Community Comment

Breastfeeding revisited…

Posted by Dave

March 3, 2009 7:14 p.m. • 15 comments

Good evening, Netizens…

The question, as posed by Bob Kirkpatrick (http://www.deludia.com) in his mini-cartoon from the annex (http://yak.deludia.com/viewtopic.php?id=28) seems to be whether or not mothers should be allowed to breast feed their infants while they are piloting their ways down the freeway. Should a State Patrol Officer be obligated to cite them for dangerous or hazardous driving because they are feeding their infant? One presumes that would depend upon whether they were engaged in texting messages to their friends and/or talking on their cell phone, both of which are already illegal, shouldn’t it?

The only person who has not stepped forward thus far to express an opinion are the infants themselves, which seems a bit unfair. After all, according to most sources I have read tonight, it seems the majority of us were breast fed, at least part of the time. It seems to me that once you have removed that nipple of life from the center of your world, you seem to lose all senses of perspective about breast feeding.

Should breast feeding be forbidden while driving? That seems to be the question the author is asking, and I submit it is a fair question that deserves an answer more lucid than the answers we typically get from our Legislature.

Dave

15 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Jeffrey_Grey on March 04 at 5:12 a.m.
- Driving while distracted is dangerous. There are vast numbers of studies based on vast, mountain-sized bodies of data that conclusively prove this. This fact is simply not a matter for dispute.

- Social agendas - no matter how noble - don’t make a distraction less distracting.

- The fact that there are more than one possible distractions out there doesn’t in any way mean we shouldn’t try to prevent through enforcement any particular distraction. Just because Johnny stole a cookie by driving while drunk doesn’t mean you get to steal a cookie too by obviously text-ing messages while nursing your baby all as you whiz down the freeway at 70 MPH.

- Which is in the better interests of your infant:
a) Taking a moment to find a safe spot where you can pull over to the side of the road so you can concentrate on nursing your baby?
- or -
b) Risk punching your infant’s skull through the windshield and then slamming his or her body into a concrete bridge abutment at 70 MPH because you were too distracted to drive your car safely?
Dave Laird on March 04 at 5:23 a.m.
Good morning, Jeff…

You are perhaps singing to the choir here, but I thought enough of the premise suggested by the cartoon to ask the question of the only people who might breast-feed a baby. <grin>

One presupposes that breast feeding an infant is, of course, distracting, and hence your point is well made. Of course, having never breast fed a baby, I wouldn’t know about such things.

Dave
Jeffrey_Grey on March 04 at 5:58 a.m.
Dave,

I must confess I’m speaking from conjecture here as well.

However, I remember one of those studies I alluded to found that trying to eat an ice cream cone while driving has the same adverse affect on your abilities as a driver as does the consumption of something like three beers.

Ergo, I don’t think the conjecture about breast feeding is all that unfounded. Though, like you, I’m willing to stand corrected by someone who can speak from actual experience if this is not the case.

(By the way, I don’t know if I ever told you that while I might not posess experience regards breast feeding, like you I do posess some knowledge about driving because, like you, I’ve got a Class ‘A’ CDL that I used for several years of road-warrior-ing all over the lower 48 and Canada. And if wrestling a 105,000lb ‘b-train’ back and forth between here and Trail, BC at the height of the winter blizzard season for several years doesn’t qualify one to speak with some authority about the dangers of driving while distracted, I don’t know what would.)
Diana on March 04 at 6:32 a.m.
One need not cite studies to prove that breastfeeding while driving is dangerous and potentially deadly. Anyone who claims the cops are against breastfeeding is using a not very clever way to get out of a ticket.

Having breast fed my two children, I can attest to the fact that it would indeed be distracting. If one is very lucky, the feeding faucets are located at chest level (and not belly button), which means one must also hold the baby up in order to feed it, rather than simply laying it across your lap.

For the gentlemen at commcomm who have not had this joyful experience, imagine yourself holding up a very fat, wiggly dachshund with its mouth to your chest and its back pressing on the steering wheel as you ride along in your automobile. It just doesn’t work.
Cindy_H on March 04 at 9:18 a.m.
But I have seen people driving with fat, wiggly dachshunds on their laps! That seems distracting too.

I’ll join the choir having breastfed four children, but never, never while driving. That’s just dumb.
lewis8457 on March 04 at 9:55 a.m.
I thought it was illegal to have a child in the car not strapped into a authorized car seat. That should give the police the right to ticket a mother while breastfeeding.
Dave Laird on March 04 at 12:04 p.m.
Good morning, everyone…

See? See? I thought breast feeding while driving was probably nonsensical if not dangerous, but I had to hear from those who actually have breast fed before.

With Jeanie out for the count in a place that shalll-not-be-named I had little to base my opinions on, but the women of the Ballroom have ridden to the rescue yet again.

Thanks! (You know who you are)

Dave
JeanieSpokane on March 04 at 4:52 p.m.
Well, I’m back for the moment. (Jury duty)

What ninnie of a mother would hold her precious baby in front of a head-catapulting steering wheel with the potentially body smashing air bag inches away. While. Driving. They should have thrown her in jail and taken the baby away from her.