Prior to 2006 there was not a universal breastfeeding symbol. The universal symbol for "infant" used in print and in public places traditionally has been a baby bottle, even for "breastfeeding" rooms.
Mothering Magazine decided to hold a contest for people to submit their ideas for the world’s first international breastfeeding symbol in August of 2006 after this realization. There were over 500 entries submitted and in November of 2006 the design of Matt Daigle was chosen as the winner.
This symbol has the potential to be very powerful. The idea is that anyone, individuals or businesses, can use this symbol to support breastfeeding and help normalize breastfeeding.
Where available, it can be used to indicate the presence of a nursing room. Now, this particular idea is where some controversy comes in. Just because an establishment has a nursing room available, should a nursing mother have to use it? If we are striving for breastfeeding to be truly normalized, why the need for a room?
Perhaps some mothers are more comfortable in private. In environments where we still have a ways to go in normalizing breastfeeding many mothers have never witnessed another mother breastfeeding and so comfort levels are going to be varied. One mother may prefer to be in a private location and the next would not want to think she had to use such as space. This is where the lines get blurred.
Some would think that having designated nursing areas however just further perpetuated the issue of breastfeeding not being normalized by making it seem as if we must use those designated spaces. Now, an establishment may have a nursing space. Do breastfeeding patrons HAVE to use that space? What happens if they do not want to? In Canada, one cannot be forced into that space but not everyone is aware of this.
If the establishment is simply being courteous to those that want to use a private space but other patrons expect breastfeeding mothers to use that space, then what? who needs to move their line of comfort? Who has to "accommodate" who in this matter? Should the mother be forced to move? Should another patron move?
Recently a local library added a nursing chair to their space. This chair was placed in a washroom. Some will be horrified by this, some will not react at all. But lets think this out for just a brief minute. If I am a nursing mother, in a children's library, I likely have a toddler/preschooler/school aged child with me. How practical is this for a mother and her children? New babies eat often and sometimes lengthy feeds. Would it not make more sense for the mother to simply feed in whatever space her and her other children are? It would be far less disruptive to her and her family. It will also be less disruptive for other patrons. Can you imagine a toddler or preschooler trapped in a bathroom in the middle of the library with all kinds of things to explore?
So, I ask, by creating this nursing space "for the comfort of moms and babies", who are we really trying to make comfortable?
Surely, this is not for the comfort of most new moms and until we start to normalize this act of simply feeding a baby, the comfort levels of everyone are not going to rise.
Please, lets stop with the nursing spaces. If you want to show support, place the International Breastfeeding symbol on the front door and leave it at that. Leave the chair in the bathroom even. If a mom really wants to feed in that chair, she will know it is there, and can use it at her discretion, without the blurred lines of if she must use it, by herself, staff or other patrons.
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