Breastfeeding in Public

There was a recent news story about a woman in an area not too far from us who was asked to leave a courtroom because she was breastfeeding and it was deemed "inappropriate".

What is inappropriate about providing nourishment for your child? While some breastfeeding mothers cover up more or less than others while nursing in public, it shouldn't really matter- I think this pie chart describes the situation well:

via I Love Charts

I personally am more comfortable being covered completely and use a fantastic nursing apron that my grandma made me (thank you again SO much Gma V! I don't know what I would do without that! Also, how cool is it that my grandma reads my blog?!) Especially since Baby C and I had a rough start with breastfeeding, at first I felt like I would never be able to leave the house or do anything that would require being out of the house for more than a couple of hours because I would need to feed Baby C. I tried nursing in the car and that went pretty well and also felt like it gave us so much flexibility! We didn't have a set time frame wherein we needed to make a mad dash to try to complete all errands at once! We could just take a break and feed Baby C in the back seat of the car in whatever parking lot we happened to be at.

Once I got a little more comfortable with that, I also discovered that a few places that I frequent actually have designated nursing or pumping rooms- how wonderful!  The Buy Buy Baby store in Grand Rapids has one, the Rivertown Crossings Mall in Grandville has two of them (one on the first floor and one on the second floor), and my alma mater of Grand Valley State University which I visit very frequently for work-related business has several Nursing Nests in different buildings around campus (if you click through to the link for GVSU the page makes it sound like the Nursing Nests are just restrooms- they're not!  They're separate, private rooms within the restroom with a nice chair, table, and sink).

When Baby C was about 5 months old I felt much more comfortable and confident with breastfeeding, which made it easier to try branching out a little more.  Since that time, I've breastfed at a Buffalo Wild Wings, a minor league baseball game (right in the stands), a high school football game (again, in the stands), a college football game (apparently we go to a lot of sporting events?), Costco, a Texas Roadhouse, and probably a couple other places I'm forgetting.  I would venture to guess that almost 99% of the time people around me, even in crowded stands at sporting events, didn't even realize what I was doing.  Even though my nursing apron has a fairly bold pattern on it, it makes everything quite discreet.

I hope that in the future more and more places will offer those nice nursing areas, but for the time being, a good nursing apron and some confidence go a long way!  I would highly suggest purchasing or making a nursing apron for any breastfeeding mamas that aren't really comfortable and/or confident with nursing on the go.  As I mentioned, my Gma V made my nursing apron, but it's very similar in design to this one from Bebe Au Lait.

And as I'm sure you've deduced, breastfeeding is going much better for Baby C and I!  He just turned 7 months old and we're going strong and haven't had to supplement with any formula-woohoo!