The official 'cover up' letter due to be snail-mailed

This is the letter that I'll be snail-mailing to KLM as they never answered my emails satisfactory:

As a breastfeeding mother and a KLM customer I was very surprised to be told to ‘cover up’ while feeding my daughter on one of your flights recently (KL 838 from Singapore to Amsterdam). The flight attendant making this request claimed it was KLM policy as ‘that’ could be considered offensive by some passengers. I afterwards requested the policy in question on email and have since received it (Claim No 4973366001). It does not mention breastfeeding in particular, instead it implies that the act of breastfeeding may have been categorised by the flightattendant as behaviour that "is liable to obstruct, threaten, endanger ornot endanger one or more persons, items of property or the aircraft itself." I pointed this out in a second email communication, but the replyI received was far from satisfactory, hence this letter.

If this is the case, please explain how the act of breastfeeding could be deemed to fall under this policy?

Without pointing out the obvious offence that could be taken to the rudeness of such a comment, however innocent the meaning might have been, of the flight attendant, the main issues I am concerned about are as follows:

On a long flight with a child who breastfeeds constantly in cramped conditions, complying with this request could be quite dangerous. Covering a child's face with a blanket when the parent/child is tired represents a strangulation risk, suffocation risk and poses an additional risk of overheating.

Children under four are much more vulnerable to the effects of overheating. If the parent is tired on a long flight or, as in my case, a series of long flights, there are further risks in terms of the parent being able to give the supervision required to comply with this request safely. I was in addition to my infant also solely responsible for a 4 and 7 year old, respectively. Have you considered the safety implications and conducted a risk assessment into the consequences of covering a young child with a blanket whilst feeding on a plane?

In many countries asking someone to cover up a feeding child would be considered discrimination under Sex Discrimination Act, e.g. see the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in the UK, which prevents breastfeeding women to be discriminated against for breastfeeding in public.

In addition to my concerns about safety I am concerned about the flight attendant's expression that "some passengers may find [breastfeeding] offensive". I am sure that this cannot be true and that if it is the case those passengers should no more be pandered to than someone who were offended by the sight or presence of a woman or someone of another race. Although this should be of no consequence, at the time I was sitting at the bulkhead with my other children on either side of me, followed by the aisle, so there could not be anybody possibly affected by me breastfeeding. I always take care to be discreet, but I do not consider it reasonable covering my child with a blanket.

Mere offence is not enough; the person's offence must be reasonable and being offended at the sight of breastfeeding or even just the presence of breastfeeding, is not any more reasonable than sexism or racism. Would you put a blanket over someone's face if their gender or race were offending a passenger or flight attendant or would you find the "offence" unreasonable? A young child cannot be prevented from breastfeeding and in any case this action would likely result in the whole flight being disturbed by a screaming, upset and hungry child.

WHO guidelines recommend a minimum of 24 months breastfeeding in order to promote the best health of the child and the population as a whole. In my opinion, KLM should really accommodate this and educate staff to encourage breastfeeding mothers to feel comfortable breastfeeding children on KLM flights.

It is possible that this situation has arisen unexpectedly by a single ignorant flight attendant, who might have put his own prejudices in the mix when following the policy. Although the policy itself does not cover breastfeeding maybe there is something in the flight attendants training manual that do, and if this is the case I would very much appreciate a review and some clarification of KLM's stand on breastfeeding just so that families with young children can make fully informed decisions about whether to use KLM flights.

In conclusion, what I would like to see from KLM in response to this letter is a clear and concise statement that clarifies where KLM stands on this issue, so that in the future I can either 1) choose to fly with KLM again and use the statement to my defence should I find myself in a similar situation, or 2) choose another carrier where young families are left to feel welcome rather than alienated and an ‘offense’ to others.