At a time when few women breast-fed their babies back in 1959 to 1962 when we had our own three I had decided that I would breast-feed because even then it was known that babies thrived when fed in the traditional manner, that mother's milk conferred an advantage on babies' health. Beyond which I felt it was the natural thing to do. I had no advice from anyone, nor sought any. Although I was aware that liquid intake was important to the production of milk. I never experienced any difficulties adjusting our babies suckling, and the procedure was one that we all took to with no problems.

Nor do I recall ever experiencing awkward moments when out in public faced with the urgency to feed one of our children, then and there. Perhaps it was because I was aware of their needs and timing was of the essence, and planning ahead helped to avoid such situations. In the last two decades young mothers have been urged to breast-feed their babies to confer upon them all the health and bonding benefits that accrue. And a new militant, entitled movement has insisted that the public be part of this process. Restaurants and retail establishments of all types have made an effort to comply with the newly perceived need of mothers to nurse their babies on call, many providing 'nursing' and 'changing' stations.

Ikea, the big-box furniture-dry goods store from Sweden is one of those emporiums that cater to women with young children, providing for them places where they can privately, discreetly nurse their young. It is a quiet nourishing process, after all, requiring an atmosphere of peaceful solitude and relaxation. A process that is not best accomplished in public areas busy with people going about the process of shopping.

This wasn't good enough for one young woman who was shopping there with her nine-month-old and two-year-old children. She decided, while waiting in a line-up at the cash, to respond to her restive child by nursing her then and there. And when a manager, summoned to respond to a request for information regarding a price on an item the young mother was interested in arrived -- curtly recommending that they could discuss the price issue once the mother had taken herself and her child to a nursing station and had completed that task first, leading the outraged mother to let loose a profanity in response -- the situation became public with the young mother claiming she had never been so horribly treated before.

A blog I had posted soon after reading the news item received an inordinate number of local visits, traffic seeming to stream from those invested in the situation, eliciting a few comments going either way.  http://pieface-ruminations.blogspot.ca/2014/03/socially-inappropriate-hissy-fit-all.html

Rae Griffen-Carlson

And today's newspaper reported on a "flash feed nurse-in" that took place at that same Ikea store where management had apologized profusely, claiming themselves to be hugely invested in being nursing-friendly. While at the same time being unable to find any evidence whatever, through questioning staff or viewing closed circuit video that such an incident had ever actually taken place. 

Although the 'injured' mother described how her two-year-old son later that evening refused to take the breast because he said, it was 'icky', for the lady at the Ikea store had given him that impression, and the mother demanded an apology to her heartbroken son.