I agree whole-heartedly.....Attacking breast-feeding is just another attack on the traditional family.
There’s just so much wrong with this. A stay-at-home mother may not know anyone who can keep her child for a whole day, or come with her to court. Other women have jobs or their own children. Teenagers are at school. For many years, I either took all my children someplace, or I stayed home.
I even considered having a home birth because it was so hard to figure out what to do with the other children when I went to the hospital. (My husband went to the Knights of Columbus and said, “HELP!”)
A baby who is used to nursing may not take a bottle. Is she supposed to go 8 or 10 hours without eating, while in the care of a stranger? A nursing mother can’t just turn off milk production, and if she’s been at home with her baby, she may not have a breast pump or bottles. I didn’t with most of my children. I was given some bottles before my most recent baby was born, but never used them. (When Kathleen started using a cup, I gave the bottles to a crisis-pregnancy center.)
It would have been reasonable for Ms. Trickle (and then she named her *daughter* “Axel,” good gravy) to take care of her baby in the jury-pool room. A 5-month-old is very little trouble and would have given the rest of the jurors something fun to do.
(Sorry to rant at you ... I haz a tiny enraged over this!)