Loookeeee - my b*oobs!

Ok - As a mom who has now nursed 45 out of the last 70 months (how long I've had a child to nurse)... I find this article hard to ignore... I am one of those people who only nurse in public when it was absolutely necessary. I've gone into stores and nursed in dressing rooms, gone back out to the parking lot to nurse in the car or just held a hungry baby in lieu of possibly being called out. Why?

One place I have nursed in public many times is on a plane. Helping my babies avoid the painful change in ear pressure rather than listen to them scream has been a no brainer choice for me. I have always tried super hard to be discreet, and I find it offensive that someone would ask a nursing mother in this situation to leave the freaking plane!!! She was seated in the 2nd to last row, in a window seat, with her husband next to her. A stewardess offered her one of those nasty blankets to cover the baby with (although from what I have read, the mother was not exposing her b*reasts - just the baby that was obviously nursing) and told if she wouldn't cover up she needed to continue nursing in the bathroom, then was asked to leave the plane by a ticket agent.

WHA????? I've been on planes with people who refused to turn off their cell phones and they weren't escorted off. But a mom discreetly feeding her baby? Yeah, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. Freedom airlines can suck my butt. And you can quote me on that.

Alice from Finslippy and again at Wonderland over at Alphamom, makes the points I wish I was funny enough to make.

I just don't understand why people view a woman feeding her child as obscene. Even if her entire b*reast is exposed - that is what b*reasts were created for. Feeding children. Really. Most breastfeeding moms try to be discreet, but it can be very hard to stay covered with an actual moving baby yanking a blanket off. 2 of my 3 nurslings couldn't stand to be covered with a blanket while nursing.

I've read this debate all over the blogs and from other news sources and it just makes my blood boil.

I'm not going to use someone's nasty public bathroom to feed my baby - just like I wouldn't ask my two year old to eat her sandwich in there. Other people are just going to have to get over it.

I don't show my b*oobs at other times in public, I don't wear low rise jeans that show 2 inches of ass. I don't wear low cut t-shirts that expose all of my cleavage and some possible nipple. I don't wear mini-skirts that show my teeny undies when I sit and forget to cross my legs. I don't see the women that do dress like this being asked to leave the mall, restaurant, plane for being inappropriately showy...

ok - I'm going to step back down here, I'm still a little dizzy from yesterday's migraine and I just might fall off this soap box and expose some nipple.