So, I was reading on a friend's blog and came across this comment:
"One piece of advice - if you're going to nurse in R.S., seriously, sit in the back row. A few weeks ago I sat next to a lady with a baby because I thought the baby might be more entertaining than the lesson, and she started to nurse RIGHT NEXT TO ME! She had a blanket, but you know what? I saw her boob anyway! I wasn't even really looking. gross."
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I cannot even verbalize my feelings about this. Breastfeeding is NOT GROSS. It is NOT OBSCENE. GET OVER ITTTTTT. Maybe the mom wanted to listen to the lesson and was sick of hiding in the mother's lounge to breastfeed. It is attitudes like these that are prohibitive to breastfeeding. If mothers can't breastfeed except in bathrooms or their house, they won't do it. Then who suffers? Their baby (also them, to some extent). Besides, you are a WOMAN. WOMEN HAVE BREASTS. They are supposed to feed their babies with them. It's natural. It's what Heavenly Father intended. Gross is the last word to describe breastfeeding.
Am I weird about this? Is it because of my relationship with bodies and nudity?
Personally, I'm very comfortable with nudity. Maybe too comfortable sometimes. I attribute this to both my very open family but also to friends over the years. When I danced, we all were naked together in dressing rooms, all the time. It wasn't a big deal, we were all girls, and none of us were fazed by it. Same with cheerleading, not so much naked but definitely in sports bras. Then in college, sometimes I had prudish roommates, but mostly my openness led to their comfort with their bodies. I never pee with the door shut, I never lock it when I'm in the shower, I walk around in my underwear or in a towel. I'm just not a modest person. And then hello, naked hot springs trips.
I realize that maybe I'm on the extreme end of the nudity question.
Good news though.... women in Egypt breastfeed uncovered in public. I can finally do it without worrying about offending people!
I can appreciate being uncomfortable around breastfeeding in this culture, I really can. I just wish people could figure out that their discomfort is their problem, not the Mom's and certainly not the feeding baby's.
ReplyDelete(I always hope I don't come across as creepy when I comment on someone's blog who I don't know very well. I'm a hopeless blog meanderer, and I think I was in Int'l Political Economy of Women w/ Cait at BYU. Hi.)
I'm a pretty modest person, but I see nothing wrong with breastfeeding in public (granted, I typically prefer to be covered). That includes church. When I first started breastfeeding I would go to the mother's lounge at church, but I quickly got tired of that and started to breastfeed right during sacrament meeting, Sunday school, and Relief Society. Most women would leave and I didn't really understand it. I felt that I missed out on church if I had to go hide in a room...especially when Mason would take an hour or more to eat!
ReplyDeleteCait, i totally agree with you. Breasts are great, breastfeeding is ever better. Thanks for this post, it's nice to not be alone in this opinion.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally down with breastfeeding wherever you feel comfortable doing so. It's never bothered me in RS or sacrament or anything. But I also prefer that you do it covered. I've always thought I was someone who was fairly comfortable with nudity but, as it turns out, I'm kind of not. And I'm only becoming more of a prude as I get older, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteBut ya, you shouldn't have to go to the mothers' room!
Thanks for posting this. I only recently began nursing in sacrament meeting and wow, I have no idea why I never did this before. It is so so much easier then getting up to leave the meeting. My 2 year old is so much easier to handle if I just nurse him where I am. We have never used a cover as in throwing a piece of fabric over us but my shirt pretty much cover everything... and if not then too bad for whoever I offend. (I just hope no one ever tells me about it)
ReplyDeleteWord to nursing mamas, even though I think it is still important to be discreet and not flashy if at all possible..
ReplyDeletei am all for nursing in public! I chose to go to the mothers lounge because Abby likes to play to much while eating and is really nosey but i think you should nurse where ever you want! I although am a fan of covering up but i say do what ever you want!
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of not covering up, and think nursing mothers should flash their boobs around to unsuspecting victims as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteIn my ward the mothers' lounge is tiny, cramped and stuffed full of chairs to the point where there's barely any room to walk in if people are sitting in the chairs. We had lots of people nursing in their cars or just going home because they feel like they can't just do it in their meetings. That makes me sad, women should feel free to nurse in public, with or without covering up.
ReplyDeleteI ditto Lauren (again- she and I think alike). I also think that modesty (which is not my strength) and nursing are two separate issues. Nursing in public is NOT immodest. It is a natural and beautiful way of life.
ReplyDeleteI don't expect you to go eat your sandwhich in the bathroom so why should I hide away to feed my child (unless the speakers are boring...)
I never nursed in sacrament meeting because of the amount of children and the fact that Aidan was a noisy eater, but it didn`t bother me to do it in RS. Why should we have to go hide away and miss the lesson all the time? It`s not like you`re sitting there naked. I remember when Bryan and I were eating in a restaurant when Aidan was about three or four months old, and I was nursing him at the table. This guy who was dining with his wife sitting next to us was about your dad`d age, and he was being a jerk and kept saying rude things about it to his wife and giving me mean looks. Eventually I did go nurse in the bathroom because the table was small and I needed more space, but it really annoyed me that that guy acted like I didn`t have the right to be nursing my baby in the middle of a crowded family restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! Breasts are meant for nursing... that is why God created them. It drives me nuts that i have to cover up NONETHELESS be banished to some far corner of the world because i do what is natural (off soapbox). I just ignore people... maybe because i find it slightly amusing to frazzle people... but because i think it's wrong that people put so much pressure on mothers in so many ways... especially nursing
ReplyDeleteWas I a prudish roommate? I didn't mind you being naked, I swear!
ReplyDeleteAs a nursing mother I love nursing in the mother's room during sacrament, I find I pay much better attention to the talks when I'm not looking around at everything going on in the chapel. Also, the lounge chairs in my mother's room are awesomely comfortable. Plus, I, prudish as it may or may not be, don't really think uncovered breastfeeding is appropriate around men.
ReplyDeleteBut.
I think every woman should be able to nurse in relief society without feeling nervous about making other women uncomfortable. Especially if the mother is using a nursing cover or a blanket. I bet the mom in that story didn't really want to show her boob to the girl she was sitting by, but sometimes it just happens and a little understanding by non-nursers could go a long way.