I'm Sexy and I know it....
I have big boobs. It's true.
They kinda popped out the summer between Grade 8 and Grade 9. Like REALLY popped out!
And boys, men and some women too have been staring at them, talking about them, and trying to {and the privileged few getting to} touch them ever since!
I have know of the power of my boobs for a long time and yes, I was and am kind of obsessed with them. {Seriously, ask my friends, I really do love my girls!}
I spare no expense when it comes to housing them in the finest European bras (the ones that actually fit a gal with a 32 E bra size) and I highly recommend that all women go and get a proper bra fitting and a proper bra (I thought I was a 36 C before that!). None of this, buy 2 get 1 free {insert mall lingerie store here} cheap lingerie for my mammaries. ONLY the BEST!
I have always known the power of sexy that my breasts possessed, but I had no idea of their true powers until I birthed my first child. These two amazing appendages MAKE MILK! Amazing, nurturing, nourishing milk for my child!! And man, did he need it. At a mere 3 pounds 13 ounces he was a skinny little monkey. And my boobs? Well, they where easily twice the size of his tiny little jaundiced head!
See!
Breastfeeding a preemie is hard work. Heck, breastfeeding any baby is hard work. And it became abundantly clear very quickly that the sexy that I was feeling about my breasts a mere 9 months before this moment, while lounging on the beaches of St. Lucia (where said preemie child was conceived), was quickly replaced by wanting them to feel comfortable, not chafed or cracked or bleeding or thrush-ridden or plugged or all the other things that happened to me and my girls once we wholeheartedly embarked on this breastfeeding journey.
For a while, sexy left me. I wore the most basic of nursing bras and tank tops and focused all that I could on this little baby boy and making sure that my breasts and I were doing what we should and could to help him grow and thrive.
Around the 6-month mark, we finally got into our breastfeeding groove and had a good thing going on. Little C had grown enough so that boob and baby head were about equal in size and we found a position and a way to breastfeed that made us both happy. (Side-lying FTW!) It was around this time as well, that I started to lose more of my baby-weight and needed to update my wardrobe a bit.
And then... sexy started to creep back into my life. I was still fully committed to this breastfeeding gig, but now I wanted pretty nursing bras and matching undies. I wanted nursing tops that were not just over-sized t-shirts with a not so well-concealed or flattering boob flap or cut-out. The search was on. I managed to find a few brands that I fell in love with and proceeded to buy a bra or top in every color or style that they had (Big shout out here to BOOB nursing wear and the amazing selection of nursing bras that they have at Milkface.com.) Having a nice nursing wardrobe serves two purposes in my mind. Number one, it makes a mama feel good about herself and the way she looks. And two, it makes it a lot easier to just keep on nursing for the long haul.
At this point you may be asking yourself, "Why is Natasha going on and on about her boobs again? And what is with all this 'feeling/looking sexy' talk?" Well, it has recently come to my attention (HA! Insert sarcasm font here) that SEXY and BREASTFEEDING are two words that when placed together in a sentence (or a thought) make a lot of people VERY uncomfortable!
Case in point, THIS amazing photo.
Taken by a very talented Russian photographer, this image captures a wonderful breastfeeding moment with a beautiful and dare I say sexy Mama and her cute little chubster of a baby. Is it an art piece? Yes. Is it 'real life'? No, not for the majority of us. It is a photo shoot. Just like those newborn babies wrapped up in gauze and placed in a bowl pictures are not "real life"... this to me follows along those same lines. It is a shot taken to be shared or cherished of a time in their lives that was special and beautiful. End of story.
Or not...
There has been some talk over the interwebs that photos like this one, of an obviously very attractive woman nursing a child (and perhaps in a posed and not a "natural" position) only serves to perpetuate society's obsession with the 'sexualization' of breastfeeding. Just take the Time Magazine cover shot with the lovely, tall and gorgeous Jamie Lynn Grumet. Would the reaction to that particular cover photo been as dramatic, had the image they printed been one of what more people would associate with all us "crazy hippie" attachment parents? A barefooted, cross-legged sitting, hemp-skirt-wearing, no make-up, hair in a long braid (or better yet, in dreads) breastfeeding earth mother!!??
I just don't know...
What I do know is this. I LIKE to feel sexy.
