So I Read Something Today

I was reading a post on The Leaky B@@b. It was about why women don't agree with NIP (nursing in public). Many of the comments I agreed with, many I understood. I am a modest person after all, and I breastfeed in public with a cover. Alexis is a blanket baby. She has to have her blanket no matter where we go. Her blanket doubles as my cover, and makes us both comfortable. I have in the past breastfed my oldest in public bathrooms. I felt dirty, ashamed, like I was doing something perverse. I would much rather sit at the table at Texas Rode House and use Lexi's blanket to nurse there, and chance the sideways glances, or snide whispers than to nurse in a bathroom. I have also breastfed in our car, if Lexi would not latch at the table, and was throwing a huge fit, and I had my grandparents along. That all being said, I am a huge advocate for breastfeeding in public. Cover or no. If your child is hungry, by all means, feed your child! Use your shower curtain nursing cover, your kiddo's blankie, use your nursing top alone, your layered t-shirt, I am even pro-whip it out. I wont judge you, and my kids wont judge you. My 3 year old thinks it's the most normal thing in the world. She doesn't even bat an eye when we see it in public. She'll say "Oh look at the pretty baby!" Or on days when she is Captain Obvious, "Look, the baby's eating," or "Look, the kid is eating." when we see breastfed toddlers. She also knows some babies are given bottles. Just like she understands that Mommy and Daddy have more than one name (Jessica, Jess, Honey, Brandon, Bran, etc) she understands that there are many ways to feed babies.

So when people say they don't agree with breastfeeding in public, no matter what, even covered, that you should go to the bathroom, or your car to do it, I personally get offended. Is my child less important because she is breastfed? Should I have bought a pump and risked losing my supply, risked nipple confusion like what happened with my 3 year old? Should I have switched to formula? "Breastfeeding is personal." "It's a bonding experience for mother and baby, not the whole world."

Breastfeeding also comes with a multitude of health benefits to mother and baby. Breastfeeding is also how nature intended mothers to feed their babies. Breastfeeding was the first way, and only way babies ate for hundreds of thousands of years before breast pumps and formula were even created. I doubt women back then refused to feed their children until they returned home, or stayed home their child's first 2-3 years of life. So it is also, a way to feed your baby. I don't know about you, but when it is the 7th time my daughter cries to eat after going down for the night and it is only 2 am I'm not feeling this magical bonding experience where I am totally enlightened. I'm simply feeding my hungry baby. Like any good parent would. 

Why should she not be allowed the same service as bottle fed babies and be able to eat when we are out? She is not a lesser breed of human. She is just as loved, just as nurtured, and just as deserving of food when she is hungry as any bottle fed baby. 

End rant.