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Dearest Reader,
I was contacted this weekend by Dr Chiara Pozzi Perteghella, and here’s her story: HOW NOT TO PRACTISE WHAT ONE PREACHES: here’s how NOT TO support breastfeeding (in other words, why I won’t sit my IBCLC exam) I’m sure you will be as stunned as I am. I’m actually reminded about my own past. My second daughter was born 5 weeks before I had my thesis defense scheduled. I attended the grueling 2 hour event with her tucked in the sling. I answered questions, stood and rocked her when she seemed a little restless, and even turned around for one second to latch her on so that she could nurse and go back to sleep. I was in front of a large audience of professors and professionals. And she didn’t interrupt in any way and if she would have I would have asked for a minute or two to regain our composure, I feel sure that my thesis committee would have cut me a break. How can we expect any less from a ‘pro breastfeeding organization’? Dr. Chiara Perteghella includes many email links in her post so that an email campaign might ensue. I figure we’re just the right people for the job.
Love,
Heather
Chiara is my wife and I think your comics are really beautiful! Your few words are better than a book!!!
Thank you very much and if you come in Italy… do not forget to visit us!
Yes, that’s not right.
You’re always great.
I’m so sorry for Chiara, she’s a very good person. I’m also sorry for all the breastfeeding assistants (IBCLC) that work every day with mothers and think that it’s absurd to make such a stupid rule for the exam! Thank you Heather for the international support to Chiara
That’s pretty incredible! I’ll get right on this after I get back from working at my food co-op, where at least two of the moms work their shifts nursing their babies in slings or wraps!
Giuseppe, nice to “meet” you. I hope your little one is doing well, with a lion of a mama to defend her!
my goodness. that is just nuts, really!
heather in tempe
This topic has come up on LACTNET where another mom (I think) had a similar issue. Here is the thing. The IBCLC exam is TOUGH and some people need complete silence (or very close to it) when taking a test. The test is what, four hours long, with a break for lunch in between. Anyone who leaves the room for a bathroom break or to take medication or to stretch and recoup, doesn’t get extra time. The clock never stops ticking. So how do we allow a mom to bring her baby and make sure that we’re not affecting the other people taking the exam? I think the fair way to do this would be to offer nursing moms the option of taking the exam in a separate “nursing mother” room and charge those women extra to sit the test in order to pay for an extra proctor. I think that IBLCE should work with women who have nursing babies so that they are able to sit for the exam. Telling a mom she should just risk losing 20 or 30 minutes to go outside and pump or nurse seems unfair. However, I know that there are a lot of people who simply wouldn’t be able to concentrate and take the test if there were a baby in the room, even if the baby was calm and making those lovely baby sounds we all adore. It would just be too distracting, especially for those of us who are not good test takers.
Bu-DUH! Nursing my three month old right now and thinking there should be no formal setting more comfortable for nursing than a room full of aspiring breastfeeding assistants. I mean, if you can’t pass THAT test due to the distraction of a little one suckling two seats over, maybe you shouldn’t be taking that test? I guess I’d want to be able to step out if the baby got really fussy.. pass him off to dad if he’s just plain bored.. at this age my kids can occasionally act like fussy bulimics (binge and purge) if they have a tummy issue or can’t get comfy or need a little excitement. If the kid got like that, I could see needing to remove the baby. But for the most part, if my shirt is raised, I can sit for hours with the babe quietly laying across my lap or against my chest. But this organization should KNOW that. I mean.. DUH!
I shared this on my Facebook amongst other places and posted a link to Chiara’s blog post as well.
Way not to go IBCLE. Boo!
I have to agree with Elita. I’ve nursed my babies anytime and practically anywhere, and I always encourage moms with a smile or kind word when I see them NIP. However, this is a professional situation, no different in most ways from taking the SAT, GMAT, etc. As a highly distractible person, if I had spent the countless hours studying for that bear of a test and paid the fee to take it, I would not want ANYTHING going on that could be an extra distraction. (This has nothing to do with my ability to help BF moms outside the test-taking environment; it’s just the way my brain is wired.) Perhaps some accommodation should be made if there is a mom who needs to pump or feed a baby during the exam, or perhaps the mom should wait a few more months until the baby is able to be separated from her long enough that she can take the test.
