Rant #1,396: Breast Intentions

A nursing mom flying from Houston to Vancouver claims that a flight attendant harassed her when she wanted to breast feed while in flight.

Kirsten Hilderman, a Canadian mother with a five month old son, posted her story on Twitter, and the uproar on social media than started.

Hilderman was wearing a breastfeeding tank top, and decided to feed her son without covering up. A male flight attendant, according to the mom, basically threw a blanket at her, intending for her to use it to cover herself, but the mom said it was already hot and stuffy in the plane, and using a blanket would make it even worse for her and her child.

Of course, all of this commotion alerted other passengers that she was breastfeeding, and a loud confrontation between the mom, her husband, and the flight attendant ensued. The mom became embarrassed, even though many of the passengers backed what she was doing.

Evidently, to add insult to injury, the plane could not land, and had to be diverted to another airport, and passengers had to disembark the plane. When they could get back on, a blanket was left on her seat without an explanation, further annoying the mom.

That is the basic story, and I might take some heat about this, but although the flight attendant could have been nicer about it, I do feel that the mother could have been a bit nicer about it, too.

First off, she knew that this was going to be a long flight, and with a baby in tow, how could she not have known that the baby would need to be fed during the trip? She prepared herself for such an eventuality, wearing a special top to accommodate such a situation, but she never really prepared for such a thing to happen.

Wouldn't it been smarter to have pumped some milk for the baby beforehand, stored those away, and when the baby was ready to be fed, simply take the bottles out and feed the kid?

Look, I personally have nothing against breastfeeding. It is a woman's choice. But you have to be smart about this, too, and even in our very open society, breastfeeding in public like she did--in particular, in a place where you have a captive audience like a plane--is not going to be accepted by everyone.

I also know that not every baby who is used to getting fed directly from their mom's nipple is going to accept a rubber nipple instead.

To have circumvented the entire incident, the mother should have told the flight attendant beforehand that she was going to have to feed the child, and I am sure they could have had her do it in back of the plane or in the bathroom.

But instead, the mother does this without warning to make a point as much as she is doing it to feed her child.

Again, I personally have no problem with breastfeeding, but some women do use this natural way of nourishing their children also to make a statement. Heck, I even remember one time seeing a woman whip out both of her very large breasts at once from under her shirt, just so the world would see that she was built like a Playboy model.

I am not saying that this woman was doing that, but I do think she was trying to make a statement here, and simply wasn't putting her baby first.

A public place like a plane is not the place to be doing this where everyone can see it, and yes, the flight attendant should have been a bit more tame in his way of handling the situation.

So there is fault on all sides here, and I think in the future, perhaps both the mom and the flight attendant can learn from this incident.

The mom can learn that there are other, more discreet ways to nourish your child on a long plane flight than to actually expose yourself to the world while doing so, and the flight attendant can learn that this type of situation can be handled in a quieter, better way.

As for the kid, well, all he knows is that his tummy is full, and he could care less about the situation between his mom and the flight attendant.

The kid is probably the smartest one in this whole discussion. He got what he wanted, and let his mom take the heat for it.

Speak to you again on Monday.