Nothing gets me out of a frumpy, dumpy mood like having a shower, putting on my favourite {nursing} bra and matching undies and wearing something that really makes me feel and yes, even look sexy! And while I am out and about looking and feeling all sexy, chances are my daughter is going to want to nurse at some point. And wherever and whenever, I will nurse her. And perhaps because I am looking so fine, someone is gonna glance over and see me and think, "Damn that is one fine mama...oh, wait... What?? Is she nursing that baby? WTF? OMG!"
It really is a bit of a mind-fuck if you think about it.
And it has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the mother, the baby or the breastfeeding and EVERYTHING to do with the observer, or in the case of photos on the internet or on blog posts or on magazine covers, the reader.
It is a juxtaposition of two seemingly conflicting ideals that society holds.
That of the WOMAN and that of the MOTHER.
If you see a beautiful woman, your mind thinks a certain way. If you see a mother, your mind thinks a different way. (I am no student of psychology, but I am sure Freud or Jung or one of those guys had a lot to say about this whole topic!)
And herein lies the crux of the matter.
Mothers ARE women! Women ARE mothers. They are one and the same. They are beautiful, sexy, hot, smart, sassy, intelligent human beings. They are also caring, nurturing, loving, tender and protective beings.
They... WE, are all these things and then some. Just because someone can't wrap their head around the fact that a mom can be or look sexy or sultry or what have you AND be the mother that her child needs (and in this case and a lot of cases, a breastfeeding mother) is just a very sad state of affairs.
And it all really just comes right back to the boobs.
And yes, yes, we hear over and over again the same rhetoric, "Breasts are made for feeding babies." My question to everyone then is this? Have we forgotten that those same breasts probably had a lot to do with all that...ahem... fun stuff that was done to actually MAKE all these little nurslings?
Let's be real Mamas. Breasts are sexy! YOU are sexy! And your breasts, well they make milk too! And sometimes you are a sexy mama feeding your baby with your breasts!
Nothing wrong with that!
Cheers and chest bumps Mamas and Happy first day of WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK!!
Natasha~
I'll leave you with my favourite cover of LMFAO's 'I'm Sexy and I know it.'
Enjoy!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvlsuLau5c[/youtube]
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Today's post is Day ONE of my Summer Blog Challenge!
31 Days of posts coming your way this month!
And I have convinced at least one of my friends to join me.
Check out Meaghan's first post today at MagzD Life.
UPDATE at 10:30 PM:
Three more lovely bloggers are joining in on the fun!
Check out April's Day One post over at This Mom's Got Something to Say,
Liam's post over at In The Now,
and Zita's post on her blog, The Dulock Diaries.
Repeat after me... Breastfeeding is not OBSCENE!!
...and yet, the breastfeeding witch hunt rages on... And very strongly on Facebook again!
More breastfeeding pictures have been removed, people's accounts have been blocked or suspended and there is much confusion about what Facebook's actual policy on breastfeeding photos is or if they even have one.
You would think that they do have one based on this response from Facebook's own Help Centre.
But in an article published in the Vancouver Sun yesterday, Facebook's Canadian publicist said that,
"...although Facebook does not have a specific policy regarding breastfeeding images but given that Facebook’s policy is no nudity it would be best not to post (breastfeeding images),.."
The mixed messages from Facebook are enough to make my head spin!
For the whole back story and media updates I will direct you to my friend Jodine Chase's blog. She has been chronicling this most recent battle daily since it all started on Sunday when Emma Kwasnica, founder of the Human Milk 4 Human Babies milk-sharing network (which ironically started on Facebook), had her breastfeeding pictures flagged, removed and her Facebook account suspended for 24 hours and then another 72 hours after that.
In a show of solidarity with Emma and ALL breastfeeding mamas and their rights to post these photos on Facebook and as a kind of virtual nurse-in (and yes, I will re-address my stance on nurse-ins in general in another post), I asked my fellow mamas and followers on the Natural Urban Mamas Facebook page to post their breastfeeding photos.
And the response was amazing...
All night long and well into Monday mamas posted amazing, beautiful, funny, newborn, toddler and everything in between BREASTFEEDING photos all over the Natural Urban Mamas wall!
But I wanted to do more.
And so I made this.
I hope you like it.
I hope you will share it.
And I hope that not one of you backs down or ever feels like you need to cover up or "do that somewhere else" while breastfeeding, whether in real life or virtually by not posting or removing your nursing photos from social media sites like Facebook.
This is for you Emma and for all of the breastfeeding mamas out there fighting this battle and working tirelessly every day to make the sight of a breastfeeding mother the normal, commonplace, not-really-a-big-deal, just-a-baby-eating, thing that it really is!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdvVVAtTo4Y[/youtube]
Give those babies some Booby Snacks Mamas!
