Boobie Feeding In Public
OK here's the deal... the subject came up in a comment made by a good friend of mine last night... Before Kyla was born we had a discussion about breastfeeding and my stance on it at the time was "oh I'm going to but I would NEVER do it in public..."
Well, 7 months of breastfeeding have changed my tune on that one!! Yes, like the political candidate I supported who changed his mind on issues... I have changed my mind.
It's easy for anyone who doesn't have a child dependent on the breast to think "do it somewhere else" "don't do it in public" "it's offensive"... but when you have a baby screeching for milk you better provide it or the child is going to keep crying. A binky doesn't help, a walk around outside doesn't help... Sometimes I had bottles of breastmilk pumped for her and she would refuse the bottle and insist on the breast!! What do I do? Leave the restaurant and go home? Go to the bathrooom and sit on the toilet and feed her in a stall? NO FREAKING WAY!!!
When I am at the mall I try to find a woman's lounge... usually in the department stores they have a nice area in the ladies room, away from the toilet stalls, to sit and nurse. I try to avoid doing it in restaurants but it has happened on a few occasions... If I'm out to dinner and she's hungry, am I going to just not eat and make the baby wait to eat until we are in private? Nah... People can deal.
In every other country breastfeeding is just normal. It's the most common way to feed a child... and most people are used to it. It is no more private than feeding with a bottle. You just do it.
I totally understand being a little weirded out by it because it is not the "norm" in this country... but it IS the healthiest and best way to feed a child - it is good for the mother and for the baby - and if it offends someone TOO BAD.
It's funny how having a baby changes your whole perspective on things... and this is one of those things I've completely changed my mind about. I tried just staying in the house because I was nursing, or going through the hassle of pumping and trying to force a bottle on her when she wanted the breast, or planning my life and activities around when she might want to eat... but it didn't work... and I certainly wasn't going to live in hiding for fear the baby might want to eat while I was in public with nowhere secluded to go...
When a baby wants a boob, a baby will scream until she gets a boob.
Would you rather listen to the baby screech and disturb the whole restaurant while you are eating.... or be witness to a mother's breast for a second while she is peacefully feeding her baby?
I hope I didn't come off as being mean lol... I know I was the first one to gasp at a woman breastfeeding at the mall... but now I realize she probable felt the same why I do now - "too bad, I'm feeding my kid!"
:)
Dana
Dirt Dished by D*ana @ 8:23 AM
2 Comments:
I totally didn't mean to imply that I think women should stop breast feeding, or even breast feeding in public. I think what I was more asking was how to handle being an onlooker who gets caught accidentally staring at a woman's naked breast when she's in the coffee house, boob exposed. It's not that you mean to stare or anything, but sometimes your eyes catch something out of the ordinary going on, and by the time you figure out what it is, you realize how wrong it was that you were looking there in the first place. I imagine it would be totally impolite to ask the woman to cover up some how -- I mean, I know I wouldn't want something covering my baby's face while I was doing that unless I had to -- but do you apologize for accidentally staring? Do you just pretend it didn't happen? I was with a guy friend and the whole thing just made him very awkward and he had no idea what to do and felt like a perv (not that he was turned on or anything, but because he looked in that direction). I think that's more along the lines of the advice I was looking for concerning the situation.
I too was one of those who thought breastfeeding in public was gross, but now that I am breastfeeding a baby (he's 4 months)of course my opinion has totally changed. Now a boob just seems like a meal to me. It's funny how everything changes after you have a baby. I was one of those who always said I would NEVER let my child sleep with me and I would just let them scream in their crib until they learned to go to sleep by themself. HAH!! My son is just now sleeping in his own bed and I still bring him into my bed when he wakes up around 5am to nurse (i still hate that word). Breastfeeding is the best thing you can do for your baby and it is totally convenient to just whip out a boob and not have to pack a bunch of bottles or pump all the time. I know a lot of men who don't think anything about it b/c their wives breastfed. I try to be extremely discreet about it and go into a lounge or into another room if necessary, but if your baby wants it, he/she WANTS it and too bad for everyone else.
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