Family Forum / Pregnancy / Breastfeeding / November 2007

each year, our church has either a women's retreat where they go away
for two nights and have a speaker, or a conference where they have a
speaker for Friday evening and multiple sessions on Saturday but at the
church so no one has to stay away from home.

Each year the only restriction placed on attendance is no nursing babies.

Now for the retreat, that would be unrealistic anyway, though they also
add in that you may not stay offsite, thus making it impossible for a
nursing mum, the retreat location is an hour away from the church, so
attending for the day and staying at home is possible and positively
encouraged when the mens retreat is at the same location.

We are blessed with a big church building with extensive facilities, a
father could quite happily entertain a baby somewhere in the building,
the mum could set her cell phone on silent and no one would even know.
But if baby is quiet, why should she have to go away, if dad brought
baby at lunch time why shouldn't she nurse her baby at the lunch table?
If the baby is very young and does just sleep and eat and mum is in tune
with them, why on earth can't she have them in a sling and sit at the back?

I'm convinced someone thinks that if they allow nursing babies it will
actually mean toddlers running around over the whole church distracting
everyone. They don't even follow up the no nursing babies rule with a
polite, we can provide somewhere for you to express and store your milk,
it's a big church, not everyone will ask, you can't assume these things.

I think what annoys me most is that given the size of the church, I
think this kind of statement appearing once a year will influence
someone, I really think there will be one baby out there where this date
 on the mum's schedule will influence how long they breastfeed for.
Some women will not go, some will go and express milk, others will go
and baby will get formula not ebm, but somewhere in the pile, there will
probably be someone for whom this was a factor in introducing bottles
last month and them no longer breastfeeding.

I hate the fact that if I even mention this to anyone I'll be labelled
as a lactivist. The view of the church probably assumes that this is
just a rule which will determine whether someone attends, or how they
manage things on that day. Not something that given the size of the
church probably will mean one child get's less breastmilk than it might
otherwise have done, possibly several months less.

Anne