Friday, June 01, 2007

Breastfeeding in public

Probably getting more obsessed with this concept since I'll be doing it again so soon (when Liam could handle finger foods I "weaned" him from nursing in public because it was simply too hard on my arms/back, so it's been probably almost 2 years since I've nursed in public regularly). I was sorting through pictures to upload to our online photo gallery and came across many pictures of Liam nursing (gee, considering the percentage of his time he spent doing it, big surprise there). None of them have us covered, and the ones in public places you pretty much have to KNOW what you're looking for to realize what you're seeing (which is part of the argument I have with "certain people who shall remain nameless" about how "no one ever does THAT in the US" - yes, they do, you just look right past them without realizing it...)

So I ask you, which is more discreet... this type of breastfeeding in public:

















(both of the above images are swiped from commercial websites wanting to sell you these nursing covers, which I have problems with on two counts - one, it furthers the idea that breastfeeding is something that should be hidden and hence bottlefeeding is more "convenient" and two, it's just another way to commercialize motherhood and make money off of people's insecurities, so I'm being evil and not linking to them. After looking through a few hundred results of google images for "breastfeeding blanket", "breastfeeding cover", and "breastfeeding drape" I couldn't find a SINGLE NON-COMMERCIAL PICTURE of a mother covering herself with a blanket to nurse - surprise surprise).

Or are these more discrete:



(funny, i think I'm wearing the same outfit both times, the first one he's less than a month old because that was when we still lived in Virginia, the second one he's about 2 months old at the Feast of the Assumption)

Yes, I'm using a sling in both pictures, which adds to the ease of being discrete, but I've shown an equal amount of skin when not using a sling, just can't find those pictures (the one that wound up in the Plain Dealer of me nursing Liam at the CWRU bookstore would be an example).

I swear I'm going to take one of the five trillion receiving blankets we have around here and write on it in big red letters "HEY LOOK I'M BREASTFEEDING!" and keep that in the diaper bag in case anyone gives me crap this time, see if that makes them more "comfortable".. or at least it'd be fun for a photo-op ;) I've got a couple lactivist pictures that I want to take floating in my mind as it is. I'll post them here when I do them (one of them will probably be in the coming weeks while I'm still pregnant).

3 comments:

Allison said...

it's funny to me (anyone else?) because those first women just look ridiculous like they all belong to some weird cult of triangle cloth wearers! ha ha. I'm punchy..sorry.

Anonymous said...

lol!! I thought the same thing! My first thought wasn't, "Gee she's nursing" it was "Wow that weird bib looking thing is sort of creepy..."

And since I was there, I can say with some authority, that I could rarely tell when you were nursing, even when I KNEW!! Not that I cared if I could tell. I saw all there was to see during delivery! :)

liz said...

Well, I have noticed working with newborns, if they are actually latched on and nursing...then there isn't much left to see. And I would think the bigger the baby, the more they cover up so to speak. I'm not sure why people are bothered that much...I don't think I've ever actually noticed someone nursing in public, although I'm sure its happened around me. And those covers are ridiculous, seems like the shape/design would make everything more awkward and call more attention to the poor woman who's trying to nurse discreetly. I apolgize for any misspellings or weird phrases, its past my bedtime.