Public Breastfeeding. Put A Cover Over YOUR Head.

If it hasn't been made clear, I am a huge breastfeeding advocate. Like the saying goes, "Breast is best." Once again this morning I saw yet ANOTHER video and article where a woman was shamed for breastfeeding her infant in public. Let's start with the basic facts. It is LEGAL in all 50 states to breastfeed in public. And 45 states have laws that specifically allow women to breastfeed in any public or private location.

As it states on the website of the National Conference of State Legislatures;

"Both mothers and children benefit from breast milk. Breast milk contains antibodies that protect infants from bacteria and viruses. Breastfed children have fewer ear, respiratory and urinary tract infections and have diarrhea less often. Infants who are exclusively breastfed tend to need fewer health care visits, prescriptions and hospitalizations resulting in a lower total medical care cost compared to never-breastfed infants. Breastfeeding also provides long-term preventative effects for the mother, including an earlier return to pre-pregnancy weight and a reduced risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer and osteoporosis."

You read all those benefits right? I'm pretty sure it stated all these incredible facts about it being the most beneficial way to FEED your child and people in society have a PROBLEM with this? How about we make a bigger deal about a mother giving her toddler a soda because there is nothing healthy or beneficial about that. But no, we attack the selfless mother who is putting her child as her number one priority.

If anyone has witnessed first hand someone breastfeeding...you can't really see much. (Well I also suppose that depends on how much boobage you've been blessed with.) But you can't see the "indecent" part, the nipple. I've seen more exposure from a teenager wearing a low cut tank top in the mall. Many mothers also use nursing covers like myself. And also like I've experienced, sometimes you don't because well your child is crying and hungry so heck you whip it out for your kid and get them fed. In instances like this, I cover my small cleavage with my hand and guess what you can't see anything or the way my clothes are, you would think I'm just holding my infant against me.

Here's the thing though. If you have a problem with public breastfeeding then you are against breastfeeding in general. Plain and simple. When I sit down in the middle of the mall, in the patio section at Target, at a table for dinner in a restaurant and I go to whip it out cause my child is hungry, how about YOU LOOK AWAY.  Put a cover over YOUR head while you eat and see how it feels. Because quite frankly if you are not my significant other you really shouldn't be staring at my boobs anyway!

My daughter is now 13 months old and yes I am still breastfeeding. It creates such an amazing bond and I will be sad when the day comes that it is over. I will miss the night feedings and cuddling. I will miss burning 300-500 calories a day in the easiest way possible while benefiting my child's health at the same time. (<-- awesome right?) We are working on weaning a little here and there as I have an impending surgery in the near future so I can't nurse due to the post surgery prescriptions I will be given. But until that time, I will still be nursing in public. And hopefully I am in a place when it needs to happen that I can simply find a seat because feeling like the only place to go sometimes to feed your child is on a toilet seat in the bathroom is wrong. Would you want to eat there? Don't shame me, don't ask me to feed my hungry child somewhere else because the momma bear in me will come out.

Maybe the next time you see a breastfeeding mother, you can say something as simple as "It's really great that you have chosen to breastfeed your child. Good job Mom. You're doing great." Support the breastfeeding mothers because you know what it is hard and tiring sometimes but it is a sacrifice worth making. And sometimes we need to hear a little reassurance and get a little pat on the back every now and then to keep going. Here's a pat on the back to every momma out there breastfeeding and to those just starting and it hurts, it WILL get better. The first week is the hardest. YOU GO MOM! YOU ROCK!

This is the night my daughter Aubrey was born. July 7, 2012.