Recent Breastfeeding Incident/Freedom Airlines

nursing a child,what is more beautifl.....ingnorance and
intolerance,what coul more ugly....an airline that understands the
difference-----priceless

The only time I don't object to a woman exposing her breast in public
is when she is breastfeeding her child. If Emily Gilette was flashing
her breast to piss off the flight attendants or to impress men, I
would not have complained to Delta about throwing her off their
flight. I would have praised them. But since she was breastfeeding her
baby, that is why I complained to them. They went too far!

It's more than likely that a customer complained; in fact, I read on
another site (the post in itself was by a FA who'd been told of the
incident) that a woman customer complained about the breastfeeding so
the FA had no choice but to ask the woman to cover up. The woman threw
back the blanket and called the FA a bitch. This was why she was
thrown off apparently; cuz she was abusive to the FA. And by the way,
a FA has no authority to chuck a person off a plane; that's the
captain's perogative. That's like saying supermarket cashiers have the
authority to ban people from supermarkets.

By the way, I personally have nothing against women breastfeeding. A
mate of mine nursed her daughter; what bugged her was the amount of
feminazis who whipped out their boobs and did it, thus cheapening
nursing and making women like my mate be lumped in with them. The way
my mate did it, you couldn't see a thing; just a covering of floaty
top and a baby's head.

I dont want to see your breast exposed in front of my 5 year old son!
Even if you are breastfeeding!

""A commuter airline has disciplined a flight attendant who ordered a
passenger off a plane for refusing to cover herself with a blanket
while breast-feeding her toddler, the airline said Friday.""

She wasn't "in public", she was in the window seat, her breast was not
exposed, her husband was sitting between her and the aisle and they
were in the next to the last seat on the plane. It's not like she
whipped her boob out and walked around topless, she was feeding her
kid.

I agree completely, that Delta Airlines was out of order to remove
Emily Gillete from the airplane. They correctly considered her
situation and offered a blanket. However, since Emily was perfectly
comfortable nusing in the open, that should have been the end of it.
She has every right as a mother to nurse in public. In my opinion,
she is more of a lady for refusing the blanket than being forced to
use it, if she doesn't want to. I am proud of her spirit. It should
be a normal part of child rearing.
Paul S

I personally think that any woman who wants to breastfeed in any
public place should have to at least put a towel over the child or
something. Yes its a natural thing. but I think its kind of rude to do
it out in the open. according to the other letter about this, I
believe it states that the lady refused a towel.

I think every woman that has ever breast fed a child or ever intend
to, should write a letter of protest to Delta and Freedom Airlines.
Apparently the flight attendants determine the meaning of 'Freedom".
For some people's information. no safety issues were violated. The
aircraft was at the gate, with the cabin door open and the jetway up
to the aircraft. Anyone that feels a mother discretely breast feeding
their child must have their underwear on too tight! They probably feel
that sex with the lights on is offensive and discusting, also.

As the resident preggo of the "regulars" (at least I don't know of
anyone else that's also expecting right now) I kind of take issue with
this letter.

While it's great that you are supporting this woman, ideally SHE needs
to be the one to complain. While you might think you are being
supportive of her plight, it really "loses something in the
translation" when 3 or 4 other irate women who have NO connection to
this mother start making demands to the airline and writing letters on
her behalf.

I fully intend to nurse my new son when he arrives next month. I did
so with my first born as well. But regardless of whether anyone
around me thinks that it is "right or wrong" of me to feed him that
way, there is still an obligation on my part to be discreet and (to
some degree) sensitive to the feelings of others.

Me whipping out a boob and nursing in any old public place just
because I can is not an excuse.

Don't get me wrong, I fully believe in the right to nurse my children,
but there is still an onus on me to use some common sense and tact.
It's a natural, normal thing, to be sure, but if this woman was
flagrantly violating safety issues (nursing the child during
takeoff???) and refusing to decently/appropriately cover herself, then
she deserved to be removed.

There was a lady on the Ohio Turnpike a few years back who decided to
nurse her child WHILE SHE WAS DRIVING! Now granted, she was fully in
her right to nurse the child, but not while operating a motor vehicle
and NOT while taking off in an airplane either. Some situations just
DON'T lend themselves to this.

Having the right to do this does not relieve her from the
responsibility of being a decent, responsible, considerate person.

So again, to both Kandice and Jennifer, I am sure your intentions are
good and noble, but ultimately, this needs to come from the mother who
did this and not a 3rd party who was not even present on the flight.

And I picture you of what floats around Danny DeVito's toilet with
about the same intelligence.

'Course that's why we know you're still no longer a moderator.

Glad to see you're still around love!

Someone asked what the point of the letter was. Simple. I'm writing to
complain to a company that I've supported (with thousands of dollars)
who I feel has wronged another person in a way that's personal to me
(as a breastfeeding mother). It's called taking part
in advocacy. I'm not getting all bent out of shape; just expressing my
opinion (which you aren't required to agree with).

