A few weeks ago, I was particularly bored, and I was trapped in the recliner as my 16.5 month old son napped on top of me. With the clicker in hand, I was determined to find something good on TV. Shockingly, my DVR had nothing to offer.
I hit pay dirt when I saw Roseanne on Oxygen. I tuned in and was immediately smiling at the reruns I had already seen but still loved.
I happened to be tuning in to season six, the one where Jackie gets knocked up by Fred and has a baby.
So imagine my surprise when I see this:
Hello, leaky boobies!
Even better, her boobs activated (or lactivated, get it? *snort*) when her baby began crying. When have you ever seen leaking breasts on TV? What a frank and honest look at breastfeeding. I know some of you out there have had some funny and embarrassing (aren’t those two things usually combined?) moments where your breasts leaked at the worst time. It happens, we all have a chuckle, and we change. I happen to be one of the lucky ones who only leaked in the very beginning when I was engorged, but every time my son popped off a little too early and milk went squirting, I couldn’t help but laugh!
I thought it was even better that her milk let down because her baby was crying. The writers on this show must have been breastfeeders, or married to one.
Towards the end of the episode, Jackie is in her wedding gown, about to walk down the aisle. Downstairs, her son Andy begins crying. Uh oh.
But you know what the best part of the episode was?
She nursed her son while saying her vows. Oh yes she did.
But wait…
She had to switch sides right before she said “I do.”
I have always, always loved Roseanne. This episode made me love it even more. I was actually crying a little bit when she was nursing her baby in her wedding dress, not so much because she was wearing a wedding dress, but because she was nursing her baby on a TV show. She was doing it because it is what you do. When you have a baby, you breastfeed. When your baby is hungry, you nurse them.
Want to know something else? Jackie co-slept with her baby too! Who knew there was such an AP mom on a 90’s sitcom! Now if only there were breastfeeding mothers on today’s shows, ones who are having a positive experience and stick with it. If you do see a mother nursing, she is cringing and complaining, then grabs a bottle and gives in.
Even on the reality shows like “Bringing Baby Home,” the mothers mostly start out nursing their newborn. They struggle, just like most mothers do. Then they are shown six weeks later giving their baby a bottle almost every time. Granted, there are exceptions. I have seen one episode of a mother who was happily nursing her son months later, and who spoke frankly of her trials and tribulations before she had it down pat. Totally normal. Those are the women we need to see - the ones who made it past the first 2 weeks, the first 2 months, and even *gasp* 6 months. I am at 16.5 months and still going strong (while pregnant).
I am thankful that organizations like Best For Babes are working to expel “Booby Traps” and put the word out that breastfeeding saves lives. Having positive female role models breastfeeding on TV and in Movies will help! I want to see another Jackie on a modern show, booby leaks and all!
Tags: TV
I must have missed this episode and I have seen a lot of them. Love it!
THE OFFICE had an honest (and funny) take on breastfeeding not too long ago when Pam and Jim had their baby. Pam struggles throughout the episode, but starts to get it at the end…we’ll see how it keeps up in future episodes, but it was funny and sweet and accurate.
When Roseanne has Jerry later, she nurses him, too, and uses the public phobia of a nursing mom to her advantage against a cop by saying she has to switch sides to do something (that had been pulled over, so she nursed him), don’t remember what it was, but it was enough to get off with a warning, lol, while she finished up nursing.
I don’t remember Jackie cosleeping, I just remember the two babies being put in the crib together and the jokes about how Roseanne’s bigger, though younger, baby was stealing all the blankets.
It never occurred to me that seeing this growing up may have been why I just automatically planned to nurse with no real consideration of it being a “choice”–it was just “what you do.”
I loved Roseanne, too, but I’m in the minority of my friends.Most of them hated the show. I loved that she was so adamantly against physically punishing kids, too and when she lost it once after her son stole a car, she did some soul searching and then apologized to him and told him what she did wasn’t right and that no one should ever hit someone else.
