People really are stupid

[lalicopa]

...and another thing...in the last week, people have said such stupid things to me about breastfeeding.

One woman I know from the park just had her third child. I asked her if she's nursing. She said, "No. I give them life, then it's up to them."

A father of a new baby was at the park with his older daughter. I asked him how the new baby is. He said, "He's great, but he's got acid reflux and he's not a great sleeper." I asked if his wife was breastfeeding. He said, "Oh, no."

I got my hair cut this afternoon and my haircutter (for 20 years almost) knows that I breastfeed. She told me that she recently visited Hershey Park and that there is now a kosher section there for eating. She said that there was a religious woman "right there in the open" breastfeeding. "Why couldn't she cover up or turn around or move to the back of the group?" I told her that she was asking the wrong person because I have very strong feelings about breastfeeding. Then she went on to say how she knows it's best and healthiest for the baby, "I just don't need to see it."

Can you believe this shit? It's one of the few things I despise about where I live. NOBODY breastfeeds. Not even 10 percent. It's appalling.

I hope miss Lily nurses til she's 3.

In public.

:-)

Comments

[custard-kisses.livejournal.com]

"I just don't need to see it."

Because breasts are omg dirty!!11!1!!!

[cvantien.livejournal.com]

Go you! Your area needs more people like you. And really, what were they seeing? That photo taniwha_grrl posted today just shows how little you can see when a baby is breastfeeding!

[mybonnykate.livejournal.com]

She said, "No. I give them life, then it's up to them."

Boggle!

[sarajoyo.livejournal.com]

Oy. I totally kwym about the area though; ours is the same way. It's almost entirely babies with bottles propped in their mouths. Drives me nuts, but people like you and I are needed!

[allyphoe.livejournal.com]

My snarky remark: "With my first baby, I carried her all the time, fed her whenever she was hungry, everything. And she got used to it, and wanted to be carried all the time, fed all the time, everything when she wanted it. The next baby is on its own from conception -- no point in spoiling it with a nice womb and umbilical cord. You've got to cut them off sometime."

But no one ever says anything to be about bf, so I don't get a chance to use it. :P

[preternatural.livejournal.com]

"No. I give them life, then it's up to them."

*snort* What, you just tuck a $20 into their blanket and leave them in the park with well-wishes for a happy future? "All right, you got out of me, now off you go! Have a nice life!"

[oscarmama.livejournal.com]

Oscarwoozle nursed in public today, at a sandwich shop/ bookstore during lunch. He'll be three on October 20th. I have gotten exactly two dirty looks in the past three years, but I am also oblivious.

I have been nursing in front of a lot of 18-22 year olds at a local coffee shop for years -- they've watched Oscar grow up -- and now one of them is pregnant and is asking me and my mom lots of questions about breastfeeding and slings. Yay outreach!

[mybonnykate.livejournal.com]

You ROCK! That is exactly the kind of positive influence we all are having -- it's not the women who have already had kids and made the decisions, it's the teens and young twentysomethings who will enter into their pregnancies with a normalized attitude about breastfeeding, being familiar with it, recognizing it as a part of the background of babyhood. I think that this coming generation of moms is going to be really nursing-friendly.

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

there's a thing going on in one of the cities here that would require a nursing mother to either cover up (we're in the desert southwest-triple digit temps) or leave, or be ticketed for NIP...and the main arguments seem to be "there are some natural functions we don't want to see", and "we're disturbed by seeing you feed your baby with a part of your own body"...drives me batshit because we show less NIP than most women do in your average bikini...

[oscarmama.livejournal.com]

(Jess, is that you?)

Actually Chandler's city council seems to be taking a more progressive and enlightened stance than it first seemed. Something about the prior law not being in line with the community standard and that breastfeeding is a woman's right and happens all over the world got bandied about at the last meeting. Now that law has been scrapped and they're using the input of LLL during the drafying of a new code of conduct.

Good thing too; I was about to go try to get arrested.

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

(hello, this is me, is that you?:D)

about fucking time-i've kinda been listening to the Raving Maniac on the radio (when i'm not getting ready to leave for class) and was getting really frustrated because i don't want this city doing the same thing (you do notice the absence of a lock, right?)...

[oscarmama.livejournal.com]

I hope so. My mom nursed us, and says progress feels *painfully* slow to her... but all her daughters so far have nursed. We can hope!