When I had my daughter a little over three years ago I knew I was going to nurse her. I was adamant about nursing for several reasons.
*ahem* 1. I remember my aunt going nuts with all the bottles and formula and the cleaning of bottles and the purifying of water and it seemed like a huge ordeal and a constant need to clean something. I *hate* cleaning. Nursing? You clean your boobs sometimes in the shower and that's it. This sealed the deal for me. 2. It's so easy. You can pull out a booby anywhere - and I mean - anywhere, and feed your screaming child. Standing in line paying for groceries? Whip out a boob. Sitting on the pot and working on digestive issues? Whip out a boob. Husband is hungry and impatient for dinner? Whip out a boob. Err... well, you get the point. 3. It's FREE!!!! OMG!!!! Something about babies is FREE!!!! You can't even get the baby for free. Both of my kids cost me nearly $800 just to check them out of the hospital. But for some insane reason my boobs make food for free. It's amazing. These three reasons convinced me that nursing was the only way to go. I didn't have to clean anything, I could do it anywhere and it was free. I was set. The first time I put Sadie on the boob (okay, Logan put Sadie on the boob and the nurse made sure she latched on correctly) I knew we were going to stick with nursing. It was a done deal. I did not realize nursing to Sadie meant she was going to be glued on to my breast day and night for 17 months. I soon realized I was going to need a wardrobe in nursing covers if I was ever going to get anything done. I wore my nursing cover everywhere. I went grocery shopping, went to the bathroom, went to parties wearing my nursing cover with Sadie attached underneath. And then, one magical day, I hung out with a fellow nursing mom (I didn't really know any for the first six months of Sadie's life) who pulled up her shirt, whipped out her boob and stuffed it into her son's mouth RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. My jaw dropped and I am not saying this metaphoircally. I was shocked. I was bamboobzed. I went home and with outrage told my husband what happened. She pulled out her boob and nursed the baby in front of me. I saw her boob. I saw her nipple. Where was the fucking nursing cover? I have grown up a lot since then. It takes a lot more than a boob to shock me now. With my first child, I still covered myself a lot while nursing. I felt uncomfortable feeding her in public without a cover. My second child changed the game for me. No longer was it easy to find the nursing cover, put it on, deal with my first child and nurse. I decided to stop using the nursing cover as often. I started pulling my shirt up and putting him on the boob in public. I blame a good friend of mine for forcing me to realize that nursing was normal and not something that needed to be hidden. After I gave birth to my second child my good friend came over to visit. She was there with her children and was nursing her youngest. She asked if she could nurse without a cover and I immediately gave her my approval. As she nursed her child coverless I pulled out my nursing cover and began to nurse my baby. My nursing cover made her feel insecure about her choice and she pulled out her cover and continued to nurse. In that moment I realized how fucked up society is to force women to cover up while nursing their children. I started to nurse in public without a cover to normalize nursing. Now I want to share some breastfeeding artistic photos I have taken to continue the idea that breastfeeding is normal and breastfeeding is beautiful. Feel free to send me any of your nursing photos, I would be happy to post them on the blog.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Meet the Blogger!
I'm a mom. A writer. A lover of good fantasy. A proponent of nursing when possible. A birth advocate. I am absolutely horrible at keeping my house clean or the dishes washed or the laundry done. I strongly believe in women having a positive birth. When we start to respect women's rights to birth the way they want, we can start to treat women as equal people in this world. Archives
February 2016
Sites I Value
http://blog.ican-online.org/ |