As for the child's age, I absolutely think the fact that it was an
older child plays a part in this. Most people aren't aware that, as
someone else pointed out, the WHO recommends breastfeeding for the
first two years of a child's life (and longer if possible). They
don't realize that the health benefits to the child increase the
longer you nurse. And as someone else said, a plane brings multiple
reasons that nursing might be necessary (hunger satisfaction, comfort
to the child due to fear or altitude change, etc). Of course, a
22-month-old is eating solids...but that isn't the point. The mother
choose to breastfeed, as is her legal right, and she was made to
leave
the plane because of that.

Breastfeeding in public isn't about anyone else's comfort level.
Women shouldn't have to cover up or sweat their children into a
puddle. It's about being a mother and feeding your child. Period. I
think that anyone who has breastfed understands that (regardless of
opinions on extended nursing).

Thanks to everyone for the input.

I love this letter! Americans are considered prudish for this behavior
where breastfeeding is considered normal and accepted.

She's not suing for untold millions - just a policy change, a flight
for her family and a donation to the charity of her choice.

I still think there's more to this story, but nonetheless, that is
class!

I'm so glad I live in NYC where women can breastfeed in public. I
don't have children, but I would consider support a boycott of a store
or anyplace else that discriminated against a woman who was
breastfeeding. In this case though, I'd like more of the story.
But I thought you wrote a great letter!

But I have read the other comments to get the idea of what was said.

I am a huge breastfeeding advocate. My first son was bottle fed (only
because of my youngness and inability to help him latch on) and my
second was breastfed. The bonding experience... completely different.
Anyways... to the subject at hand.

From what I understand the woman refused a blanket. And I have to say
that I would have refused as well. Once you put an eating child under
a blanket it has a... sauna effect. The temp that they keep the
plane, your body heat, plus the baby's body heat mixed with baby's hot
breath makes it like a sauna in there. Next time you are laying in
bed with the room at comfortable room temp, pull the blanket over your
head for 15 minutes to a half hour and sit there. You will quickly
come to realize how uncomfortable it can get. I never covered my son
with a blanket when I fed him no matter where I was feeding him. I
tried it once and he was drenched in sweat within 5 minutes. Trust me
when I say that you saw less when I breast fed my son then what I wear
for an evening out.

My question is... if there were a woman wearing a very low cut shirt,
would they have removed her? Absolutely not. Some people are very
much against breast feeding. More people than you might realize.
This had nothing to do with decency. This had to do with the opinion
of someone who put up a big enough fuss to get this woman removed from
the flight. I'm not saying that this was the FA's issue but it could
have been the captain's or another passenger's.

Laws in 37 states protect the right for a mother to breastfeed where
ever a child is allowed in public with the mother. A total of 45
states have enacted some sort of pro-breastfeeding legislation. If
you are not comfortable with a woman breastfeeding their child it is
just as much within your right not to watch as it is for her to do it.
Most women breast feeding don't wish to make a specticle of it to
begin with. But if she chooses not to cover her child's head while
he/she eats that is her decision.

So, with all that said, I would absolutely not use Delta or it's
partner airline even though this did not happen to me. If an airline
had a habit of tossing men with beards more than 3 inches long and you
had a beard close to that length, would you fly it? If Delta and it's
partner airline released a statment apoligizing then I would use them
again. Until then... nope. The benefits of breastfeeding my children
far outweighs the benefits of flying this particular airline.

I think it's ridiculous to boycott an entire airline because of what
allegedly happened to someone I assume you don't personally know. And
we have only heard this woman's side of the story. I am suspect of
anyone who immediately responds to a request with something along the
line that they are "exercising their legal right". I would also like
to point out that the woman was not breastfeeding a baby - - the
article says her child is 22 months old.

To the OP: Exactly what is the point of your letter? Millions of
people with small children travel by air every year and you are
getting all upset over this one incident? How do you know that this
woman's "state right to nurse in public was so humiliatingly
violated"? Were you there? Do you know more than anyone else reading
the newpaper article or are you just jumping on a bandwagon in
general?

Airline employees don't just randomly evict customers from their
flights which tells me that we obviously don't know the whole story.
The OP is making a whole lot of dramatic assumptions based on on this
situation.

You've flown Delta successfully for years and you are going to let one
incident, that didn't even happen to you, stop you from flying them?
That makes no sense!

I agree with others that we did not get to hear both sides of the
story in the news article. I do see that the FA offered her a blanket
so she could feed her baby a little more discreetly. Not everyone is
comfortable seeing a mother breastfeed in public. Quite frankly, I'm
not and I'm a woman. Discreetly yes, but it's really not something I
like to view openly. I'm not saying breastfeeding mothers should hide
in the bathroom or something but I do appreciate a little discretion
when feeding in public.

I don't know what incident you are referring to, but I do wonder what
the extenuating circumstances where behind the removal.