Today's HAWMC prompt is to make your own Keep Calm poster. (Go to www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk to make your own.)
So often people get all worked up about even possibly catching a glimpse of a boob when someone is nursing her baby. People, it's just a boob. We ALL have them. And heaven knows that is what they're there for. To clarify, I mean they're there for feeding babies, not for ogling. And I know there is a whole contingent of people who think that breastfeeding in public is acceptable, as long as it's done discretely.
I need a moment to even recover from writing that.
Because, honestly, if you have a problem with how I'm feeding my child, it's actually your problem. Not mine. Not my child's.
So, no. We will not go into another room (much less the bathroom!) just to make you comfortable. I put up with the horrible table manners of some of you, so you can handle a slightly possible glimpse of side boob. And, no. I will not try to cover him with a blanket. Mostly because he'll have none of that. But also, why should I have to? If you're uncomfortable with the off chance of seeing something, look the other way.
And so I say...
Today's lesson: Really, it's just a boob.
8 comments:
Thanks for the laugh :-) It's so true, though; breasts are so sexualized in North American culture that people have pretty much forgotten their actual function!
Growing up in rural Peru, it was all about the function - and there was no shame in just whipping it out to comfort a crying baby, even in the middle of church.
Love it! Much agreed. :)
Haha. My MIL got used to seeing me walk around with my breasts hanging out at home, but I think she was holding her breath the entire time we first went out in public together. When she saw my nursing cover she couldn't stop talking about it ("She has a special cover." "She can nurse in public with the cover." etc.)
I agree! I have nursed in countless different public places and feel very comfortable not using a cover. I tend to just focus on Isaac and make faces and smile at him - that way if anyone is giving me the stink eye I don't have to see it. And they hopefully will quickly feel ashamed when they see how happy my baby is to be fed by his mama. I do have a nursing cover for those times when I'm smashed between two strange men (like on the airplane) who are just inches from my boobs, but I always grumble to myself a little bit about having to use it. And Isaac HATES it (although it actually helps him sleep on the plane by making it darker with fewer distractions).
Seriously, teenagers in their hoochy mama clothes show more boob than I do...
Love this!
Question for you Becky, and any of your readers that want to weigh in,
I have no talent for discreet breastfeeding. Meaning, when I feed my baby, you see everything. Gray doesn't cover my whole nipple, he gets off an on, and my entire boob is often exposed. To complicate things further, I have a 'way' of nursing that works for me that exposes me even more, I hold my boob with one hand and my baby with the other, so there is no free hand to adjust clothing. Along with the boob, my side and back are almost always exposed.
I am absolutely fine with anyone seeing my boob when I nurse, like you said it's just a boob. BUT, with society's fear of public boobs being being used for the purpose they were made, I don't feel like I can nurse Gray without a cover in public. I don't know if nursing laws would protect me because nothing about my nursing is discreet. (although I feel like they should protect me, I don't have confidence that they will.)
This doesn't stop me from nursing in public at all, I try to use my cover and he whips it off because he hates it and I struggle to keep it on.
So my nursing in public isn't about side boob. It's about entire nipple boob and being worried nursing laws won't protect me.
Any advice?
Post a Comment