The Great Debate

I was watching The Talk the other day and they were discussing something that I have been thinking about a lot lately...breast feeding in public.  I know that this has been a hot topic for some time now, but now that I need to do it, I actually care about the topic. 

I'm not going to lie, prior to having Karter, I was a little weirded out about it.  I mean, boobs out in public??  Craziness.  But now that I am a nursing momma to a boy who likes to eat every 2 hours (and hates the bottle), I find that I am now one of those boobs in public...and you know what?  I don't care.  I don't care that I'm doing it, I don't care that other people don't like it, and I don't care to hide in some disgusting bathroom or freezing car to do it so that others aren't offended.

There is a tasteful way to do it, which I try to follow.  I usually double up with both a cover and a blanket because Karter likes to rip off the cover sometimes all the time. I mean, I can't say that no one's ever seen some skin as I'm nursing, but I try my best to prevent it. As I write this, I'm reminded of about two months ago when two of my good friends from college and I were at the mall walking around and suddenly hunger struck...all three of our babies.  We lined the benches at the Piqua mall with our babies and nursing covers (two of which matched, by the way) and fed away.  I didn't see any scowls or rude looks and hopefully no one saw any boob.  (Michelle-I know you're a little sad you weren't part of this:))

You kind of lose any sort of dignity you have during the child birthing process.  After I've been exposed to more doctors and nurses than I can count on my fingers, whipping out my boob in public to feed my hungry little monster seems like a pretty modest task.  Now, I have a harder time condoning those that don't take into consideration anyone else and don't bother with any sort of cover.  It's people like that that give nursing mothers in public a bad name. 

I've gotten to the point where it kind of pisses me off when people seem to have a problem with me nursing in public.  I mean, really?  Aren't we all adults?  Have you never seen a boob before?  Plus, when you think about it, I'm technically saving tax payers a lot of potential dollars by providing Karter with the best nutrition possible, which hopefully protects him from many chronic illnesses. 

So I know I am just one opinion of many on this topic, but I felt like voicing it. And if you have a problem with breast feeding in public, well, you should probably just stop going out in public.