Natasha~
Video music credit goes to:
The Star Wars Theme by John Williams
Booby Snacks by Moorea Mallat, www.songsforbreastfeeding.com
Dog Days are Over by Florence and the Machine, www.florenceandthemachine.net
Nurse-in. Nurse-out.
Tomorrow, there are nurse-in's planned at Target stores across the USA and in some Zeller's stores (the future home of Target) across Canada. It is all in response to an incident that happened to a breastfeeding mom at a Houston Target store in late November 2011. You can read all the details here, in the post written by Annie Urban from PhDinParenting on the Care2 site.
This is sadly not a new news story. Long story short is this: mom is shopping with baby, baby gets hungry, mom has a full cart of items and decides to sit down and nurse her child with a cover over her. Mom is subsequently harassed by store employees asking her to move or leave and then proceed to threaten to call the police and have her arrested for indecent exposure, etc, etc, etc....
And... Cue the Lactivists!! And the uproar from both sides of this issue. (See the 489 comments on Annie's Post! 489 people!!)
And then nation-wide nurse-ins are planned.
And I get a kind of weird uneasy feeling in my tummy about these gatherings.
Please understand this. I am a very vocal and proud advocate of breastfeeding. I believe that breastfeeding is the normal and yes, best way to feed our babies. I believe that mothers should nurse their babies anytime and anywhere and not have to suffer any kind of harassment or public humiliation for giving her baby the simple basics of food and love.
I believe that leading by example and modeling the kind of behaviour we want to see in others and around us is the best way to change the world. I especially believe this about breastfeeding and this is why I have and always will nurse in public when I need to. I will do so with a smile on my face, with or without a cover, with my newborn and with my three-year-old. I will nurse at a pool, at a restaurant, in the mall, at the park, in church or sitting in the lawn furniture display at Superstore.
Some may think I am a 'breastfeeding nazi', because I believe that this is the best way to feed my babies and I will do whatever I need to ensure that this is what happens. I will share my knowledge of breastfeeding with those around me and help whomever asks me for advice or help! I will support businesses and products that enhance the breastfeeding relationship and remove my support from those that I feel undermine it.
But on the subject of public gatherings and nurse-ins...
To be completely honest, and I know this will get me in some hot water with some people...
I do not think that this is the way.
This 'Stickin' it to the man', or in this case (and as the media will undoubtedly portray it) 'Whippin' em out in front of everyone', will HURT the lactivist movement. This will become less about a mother's right and basic human need to feed her child when and where that child is hungry, as it will be about a group of outraged feminist crazies and exhibitionist women 'flaunting' themselves in the name of breastfeeding in public.
Do you think I am wrong?
Maybe I am, but I know what kind of world we live in.
We live in a world where boobs = sex. Where one of the most watched fashion shows on the planet is the Victoria's Secret one and it is chock full of barely there bras and panties and lots of bouncing boobs. Where the biggest social media website in the world will allow almost pornographic pictures of breasts and other questionable body parts, but actively removes, bans and shuts down pages that show a breastfeeding mother and child. We live in a world where the most powerful nation known to man has the most appalling maternity leave policy on earth and does next to nothing to support breastfeeding mothers.
So what is a breastfeeding advocate to do?
I have been invited to our local nurse-in tomorrow, but I don't think I will go. I see these actions as confrontational and in my opinion THIS tactic rarely ever works to change people's minds and only serves to alienate those we want support from and make the issue seem more sensational than normal. There is something to be said about attracting more flies with honey than vinegar and I truly believe that this highly charged topic of breastfeeding in public is one that needs way more sweet than bitter to move it forward.
I don't know what the right answers are here and just like feeding our babies, it is likely as diverse and varied as these answers and choices are.
I personally choose to make my stand for nursing in public (NIP) as I feed my babies. On demand. And trust me, with a three-year-old who is still nursing and very vocal about it, she can be very demanding! As demanding as a screaming hungry newborn. And you can bet that I would, I have and I will nurse my children when and where they need it.
So for all those shop employees, shoppers, diners, people walking by, fellow church goers and everyone else who seems to have a problem with a mother nursing her child, I say this...
Your choice is...
THIS.
Or THIS!
Look away or deal with the high-pitched, full-throttle and seemingly never-ending screams of a hungry child!!
