Buzzfeed reporter Jim Dalrymple interviews Northern Utah mother and the organizers of Let Babies Eat for his story about breastfeeding discrimination at LDS church buildings.
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Exponent Blogger ElleK shares her stories about breastfeeding at church.
"I usually tried to time my baby’s feedings so I wouldn’t have to feed her at the beginning of the meeting, but infants are fickle creatures who follow their own whims. Hidden away in the mothers’ lounge listening to the coughs and muffled noises caught on the microphone in the chapel over the speaker system during the sacrament, I remember crying and feeling unseen and in need of the ordinance I could not receive." Blogger laceyluwho describes the difficulties nursing mothers may face at church and make suggestions for how to support them.
"Although we frequently praise the importance of motherhood, we do a terrible job as a church in supporting mothers in practice. I have a very long list of ways we need to do better. Breastfeeding is an incredibly important starting point, however." The launch of Let Babies Eat was celebrated at several major blogs for Mormon Women.
The Exponent Blog and Feminist Mormon Housewives cross posted a launch announcement. Sisters Quorum supplied a possible form letter to use when writing to general authorities. Thank you for your support, friends! In this letter to the editor, Salt Lake Tribune August 1, 2018, a man discriminates against the Northern Utah nursing mother and states: "A nursing mother should not expect that she has an unquestioned right to make others uncomfortable when baring her breast in public to feed her baby."
Her actions are defended and lauded in this reply dated August 7, 2018. In the Salt Lake Tribune's Mormon Land podcast, a breastfeeding mother speaks about her experience being reprimanded and punished for nursing uncovered in the church foyer. A call for letters to the Relief Society General Presidency is extended by advocate Carrie Stoddard Salisbury, bringing about the impetus for Let Babies Eat.
A Northern Utah mother was denied the renewal of her temple recommend for refusing to comply with her stake president's demand that she cover her breast when nursing her child in the foyer.
Women report breastfeeding harassment going back to 2006. Appeals to the LDS Church for handbook clarification in 2013 were not answered.
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