Instant Messages
Just because it may be natural, doesn't mean it can be flaunted anywhere you please. That woman should have covered her breast. The same goes for urinating or defecating, all natural acts. Acts which at times are more urgent than a feeding. Your right to breast-feed should not trump my right to not be exposed to that sight.
Jerri
I am a mother of two, and a grandmother, and I find it offensive when women breast-feed their children in public. And, no, I am not a prude. Why didn't the woman in question just cover up a little more? Was it because she was too busy making a statement?
I find the younger generation of mothers an interesting breed ... an entitlement breed. They scream out, look at me, I have a child. That makes me special. Move over everyone, I am a mother, get out of my way, I have a statement to make, etc.
Another thing -- the child in question was not an infant. The child, I believe, was 22 months old... So you tell me why this child wasn't drinking out of a cup, maybe should be in the beginning stages of potty training. And the mother was nursing her/him, what is that? In my book, this woman has a problem!
Nancy
Today's column sure struck a chord with me. I am 76 years old. I breast-fed my children back in the '50s and '60s. It was not really the thing to do back then and I found myself hiding in bedrooms at people's homes when visiting.
By the time my fourth child was born, I was bolder. I was asked to be a Cub Scout den mother and took it on the condition that the first mother who didn't want her child to see me breast-feeding had to take over the Cub Scout pack. Needless to say, no one was THAT scandalized. I went to a shower where there were only women present and proceeded to feed my daughter in front of everybody. I was chastised for that, but just ignored it and kept on nursing her.
I still hear people complaining about seeing a mother breast-feeding in public. It seems OK, though, for a woman to wear clothes showing everything but her nipple, as long as she doesn't have an infant attached.
Julie
When my daughter was born, I immediately breast-fed her just as I was told in my birthing class. But once I left the hospital, attempting to breast-feed her in public was touch and go.
Blankets make babies hot and bothered. Bothered babies fuss, and they don't nurse well when fussy. Yet the federal government will go out of its way to make me feel guilty for not breast-feeding. Recently the Ad Council ran ads that likened not breast-feeding to riding a bull while pregnant! Study after study comes out telling the public that not breast-feeding will cause cancer or my child to be dumb. Yet breast-feeding in public is gross. My breasts were made for nursing and that's just what they'll do -- whether I'm in my home or out at the mall.
Veronica
For the record, Gov. Blagojevich and the Illinois Legislature have protected a woman and child's right to breast-feed in public. Here in Illinois it is illegal to ask a woman to stop nursing for any reason. Here in Illinois women can breast-feed their babies wherever and whenever they choose. The rest of the country should follow suit and protect the health of its tiniest citizens ... Gov. Blagojevich has two beautiful, healthy daughters who were breast-fed, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Lee Maher Salzman, director, Office of the First Lady, State of Illinois