Drunk Mom Breastfeeds

Police arrested a North Dakota woman yesterday for breast-feeding while drunk [1], and now she is facing charges of child neglect. This case brings to the surface all of our weird notions about breast-feeding. The cops were called in for domestic disturbance and said the whole scene suggested child neglect. But hey, the mom must have told herself, at least I’m breast-feeding!

The advocates are incensed that the police invaded the privacy of a breast-feeding goddess and don’t worry too much about the potentially scary abusive household. And then the cops themselves seem uncomfortable with the idea that she was breast-feeding “as we are conducting an investigation, whether she was intoxicated or not.” Of course, the correct non-neglectful thing to do would have been to ask the baby to wait three hours, and then arrest the mother.

Photograph by Getty Images.