Breastfeeding on the Double-D Train

Breastfeeding on the Double-D Train

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Guest blogger Ronda Kaysen: NYC moms celebrate World Breastfeeding Week in a very unusual way. All aboard!

Where's the worst place to nurse a baby in New York City? The subway. It's crowded, there's no privacy, and people stare just because they're bored.

None of those inconveniences stopped a gaggle of nursing moms from hopping on the A train in Washington Heights last week and riding it all the way to Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn (about an hour-and-a-half ride). The public nurse-in was a kickoff for World Breastfeeding Week and culminated with a rally in Brooklyn.

The Mom Riders used the annual ride -- it's happened every year since 2004 -- to bring attention to the Breastfeeding Bill of Rights, a bill that passed the New York State Assembly but stalled in the state Senate because doctors' groups worry it will interfere with doctor-patient relationships.

The bill affirms that moms can room-in with their newborns, refuse bottles and formula at the hospital and be informed about the effects medications might have on breastfeeding. Most of these "rights" are already on the books, so the new law is something of an exclamation point. But moms say it's a much-needed one.

Would you breastfeed on the subway?