Breastfeeding on display

By
When I saw Your Right to Breastfeed in Public, My Right to Be Apalled [sic]: An Argument for Discreet Breastfeeding linked on Black Electorate.com I was prepared to be annoyed by another silly person complaining about breastfeeding. Then I read it and found that I agreed with the author. She's a bit more harsh than I would be but I do think she is right. Breastfeeding is great for your baby but you need not expose yourself in the process.

I've breastfed three children and have never found it necessary, nor thought that it was my right, to intentionally expose myself in the process. Accidental exposure is an occupational hazard for breastfeeding mothers. Breastfeeding however, does not require that mom's body be on display to the public. Nursing on display is arguably an invasion of privacy, mom's, baby's, and those who are treated to the sight of mom's naked body. Yes you can be comfortable with your body, proud of your body, and feel great that you can sustain you baby with it but it does not logically follow that you should put it on display for all to see.

I have the good fortune of being a mother at a time and place when it is no longer against the law to breastfeed in public (discreetly or otherwise). I know a few moms who breastfed their children at a time when it was considered breaking decency laws to breastfeed in public. That was clearly a wrong headed way to think of the act of feeding a child. But the act of feeding your child is not an occasion for revealing your body for all to see. Modern women's fashions provide plenty of opportunity for that.

Discreet breastfeeding is not very difficult. There are plenty of options. Specially designed nursing tops and bras are readily available. A baby blanket over the shoulder is a simple time honored method for discreet breastfeeding. For warm weather a quarter yard of 45 inch wide muslin will do the trick. Or a cotton pillow case if you don't sew. A strategically placed cloth diaper will also suffice to preserve a nursing mom's privacy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

What's in a flower?

By
Specifically hydrangea flowers. In this post I pointed out that anthocyanin (a family of plant pigments) appears blue at high pH, red at low pH and is responsible for the wide variety of colours in hydrangea flowers. Ilona pointed out that , "in hydrangeas you lower the ph for blue flowers (more acid) and raise it for pink (more alkaline)." I did a bit of checking and found that this is the case . At lower soil pH hydrangea flowers do appear blue and at higher soil pH they appear red. But soil pH is not the only thing that affects the colour of hydrangea flowers. It appears that pH inside the plant cell has an affect as well: Sepal Color Variation of Hydrangea macrophylla and Vacuolar pH Measured with a Proton-Selective Microelectrode Anthocyanin changes its color depending on pH (Goto 1987, Brouillard 1988, Goto and Kondo 1991). In strong acidic conditions it shows red, in neutral, purple and in alkaline, blue. But generally the vacuolar pH of plant cells is weakly aci
Read more

Treating autism as traumatic brain injury

By
I've been doing research into autism, dyspraxia, how the normal brain works, and how an autistic/dyspraxic brain works (or doesn't work). Traumatic injury to different parts of the brain can cause the same problems suffered by autistic and dyspraxic children. Compare this list of the functions of different parts of the brain and the problems caused by injuries to those areas with these descriptions of dyspraxia and autism. What is Developmental Dyspraxia? Developmental dyspraxia is a disorder characterized by an impairment in the ability to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks. Generally, individuals with the disorder appear "out of sync" with their environment. Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordination, clumsiness, vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioral problems, difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture, and poor short-term memory. Although individuals with the disorder may b
Read more

Battlestar Galactica needs more colour?

By
Here are the letters I mentioned in the previous post. The one that started it (I'm guessing these letters were written after the show's first airing at the end of 2003): Galactica Needs More Diversity The problem I had with Battlestar Galactica was there were no major and very few minor African American characters. There were no Black men in the show at all or if they were, they had virtually no screentime. In the original series, Boomer and Tigh were both played by African American actors. In this rendition of Battlestar, those characters were played by Asian and White actors. In the Caprica city, there no African American extras. On the Galactica's bridge, there was only one African American actress. Another Black actress could be found playing a religious official that swore in the new President of the colonies. This was very troubling to me. Do you not want African Americans to watch your show? Do you want to project the idea that African Americans are not part of the
Read more