Natasha~
P.S. I fully support all the mamas and daddies and everyone else who IS going to the nurse-in's across our nations. I am with you in spirit and will likely be somewhere else quite publicly nursing my toddler and being an example to all those around me.
The Breastfeeding Witch Hunt-What the heck is going on??
Okay, I am throwing in my two cents.
How come, about every other day, I am reading about another mama who was told not to breastfeed her child somewhere, or Facebook has deemed in their infinite wisdom to remove yet another breastfeeding page supporting nursing moms.
I sometimes think that we in Canada are immune to some of this, that we are somewhat more of a tolerant and accepting society as a whole. (Sorry if that sounds a bit snooty.) But sadly, I am mistaken. Just this month alone we have had the incident in Montreal, where a mom was asked to leave a children's clothing store because she was breastfeeding her baby (and also buying items from them-talk about messed up customer service!!) And even in my own home town in our swanky new art gallery, a mom was asked to stop nursing her baby in a NO FOOD or DRINK zone. This story has a happy ending and the art gallery changed it's policy, but why such a policy existed in the first place is beyond me!??
Now on to Facebook. Does anyone else feel like there is some kind of breastfeeding witch hunt going on there? I mean look at the growing list of pages that have been removed (and then reinstated...and then removed....and then...well, you know).
- The Leaky Boob (twice removed and now reinstated)
- Earthy Motherhood
- Momzelle (A fellow Canadian mom-run business, removed and then reinstated in November 2010)
- and the countless personal pages and pictures that have been removed because of a breastfeeding photo or two.
It seems to me that someone really must be out there LOOKING for these pictures, as Facebook claims that they only remove these pages and pictures once they receive a complaint from users (see the January 2nd New York Times article on the subject).
So who is on this breastfeeding witch hunt? And why? Is someone really out there trying to undermine the breastfeeding moms of the world? That just seems so unlikely (I hope), so then again I am left confused and dismayed as to all the fuss about nursing our babies and (God forbid) taking a picture of these beautiful moments and posting it for others (mostly our friends or like-minded mamas) to see.
And my last thought on the Facebook matter (because they say it is the NIPPLE that is the issue)...
I am pretty darn sure that if a Mama is breastfeeding, then the Baby is ON the nipple and it is likely NOT showing and then your "a nipple is a nipple and we don't care what you are doing" policy is just a bunch of cow's manure!!
And there you have it folks, my two cents....for all it is worth.
BREASTFEED away Mamas-where ever and whenever!!
Family and Breastfeeding
Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival! This post was written as part of The Breastfeeding Cafe's Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today's post is about family and breastfeeding. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th through the 31st!
My husband is Chinese. He has two sisters, a brother and his parents. Now don't get me wrong, I actually really love my in-laws, even though it took my MIL a good four years to love me back. They are SO, so good to my kids and at least once a week I don't have to cook a meal. But, to be honest, they are kind of an uptight bunch - DH included! Throw in a dash of crazy white chick breastfeeding your grandkids FOREVER and well....
...actually, they have been great about it! I was and still am sensitive to their needs, ie, to NOT see my boobs and they, in turn, have been very supportive of me breastfeeding my kids for an extended length of time. Maybe they say things to each other when I am not around, but never do I hear any of it. I have breastfed my babies at our monthly (sometimes weekly) family dinners at our favourite Chinese restaurant, at dim sum Sundays and at their home. I think it is more important to them that we have family time then it is to make a big fuss about me nursing in public. So they don't question me, tell me to stop or seem otherwise bothered by it. Now granted, at first my poor brother-in-law could not even handle being in the same room when I was nursing one kid or the other, but he has come around and is way more mature about it these days.
My family is likewise very supportive of my decision to breastfeed my babies for a long time. My sister has an 8 month old baby too and when we are all together, the boobs are being popped out and into someone's mouth left, right and center! We are also an EC'ing family (my sister too) and so there are also potty breaks for the baby girls in the middle of the living room when we all get together. We are just not a shy bunch. (For those who don't know, EC=elimination communication.)
So here's the thing, I have plenty of things that I could complain about with regards to my in-laws and my own family (and who doesn't), but their acceptance and I believe genuine respect for my breastfeeding practices is NOT one of them. And because I know that this is not the case for a lot of mommies, I wholeheartedly thank each and every one of them for that!
Peace out my mama peeps, Natasha~
Here are more posts by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.
- Sylko @ Chaotic Mama—Breastfeeding Carnival: Family and Breastfeeding
- Timbra @ Bosoms & Babes—Legacy of Breastfeeding
- Kym @ Twinside Out—“One knows not the worth of water till the well is dry...”
