I heard Jackie Clegg Dodd interviewed on NPR yesterday afternoon. Her husband, Chris Dodd, is a U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate.
Ms. Dodd was telling the story of how her husband broke the news to her that he wanted to run for President. He asked her to go for a walk alone with him and she sensed that something very big was up ... in the back of her mind, she thought he was about to ask her to have another baby (they have 2 young daughters already), and she wasn't sure how she felt about that idea.
So when he said, "I want to run for President," she was actually relieved and immediately agreed. In the interview, she then comments on this story, saying:
This is mainly a reference to how loooooong and drawn-out the campaign process is, but also an oblique reference to breastfeeding as something that is normal and taken for granted when one thinks of having a child, and I especially like the implication that weaning is something that would happen quite some time after birth (i.e., not a few days or weeks, more like months.)
I don't know if Ms. Dodd nursed her daughters, and I certainly don't know whether her husband's politics are lactivism-friendly. But I think for a public figure who is very much on the national stage right now to just casually tell a story that includes a reference to breastfeeding as a normal, taken-for-granted part of life, is a hopeful sign for that "culture shift" we keep talking about here.
Ms. Dodd was telling the story of how her husband broke the news to her that he wanted to run for President. He asked her to go for a walk alone with him and she sensed that something very big was up ... in the back of her mind, she thought he was about to ask her to have another baby (they have 2 young daughters already), and she wasn't sure how she felt about that idea.
So when he said, "I want to run for President," she was actually relieved and immediately agreed. In the interview, she then comments on this story, saying:
Quote:
| "If he had said, 'Let's have another child,' I probably would have already had that child and the child would be weaned because this process is too long and there's too much money in it," she says. |
I don't know if Ms. Dodd nursed her daughters, and I certainly don't know whether her husband's politics are lactivism-friendly. But I think for a public figure who is very much on the national stage right now to just casually tell a story that includes a reference to breastfeeding as a normal, taken-for-granted part of life, is a hopeful sign for that "culture shift" we keep talking about here.
