Mothers Lactate; Bosses Hyperventilate

If you think breast-feeding is a gender-specific ability, then you are so out of step with Ohio's Supreme Court.

Last week, in a 5-1 ruling, the highest court here ruled that an Ohio law that bans discrimination against pregnant women does not protect them from punishment for taking unauthorized breaks to use breast pumps after they birth those babies.

And you thought we were a trendsetter only in presidential election years.

In 2005, LaNisa Allen was the lactating mother of a 5-month-old son. She also was employed at the Totes/Isotoner Corp. in suburban Cincinnati — the same manufacturer that pitches those handy little umbrellas, gloves and slippers to women .

Allen was fired after her supervisor caught her pumping breast milk during an unscheduled break. Had Allen gotten permission, the court said, she could have asked the justices to decide whether Ohio's pregnancy law protected lactation. But no, she had to go pump when nature called. She blew it, even though there was no evidence that an employee had to check with a boss before taking an unscheduled visit to the bathroom.

As Salon.com's Kate Harding pointed out, the justices affirmed a lower court's decision that included this little gem:

"Pregnant (women) who give birth and choose not to breastfeed or pump their breasts do not continue to lactate for five months. Thus, Allen's condition of lactating was not a condition relating to pregnancy but rather a condition related to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding discrimination does not constitute gender discrimination."

Whoa. Wait a minute. If breast-feeding discrimination has nothing to do with gender, does that mean we've got men lactating in Ohio and nobody told me? Or are we saying it's a mother's fault if she gives in to all that pressure from children's advocates and public health officials who insist that nursing is the No. 1 way to improve infant health?

C'mon, mama, grow a spine. Just say no.

This reminds me of a recent California case in which Marina Chavez was fired by her employer, Acosta Tacos, for taking a break and nursing her infant in a car.

Except that Chavez only nursed during scheduled breaks. Oh, and the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission found that her employer had violated sex discrimination law and ordered him to pay $21,645 in lost wages and $20,000 for emotional distress.

Other than that, our states are practically twins.

What is so astounding about both of these cases and others like them is that we still seem so squeamish about women's using their breasts for something other than entertainment. I thought we'd all be a bit more evolved by now.

There was a time, between man's first flight and the birth of Google, when I, too, was a nursing mother. What an interesting gallop through the terrain of America's hang-ups that was.

The fault was mine, of course. For one thing, I couldn't get my breasts to behave. The mere hint of a baby's cry — any baby's cry — and my milk would start to gush like Yellowstone's Grotto Geyser, in supermarkets, church services and gas stations across the Midwest. Land-to-air missiles had nothing over me when it came to the firepower of breasts overdue for a feeding. Strangers all but shrieked.

I was a stay-at-home mom, too, just rushing out to run a few errands. Some of my working-mother friends would call me in tears after soaking yet another suit jacket because it was so hard to find a private moment to pump.

That was 22 years ago. Ancient history, right?

Apparently, Ohio's General Assembly is going to have to give more teeth — or maybe it's more heart — to its current law protecting breast-feeding mothers. This will take time away from yet another misguided attempt to legislate around reproductive rights, but let's take care of the babies who are already here, shall we?

In the meantime, the good news is that 43 states, including Ohio, now have laws protecting a mother's right to breast-feed in public. Puerto Rico requires shopping malls and other public locations to have breast-feeding areas that are not in bathrooms, which suggests it's a land chock-full of wise Latinas.

The even better news will come when we finally abandon this notion that a woman's breasts are fit only for the public's consumption.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "... and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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