Hudson Valley Parent

16 Hudson Valley Parent Q 2013 Baby Guide H er son was hungry, and Shawn Dell Joyce had no qualms about settling on a park bench in a public place to feed him. After all - she had every- thing she needed with her. The Montgomery mom was breastfeed- ing. But while her little boy, eight- een months at the time, snuggled up to her and lunched, a woman walked by and spat out the words: "How disgusting," then moved on. It was 12 years ago, and Joyce still remembers it like it was yesterday. It was one of only two times Joyce encountered a challenge over breastfeeding in a public place. Ironically, the second would come soon after, when Joyce became a local hero to breastfeeding moms by standing up to officials at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh. Joyce had painted a four-panel piece called "She Nourishes," which featured - among the four scenes - a mother feeding her baby. The painting had gone up as part of a community art exhibition at the airport, but officials were yanking the piece down. It was too controversial, they said. People were complaining. The chief complaint came, in fact, from a woman. She later told Joyce that she would be fine with a painting of a child drinking from a bottle, but not of a woman breastfeeding. It's a common complaint for breastfeeding mothers - when they're in public, they feel like the world is watching and shaking their collective heads. Online the popular social media site Facebook has earned the ire of mothers for removal of breastfeeding photos the company says violates its decency standards. Asked to clarify its policy, Facebook told the New York Post, "photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those Terms and may be removed. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children (over the age of 13) who use the site. The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain." Who's complaining and why? Joyce, who was active with La Leche League during the three years she breastfed her son, found that the people most likely to speak out against a mother feeding in public were women - and older women at that. "Younger women are more aware of the benefits of breastfeeding," she says. "Some of their mothers and grandmothers have the bigger problem. In their generation, if you breastfed, you were poor or uneducated. It's only been in recent years that women have come to understand breast is best." BY JEANNE SAGER BREASTFEEDING IN PUBLIC Breaking the taboo

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