They dealt with a lot of “real” issues on the show and I really liked it. I miss intelligent, thoughtful, witty and UNAPOLOGETIC sitcoms (one of the reasons I love The Big Bang Theory–one of the main characters was nursed until he was 4, I believe his mother said
and he’s an experimental physicist with an IQ of 173 who received his Ph.D. when he was 24 years old). And if you don’t know the show–Johnny Galecki (played David on Roseanne) is said character and Sara Gilbert has guest starred several times, with yet another character with a sarcastic, dry sense of humor 
I never saw this! Now I’m going to be sitting around watching the stupid Oxygen channel waiting for it to run again! ;P
I’ve never seen this episode, of course I probably wouldn’t have remembered it anyway since I was 10 and under during the 90s but that is awesome. They really do need to have breastfeeding in shows now. And not made to look like it’s always easy.
Pam on The Office is breastfeeding and Kevin pretended to cry like a baby to get her boobs to leak. At the end Kelly walks by crying and her boobs finally leak, to Kevin’s satisfaction! lol. Love Pam and Jackie!
I didn’t actually see the episode, but I heard the baby being born on the sitcom ‘The Office’ was one of the most accurate portrayals of a labour, delivery and learning to nurse (because, oh yes, she nursed!) ever on television. They even added in some parts where when she was struggling with nursing, the woman asked for a lactation consultant!
(Which was a MAN…!) (Awesome!)
I need to find out where to watch that episode.
I remember this episode, but I forgot that Jackie nursed Andy while saying her vows. And I don’t know that I realized that she co-slept either. I have always loved Roseanne and I’m realizing as I get older that it’s because the show portrayed incredibly real situations without getting too dramatic or cheesy/over-the-top about it. I am really considering buying the entire series on DVD.
I was never a huge fan of Roseanne, but this is fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing!
I remember this episode but didn’t fully appreciate it until I came across it here on your blog and am now a breastfeeding mom. Love it!
I seen the episode and LOVED IT!
Hi I saw your link on KellyMom.
I have a 16 months old toddler whom I am still breastfeeding, and enjoying it! It is such a blessing to be able to do it!
OMG, I remember that episode!
Two and a Half Men has a couple of episodes with breastfeeding. The episodes are when Charlie Sheen’s now ex wife guest stars. The baby is young and I think she stopped breastfeeding before s/he was 6 months old but the portrayals on the show was positive. Family Guy has a couple of breastfeeding scenes that are positive, too, if you can get the humor and sarcasm of the show.
Yes, I remember this episode too! And I think on there’s an episode on Grey’s Anatomy where Miranda Bailey nurses her newborn. And she started to leak when Maddison started crying. But I can’t remember which season it was in!
Great episode. I nurse my now 3 year old - at his baptism I had to nurse him (and he was just shy of a year at that time) and I got so many looks, but he was just recovering from an ear infection and didn’t want to be there, instead wanting to snuggle into his ‘ba-ba’ for a quick nursing session, so that’s what I did. My husband looked an me and whispered ‘we’re in church!!’, and I said ‘well, it’s probably the most natural place to do it, then, isn’t it?’ It allowed the families of the other two, much younger babies who were being baptized that day to enjoy the ceremony, and my son went from uncomfortable and cranky to peaceful (and I am pleased to add God’s house to my list of places I’ve nursed my son).
I absolutely love Roseanne for exactly this reason, she wasn’t afraid to be frank, open, and honest about some of the topics that mainstream media loves to hide in the dark! Especially this episode - so foreward about breastfeeding, on national television - so great! Thanks for sharing this and reminding me of what a wonderful and feminist-forward show this was.
Wow I just saw all the comments on this. i have been out of town.
I know I am awful but I don’t watch The Office and have been meaning to watch the breastfeeding episodes on Hulu.
I never saw the episode of Roseann nursing. There is another with Crystal nursing her baby. I also love that Roseanne is AP in that she is so anti physical punishment and she holds on to her kids for dear life. They never leave!
The name of the episode is called “Altar Ego” and you can buy it on amazon.com for 2.00 to watch online for anyone interested