Logan Airport Nurse-In

So, the newswires are all afire with the reports of nurse-ins across the country. Overall, the coverage has been fair, even favorable.

My daughter and I attended the nurse-in at Boston's Logan Airport this morning. Up until this very morning, I wasn't sure if we were going to be attending; the Peanut has been having a very emotional couple of weeks, grieving quite deeply and in a simultaneously complicated and straightforward manner for the loss of a beloved friend and family member. This morning, however, the Boston Globe covered the planned nurse-ins on the front page, and when I told my three year old about it, she was thrilled.

"But why did they make that mama get off the plane?" she asked. "Because the flight attendant didn't like breastfeeding," I explained. "Will they make me get off the plane the next we go on it?" she asked with great concern. Despite being weaned, once a breastfed child, always a breastfed child in her mind. "That's why the people are going to the airports, lovebug - because they don't want to see this happen to anybody else." She nodded solemnly and said, "I want to give the bag the boot* - let's go."

So off we went. There was a decent turnout, I think, considering that the nurse-in was organized only a week ago, that Logan is very difficult to get to right now and that the event was scheduled for 10 AM, which meant fighting commuter traffic while managing babes (a fact which many non-attendees cited as the reason for not going). There was a total of seven mothers and eight children, and everyone was peaceful and cheerful. The media attention was a bit overwhelming, to say the least. We had many folks smile and give us friendly waves as the walked past; a pair of men cheered, "Way to go, ladies!"

Overall, it was a great experience, and I'm glad we made the effort to get out and attend.


* A reference to the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition-sponsored rally we attended this spring