- Shelly @ Lousy Mom—Family Dynamite
- Natasha @naturalurbanmama—Family and Breastfeeding
- Claire @ The Adventures of Lactating Girl—Breastfeeding In My Family
- Renee @ Just the 5 of us!—A family united
- Lexi @ Life As A Mommy—Breastfeeding & Family
- And of course the guest poster on the Breastfeeding Cafe’s Blog today is Rachel Langshall—Breastfeeding and Family
Nursing in Special Circumstances: Preemie, Pregnancy, and a Pair of Nurslings.
Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival! This post was written as part of The Breastfeeding Cafe's Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today's post is about nursing in special circumstances. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th through the 31st!
If you have been following and reading along this week, you have probably figured out by now that I have had some pretty special nursing circumstances. And let me tell you, NONE of which were what I expected or planned with either of my children. But that is the crux of motherhood is it not? Nothing is ever really as we plan it and that is what makes this journey so incredible.
Nursing my son when he was only 3 and a half pounds was a challenge, my boobs were almost twice the size of his tiny head and never mind getting that tiny little mouth to latch on to more than just the tip of my nipple!! I mean really, look at him! As you can see, he had some pretty serious jaundice as well and that made him really sleepy at the breast too. So it wasn't easy, but with the right help (we ended up seeing three lactation nurses during our first 4 months of nursing), the proper amount of determination and plain old stubbornness and the knowledge that I was doing everything in my power to give him the best start in life, we managed. We also cried a lot, me because I was so frustrated and post-partum, and a new mom, and him because my let-down was too fast and furious or he was not getting enough or I was feeding him on the wrong side, or...or.... God, if only we could have some kind of mom super power that would let us read their little minds in those early days-wouldn't that be nice?
But like I said before, it got better. And for all the moms reading this and wondering if it does get better--please hang in there, it really does! From six months on, we seemed to get our groove on and both of us were much happier with our nursing relationship. So much so, that when I got pregnant with my second child, he showed no signs of wanting to stop.
Nursing while you are pregnant can be a challenge for moms. Your body is changing, your hormones are out of whack, and your milk is also changing during this time. I read the La Leche League book "Adventures in Tandem Nursing:Breastfeeding during pregnancy and Beyond" by Hilary Flower and it was a life-saver during this time. One of the things that surprised me the most about nursing while pregnant was the emotions that come up - and I am not talking about any good ones here. I swear there were times when he was nursing and I was so angry about the whole situation that I just wanted to throw him across the room! Not that I EVER did that, but the feelings where there. For a few months there was anger and an almost physical aversion to nursing him. Which, as I found out from my LLL moms and leaders and the book, is all completely normal. Oh, whew, so I was not going insane! During that time I did have to come up with some strategies to minimize those feelings though. Whenever we were nursing and the 'bad' feelings started to bubble up, I would count out loud to ten and he knew that at ten our session would be over.
I don't know if my milk ever completely dried up during my pregnancy because he nursed through the whole 10 months! I do think towards the end he must have thought he hit the breastfeeding jackpot when my colostrum started to come in!! I will also point out that because I did not have a 'break' between my nurslings, when my daughter was born, I did not have those few days of little to no milk production before my milk came in--it never really left me! And this brings us to our time of tandem nursing.
I have to say, that I was one of those moms who, even when I was nursing my infant and baby son, never quite understood the concept of tandem nursing. Of course, I did not know at the time that he would be nursing until his third birthday! And because we had nursed all through my pregnancy, it seemed kind of silly to just stop because the new baby had arrived. I wanted to keep nursing him AND the baby and here were my reasons for doing so:
- He is a small kid-always has been and my thought at the time was this, "Hey, I have all this lovely fatty newborn milk, why not give him some and fatten him up a bit."
- I thought that we would try to avoid any major jealousy issues over baby nursing and getting all of mommy's attention by letting him 'share' the nursing with her. I hoped that he would have a better time accepting this new person in his life--and in the end this really was the case.
- I was not ready to let that part of our relationship go just yet. I really wanted weaning to happen naturally when we were both ready and this was just not that time.
So there you have it folks, my special circumstances of nursing. To be honest, during the whole time I have nursed my kids, I haven't looked at it as 'special circumstances'. I just think that it hasn't really occurred to me to stop. Even now, my daughter is 22 months old and I do not know when we will stop. I don't plan these things. I am just letting nature take it's course and will go with the flow of motherhood and milk!!
