Mamas & society - breastfeeding bigotry

So, babies and boobs - they just go together, right? Like gin and tonic, men and rugby, Gaga and ridiculous shoes. Why then, are Mums sometimes made to feel less than comfortable about breastfeeding their little bundles in public?

I've only breastfed Little Red a couple of times in public (I generally express a bottle for when we're out and about - 1. It's easier as he takes his sweet time and has a rather embarrassing habit of leaving me high, dry and floating in the breeze while he takes in the sights mid-feed and 2. Sadly, I do sometimes feel uncomfortable about breastfeeding in public). Luckily when I've breastfed, I've been in baby-friendly places and usually with family, friends or other Mamas so haven't had much trouble. But I certainly have heard some horror stories!

Jessie, a fellow mother from coffee group who's gorgeous wee girl is a week younger than my boy, was recently the unlucky recipient of what I like to call "breastfeeding bigotry". Spending the afternoon in Wellington's Central Library, she found a quiet, comfortable couch to feed her hungry baby on. Harmless, discreet and justified, right? Well, not according to one awful gent (gent? Antagonistic ass hole, more like) who had the audacity to remark "Oh, I didn't realise I was in a buffet bar.... you could have found somewhere better to do that". I have no doubt that your eyes are bulging out of your skull right now as you think, why on earth would someone say a thing like that?! I know that's what I thought (among many other things that aren't fit to write on this page) and so did all the other mothers in our coffee group.

Ruth, another proud coffee group mother to a lovely little girl, also found herself victim to a breastfeeding bigot when she asked a waiter at local coffee shop, Fannie Mae, if she could feed her little one to which he answered "Yes, as long as you don't expose yourself".

As well as these two incidents, I've heard stories of Mamas feeding in public and being met with either stony glares or downright stares and the odd "ahem". I've even been told by someone, in person, that they "find it offensive" when Mums breastfeed in public! Yes, yes, of course there are plenty of places where you're met with loving nods and knowing winks but what I want to know is, why shouldn't it be like this everywhere you go?

Babies have been breastfed for, well, forever! How else are they going to get the nutrients and sustenance that they so deservedly need? So why the stigma? Why this need to over-sexualise breasts and feeding? No, we're not going to get our boobies out in your cafe and shake them around for all to see. We're not in some schoolboy fantasy or some overtly sexual, breast obsessed, Oedipus porn parody with middle aged men running around in over-sized nappies crying for their Mummy's and begging to be punished - because let's face it, it's generally the male race that has the issue and aren't we, as Mums, simply doing what we were given boobies to do? How do these men think they were fed when they were rolling around in diapers? Via an elaborate maze of straws? Do they think they came straight from the amniotic and sunk their gums (!!) into a nice juicy steak? Ah, no. I guarantee the majority of them had mothers just like us who had them attached to their breasts at some point.

So, I say let's quit the bigotry against breastfeeding in public and be supportive of Mamas and however they choose to feed their babies. Because after all, who wants to stand in the way of a hungry baby? It's only going to end in tears!