Here's how NOT to Support Breastfeeding

An Italian pharmacist was told that she cannot bring and breastfeed her 3-month-old baby at her Lactation Assistant Examination because it would be distracting. WHAT?!

Pozzi Perteghella was going to sit for the 5 hour exam, given worldwide by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners, and wanted to be able to feed her baby on demand.

She writes:

I was informed … that only examinees and examiners may get into the room, so I would have to let my baby out: I might go out and breast-feed him, but the time it took could not be made up for, or I could express my milk and have it fed to the baby by someone who looked after him outside the room. The reason for this procedure is that the baby might disturb the other examinees.

The blog “Mama Is …”  by artist Heather Cushman-Dowdee has several excellent comics about the irony of Pozzi's situation, including this one:

Cushman-Dowdee also describes her own defense of her master’s thesis several years ago:

My second daughter was born 5 weeks before I had my thesis defense scheduled. I attended the grueling 2 hour event with her tucked in the sling. I answered questions, stood and rocked her when she seemed a little restless, and even turned around for one second to latch her on so that she could nurse and go back to sleep. I was in front of a large audience of professors and professionals. And she didn’t interrupt in any way and if she would have I would have asked for a minute or two to regain our composure, I feel sure that my thesis committee would have cut me a break. How can we expect any less from a “pro- breast-feeding organization?”

To read Pozzi Perteghella's story and why she won't sit her IBCLC exam, visit her webpage: HOW NOT TO PRACTISE WHAT ONE PREACHES