Feminist Peace Network

Read here about the poignant anguish of mothers separated from their children along the Mexico/U.S. border, where “a modest opening here and there, just wide enough to slip a hand or a homemade taco through” allows families their only physical contact.

And kudos to Ellen Bravo for her fabulous op-ed about what mothers really need (hint:  it is not a new vacuum cleaner) and Rebekah Spicuglia for her excellent piece about what Mother’s Day feels like for a non-custodial Mom.

Women’s Group MADRE has put out an excellent collection of stories from Moms throughout the world on their MotherVerse website. Included on the site was the courageous tale of 2 sisters who have taken on Ronald McDonald House after one of them was stopped from nursing her very sick infant  in a public area at a Ronald McDonald House where they were staying while the child got treatment at a nearby hospital.   It doesn’t take more than a small bit of this story to want to start writing letters of protest, but please be sure to read the entire account first before writing so that you completely understand what is needed.  At the end of their narrative you will find the appropriate addresses and names of the board members of the RMH in question, and that iswhy I’m not reprinting the addresses here because you truly should read the entire story first.

“My sister and I are staying in the Ronald McDonald House in Houston because one of her 17 month old twins had to have brain surgery to remove a tumor last week. The RMH has been great and we have felt so blessed to find such a safe and homey place to take care of her other two children and my daughter while we are here for Tobin’s recovery.

However Thursday(April 12th) my sister, who is nursing the twins, was asked to stop nursing in the communal area of the Ronald McDonald House and to take it up to her room. She was shocked! After his surgery her son will basically only drink breastmilk and it is the only thing that eases the constant pain and anxiety he feels. She told them that she thought it was illegal, according the Texas state law, to ask a breastfeeding mother to stop nursing in any public or private place. She also tried to explain to them how inconvenient it would be for her to take all her children up 3 floors to their room every time her sick child needs to nurse.

Unfortunately after 30 minutes of arguing, and being told she might need to find other lodging, she was in tears and they weren’t backing down. So I headed down there to talk to the employee that harassed her because I am also nursing my three year old daughter. I even pulled up the state law on my laptop and after a lengthy discussion the employee she acted as if she was going to examine the law so she understood it and move on. I thought that was the end of it.

Today I find out they may be kicking us out of the RMH because we refused to comply with what they call their “interpretation of the law”. Their interpretation appears to be that if they provide somewhere else for us to nurse they don’t have to let us nurse in public places. Since when do laws get to be personally tailored to an organizations needs?”

It gets worse:

“After a very lengthy conversion with many twists and turns the RMH is allowing us to stay. We are from now on allowed to breastfeeding in the communal areas if we follow some rules they have set forth and not too many people complain about it. This applies to us only, they would not divulge how they would handle other nursing moms. They said they were bending their guideline for us.

They said if just one person complains about our nursing, and it was a complaint focused on an issue with breastfeeding itself rather than discreetness, they will tell them they support breastfeeding and discuss with them why they are concerned. If many people were to complain they will have to deal with that as it comes up, they could not say how as they have not encountered the situation.

The rules we are to follow are that we are to be discreet, this is at our discretion, meaning we choose what discreet means but they said they will obviously know if we are not being discreet if people are complaining that they are uncomfortable with us nursing. It seems that our right to breastfeed at the RMH is somewhat tentative.

We are also being asked to inform the people around us before we begin nursing if we think there is anybody that may be uncomfortable with it. We are to tell them nicely that we are going to breastfeed, in case they want to leave or look away.”

The sisters stress that they feel that RMH has to address their policy as a whole, not just make exceptions in this one case.  VERY importantly, they state that except for this, RMH was very helpful to them and they were very pleased with all other aspects of their stay.  Please follow the link for the rest of the story and their suggestions about writing.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Action Alerts, Atrocities, Sheroes, U.S. Politics, Children