One mother sues Delta for kicking her off a plane for breastfeeding without

covering up under a blanket.

Another accidentally smothers her baby when she falls asleep while nursing it on a plane. What do you want to bet that the second mother was trying to nurse her four week old under a blanket?

What a tragedy.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/10/09/Mom-sues-Delta-Airlines-over-breastfeeding/UPI-21591255067399/

BURLINGTON, Vt., Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A New Mexico woman has sued Delta Airlines over being thrown off a flight in Burlington, Vt., for refusing to cover herself while breastfeeding her baby.
Delta and Freedom Airlines Inc., which operated the Delta Connections commuter flight, are both named as defendants, The Burlington Free Press reported Thursday. Emily Gillette's lawyer filed the suit this week in U.S. District Court in Burlington.
In court papers, Gillette said flight attendants ordered her off the plane when she refused to cover herself with a blanket while nursing her 22-month-old daughter. She said her breast could not be seen and she did not behave belligerently.
Gillette said the incident, three years ago, made her feel "shamed and humiliated" and she continues to suffer anxiety about breastfeeding her second daughter in public places.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2009/12/02/Mother-accidentally-smothers-suckling-baby/UPI-13141259798380/

LONDON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A mother may have fallen asleep while breastfeeding and accidentally smothered her suckling infant aboard a flight from Washington to Kuwait, police say.
Crew on the United Airlines flight heard the 29-year-old mother's screams after she had woken, the Uxbridge Gazette said Wednesday.
The flight was diverted to Heathrow Airport Nov. 24, and the infant was pronounced dead at Hillingdon Hospital at 10:35 a.m. local time.
"The death is being treated as unexplained and the child abuse investigation team is investigating the circumstances," a spokesman from Scotland Yard said. "A post-mortem examination took place on Nov. 27 at Great Ormond Street Hospital and we're awaiting the results."

and keeping the woman's seatmate (if she had one) from noticing anything was happening to the baby.

The worst possible scenario, if you were to fall asleep while holding a baby, would be that you started out with a blanket already covering the baby's head!

The irony is, a toddler's head, being bigger than an infant's, covers more of the exposed breast, and a toddler is usually quieter when nursing. There's just no winning. I breast fed four of my five children, a couple until around three years of age. I chose not to nurse in public, but I'm sure that few, if any, passers-by would have realized what was happening.

The other case is just heartbreaking...

:popcorn:

that men like breasts doesn't change their elemental purpose as baby feeding devices.

in full view. Time for lunch? Whip it out. No big deal.

I live in BC. Ive seen women sitting down on a busy sidewalk, whipped out in full view, feeding, without even an attempt to hide anything.

A Walmart employee asked someone to do it in the bathroom recently and they had to issue an apology immediately as a company

My wife still prefers to cover

Free Republic is that way, Reverend Falwell.

Not necessarily the blanket. Women should not fall asleep while nursing their children. Sorry, the airline is not at fault. An awake mother can keep a finger in place to hold breast away from tiny nose. It's part of the job.

how the baby's nose is positioned. It's not something you can feel. I nursed three babies and I didn't keep a finger in there for any of them. Neither did anyone else I knew. After I got a baby positioned, I just watched what I was doing, and shifted the baby if I need to.

And overtired mothers of four week old babies can fall asleep without intending to.

Any airline that tries to require that a baby's head be covered up while it's breastfeeding is contributing to the risk that a tragedy could occur.

blanket or no blanket. If the mother was asleep, THAT was the problem.

Even if a finger is in place, you can't know that it's doing the job unless you can see the baby's nose, too.

Mothers of four week old babies are often exhausted. She probably didn't plan to fall asleep. But when it happened, if the baby's head was covered, the covering was reducing the oxygen getting to the baby -- and preventing any seatmates or anyone else from noticing what was happening to the baby.

Blanket or no blanket, if she was asleep, she wasn't paying attention to the child's ability to breath.

is that a blanket covering the baby reduced the oxygen and ended up smothering it.

