Replies to '10/07 The Latest Debates'

 I agree with your statement whole-heartedly!  It's so frustrating going into a place that doesn't even have a changing table!  Considering the number of people who breastfeed, there SHOULD be a mother's room in all public places.  I mean, there are just as many nursing babies (if not more) than there are people in wheelchairs...why not make a place, "nursing mother accessible"? ****Please note for those who like to find offense in other's posts, that I in no way meant this statement in a derogatory way against folks in wheelchairs****

People have no right to make this their business. There is no need for a mother's room to nurse in. Nursing is the normal way to feed babies and women do it all over the world and have for all of time, out in public. Your personal hang ups about this are your own problem. Under the laws of the United States you can't tell a nursing mom to cover up or go hide to feed her baby. If you do you will risk a lawsuit or major embarassment when you get letters from every concerned breastfeeding organization and many Congresspeople. Is this just a backlash by a formula feeding mom who gets angry when they see people nursing? Or do you truly think there's something gross about seeing a baby getting the food designed by God to nourish him? Would you like to go see all the babies in their graves or on hospitals from necrotizing enterocolitis, pneumonia, etc. etc. etc. because their mommies chose not to breastfeed them? 

Complaining to the manager won't do a lot of good. Even if it's an uninformed manager who doesn't know about the rights of women, eventually you'll still have to deal with your disgust with seeing boobies in a nonsexual context. 

I will continue to breastfeed my baby wherever I want. I dare anyone to try to stop me or tell me I'm being indecent by doing what is best for my son. I will not hide just to give my son a snack or even a 45 minute meal at the table in front of everyone, because there's nothing wrong with it. You don't own the right to tell me or anyone not to use their bodies to give life and health. 

I never heard anyone tell a formula mommy to go hide to feed her baby a bottle, so why would you try to impose restrictions on feeding the best nourishment there is? 

Here's another idea: how about you complain to no one??? 

Tell someone in charge "how wrong you think it is?"  I still don't understand why nursing in public is anyone else's business.  Does seeing a mother holding her child bother you?  Should we have a separate room for mothers who want to play with their children?  Breastfeeding is just another example of a mother taking care of her baby, and to send a nursing mother to a separate room, away from the public eye, implies that there is something shameful and wrong about breastfeeding.   

I have a friend who formula fed her first son because she had never been exposed to BFing.  Now that she has seen others doing it and is more comfortable with the idea, she is planning to BF her second child.  For that reason, I don't mind nursing "out on some bench somewhere getting glared at!"  I hope that my public nursing makes BFing a more familiar sight to women who might choose to formula feed just because they haven't been exposed to the alternative. 

And let me say for the record, to anyone who doesn't approve of NIP - instead of glaring at me while I'm nursing, please come on over and say something!  I'd love the opportunity to educate you on the advantages of BFing.  Since the mother-child bond clearly isn't enough of a reason to earn your approval of BFing, maybe lower healthcare costs will.  One study found that 50% of infants breastfeeding could save an HMO up to $140,000 annually.  Talk about a benefit for society!! 

  

Hopefully, if more mothers go about their normal lives and feed their babies when and where they are hungry, BFing will become a more normal sight in everyone's lives.  And maybe, just maybe... someone will approach a BFing mother to say "thanks!"