What it will take... perhaps more breastfeeding?

A number of women's groups are protesting Elizabeth Vargas's stepping down as co-anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight." I wish them good luck, but I think they may be taking the wrong approach. For one thing, it may be that Vargas actually prefers to step down. But how can we know? Pregnancy, both pre- and post-, is still such an unmentionable in this country-- except when we want to offer unsolicited and unwanted advice to a pregnant woman-- that one wonders how so many women manage to work while pregnant or breastfeeding as well as they do. And then there's the question of how many of us would be willing to run the post-pregnancy gauntlet of millions of critical eyes calculating how many more pounds we still need to lose?

Whether or not ABC is family- or woman-friendly is not enough of a factor, or at least not the only factor, in Vargas or any other woman choosing or being asked to leave a high-visibility job, due to pregnancy or the demands of motherhood.

So, what will it take to change the status quo? In my opinion, more breastfeeding in public would be an excellent start. The day that we can expect to see a female news anchor breastfeeding a baby while reading the news, or running an executive board meeting, etc., is the day we can expect to see women keeping their high-visibility jobs when they become mothers.

I can just imagine the hoots and hollers and jeers, and the uneasy looks about the possibility of obscenity charges (y'know that whole Janet Jackson episode just won't go away anytime soon), and I have to say that compared to the not-so-distant experiments of news readers either being nude or else reading the news while stripping... well, feeding an infant is hardly on a par with that depraved behavior. Yet, breastfeeding women are often expected to pump their breast milk-- or even feed their infant!-- in the restroom. Ewww! How gross! I don't know when you last ate a meal in a restroom, but can you really recommend it as a proper dining experience or environment for an impressionable infant who might learn to associate those sounds and smells with having breakfast or lunch? ...just so that the American psyche's obsession with the naked breast as sex object can be accommodated without inconveniencing anyone over the age of 18 by making them re-examine their values? Really?

[True, a breastfeeding infant is also a reminder of a possible consequence of unprotected sex, but in that case, wouldn't you then expect that this administration would actually get behind the idea of lactating mothers in high-visibility positions?]

We may not be able to do much from the top down for women like Vargas, who may or may not even want such attention. However, from the ground up, we can, if we are in such a position, breastfeed our own infants in public, encourage our friends, coworkers, family members, even strangers, to do the same. It's way past time for a little national desensitization program that would benefit, not just working mothers and their infants, but in the long run, all of us.

image: aunaturelbaby.com [clothes for nursing mothers]