NIP

Or, "Nursing in Public."

Another mama blogger had a lovely post the other day about nursing in public completely with gorgeous, perfectly modest shots of her nursing and, of course, the internet exploded as a result of her complete lack of sense.

Well, not quite that bad, but many an ignorant comment was made about disgust, lewdness, and generally other unpleasant things that nursing outside of a bedroom or toilet stall conjures in peoples' minds.

Sigh.

So, when Sally started a link-up discussing breastfeeding in *gasp* public, I was all, hey, I guess I should chime in. Since you know, its my thing.

But here's the thing - I can't even get all fired up about nursing in public because it so utterly and completely doesn't matter.

There is no inappropriate place to nurse a baby - grocery store, department store, Mass, graduation, Barnes&Noble, trick or treating, you name it, someone has nursed there.

Human beings eat. Babies are human beings. Therefore, babies eat. When do you eat? When you're hungry. Where do you eat? Wherever you happen to be. So... if a baby, who is a human being, gets hungry, he should eat - wherever he happens to be. End of story, case closed, period, end of line.

But its *breast* feeding - from your breasts - for shame, for shame! Someone might seeeeee something.

Well, why are they looking? And better yet, have they been to a beach lately?!?!

As many of the readers around her may have gathered, I'm pretty Catholic. And, Catholics, well, we love us some modesty. The model of perfect womanhood, femininity and motherhood? The Blessed Mother. Who, by no means was walking around the markets of Nazareth in croptops, vnecks and jeggings. Neither was she at the local bath in anything resembling the underwear that passes for bathing suits these days.

So, this is by no means some post about how nursing in public requires shirt removal, shirt pullage offage, or even shirt pullage upage. There are plenty of ways (even without a cover!) to breastfeeding with layers, nursing tops, nursing tanks and other accessories that allow breastfeeding with plenty of modesty to spare.

Breastfeeding my 3 week old at his baptism. And what?

However. The Blessed Mother also nursed her Son. Given biblical accounts of breastfeeding (thank you Maccabees Mama), she nursed him for at least three wonderful years. Our Lord drank life, love and calories at the breast of the Virgin Mary. How beautiful! How precious! How inspirational for all mothers!


Moreover, I am willing to wager an amount of money that she didn't nurse him in the outhouse or whatever passed for a bathroom at the time! It is perfectly possible to breastfeed without showing more breast than you see on the cover of Maxim (actually, much less, considering most of the breast is in the child's mouth) and if the little one pops off for a second to look around, no one should be ogling the mother enough to even notice!

So mothers, please nurse your hungry babies wherever you feel comfortable, wherever you may be. Do your best to feed him as easily as possible.

Passerby-ers - do your best not to stare and gawk and point and whatever uncomfortable expression you might think of. Instead, make eye contact with that mama, and smile. If you're brave or you yourself are a nursing mother, encourage her. Thank her for nursing, thank her for driving down soon to be public health care costs and compliment her cute baby.

If everyone would just relax about the whole nursing in public business and focus their concerns on the real issue of soft core pornography at the grocery story cash register, the world would be a lot more wholesome of a place.