Breastfeeding Controversy

I read today about some controversy and debate about breastfeeding in public. Unfortunately, it seems that most people involved in the debate seem to forget there are more options than opening up in front of everyone or hiding in the bathroom to nurse the baby. That’s the source of the debate: one extreme against the other extreme.

When my wife breastfed each of our four children, she covered herself and the baby with a baby blanket while the baby was feeding. There was no problem being in a public place, at church, in the car, at home with others around, and so on. And now, years later, our daughter went a step further: she designed her own nursing cover that has a loop to go around the back of her neck to keep the cover where she wanted it. What a simple solution that avoids all the controversy and even legal issues!

Every woman should be free to nurse her baby if she chooses; in fact I encourage it. At the same time, anyone dealing with body parts that are normally inappropriate to display in public, should be discrete regarding when, where, and how they do it. So nurse your baby, but be discrete. It’s not much different from the guy who is fixing or checking his zipper—be discrete!