Make it up? I HAVE nursed at Hooters - however I have never applied for a
job there so that might be the difference.

I can't imagine why you would think I was saying something positive about
Hooters. Nursing in the places that harass nursing mothers is MY way of
harassing those places. Nobody made anything up here!

I think that since I am a nursing mother, a sometimes lactation educator
(when it is called for in my work setting as a NICU nurse) and a
breastfeeding advocate, it is my responsibility for as long as I am nursing
to DO what I tell other mothers THEY can do and that is breastfeed in
public. That doesn't mean doing it in a glaring way that exposes everything,
only doing it in the way I am comfortable. I do keep my self covered with
whatever I am wearing, but I add no blankets or other covers. If I am having
lunch at Hooters and my baby is hungry, why WOULDN'T I feed him there? Why
wouldn't I feed him wherever I am when he is hungry? By retreating to the
bathrooms or the car to nurse, all I would be doing is contributing to the
message that breastfeeding is not normal and must be done in hiding. That
isn't the message *I*, or most of us, would want to send to other mothers
(or anyone for that matter). When I am done nursing my child, I can still
continue to encourage other moms to do the same.

Collective thinking and attitudes are not just changed by what we say, they
are changed in greater part by what we DO, by the example we set everywhere
we are. The world is full of visual learners who do not hear anything we
have to say. If seeing a breastfeeding woman in public was so common most
people - even the ones deigned to harass - would shrug and walk on, in much
the same way we have been shrugging and heading to the bathroom when the
baby is hungry for years.

Michelle Meeks, RN

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