(Only picture of me breastfeeding that can be found. This was as our local county fair.)
With recent Target breastfeeding debate, I feel I have to get out and say something. I am not breastfeeding currently so did not join them, but gave them my support for their blight.
If any of you has ever been a breastfeeding mom I'm sure you have encountered discrimination somewhere. Maybe not publicly or to the point that it was embarrassing as this mother did. Sometimes I think it is all a matter of how we handle the situation at the time.
As a mother of 2 both of whom were breastfeed, I found the occasion more than once to do so in public. By the time I had DS I had learned to be very discreet about it, even in very public places. I had more than one person just think he was sleeping. While I did occasionally use a cover my son never liked it and I only used one to cover up the belly fat. ( I hate for my belly jiggle to be showing.) One of my favorite stories is of a Ukrainian or Romanian lady lifting the cover to see my son nursing. She simply looked at me and said "In my country we no cover. When baby hungry we just feed" ( insert large hand movement for emphasis). She got me thinking as to why is our country this way. Why do I have to be worried about what someone else thinks of me feeding my baby. Mothers who feed with bottles don't have to worry they just simply feed their babies. I'm not condoning showing everyone your boobs, but just be comfortable nursing your baby.
I have read some comment about the Target incident and more than one person had the gall to post that a breastfeeding mother should express her milk and carry a bottle of expressed milk around for when she was out of the house. Now really how neanderthal can you be. Her reasoning I guess was what if a young boy were to see that woman nursing. Don't you think it's time that we explain these things to our young men. They are one day going to be the husband who should be supporting their wives in their own breastfeeding journey. I would really hate for them to remember that one time their own mother made a big stink about the woman that was breastfeeding in Target.
And for all of you who believe it not possible,both of my children even in their young age understand that babies are fed from mommy's boobs the same way that the kittens, puppies and every other mammal on earth is fed. My daughter even question the one time why one baby was being fed from a bottle and not from the breast. Now that's a hard conversation to have with a child that has grown up in a farming world.
