Been There, Done That - And I Got Sent To The Closet
I have nursed all three of my children, two of them for almost a year and the third for all of her 3-month-old life.
It is the best thing for a baby. Anyone who disputes that only has to venture down the baby care aisle at the supermarket, pick up a can of infant formula and read the first line on the back: “Breast-feeding is the best form of nutrition for your baby.”
However, best is not always socially acceptable. And that is so sad.
We who have felt the stares of others, even though we are extremely discreet and completely covered by a blanket while we nurse, feel shunned.
Quotes published in a recent Slice column in The Spokesman-Review reiterated what I and countless other nursing mothers know: Breastfeeding your baby is taboo outside of your own home.
Readers wrote in to say it is “disgusting” or “gross” to breastfeed in public. It was likened to going to the bathroom (“it’s natural, too”) and compared to a man sitting at a bench in the mall with his pants off.
The bottom line is that we just cannot accept the fact that the human body is not just for sexual pleasure.
Breasts used for providing a human being with the ultimate form of nutrition are “gross” while breasts bouncing from here to kingdom come are making “Baywatch” the most watched show in the world.
Women pay thousands of dollars to increase the size of their breasts while those of us who have bigger breasts because of nursing find ourselves feeding our babies in a bathroom stall because it is “disgusting.”
Imagine for a minute that it has been a while since you have eaten and you are getting a little hungry. You find something to eat, sit down to enjoy it and someone tells you they find your eating totally gross and could you go somewhere private?
The human body itself has been barraged with the attempts to make the most natural functions more acceptable. Perfumes, deodorants, shaving supplies, hair dyes, hair removers, cosmetics, plastic surgery - we cannot accept ourselves for the way God made us. Our constant attempts to make ourselves “OK” only throw off the balance of nature.
A woman in my Lamaze class quit breast-feeding because her family always asked her to leave the room. She felt like an outcast and therefore she and her baby missed out on the emotional and physical benefits of nursing.
I do not believe breast-feeding will ever be as accepted in this society as it is in Europe or other countries where the human body and both its sexual and nonsexual aspects are a normal part of life, not something snickered and whispered about.
It takes great self-sacrifice to nurse your baby. No one else can do it for you; you are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you want to leave your baby, even for a little while, you have to express your milk (another story all in itself). Otherwise, you take your baby with you at all times.
Women who choose to be unselfish for the good of their baby’s health should be applauded, not shunned.
I decided after my first baby that nursing was a great gift, one only I could give to my child, and if I needed to nurse at the mall or at the park, that’s what a blanket is for.
I tried to remember that a month or so ago when, in search of a quiet place to breast-feed my baby at church, I was directed to a closet.
Then I looked up at the statue of Mary watching over the congregation and felt proud of my commitment. After all, I thought, how else was Jesus fed?
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Michae’l Alegria Contributing writer