Originally posted at American Thinker. blog
As barriers are placed in front of mothers who feel more at ease bottle-feeding their children, what started with government orchestrating kids’ lunches is fast becoming an attempt at national nipple control.
The breastfeeding issue has progressed rapidly since Obama’s pro-breastfeeding Federal Lactation Accommodation Law bill injected the whir of a breast pump into the workplace by imposing a requirement on employers to “give nursing mothers a … place to breast feed.”
But the nursing-over-formula debate really revved up when Michelle Obama became preoccupied with post-natal nourishment options as part of her anti-obesity campaign. That was when Michelle began focusing on what she called “early intervention…touch points in a child’s life.”
Hoping to find a way to regulate BMIs from Diet Control Central, Michelle Obama began the breastfeeding-is-better conversation by allowing America a peek into the Obama family nursery, where the first lady shared that she had nursed her younger daughter Sasha 11 years ago.
At the time, Robin Schepper, executive director of ‘Let’s Move,’ insisted that Mrs. Obama was not asserting that women had to breastfeed, but was instead trying to “raise breastfeeding rates” by requesting that rather than just feeding newborns formula, hospitals make sure that the baby is in the room with its mother after it’s born.
One year later, either Mrs. Obama’s temperate nudging toward breastfeeding was a big letdown, or bottle-feeding mothers weren’t crossing over to her side quickly enough. That must be when Mayor Michael Boobberg…sorry, Bloomberg decided to step in, grab the cow by the udders, and show Mrs. Obama how rejected advice oftentimes requires firmer diktats. As a result, New York City gave birth to Latch On NYC.
To kick off the dogmatic baby-bottle ban, starting in early September, rather than gently prodding women toward breast-feeding, “New York City will keep tabs on the number of bottles that participating hospitals stock and use.” So as the city implements the “most restrictive pro-breast-milk program in the nation,” the Big ‘Red’ Apple is about to become the Big ‘Pink’ Booby.
And while the nurturing advice is appreciated and nursing a newborn is a noble endeavor, breastfeeding is not for everyone, which is why even Michelle Obama’s spokesperson admitted “Breastfeeding is a very personal choice for every woman.”
Not so in Bloomberg’s city, because that’s where “personal choice for women” does not include bottle-feeding. According to Latch On NYC, “new mothers who want formula won’t be denied it, but hospitals will keep infant formula in out-of-the-way secure storerooms or in locked boxes like those used to dispense and track medications.”
When a woman requests a bottle, prior to getting one she’ll receive a lactation lecture — an attempt to use guilt to goad new mothers into abandoning prior plans. If the lecture and the lockdown don’t work, Bloomberg can always discourage bottle-feeding by placing an excise tax on baby formula.
In the end if Hizzoner believes hiding baby bottles and wagging a finger in a woman’s face is all it takes to transform bottle-feeders into militants for La Leche League it proves he’s the wrong person to meddle in breastfeeding.
Moreover, while it’s one thing to switch out the 32-ounce cups next to the 7-Eleven Big Gulp machine with 16-ounce cups, it’s quite another to try coaxing new mothers to breastfeed by locking up formula bottles in a maternity ward — proving that when Bloomberg advocates for choice, he’s referring to his choice.
As the Nanny state continues to expand and as liberals like Mike and Michelle continue to inject unsolicited opinions into areas where they shouldn’t butt in, maybe America can use the current controversy to send a clear message to the open-minded liberals with the closed minds: butt out.
