breastfeeding back in the news today

I could care less if she's breastfeeding (in fact, I think it's awesome!  I'm militant on "breast is best")...the fact she's bringing her sick infant child to work is my bigger concern.  

My thoughts as well.

I think there are several factors. How old is the baby? How sick? (It might have been reasonable if the baby had sniffles and was 6-8 months old with no fever). And where is the daddy? When our kids were very small, we primarily used breastfeeding. But mrs gearboy also pumped and froze milk for time when either I or the sitter or daycare needed it. I think it is pretty presumptuous for a professor giving lecture to feed the baby while giving lecture. 

It's not a matter of what's natural. Pooping is natural. But if the baby had pooped, would she have kept lecturing while changing a diaper on the middle of her desk/lectern? It IS a matter of respecting what the primary function of your activity is. Cancel the class, get someone to take the baby for an hour, or be prepared with a reasonable alternative.

Agreed 100%

Agreed 100%

We stayed home from work with our sick children so I feel like bringing her child to class was wrong.

As for breastfeeding....I don't care where a mom feeds her child...but in this case it's ridiculous that the kid is even there.

At the risk of being labeled a neanderthal...

1)  She was the focal point of the room.  As a "professional," she should understand her role and limit any distractions that reduce her effectiveness.   Lecturing with a squirmy child will distract a number of her "clients."  Breastfeeding will distract a significantly greater number of clients.  The difference between breastfeeding on a train or in a restaurant is that she isn't expected to be the focal point in those venues. 

2)  She didn't consider any alternatives?  No thought to expressing and having a bottle prepared?  No thought of turning over the lecture to a TA? 

3)  While she was entirely comfortable with breastfeeding, she failed to empathize with her audience.  In a crowd of 100, what are the odds that at least one of them would be uncomfortable watching her breastfeed?  (Yes, there may be some crowds of 100 assembled from specific populations where public breastfeeding is the norm, but that isn't the crowd she was addressing.) 

Clearly states she is a single Mom (no Dad) and the first day of class.

My guess is she didn't think it would be OK to not be there the first day of class and bringing her baby was her only alternative.

I understand having baby there was a distraction and I imagine if this Mom had another option she would have chose that.

Baby had a fever but we don't know how high and it does state the baby was strapped to her back for at least part of the time. The whole germ thing doesn't really bother *me* though I know it is an issue for others. How many students in class were under the weather that day?

To me the issue isn't that she breastfed but that baby was in class. What do you think an alternative would have been? Who was going to give the baby the expressed bottle? She is SINGLE. Baby's cannot go to daycare sick. What is she supposed to do?

I can see both sides. However, it would seem to me if she had another alternative she would not have brought the baby to class and she is doing the best she can.

I guess the only other alternative is she does not show up at work. The question is - would you rather your professor not show the first day or show up with a baby?

my mom was a single mom and NEVER took me into work.  i stayed with grandparents/aunt/family friends or she stayed home if i was too sick for daycare.  i have had professors miss class for illnesses and family emergencies.  life happens, we get that.  teachers (should) have contingency plans in place for this kind of stuff that does come up (i've been assigned additional reading or problem sets, had guest lecturers, or just straight up skip the day and move on)  i don't know of any employers that allow babies at work for any reason.  your EMPLOYER is paying you to work.  maybe if she was allowed to bring the baby to school she could have left it with a grad student or a colleague during her lecture?  but i still don't think she should have brought it to work in the first place.  just not appropriate.

I definitely support the whole breastfeeding movement, but I think this crossed the line. I have two kids and Mrs.Sheep breastfed one for a year, and is currently feeding the other.

I understand this professor was single, but I'm thinking there were other alternatives in play. Could she not have pumped/expressed with a bottle in the event that the baby acted up during the lecture? I know that's what we do and it has saved us many times. Having one "just in case" because feeding may not be an option is a real issue.

Secondly, the article states there was TA involved. Could the TA have not taken over for the 15-30minutes it would've taken to leave the room? Had she expressed a bottle, could the TA have not fed her?

And lastly, we all know stuff happens. The kid is sick, and honestly, that should've been the priority. Stay home with the sick kid instead of contaminating everything. As a dad, I get pretty ticked when I find out that someone else sent their kid to the daycare with a fever and stomach bug, just so the daycare would have to handle it. That's putting all the other kids at risk for no reason.

I think there were several steps that could've been followed to prevent this and then it wouldn't be a story.

I have a 1 year old and occasionally we don't have someone who can help us out. I have asked my boss prior to work if it would be okay if I watched him at work for a short period of time, the longest being 3 hours. He is okay with it, but I wouldn't have done it if he said no. 

I don't think she should have breastfed in front of the class. Can't she assign something small that takes 5-10 minutes of work to step out and feed the baby?

You've answered your own question. Not show up. One of my daughter's first day this year had no class because the professor called off for some reason (sick kid? who knows...) It certainly sets a better tone than to disrupt the first day. And if it was not the first day, still she should stay at home. 

And to me, it illustrates that she is not thinking things through if she thought that she would never need to make some accomodations and compromises in her life by being a parent. This is not a "mother" thing. I have taken off my share of days when a kid was sick, and my day was going to be easily shifted than mrs gearboy's day.

From the article, it sounded like one of the TA's was helping with the baby in the first part of the lecture. 

Here is the professor's statement about this. It came across to me as someone who, being an anthropologist, is singularly uninterested in the perspectives of others. On at least two occasions prior to the feeding, the class was distracted by her child engaged in potentially dangerous behaviors (putting a paperclip in her mouth, and heading for an electrical outlet). When approached by the reporter, she wants to see the story get killed or buried (again, she is an anthropolist - I would assume that means she makes her professional name on reporting on the behaviors and habits of others). And she herself caught the child's cold - yet seems oblivious to having exposed her TA and a classroom full of students to getting infected (and serving as a vecotr to bring down who knows how many more people at her university - seriously, didn't she see Outbreak or Contagion?)

She also says that while speaking to the reporter right after class that she could barely speak, having caught the baby's cold. If I was a student in that class, I would be seriously disturbed that the first few classes she showed so little concern for the educational impact of her actions (teaching when she can barely speak? How does that work?). And she actively rejected the opportunity at the beginning to make it a "teachable moment" - which is ironic given that she is (a) a teacher and (b) complaining that no one understands her thinking.

To me, if there is something obviously going on, rather than sweep it under the rug, or pretend it is not happening, you have to address it. It might take only a moment, or it might take up the alloted time. But to pretend it has no impact? That's just silly.

Is someone going to figure out if said professor is hot, or not?

Here is her univeristy webpage - but it is hard to access, since it keeps coming down.

But her photo from there is here:

That's a tough call.  Looks like a bad picture.  A militant medical anthropologist?  That's interesting.

She sure did a nice job of turning a non-story, into a story that includes her name. 

She is militant and all.