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Sorry but I find the photos creepy. I was a nursing Mom, I nursed all three of my sons until they were around 14 months old. I find it a private affair, something that was so sweet and loving. I don't think my sons would want to see themselves nursing.
For some things the memory is sweet enough.
Is breast-feeding while in uniform conduct unbecoming to a military mom?
The debate over nursing in public got a new layer recently, when photos taken on an Air Force base began to circulate online. In the series of tasteful professional photos showing beaming moms as they nurse their kids, one jumps out: the photo of two servicewomen with their uniform shirts unbuttoned and hiked up to breast-feed.
"A lot of people are saying it's a disgrace to the uniform. They're comparing it to urinating and defecating [while in uniform]," says Crystal Scott, a military spouse who started Mom2Mom in January as a breast-feeding support group for military moms and "anyone related to the base" at Fairchild AFB outside Spokane, Wash. "It's extremely upsetting. Defecating in public is illegal. Breast-feeding is not."
It was Scott's idea to ask photographer Brynja Sigurdardottir to take photos of real-life breast-feeding moms to create posters for National Breastfeeding Awareness Month in August. One of the moms photographed in uniform, Terran Echegoyen-McCabe, breast-feeds her 10-month-old twin girls on her lunch breaks during drill weekends as a member of the Air National Guard.
"I have breast-fed in our lobby, in my car, in the park ... and I pump, usually in the locker room," she says. "I'm proud to be wearing a uniform while breast-feeding. I'm proud of the photo and I hope it encourages other women to know they can breast-feed whether they're active duty, guard or civilian."
She said she's surprised by the reaction to the photos, which also feature her friend Christina Luna, because it never occurred to her that breast-feeding in uniform would cause such a stir.
"There isn't a policy saying we can or cannot breast-feed in uniform," Echegoyen-McCabe says. "I think it's something that every military mom who is breast-feeding has done. ... I think we do need to be able to breast-feed in uniform and be protected."
The Air Force has no policy specifically addressing breast-feeding in uniform, according to Air Force spokesperson Captain Rose Richeson, who added, "Airmen should be mindful of their dress and appearance and present a professional image at all times while in uniform."
Robyn Roche-Paull has been advocating for such a policy since she left the U.S. Navy 15 years ago. Her challenges in breast-feeding her son while on active duty – she recalls her "flaming red face" upon being reprimanded for nursing in a medical waiting room – prompted her to write a book called "Breastfeeding in Combat Boots" as a resource for military moms. She is now an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant who remains close to the military through her active-duty husband and her blog for military moms.
"If you follow the comments on my blog, a lot of the comments are that the breast-feeding mothers are the ones who need to be covered up. Nobody sees anything wrong with bottle feeding mothers or fathers," she says. "Asking mothers to feed a baby by bottle when they are together, simply because they are in uniform, can both affect the mom's milk supply and her willingness to keep breast-feeding or stay in the military. It's simply one more barrier they have to face."
The criticism of the photo goes beyond the usual nursing-in-public debate, though. One commenter on Roche-Paull’s website who identified herself as a retired captain in the Marine Corps said she advocated for breast-feeding moms in the military and now, as a civilian, she nurses freely on base. However, she writes:
“I would never nurse in uniform. I took my child to the bathroom or a private office when her nanny brought her to me …. Not because I was ashamed of nursing, nor of being a mother. All the guys knew I pumped. The military is not a civilian job. We go to combat and we make life or death decisions, and not just for ourselves but for those we lead. The same reason I would never nurse in uniform is the same reason I do not chew gum, or walk and talk on my cell phone, or even run into the store in my utility uniform. ... We are warfighting professionals. Women before us have worked too hard to earn and retain the respect of their male peers. I don’t want my Marines to look at me any other way than as a Marine. When I am asking them to fly into combat with me and do a dangerous mission, I do not want them to have the mental image of a babe at my breast. I want them to only see me as a Marine. Let’s be a realistic folks. We give up many freedoms being in the military…Breastfeeding in front of my fellow Marines was one of them."
Considering there is strict discipline in other things you can do in uniform such as eating, holding hands even with your wife, etc. is a female soldier breast feeding in uniform acceptable?
It's the same concept. People have varying degrees of appropriateness when it comes to nudity.
Then people need to suck it up and stop worrying about it. Seriously, if a tit bothers you than you are the person with the issue, not the breastfeeding Mother.
If you read the whole article you would see that actually Walmart's policy excludes breastfeeding from that as breastfeeding is not considered nudity, even in your culture. That's why there are laws protecting it in public. That's why facebook, finally, allows breastfeeding pictures. Because its not nudity, its a celebration of a beautiful moment of motherhood.
How is saying those photos are fine shaming but saying those photos are inappropriate not? If you are feeling shamed for shaming someone else then maybe that's telling you something.
She is wrong anyway. Most Americans are not that prudish about public breastfeeding. You simply have a very prudish and loud minority you have to contend with is all.
So she has enough money to hire a professional photographer but is so cheap she goes to Wal-Mart for the prints? I bet there's a lot of places that have rules when it comes to cheap prints. I'm sure the photographer would have been happy to print them, she's just too cheap. I hope she goes to another place with rules.
You do realize how a professional photographer works don't you? They print off what you and they consider the best shots for their package deal. They almost always give you a dvd or usb drive with the rest on there so you can print them later.
I sometimes think people do this on purpose knowing full well Walmart (in this case) wont give them their way so they can have their 15mins of internet fame.
And (I don't know about this poster, but) usually it's someone who makes tons of posts in other threads about "I'll never shop at big, bad WalMart!"
I don't think there's anything wrong with breastfeeding pictures, but I do think they should be kept private, just like pictures of kids on the potty chair or kids in the bath. I don't like seeing breastfeeding pictures on Facebook and I can't imagine the purpose of printing out a collage like that.
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