Breasts in America

I have heard stories about women being banned from public places for breastfeeding, thankfully I have never personally experienced discrimination nursing my kids in public. A lot of people do not know that it is legal to breastfeed in public in every state.

If you, or someone you know, have had problems with public breastfeeding such as being asked to go to restroom to nurse, you can report it to www.firstright.org

FirstRight takes every reported incident of discrimination seriously, and they will help you. They have organized nurse-ins, an education committee as well as a Breastfeeding Legislative Action Committee.

I have issues with the fact that the grocery stores line the checkout counters with provative pictures of breasts. Take a look at this Maxim cover.




When this cover of Baby Talk came out, there was a lot of contraversy surrounding the bare breast. Give me a break people, boobs are for babies, we are genetically designed that way.



By not supporting a woman basic right to breastfeed in public, shaming these woman, asking them to nurse in the bathroom, hospitals handing out free "breastfeeding support kits" with a 6 pack of formula, bottles and a guide called, Breastfeeding Your Baby The First Two Months, and the acceptance of formula as a viable substitute for breastmilk; this country suggests that breastfeeding is unacceptable.

"When we trust the makers of baby formula more than we do our own ability to nourish our babies, we lose a chance to claim an aspect of our power as women. Thinking that baby formula is as good as breast milk is believing that thirty years of technology is superior to three million years of nature's evolution. Countless women have regained trust in their bodies through nursing their children, even if they weren't sure at first that they could do it. It is an act of female power, and I think of it as feminism in its purest form." ----- Christine Northrup M.D.

Here I am breastfeeding Talia, 18 months old, at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas. I did not get any wayward glances from the other exhibitors, I did get nods, smiles and sighs. Am I exposing myself, do I look unprofessional? It certainly didn't negatively impact my response at the show.

If you haven't looked at this before, I encourage you to read 101 Reason's To Breastfeed at http://www.promom.org/101/.

It just doesn't make sense to me why anyone would discourage something that is a million times better for our babies. Consider this, mothers on WIC or Public Assistance get their formula paid for by the state, guess who is really paying for that? Yep, US. Also, formula fed babies spend more time at the doctors, which not only do we pay for if the baby is on public assistance, but if the baby is on traditionbal health insurance, it makes our rates go up.

Food for thought.