breastfeeding woman kicked off flight

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15720339/

short version: woman nursing 22 month old (seated next to window w/her husband in the middle seat) was handed a blanket by a flight attendant and refused it. after she refused the blanket, she was asked to leave the plane.

my thought? ABSURD! If her husband was in the middle seat, unless she took her whole shirt off to nurse she couldn't have been hanging out THAT much. I would refuse the blanket simply on the basis of how gross those things are.

[Malpka]

You think that they would be happy for a mom to do anything that would keep their kid happy and quiet on the flight.

Absolutely ridiculous.

You think that they would be happy for a mom to do anyhting that would keep their kid happy and quiet on the flight.

Exactly. That is absurd.

[Amiens]

Give me a freakin break. Many years ago, I was on a red-eye flight home to Denver, and there was a woman sitting in the row across from me, who just whipped it out, no qualms, flashing everyone, and no one said "boo" to her.

Those blankets are disgusting. On Oprah they talked about all the different germs and nasty things that are growing in those blankets. Besides, IDK about you but my 11 month old refuses to nurse with a blanket on, so if he isn't going to do it, then a 22 months sure as heck isn't going to.

Again, I am sure there are better people to kick off of the plane than a bf mom.

Crystal

[Flynn]

SOOOOO SILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[alison]

I come from the camp of do-it-discretely. I don't have kids yet, so my feelings may change, but in Germany, I saw a mom with an open boob chasing a 2 year old around a playground to get it to breastfeed. That's too much. Shudder.

[Stella]

I come from the camp of do-it-discretely. I don't have kids yet, so my feelings may change, but in Germany, I saw a mom with an open boob chasing a 2 year old around a playground to get it to breastfeed. That's too much. Shudder.

ITA. I wonder if it is because we don't have kids yet.

[DCJenn]

But the point is- she wasn't running up and down the aisles boobies hanging- she was in a seat next to her husband!

Who cares- they're organs designed to keep the population alive- the fact that americans have oversexualized everything is besides the point. Heck, if it keeps the kid quiet, I wouldn't care if she DID run up and down the aisles.

Asshat airline.

Jenn

and- the thought of breastfeeding is personally repugnant, FYI

[PrincessFiona]

and- the thought of breastfeeding is personally repugnant, FYI

Well, Nikolai IS pushing the envelope in regards to his age

Why are americans so freaky about this issue?

kris

[DCJenn]

I think it was the adoptive parent sites that recommended taking the chemicals to induce milk production that soured me (excuse the pun) on breastfeeding. It seriously gives me the willies just thinking about it.

I'm awfully glad that other people don't feel the same way...

Jenn

either way - they're getting sued.

[SuzySunshine]

THAT is exactly why if we see a breastfeeding mom in our mall, we just walk by.

I can't imagine how anyone on that plane could have seen any boobage...unless, of course, they were gawking. If people were so offended, couldn't they have just looked the other way?

[Malpka]

Here is an alternate article form the Burlington Free Press (bolding mine):




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Woman alleges she was kicked off Burlington flight for breast-feeding

By Sky Barsch
Free Press Staff Writer

November 14, 2006
A New Mexico woman who was kicked off an airplane departing from Burlington International Airport after she breast-fed her 22-month-old daughter has filed a complaint against two airlines with the Vermont Human Rights Commission.

Emily Gillette, 27, filed a charge with the commission last week -- a step citizens can take before suing in court -- after a Freedom Airlines flight attendant allegedly told Gillette that she offended her, ordering her to cover up.

Robert Appel, executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, said statute prevented him from saying whether the charge had been filed with his office. He did say that breast-feeding is protected under the Public Accommodations Act, meaning that a mother is allowed to breast-feed in public. Gillette's attorney, Elizabeth Boepple, provided documentation to the Free Press of the charge filed with the Human Rights Commission.

In that filing and in a telephone interview Monday, Gillette said she, her husband, Brad, and their daughter, River, were seated on Delta Flight 6160, a code-shared flight with Freedom Airlines, on Oct. 13 awaiting takeoff. The family, which had been visiting relatives in Vermont, was on its way to New York City to rendezvous with family visiting from out of state and out of the country. The flight had been delayed by three hours, and it was about 10 p.m. when it appeared that it was nearing takeoff time.

Gillette said she was seated in the second-to-last row, next to the window, when she began to breast-feed her daughter. Breast-feeding helps babies with the altitude changes through takeoff and landings, Gillette said. She said she was being discreet -- her husband was seated between her and the aisle -- and no part of her breast was showing.

Gillette said that's when a flight attendant approached her, trying to hand her a blanket and directing her to cover up. Gillette said she told the attendant she was exercising her legal right to breast-feed, declining the blanket. That's when Gillette alleges the attendant told her, "You are offending me," and told her to cover up her daughter's head with the blanket.

"I declined," Gillette said in her complaint.

Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached the Gillettes and said that the flight attendant was having the family removed from the flight.

Gillette said she didn't raise her voice -- not wanting to make a scene in the current jumpy air travel atmosphere -- and complied with the ticket agent, crying as she exited the plane.

Paul Skellon, a spokesperson for Phoenix-based Freedom Airlines, said he was aware of the incident.

"A breast-feeding mother is perfectly acceptable on an aircraft, providing she is feeding the child in a discreet way," that doesn't bother others, Skellon said. "She was asked to use a blanket just to provide a little more discretion, she was given a blanket, and she refused to use it, and that's all I know."

Skellon said the airline investigated the incident, and the flight attendant is still employed.

Gillette said she felt "really ashamed."

"It embarrassed me. That was my first reaction, which is a weird reaction for doing something so good for a child. And then helpless," Gillette said. "I wasn't even allowed to get angry because it could have been held against me. Then, devastated all around."

Delta provided ground transportation, hotel accommodations and new tickets on another airline, according to Boepple, a Manchester attorney, who is representing Gillette. Gillette, who owns restaurant equipment and repair companies with her husband, said she spent the family weekend on the phone with airline representatives upset from the incident.

Asked what she hoped to come of the case, Gillette said she wants to see policy change.

"I don't have any kind of high expectations. I'd really love to see them make a donation to an organization I choose. And, yeah, I want another trip with my family."

Contact Sky Barsch at sbarsch@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com or 660-1861.


****

I personally cannot imagine faulting a mother ANYTHING they have to do to calm a 22 month old after that kind of delay and at that time of night.

[madeintaiwan]

I'm a all about covering yourself up but I've seen people whip it out before and you just look the other way. I nursed DS until he was 2.5 and I nursed him on a plane at that age; no one said a thing. Really, you would think people would be happy that she was pacifying her kid so that they didn't have to hear the kid fuss. I don't know breastfeeding freak s so many people out. They don't freak out about boobies on billboards and in commercials. Give me a break, look the other way, close your eyes or something.