It took me a solid two days to think about how I wanted to write this post. I'll start off by telling you what sparked the urge to write this.
Not that I haven't, especially since having a baby, always had an issue with how the majority of society feels about breastfeeding etc in public, but two days ago I was at the Phoenix airport and was almost moved to tears.
Here I was, with my giant carry on bag, my diaper bag, and my overly loud 10 month old trying to navigate myself to a stall in the bathroom because my bladder was about to explode. (Oh coffee, you're so good to drink yet so mean to my bladder). Anyway, I was making my way around the incredibly nice people who refused to move out of the way, when I saw the big stall at the back was open. Bonus! Now my kid can watch me pee, it's like a dream come true. I made my way to the stall when I noticed a woman huddled in the corner with half her back showing. Strange. The closer I got though, I realized that this woman, or should I say mother, was pumping. SHE WAS FUCKING PUMPING BREASTMILK! Holy shit, someone needs to get this woman a serious drink and a medal because that is some serious dedication right there. As I manoeuvred around her to get into the stall this poor mom started APOLOGIZING to me. She was apologizing to a fellow mom because she was in the corner of a disgusting airport bathroom pumping milk for her baby because I'm sure she didn't want to have to deal with breastfeeding on the plane; we all know the looks that can get you.
When I came out of the stall I could see closer the way she was going about doing this. She had the double breast pump going and had the black cover/holder for it so essentially all you could see was a little bit of booby skin. Yet this woman was in the corner, trying to still cover herself from OTHER WOMEN!!!. She then apologized to me again, to which I responded that it was of course completely fine. She proceeded to apologize to me again and I let her know that if it was me I would be sitting outside in plain sight and doing this shit. She of course responded with "ya, right" and "that would be nice". That concluded our exchange.
When I came out of the bathroom the hubby could tell I was annoyed with something. I had to explain to him that I was actually fucking livid that this poor woman had to resort to this to just feed her baby. He agreed and we continued to our gate. However, I felt some serious anger building up inside of me. If you've read my previous post you will know that I wasn't able to breastfeed my daughter past three months and so I switched to formula real quick! Regardless though, I would defend a breastfeeding mother any day of the week. In case you've been living under a rock here's what boobs are for: producing milk for a baby so that baby can eat. Or they're used for gawking at by men, and women. I personally love boobs. Just kidding about the gawking, a little bit. The point is that they are used for a completely natural purpose. Next to childbirth, breastfeeding is pretty fucking amazing if you ask me. Like here is this woman, she pushes a watermelon out of a tiny hole (or has her stomach cut open, how fun), she then has a little human suck on her nipples until they bleed, then she rubs lanolin on them like it's going out of style, and then if she's lucky (I was not), the pain goes away and the booby juice starts flowing. How fucking cool is that?
Even though you and I can agree that this is all awesome, women still feel the need to cover up while breastfeeding or hide in a corner of a bathroom to pump. We now have "nursing rooms" because how fucking gross is feeding your kid when they're hungry? Ew. I mean, it's SO much easier to run around the mall until you find a nursing room, squeeze yourself, the baby, the stroller, and any other children with you into a shitty dimly lit room with horrendous "peaceful" music playing so you can breastfeed. Not to mention, your baby is probably screaming at this point so that adds an element of adventure to the whole thing. Seriously though, how stupid is this?!
I felt physically ill after I left that bathroom. I felt sorry for that woman and any other woman that feels embarrassed to feed her child in public because of what someone might say or the way they might look at her. I understand that not everyone is like me. I had a hard time breastfeeding so when my baby wanted to eat I was whipping that booby out wherever and whenever; I didn't give a shit. I wish more moms didn't give a shit. Maybe that's how we could change society's opinion on this topic. I get it though, it's hard. You're exhausted, your body aches, your kid is screaming, and the last thing you want is some degenerate asking you to cover up or take your titties elsewhere.
I hope that eventually the views on breastfeeding in public will change. I'm sure they will. I think enough moms will get sick of covering up and being ashamed that they'll just have one giant hormonal meltdown and tell everyone to fuck the fuck off. At least that's what I envision will happen.
