Breat feeding in the court room

A Michigan judge considered breast feeding in court as an inappropriate behavior. Natalie Hegedus Natalie Hededuswas breast feeding her sick 5-month old baby in the back of the courtroom completely covered when a bailiff noticed what she was doing. He then passed a not to the judge informing him on what was happening in his court room. The judge then called the woman to the bench and asked her if she believed it was appropriate to be breastfeeding in court. Natalie’s response was that her son was hungry and it’s not illegal so therefore her behavior was fine.

Being a mother of two this article stuck a special interest in me. I breastfed both of them for over a year and I found myself in similar situations as Ms. Natalie Hegedus. I found that this article has some holes in the story and left me curious.

The article never states why she had to go to court in the first place. After fallowing the BabyCenter link, I found out that this article was partly based on a post that Ms. Hegedus wrote on a parenting web site. On her post she never mentioned why she had to go to court. It did state that she was filing a complaint against the judge and possible file suit against him. When clicking on the WoodTV link, I found that they talked to the Chief Judge of that district. He stated that it is difficult to deal with possible lawbreakers.

To reiterate my earlier statement, I breast fed my children. I am not against breast feeding at all. I believe that not only is it cost effective, it is natural and the best form of nutrition that a mother can give to her child. A bond is created between mother and child that is not the same as it is with a bottle fed child. But there is a time and place for breast feeding. When you do breastfeed, be discreet and modest. If you know your going to court have enough respect for yourself and the situation and bottle feed. Would you breastfeed during a funeral or a church service?