Breastfeeding your baby is the right thing to do. But in situations where it isn’t absolutely necessary, we BF mothers have to make accommodations for our own situation, not expect everyone else in the environment to adjust for us.
I agree with everything Elita said. We need to think outside of the box! I would like to point out, though, that the IBCLC exam consists of two, three hour sessions with a break for lunch. Having taken it twice, I can tell you that it is absolutely grueling. Having a separate room for mothers with nurslings is certainly something that should be seriously considered.
How would putting breastfeeding mothers in a seperate room and charging them extra to be segregated be anything other than discrimanatory?!!
If someone can’t take a test w/o excruiating quiet perhaps its their problem and they need to work on a solution for themselves. What if someone at the test was having a hacking/coughing fit every few minutes, or popping chewing gum, or there was construction in the building where there was testing?
That’s what I was thinking, Lori. And when I take a hard test, if its too quiet, I can hear the lights buzz. And they bother me. My problem. I would simply make it a rule that it remains quiet in the testing room. People can make their own choices from that. If the nursing mother can make it through the test, surely the others can to, right? She’s the only one that’s REALLY going to be distracted. I would think.
I wasn’t allowed into a movie theater with my daughter one night. It was the first time I’d gone to a movie theater in a long time and was looking forward to it. My daughter was 5 weeks old. If I’d left my jacket on, no one would have known she was with me and I could have gotten in. But as it was, I was told that they wanted to make a certain environment for adults who didn’t want to be around kids. “No one under 5 after 5″ to movies with certain ratings. It wasn’t to protect the children. It was to create an adult-friendly environment, which is apparently not compatible with family-friendly.
IBCLC, I think, should set an example and maybe even support legislation that says nurslings have a right to be anywhere their mother has a right to be. That is the law in some places. And that is how we support nursing mothers. Which I would think would be a big priority for them? But maybe if it gets too easy, they won’t have as much work? I’m not saying that’s the case. I’m just sayin’…
Something similar happened to me. I work for WIC which for the most part is AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME about supporting breastfeeding moms. I’m one of two in my office who are bringing our breastfeeding infants to work with us and they are nothing but a JOY to our fellow employees. When I did my CLC class, I was told that I could not bring my 6 month old with me even though he’s super quiet and nursing on demand ( by the head of lactation for the state too!). I took it to the state and was told I ABSOLUTELY could bring the baby and that they would be hypocrits to disallow that. I was asked what my plans were for the exam at the end (2 hour exam) and my son stayed outside the exam room with my partner so I could go and nurse him as needed (he didn’t need it though). My thought is if you can’t concentrate while another exam taker ducks out to grab the baby, nurses them while testing and hands them back out the door then why are you going into lactation. Yes the tests are hard but this is YOUR FIELD. Believe me the mother will be far more distracted during the exam then any other test takers will be. Shame on you Italian IBLCE!!!
If a society has been artificially manipulated so that people aren’t used to seeing breastfeeding in public, it can seem like a big deal, especially to men.
With a little experience, seeming to be a big deal is simply an illusion, and it becomes “underwhelming”, scarcely more than a mother comforting an upset child.
[...] Translation! | Mama is… [...]
I breastfed my son while giving a nutrition lecture to massage students. it rocked!!!
In a lot of societies, mainly African, Balinese and Australian Aborigine, breasts are not an object of sexual desire but are quite simply for an infants nourishment. Men behave appropriately.
In the West we use the sight of bare breasts in order to sell goods. The rarity of bare breasts is an essential aspect of a capitalistic society. The male must not be exposed to this sight if we are going to maintain our economy based on frustration.
This obviously needs to be changed for all our sakes. But first there does need to be some understanding. Without that there is little possibility of change. This is not to say that we should go along with the prevailing ethic of suppression etc.,
For instance it is only those cultures which do not have the need to frustrate the male, because they are essentially sharing and caring cultures, where you find female nudity acceptable.
Scandinavian cultures are a sharing and caring culture through taxation of upper incomes. Aboriginal cultures are also sharing and caring cultures that is why there is no problem with exposing of female breasts.
How to change this is quite a problem I believe. Nursing mothers have all my sympathy. But I don’t think that we will change how this is viewed with a direct assault.
I think that humor is an ideal way to help deal with this. Surely examinations for lactation assistants do not have to be so fiercely treated. It sounds much more like sitting for a law degree. Who ever set these conditions?