Friday, August 5, 2011

Shift

As I walked to pick up Claire from daycare I passed an cafe with lots of outside seating. I noticed (what I assume was) a mom bottle-feeding her baby. My first thought was, "Huh, I wonder why she isn't nursing? Maybe she's embarrassed, maybe her milk didn't come in...". and then I realized what a shift that was from what I would have thought a year ago. Sometime, during the past seven months, breastfeeding has become the norm, whereas before I would have always thought that bottle-feeding was the norm.

But, I am just one person, how do we promote this shift among the general population?

Just after our little girl was born a friend's girlfriend mentioned to me how shocked she was when a lady started nursing her baby in a restaurant they were at. At the time I was more diplomatic, but now my response would be less forgiving. Of course this woman should feed her child, wherever she is. I know that I have often bowed to peer pressure and put off nursing until I could find a private location, but the more I think about it, the more backward this is. Babies should eat when they're hungry, wherever they are, whether it is out of a bottle or from a breast.

1 comment:

Mike Russo said...

I guess you shouldn't take a flight with delta any time soon. Apparently you get in trouble for feeding your baby without covering up.

http://consumerist.com/2011/08/breastfeeding-delta-passenger-flight-attendant-publicly-humiliated-me.html