community, expect me to complain about
-all the yong men with their pants hanging down their asses exposing their dirty underwear.
Expect me to complain about all those teens who look like harlort with
-their spaghettti strap tanks barely covering their breasts,
- bra showing ( if they wear a bra at all),
-and all those butt shorts that show waaaayyy too much !
tanisha
9:04 am on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
What the heck is wrong with people? Breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world only in the US do you see stupid crap like this. I lived in Spain for 10 yrs and it was the most natural thing in the world.
@lilkunta - I'm right there with you- I rather see a mother breastfeeding then someone's butt crack.
Mike Jones
9:24 am on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Man, let a woman be a part of nature...damn...Some people got some serious mental issues...Let the tidday milk flow...
T Wright
12:22 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
Yes, some people do have serious mental issues....very! I'm one of those - PTSD being chief among them. Having been sexually abused as a child, I find that seeing a woman breastfeed gives me flashbacks to a lot of horrific things that happened to me when I was little.
I can't stand it - seeing it, thinking about it, doing it (ugh! i would rather die)! With that said, this woman has every right to feed her baby. I've been in more public places than I can count where a mom was breastfeeding. I choose to leave the situation. It's as simple as that. The mothers aren't doing anything wrong. I just have issues, and I have to take care of myself.
Adrienne
3:55 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
It's called freedom of expression and it's for the mothers who want to breastfeed, the guys who want to let their pants hang all the way down and the women who barely cover themselves with their teeny, tiny tops and ittty bitty short shorts and those who are way overweight and wear the tightest and smallest of what they can find - let live
lilkunta
4:41 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Adrienne, freedom of expression would be wearing a bracelet or shirt or holding a sign.
BF is a federal and state protected act.
What is being expressed by boys showing their underwear?
What is being expressed by girls not wearing a bra /showing all 1 their buttcheeks?
Mary Schmidt
1:07 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
When you display your underwear, or your butt cheeks, you are making a statement, and that statement is: I am a slob, deal with it.
I deal with it by thinking, yuck!
Keekers
11:34 am on Monday, August 22, 2011
Wait a second....Nipples?? I dont think she whipped off her shirt and bra and sat there topless. I have never seen a woman "expose" herself while feeding her child. What a bunch of prudes. I think I would have had a few things to say to this security guard if he had approached me while feeding my daughter. I would have pulled the law up on my smart phone and respectfully requested for him to kiss my ass!!
Mel Little
11:59 am on Monday, August 22, 2011
Good job for mom in standing up for her rights and her baby's rights!
Jeanie Salyer
12:08 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
I would really love to know if way back in the day when women began fighting the taboo of pregnant woman not being seen in public (it was called "confinement"), if society put up the Big Stink too many breastfeeding mothers face today when breastfeeding in public?
I'm amazed how many people readily accept pregnancy and childbirth as natural occurrences, then all of a sudden draw the line at mothers providing The Very Best milk for human babies.
Breastfeeding (any place and time the baby needs it) is the biological conclusion to to pregnancy and childbirth. There are those who for reasons of their own may not breastfeed, but that doesn't make breastfeeding any less the way Mother Nature intended things to be done.