Tag: breastfeeding in public

Said The Wrong Thing To a Breastfeeding Mother? No Worries, Make Amends Just Like This.

hollymilkowski February 27, 2015

Via Stouthaus Coffee/Facebook

Want some milk with your cuppa joe? Recently at Stouthaus Coffee in Austin, TX, it wasn’t very clear whether mama’s milk was welcome on the premises.

Stop Dropping Your Shirts Here, says a “nurturing” play place for families

hollymilkowski February 23, 2015

Via MassLive

Breastfeeding harassment is not always “in your face.” Often, it takes place behind the anonymity of a computer screen shield in online forums and posts. Sometimes it comes in the form of a “well-meaning” but still uncomfortable comment from a relative or friend. It’s also apparent by complaints made by strangers behind a mother’s back.

Here’s an example of the extremely ANTI-BABY culture that some regions in our nation call normal. Last week, Play Date Place in South Hadley, Massachusetts, which bills itself as a nurturing place (rather, “nuturing,” because PDP’s representative isn’t so gifted wit da grammurr), posted this on its Facebook page:

How to Nurse in Public — With Modesty!

hollymilkowski February 8, 2015

There’s got to be a way to talk about nursing, modesty, and covers without painting the uncovered breastfeeders as selfish exhibitionists or the covered ones as selfish prudes, right? In duly respecting nursinghood as a time for openness of many things — including our minds, hearts, and shirts — we help re-normalize a society that inaccurately views breasts as sex organs.

I hate to hear this: “Here’s XYZ method that will allow you to breastfeed in public without anyone even knowing you’re breastfeeding!”

Why Do Some Breastfeeders Wear a Cover in Public?

hollymilkowski February 6, 2015

Looking annoyed. >:-I Via etsy.com

Why do some mothers nurse under the curtain if the law says we don’t have to? Well, it’s not really anyone’s business why a woman may want to wear a cover, so if you feel a curiosity overtaking you, please know it’s best not to ask. I’ll give you a few hints though, based on my own experience and what I’ve heard.

I’ve heard that nursing bibs/aprons/tents are an “American” thing and that foreigners are baffled by their mere existence. Thus, we could hypothesize the reason for covered breastfeeding is simply the influence of Yankee Doodle, but let’s not jump to conclusions just yet.

Coming Out From Under the Covers

hollymilkowski January 23, 2015

I was waiting on my dinner at a restaurant, newly pregnant with my first child. Though I sat at the table preparing to nourish myself and, by default, my unborn baby, I wasn’t too familiar with the feeding of an infant outside the womb. After all, I’d only ever fed myself, my dogs, and my goldfish (and a few plants, but that never ended well).

I was ignorant to the issues moms face when feeding babies outside of their wombs. I knew nothing of a “formula versus breast milk” controversy. I knew nothing of the media-fueled “Mommy Wars.” I knew nothing of how women are harassed for feeding their babies however they choose to do so. I had a lot of assumptions, but you see, assumptions are like opinions, and you know what they say about those.

6 “Helpful” Things You Should Stop Saying to Moms Who are Nursing in Public

hollymilkowski October 28, 2014

We all know the deserved reaction to harsh comments about breastfeeding in public. Someone who says “That’s gross!” might benefit from being handed a therapist’s business card. Someone who insists “No one wants to SEE that!” could use a reminder that it takes only 30 degrees of movement to make a publicly breastfeeding pair disappear from peripheral view, if so necessary. Whoever snidely laughs, “Stop trying so hard to prove a point!” may be appropriately received with literature on biology and survival (preferably a hardback cover straight to the face), the “point” of ensuring that our children stay alive and happy.

What concerns me more than the pitifully ignorant and sadly classless ones are the well-intentioned ones who occasionally say the wrong thing too, and risk causing as much harm as the jerks. For especially sensitive women (read: virtually all postpartum mothers), certain phrases, questions, statements can be taken the wrong way.

Nursing Support

How Should Breastfeeding Make You Feel?

hollymilkowski October 13, 2014

Now I don’t mean what does it feel like physically (you can read about that here). I mean, what does it make you? Just simply you plus milk-making ability? Or does it make you feel like something else entirely… perhaps like a cow?

Like a pinup?

Like a goddess?

A prisoner?

A machine?

Miraculous?

Or maybe like a woman, perhaps truly for the first time?

Breastfeeding in Public: It is (Not) a Big Deal!

hollymilkowski October 13, 2014

Breastfeeding moms are kind of ridiculous.

Seems like all we say is, “Hey, breastfeeding is so not a big deal! Lighten up, naysayers!” But then we stage nurse-ins, tweet to businesses that have mistreated us, and remind everyone from our friends to the mailman about the zillion ways that “breast is best.” I know, it’s a bit backwards to make a point of talking about breastfeeding at every chance, purposefully inflating it into a big deal when the bottom line of our advocating is, “Hey people, breastfeeding is NOT a big deal!”

Especially, especially, especially… breastfeeding in public.

La Leche League Texas Area Conference 2014

hollymilkowski August 4, 2014

My favorite conference-y stuff this year with La Leche League:

This amazing auction win, “The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding,” for which the awesome, can’t-be-outbid-for-anything Designated Dad fought pretty hard. The “Buy It Now” price? …priceless. Why? Because it’s an early copy signed by all seven original La Leche League founders, several of whom are no longer alive.

Wendy Williams Does NOT Want to See You Breastfeed!

hollymilkowski June 16, 2014

Via Paa.la on Facebook

Did this really happen?!

What the hell is wrong with these people? Come on guys, I even had to tag “bitches” in this post. This is for real stuff. Worst of all, the audience APPLAUSE is most deafening!

Wendy says she does not want to see breastfeeding in public (newsflash: you don’t have to look). Yet she willingly and proudly posed naked for a public PETA ad. Pretty sure no one asked to see her bare armpits and stomach and hips either. Not trying to be rude… just sayin’. No one asked to see it. Certainly not a baby whose survival and happiness depends on her exposure of hypocrisy.