Friday, August 08, 2003
Got Milk?
Michiana is rich in annual Summer events that celebrate Mother Nature’s bounty and associated human prowess. July alone saw St Joe and Elkhart counties’ 4-H fairs, the Berrien Springs Pickle Festival, and let’s not forget the 30th International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship at Tree-Mendus fruit farms in Eau Claire. Coming up in August, there’s Marshall County Blueberry Festival, where runners can compete in the Blueberry Stomp fun runs.
This year, there’s an addition to the calendar: the Midwest Breast Fest, which took place last weekend, in downtown South Bend. Sponsored by a coalition of nurses, local businesses, the LaLeche League, Memorial hospital, and women’s healthcare advocates, this event was a celebration of lactation and the amazing properties of Mother’s milk.
As a non-lactating, non-Mom, I was a wee bit hesitant about attending. But a friend with babe in arms persuaded me to come along and cheer their efforts. The assembled Moms were trying to break the world record for the most moms simultaneously nursing in a public place - currently, 1,135 Moms. The venue chosen for this attempt was the testosterone-soaked field of the Stanley Coveleski baseball stadium.
The atrium of the Cove was transformed into a women and children’s health fair, with booths offering everything from ecologically responsible laundry soap to baby bonnets and a fresh fruit giveaway. There was information on midwives, sibling rivalry and how to buy the right size car seat for your child. Proud dads got snarled in traffic jams of strollers. Swoop, the Silver Hawks’ mascot, hovered broodily over wilting toddlers.
The real goal of the event was to promote the benefits of breast-feeding around the globe, starting at home. You might think that Mother Nature wouldn’t need such advocacy. But, as Meredith Small, anthropologist and author of Our Babies, Ourselves, points out, how we raise our children is as much a product of culture as of our biological natures. Even in the West, where the nutritional and immunological benefits of nursing are well-known, cultural pressures make it difficult for women who want to breast feed their infants. Few workplaces and job schedules are designed to accommodate nursing Moms. One vendor was selling a breast pump cunningly camouflaged as a corporate briefcase. Can the diaper genie disguised as a golf bag be far behind? Attitudes can also be a problem. In some circles, breast-feeding is regarded as icky or embarrassing. Indiana has only just passed a law to protect nursing mothers from charges of public indecency when breast-feeding at the mall.
A voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing the moment for the record attempt. Moms and babies headed down to the stands, some a little anxious about how they would perform under pressure. One mother muttered, “I hope we get this over quickly, I’ve held him off as long as I can now and he’s getting grouchy.” At last, the count was completed. Dads flashed cameras from the sidelines. The world record was not broken. But 267 Moms from 18 states spent an afternoon, for once, in the company of others who entirely support their choice to breast-feed.