When I became pregnant with our first child, my husband immediately assumed a few things. assumed that of COURSE I would want to go through birth without any drugs (uhm, NO! Bring on the epidural at 3!), that I would want to home school (because I'm an educator- again, no, not for me) and that I would be delighted to nurse as oppose to formula feed. I remember looking at him in my state of sassiness, saying,"Tell you what, when the baby comes out, we will attach him or her to one of your dangling body parts and see how you feel about it."
When the time came, I did nurse both of my children for a bit. And it turned out to be a good experience for the most part. But there was always the issue of nursing while we were in public (again, wasn't for me. I hid in the bathroom). What do you think? Should women nurse in public? Let the debate begin!
Melissa
Posts
This is a great topic! I am ALL in favor of feeding your child wherever you need to feed your child! I did it in public all the time. I'm not going to run and hide nor will I deny my baby food because of someone else's sensibilities! If you don't wanna see it don't look! I'm so glad there are laws in place to protect babies from puritan thought processes.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Susan ... I've nursed my 3 small ones all over town, and only got 1 negative look ... and it was in the children's section of the library, of all places!
ReplyDeleteI nursed all my children and they pretty much got hungry no matter where we were. If I could find an out of the way place, I did, but if not I discreetly nursed in public. I got all my children very used to having Mom's shirt over their face. For today's nursing Mom there is the Hooter Hider. Great invention!
ReplyDeleteAlthough not a mother, I have an experience to share. I was a store manager of a large outlet store a few years back. One day a mother walked through my store nursing her baby without covering or any discretion whatsoever and shopped as she nursed. The ultimate multi-tasker! The high school boys that were part of my staff were...let's just say they were horrified. They begged me to do something, anything to stop this thing they thought to be insanity. As a store manager, there was nothing I could do. I advised them to hide out in the stockroom until the coast was clear and the mountains were covered again. I believe the boys sought therapy the next day and I would venture a guess they never viewed boobs they same way again!
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I am not a mother, but I think I would have taken a shopping break to tend to my baby's tummy. I am not much of a multi-tasker!