Yesterday Mireia explained a new case in which a mother was "invited" to leave to breastfeed her baby somewhere else and today she recounted an almost identical recent case. This time that of a mother who banned breastfeeding at a police station.
It happened on February 12. The woman went to the Vic police station to do her 6-month-old son's ID. Being a management that usually involves a waiting time in the room, the infant eventually demanded food from his mother, precisely, at the time of delivering the papers.
The mother was about to breastfeed her baby when "A civil servant jumped telling me that I couldn't do that there". Before the mother's surprise reaction, the official wanted to clarify her words, affirming that in public places she cannot breastfeed. The mother defended her posture by asking "where that law was written, because I had not seen any prohibitive sign" to which the worker replied that "There was not, nor was there any that forbade the cutting of the toenails and could offend people."
They "invited" the mother to breastfeed her son in another room where no one saw him and where he could be quiet.
As we have always said and as we will continue to say, breastfeeding a baby is feeding a being with a need that needs to be taken care of instantly. I feel the comparison, but If this child had taken a bottle I doubt that anyone would have exhorted the mother to stop and I doubt they would have invited her to do it in another room.
The problem seems to be an offense in the eyes of third parties. Maybe this is where we have to do social education, in the "dirty look" (sorry, Los Serrano marked me) of the population and in the "dirty mind" of people who believe that breastfeeding a baby is something offensive or comparable to cutting your nails.
