At the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts), Boston

My husband and I decided to be brave and took our 4 month old daughter to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

There are a lot of things you can learn form a place based on their ability to support a visit with a baby. First of all, I breastfeed my daughter, so I need a place to sit down and feed. As you can imagine, at the museum, the vast majority of benches are in the middle of the galleries, which make them hardly convenient for discreet breastfeeding, even with a wrap.

After about two hours of browsing the galleries and trying to note a discreet bench, we decided that we’d had enough dirty looks about our crying kid and that it was time to feed. I asked one of the very helpful MFA employees (no sarcasm here, they really are helpful) if there was a place I could feed my baby. What did I expect as an answer? I was guessing that she would make some suggestions about some discreet corners that afforded some amount of privacy and a plushy bench. I could not believe my astonishment when she said that there was a changing station and nursing room directly behind us, enclosed by, don’t laugh, glass doors. Upon further inspection we realized that the doors were not see-through.

Once inside this triangular room, we checked the walls several times to make sure that there wasn’t another door through which we were supposed to pass to get to the nursing/changing room. My husband even checked the map to see if this led somewhere else. It did not. I must mention here that although the rest of the museum was a comfortable cool temperature, this closet, I mean, nursing room, had no AC and was decidedly muggy and hot. I’ll leave it to you to imagine how much sweat poured off me while I was holding my very warm baby for 40 minutes.

Here is a list of items in the changing station/nursing room, from right to left as you enter: one(1) narrow wood bench, one (1) piano with its own small bench, two (2) poles with extendable ropes (used for orchestrating masses into lines or blocking off areas), four or five (4 or 5) bookcases stacked into the corner, one (1) bronze replica of the Lincoln memorial, four (4) boards the size of a door stacked in the other corner, and one (1) set of lockers, presumably used for employee belongings since some of them were locked. Notice that nowhere in this list is a comfortable chair or couch for nursing, a sink for rinsing bottles, a bottle warmer or a changing table. I’m not sure where we would have changed our baby if we didn’t have a stroller with us, but probably the banged up, slightly dirty marble floor would be the only option.

While trying to pass the time, my husband and I tried to think of good uses for the various objects in the room. For starters, the piano is obvious. While you feed your child, your husband can play some Mozart to stimulate their brain development. The replica of the Lincoln memorial must be there so that you can rub his right knee and get some luck, ‘cause you’ll need all the luck you can get. The bookshelves are part of an obstacle course along with the ropes for your other children. The boards are probably meant to divide the room should another mother come in to feed her baby, which she would have to do on the floor because I was occupying the only bench suitable for this process.

I understand the issue at hand here. The MFA is going through a series of major renovations and everyone’s time and energy is consumed with making this happen. And as a parent who wants her child to grow up with culture and to have a good museum nearby that she can visit on class trips or weekend jaunts with her parents I am going to cut the museum a little slack here. But I can’t imagine that there isn’t a small chair that can be spared and a table that can be added to this room. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference. I would be happy to lend my consulting services to help the museum plan their parents-with-baby experience.

On our way out, we did locate a changing table… It was mounted to the wall in one of the stairways. Not quite the ideal place.

So, what have we learned about the MFA in this trip? They’ve definitely thought about the patron experience, even about their smallest visitors, which is great! A few more finishing touches and the visit will be much better.