I think part of looking confident and unapologetic about nursing in public is being able to know that you are doing it in such a fashion that you are comfortable with.    

Although I have lived in Europe and enjoyed the greater openness there, and also find nothing inherently wrong with nursing openly, I believe that, in the good old USA, anyone who nurses indiscreetly is in danger of slowing the progress of gaining acceptance of public breastfeeding, in general.  Perhaps one day we could hope for the level of acceptance found in other countries but, for now, we need to be able to show the general public that it is possible to nurse a baby without exposing the breasts.  One experience I had was a good illustration.  I was, at this time, nursing both a three year old and an 18 month old, and I'd gotten very little in the way of negative reactions from anyone I nursed in front of.  I was giving a presentation on adoptive breastfeeding, for an adoption conference.  A dear friend of mine, who was nursing her adopted two year old, presented with me.  At one point, in the conference, we parked ourselves in the lobby, and were nursing our toddlers together.  I saw more disapproving looks, and sensed more discomfort in passersby, in that setting, than I had in the previous three years combined.  The only difference I could see was that, where I had my top lifted up from the waist and arranged around my baby's face, with none of my breast showing, my friend's breast was quite exposed, and her son kept letting go and latching back on again, showing her whole nipple each time.  Although it didn't bother me that she was nursing like that, it certainly was making many people uncomfortable.  I think it is important that we first show the general public that breastfeeding can be done discreetly, before we ask them to accept having mothers' breasts exposed.

Darillyn

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