Sudden infant death has often been connected to blankets or other materials covering a baby's head.

Breast is denser than blanket, and we KNOW the breast was there, while we do not know the whereabouts of the blanket.

Are you OK this evening? Is there someone there with you? Might be a good idea to talk to someone in person.

caused a lack of oxygen.

What we do know from the story- Mother falling asleep while breastfeeding= potentially lethal mistake.

just said that I BET that there was some sort of blanket involved. And I still think that the chances are great that there was.

On the other hand, there's little question that a blanket over a face causes a person to re-breathe exhaled air, and that even light blankets in a baby's crib have been linked to an increased risk of SIDS.

Gillette said the incident, three years ago, made her feel "shamed and humiliated" and she continues to suffer anxiety about breastfeeding her second daughter in public places.

Anger, annoyance, vengeful- these are all normal reactions to how she was treated. Shamed and humiliated? Get out of my court room. You're either a liar or a mess, either way I am not interested in what you have to say.

Sorry, but this long term psychological damage crap is quickly replacing the big padded collar and whiplash as the crutch and imaginary injury of the day.

Be honest. Sue because they pissed you off and you want some money to make up for it.

her baby under a blanket.

A breastfeeding baby can often spend 45 minutes nursing, even more. I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened on a plane before.

.... presumably the angle or width. It also doesn't mention the mother of the infant that actually died, suing.

Even if she wasn't, the issue remains: a blanket over the head reduces the oxygen getting to the baby. This can't be a good idea.

It's not paying attention that causes problems, not the binky, and you are getting mighty worked up without even knowing if a blanket was involved anyway. Supposition over something, not known facts?

It's the falling asleep on the job thing that is dangerous, just like sleeping with a small child in your bed can result in tragedy for similar reasons: body parts of adult obstructing breathing of small child.

Calm down before you bust a vessel.

Or is that just what you say when someone politely disagrees with you?

We will have the blanket, whether it exists or not, shot at dawn. I, will draw and quarter myself as soon as the blanket has been punished.

I have no problem with the reality that people will disagree with me. It is the failure of logic and jumping to conclusions that annoys me. If my that my theory is likely is bad, how come your insistence that your theory is right is OK? And what about that blanket? Does anyone have a description of the blanket? Are we sure there was a blanket in this event? We are sure there was a breast and it seems a sleeping mother was at one end of it.

My concern is that you might just be working yourself up to a point that is unwise for your well being. So sorry that I give a shit about that, but, ah well, that is one of my annoying quirks.

at your over-reaction.

it does have a warning, however, about women breastfeeding on airplanes. Do you have any links to a story that actually indicates that the infant was smothered by a blanket, or did you just make up the connection?

is covered by a cloth.

A blanket over an infant's face is not a good idea. It both reduces the oxygen going to the baby and prevents the mother from seeing how the baby is doing.



Whether or not this particular dead infant was covered by a blanket isn't important, except to that poor family. The point is that it isn't good for a baby to be nursed under a blanket, especially in a situation where a tired mother could accidentally fall asleep.

being a danger for breastfeeding - I wonder how many mothers who fly are aware of this?

We would all benefit from less cramped seating, but that's not going to happen, unfortunately.

have the baby's head/ nose free and still cover the rest of her body if that was a concern. I can't remember ever falling asleep when breast-feeding, although I can certainly see how someone might in that scenario...



It is bizarre that everyone worries so much about breasts, though. For God's sake, it's not as if most people haven't seen one at some time in their lives. :eyes: I'd rather people just deal with it and not look, than a baby end up suffocating...

I did a quick look and couldn't find anything on blankets seriously cutting Oxygen supply.

in a crib or parent's bed to SIDS.

If the mother were AWAKE, she would know when the baby stopped suckling and would be able to check on the baby at that point.

Whether or NOT there was a blanket, the mother falling asleep was the problem here.

up the baby was dead.

:popcorn: