Tastefully Breast feeding in Public Places:
Legal Issues, Special Aid and How to Cover Up
Breastfeeding in public is one of the
most-discussed areas of nursing, and can causes friction
between family members, friends and outright strangers. Some
people believe public breastfeeding to be natural and
beautiful, a sharing of the nurturing process between mother
and child. Others feel it is a private and intimate act, which
should be sheltered from the eyes of others. Yet other people
think that breastfeeding is perfectly fine—they just don't
want to see it at the dinner table.
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It's all very confusing, because the breast in this culture, is
considered more than a baby bottle: it's essentially considered
the primary sexual attribute of women. Men judge women by their
breasts-their size, perkiness and cleavage. Breasts can make the
difference between getting a good job and getting a great one,
as male employers notice your breasts long before they know the
color of your eyes. Millions of dollars are spent each year on
breast enhancement surgery because ambitious women who want to
maximize their options in career or husband hunting spend the
money to get the goods that nature hasn't provided in enough
abundance. There is even a joke that goes thusly:
Q: Why do women have breasts?
A: So men will talk to them.
Having thus hyper-sexualized that part of the body, the culture
then proceeds to regulate its appearance. Even when a baby is
attached to it, a breast is a breast, and in the puritanically
small minds that so often prevail, a thing that incites men to
sexual frenzy. It's idiotic, but there it is, and local laws and
regulations may reflect the awful truth: your breasts are not
your own to be hidden or displayed. They are part of the public
domain and thus subject to the laws of the land. In some
backwards places, you may suffer stares of disgust and whispers
of outrage, be ousted from a mall or restaurant or even receive
a citation for baring your breast in public, even when it is to
provide the finest kind of nourishment to a beautiful baby . You
have two choices: you can go ahead and breastfeed in the open
and duke it out each and every time someone else is offended, or
you can do what women have done for centuries and put a tiny
little receiving blanket over yourself and your baby and nurse
your baby in a shady little tent.
When it comes right down to it, each woman makes constant
choices about how and when to expose her body. When you're a
teenager it might be short skirts: when you're pregnant, you may
opt for belly-baring fashions that remind us that the first
religions honored women's fecundity and big, round goddess
bodies. Once you have a little one latched on, you now have to
decide which Madonna you most want to resemble: the one from
2,000 years ago or the one who infuriated the church by making
sexy videos with semi-religious overtones.
There's no reason to breastfeed openly unless you're interested
in inciting comment. Clever tops, nursing bras and breastfeeding
covers can keep you looking modest no matter what a wild thing
you are. If you're traveling, especially to other countries,
find out how women breastfeed in the places where you're going
so you don't offend the citizens of that land. With airplanes
the cattle cars they are today, it's a consideration to your
seatmates to ask the flight attendant if there's a special place
where you can spread out a little to nurse. Otherwise, do use a
cover to save total strangers their peace of mind. In churches
or synagogues, nursing mothers generally leave the service and
find a quiet, private room in which to breastfeed. In
restaurants, you may find resolute opposition to nursing in
public. Some people find that seeing a baby feeding interferes
with their enjoyment of their own food. And it's not just
breastfeeding that puts them off: many an iron-stomached person
has been rendered virtually seasick watching a doting parent
pushing food into the drooling, messy mouth of a teething child.
Continue reading more information about
Breast Milk
Formula
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