Ciao Mamas, Natasha~
Here are more posts by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.
- Sylko @ Chaotic Mama—Breastfeeding Carnival: Special Circumstances
- Whitney @ According To Waddlebug: The (Un)Balancing Act of Motherhood—Breastfeeding a Dairy & Gluten Sensitive Babe
- Lexi @ Life As A Mommy—Nursing in Pain
- Guest Poster Angela @ The Adventures of Lactating Girl—Breastfeeding Twins: What I Wish I'd Known
- Natasha @ naturalurbanmama—Nursing in Special Circumstances: Preemie, Pregnancy and a Pair of Nurslings
- Heather @ The Bee in Your Bonnet—Whole Nine Months
- Timbra @ Bosoms & Babes—Special Circumstance: NICU Nurses and Nursing
- And of course the guest poster on the Breastfeeding Cafe’s Blog today is Melissa Knighton—No Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, or Tree Nuts
Nursing in Public-Not a Big Deal.
Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival! This post was written as part of The Breastfeeding Cafe's Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today's post is about nursing in public. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th through the 31st!
I think I have been one of the lucky ones. I have two children, DS is 3.5 years old and DD is 21 months old. I nursed DS until his third birthday and am still breastfeeding DD and plan on continuing until she self-weans. In all this time, I have never had anyone ever say anything to me about breastfeeding my children in public-and I do it A LOT.
Maybe it is because along with breastfeeding my babies, I also am an avid babywearer. I have always carried my kids in various kinds of carriers and have found that nursing with a carrier can be a very discreet thing to do. Maybe it is because I have invested a not-so-small amount of money in my breastfeeding wardrobe (I have an addiction to the BOOB line of tops and dresses). These garments make it very easy to breastfeed and eliminate the need for blankets, shawls, or those crazy wired covers that I could never get the hang of.
Maybe it is because in our city (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) in the past 5 years there has been an incredible baby boom and seeing a mother breastfeed her child in public is not as uncommon as it once was. I love walking through our huge mall and seeing moms sitting on the benches and couches taking a break and feeding their babies.
Maybe it is because I have surrounded myself with like-minded moms, or because I have become a part of our local La Leche League group. Having a support network is incredibly important as a new mom and for me my community of moms let me know that it was OK to nurse my child in public. I remember the first time I saw one of these amazing women breastfeeding her child - at the local pool, in the middle of summer, with a bikini on--I did not even realize that her daughter was nursing and all I could think of (besides damn you and your bikini body!) was WOW, how awesome is that!!
Whatever the case may be, I have always just done it. If my child is hungry and crying, she gets nursed, wherever we are, period. And to be honest, I think that nursing your children in public is kind of a state of mind as well as a natural human right. If you make a big deal about it, so will other people and then the comments and stares and 'please ma'am, do you mind?' happen. I just do it and I try not to make it a big deal. I am just a mom feeding her baby and by the way, I might just happen to be browsing the sale racks at the GAP at the same time!!
Here are more posts by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.
- Emily @ Baby Dickey—baby eats when baby wants: nursing in public
- BoobiesNBabies @ Num In Mind—NIP a Lil Giant, How We Do It
- Sylko @ Chaotic Mama—Breastfeeding Carnival: Nursing in Public
- Claire @ The Adventures of Lactating Girl—My Biggest Advocate
- Timbra @ Bosoms and Babes—Making it easy for everyone to nurse
- Kaitlin @ Bringing Birth Home—Breastfeeding Uncovered - A Peaceful Protest
- Claire @ Geeky Gaming Mama—Nursing in Public: What Makes it Easier
- Brooke @ Milk Maid Mama—Nursing in Public
- Kathy @ Musings From an Arid Neverland—Do I need fancy clothes to nurse in public?
- Shary @ Mama Fish—NIP: Nursing in Public
- Kimberly @ Monkey Tales Mama Thoughts—Nips: Not those, well kind of those
- Shelly @ Lousy Mom—Breastfeeding Public
- Sarah @ Most Revealing—Nip
- Renee @ Just the 5 of us!—No Reservations
- Natasha @ Natural Urban Mamas—Nursing in Public-Not a Big Deal
- StorkStories @ Stork Stories... Birth & Breastfeeding—Little Old Men… & Nursing in Public (Back by “PUBLIC” Demand)
- And of course the guest poster on the Breastfeeding Cafe’s Blog today is Heather Hendriksen—Tips for Nursing in Public