Get Your Boobs Out, People!

Dear Bill Maher, Facebook and Others Who Never Matured Past Seventh Grade,

In some of the arguments against breastfeeding I've heard it likened to masturbating, urinating and defecating in public.

As someone who spent 26 months of her life breastfeeding, I can assure you it feels NOTHING like masturbating. But even if it did, the point of breastfeeding is FEEDING. Breastfeeding is not some twisted way women get off, it is a way for babies to EAT. The best way, in fact.

That's why it's different from urinating, defecating and any other private acts people talk about. No one does those things in public. I don't change my babies' diapers in public either. Why? Because PEOPLE DON'T PEE IN PUBLIC.

People do eat in public and there's no reason for babies to be any different. If knowing that my baby is sucking on my nipple makes YOU uncomfortable, that's YOUR problem. I am personally uncomfortable with people who pray in public, but I'm not going around trying to stop them. I know that it's MY issue, not theirs.

I remember when a former colleague of mine came back from maternity leave. I asked her how breastfeeding was going and she blushed bright red and said, "It was too hard." Now, this was a very modest, innocent until marriage kind of girl. But also a devoted mother. I eventually found out that even though she knew breastfeeding was best for her baby and she had wanted to, it was too "embarrassing for her family."

Why were they embarrassed? Because of people like you. And you know what, I'm REALLY offended by it. Next time I see you in a restaurant, I'd prefer it if you'd go eat in the bathroom.

Sincerely,
TripleZmom

Doing It In Public

No, not THAT. People I'm related to read this blog. Sheesh.

I always use this picture for breastfeeding because that's an Alaskan glacier behind me.

I'm talking about breastfeeding.

When Ironflower and I were first learning to breastfeed, I tried not to do it in public. It always took a while for us to get arranged and a while for her to get settled down. But after missing a few too many conversations and finding only one mall with a breastfeeding room (it's in Council Bluffs, Iowa, FYI), I decided to become one of THOSE WOMEN.

It got worse after Lovebug was born. Not only was breastfeeding easy from the beginning, he LOVED it. He still does, actually. And he's fourteen months old. Anyway, I have breastfed in fancy restaurants, at the above glacier in Alaska, at parks, on airplanes and around uncomfortable family members.

I wear baggy shirts, which I pull out with one hand while arranging my breast and his head with the other. So no one can really see anything anyway. But the longer I breastfeed, the less I care.

For every body part we have, for every item of clothing we wear, there is someone out there who has a sexual fetish for it. Yes, breasts are more common than goats, but so what? I could argue that butts are nearly as popular (maybe even more so, what with gay men paying attention too), but no one is thrown out of restaurants or airplanes for wearing tight pants or showing crack. And have you seen how short skirts are lately? I would much rather my son see a breastfeeding woman than what passes for a skirt on high school girls lately. And what about men wearing Speedos? No one really wants to see that.

Breastfeeding is about feeding a child. And anyone who has a problem with it can look the other way.