Although breastfeeding private and public sector workers’ rights are included in the new health care reform law, President Obama has requested guidelines be implemented for federal employees:
President Obama is asking federal personnel officials to draft “appropriate workplace accommodations” for federal employees who are nursing mothers.
The president issued a memo Monday to the Office of Personnel Management, asking for new guidelines to be published when ready.
The order is required by the new health-care reform law, which mandates new breastfeeding rights primarily for hourly workers in the private and public sectors. But Obama asked the federal govenrment to go a step farther by establishing new guidelines for all federal employees, no matter their status, according to White House aides.
It’s great to see breastfeeding being legitimized as a natural and necessary activity for some mothers as opposed to being treated as a distraction from those with “delicate sensibilities” or straight up public indecency. Babies suck boobs. To eat. It happens. Let’s get over it.
3 Comments
That sounds like really good news. I have always found it amazing that people would be so offended by breastfeeding. If you don’t like it, look away. No one is forcing you to watch.
I remember when I first realized how difficult breastfeeding can be for mothers. I was out at a big group dinner and one of the couples had a 9 month old baby that was still nursing. The mother asked me if I minded if she breastfed (we were in a private area in the restaurant). Since I was asked, I figured that meant she wasn’t going to be covered and that I would look away, to not make her feel uncomfortable and like I was staring at her. She ended having a nursing blanket and absolutely nothing was visible. I was shocked that she would even feel the need to ask if that was ok, as it was literally nothing. It seems pretty ridiculous to me that a nursing mother would feel the need to ask permission regardless of whether she covered herself up with a blanket or not, but that was when I first realized the kinds of attitudes nursing mothers are exposed to.
Attention Prudes, Perverts, and Yappers:
Boobs are always and always have been for Babies. Deal with it
My boobs are not “for” babies, my partner, or anyone else. My boobs are for me!