Boobs, glorious boobs

I think that there are very few things in this world more lovely and wonderful to look at than a baby who's happily nursing. I just think it's a really nice thing to see. Of course not everyone feels that way.

Before I had Elle I really didn't know there was such a big mommy war going on between women who nurse and women who don't. I just figured everyone fed their babies the best they could and didn't really care all that much what everyone else did. And then I became a breastfeeder and a mommyblogger and I saw, holy crap, this is serious stuff here. And then I picked a side.

I won't be dainty about this. After struggling with nursing for the first few months (and many, many, many times of nearly giving up) and then slowly growing to love it I know what I feel is right. I don't think there is any really valid reason for not nursing if you are able to. Except in cases where a) the mother physicaly unable to b) the baby is unable to c) there is no mother in the picture I just think that babies should be nursed. It's better for the mother, it's better for the baby, it's better for the enviroment, it's better for countless reasons.

I have heard (or read) many mothers who formula feed say that they've been given a hard time by hard-core breastfeeding advocates. That's unfortunate. While I think that breastfeeding is best I would never come down a woman for choosing to bottle feed. That doesn't help anyone. In fact, the point of this post is to celebrate the beauty and joy of nursing, not to insult anyone who is unable to (or chooses not to) nurse.

Here's a funny thing about that though. Because Joseph was adopted he was 100% bottle fed. When he was a baby I fed him countless bottles in public places. I never once got a dirty look or a snide remark. Now I'm not saying that no woman ever, anywhere has ever been berated for bottle feeding but do you know when it was that I got looks and remarks? That's right, when I was nursing.

When Elle was very young I was pretty uptight about nursing in public. I sometimes didn't want toleave the house because I was worried that when we got to where we were going I wouldn't be able to find a spot to nurse. If I had to nurse Elle when we were out somewhere I would try to do it as covered up and as hidden as possbile. Thankfully Disney World changed all that. Nothing gets a person used to nursing in public like trying to quiet a fussy baby on while on a ride at Disney World. By the time Elle was getting ready to wean I didn't care who was around when I nursed. If wanted to nurse I popped out a boob right then and there. I didn't care where I was or who saw.

The more free I became about public nursing though the more I noticed that other people seemed to be uncomfortable with it. And I was discreet! It's not like I just sat there with my boob hanging out or anything. I would leave myself mostly covered by my shirt and then Elle would pretty much cover up the rest. But I got a lot of open mouthed stares, several dirty looks and a couple of not so nice comments.

Why is that do you suppose? I think I know partof the reason. We're a forumla feeding culture. I was looking at baby shower invitations recently and almost all of them had pictures of bottles on them. We see images of babies with bottles all over the place. Think hard though. When was the last time you saw an image of a nursing baby? You never see that. The last time I remember seeing that was on the cover of a parenting magazie and there was a huge outcry over that. People wrote in to the magazine saying they didn't want their husbands or children to see the image of a nursing mother so they tore off the cover of the magazine and threw it away. Think I'm kidding? I wish I was. Some stores refused to carry the issue and others carried it but covered the magazines up so that no one could see the picture. All that fuss over a little boob.

And that brings me to the point of this long and rambling entry. We don't get to see enough women nursing their babies. We need to see this more often so that as a society we can become more comfotable with the idea of breasts being more than just something to grace the pages of Playboy. Breasts are beautiful on their own but they're even more beautiful when they've got a content baby attached to them. I want to applaud the women who have recognized that!