Nursing Your Kids

The news story about the woman causing the scene in the courthouse got me thinking. Breastfeeding is normal and natural and there is nothing sexual about it. I don’t understand the segment of the population who feels that it’s something that should only be done in private. Babies need to eat and mothers need to leave the house. When my 6 week old is hungry I feed him. (When my 2 year old demands “mommy’s milk” which I know he actually doesn’t want I ignore him. ) But it’s not something I want to make a scene over.

Even if he actually wanted to nurse properly instead of just playing with the clasp on my nursing bra I wouldn’t let my 2 year-old nurse in public simply because he doesn’t need my milk for nourishment; he could just as easily have a drink of water and a sandwich if he was hungry. Letting him nurse in public would be more about proving a point than anything else. If Sam really needed or wanted to nurse I’d find a more private, discreet place to let him rather than whipping it out in the middle of Target like I would with Ben. It’s not because I think there’s something wrong with nursing a toddler, it’s because I know my son and I know he can wait. If he was a toddler who still nursed regularly, for comfort and/or a drink, I’d be more apt to let him nurse in public because it would be something that was normal for him. But for a kid who only nursed as a toddler in the early mornings or at bedtime, nursing in broad daylight in a public place would have been weird for both of us.

I’m getting off topic here. What I’m trying to get at, is that since I’ve become a mother, specifically a nursing mother, I’ve been hyper-aware of public breastfeeding since I make it a point to leave my house on a daily basis. The majority of the mothers I know don’t cover up with blankets and don’t leave public areas to feed their babies. But they also don’t make it a point to draw attention to the fact that they are nursing. Some women are such fierce breastfeeding advocates that they feel it’s their job to loudly educate people about their rights and the benefits of breastfeeding every time someone glances at them while they feed their kids. I don’t see how that helps the cause. It’s already protected- why fight about it?

If someone stares at me while I’m nursing I ignore him or her. If someone says something about me nursing I ignore him or her. Nursing in public is something that I feel I should be able to do without whispers or stares. So I feed my baby and ignore the rest. I’ve never been directly confronted (only whispered about), but if someone were to confront me I’d calmly and quietly tell them that the state of Pennsylvania allows me to feed my child in any public or private place. Getting loud about it and making a scene, getting defensive about it would only make it seem like I’m doing something I should not.