You know what, though? There are times that I kind of don’t want to be squirreled away in a special room for nursing mothers. Not that it isn’t lovely that they’re provided–because it is, and I’ve used them–especially when my first kid was super fussy and I just wanted to be out of the public eye. But I kind of feel like breastfeeding can only become normalized when mothers don’t hide away. I have two very vivid memories of publicly nursing my kids. One was at the Olive Garden when I chose to BF on a bench in the waiting area as opposed to an overstuffed booth with my inlaws. Yes, I felt self-conscious, but I kind of thought, you know, maybe there’s some future parents here who will remember seeing me and think to themselves someday, “Hey, that lady did it at Olive Garden, so why the hell not?” The other was on a bench at the primate house of the National Zoo. I never felt so at one with my fellow primates and was almost dying for someone to ask me to leave (would’ve welcomed pointing out the irony). My point is, it kind of just needs to be a normal part of our cultural landscape. So, yet another nurse-in? Go for it! And if I had my choice between nursing my kid while taking in some art or sitting in a special room, I’d take the spot by the art any day.

BTW…I got told to stop nursing at the Chagall museum in Nice…not knowing the French laws, I just skulked out to the outdoor garden area in a teary huff. I’d already been annoyed in several other ways by the French throughout the day and I’m not one to raise a ruckus in a foreign country. When I was outside another security guard approached my husband and apologized profusely for his colleague’s behavior, saying that breastfeeding was “a beautiful thing” and that his colleague was a “very sick man”…that cracked me up.

I guess I will just never get the problem some people have with nursing babies. And it still rankles me that is is considered the “right of a woman to breastfeed,” when it should really be considered the right of an infant to EAT.

Some fantastic comments. I appreciate a special room, but it’s not always convenient for the baby/mom. I would love to have a card with breastfeeding laws printed on it to hand to anyone who asked me to move. And I would love to do a nurse-in, unfortunately, I am not currently nursing. Breastfeeding is promoted as ‘best’ yet women are expected to hide in their homes and nurse on dirty toilet seats rather than publicly feed an infant. When will this change?? If you don’t want to see it, turn your heads!!

Looks like at least one group is on the card idea…

http://codenamemama.com/2010/07/09/breastfeeding-state-law-cards/

Please let me say that I’m sorry that happened to this women while she was feeding her child. It’s a natural thing and one cannot control when baby is hungry. To ask her to take it elsewhere is just downright reprehensible and wrong. I am an employee of a museum in DC as well and one of the first things I was told during my training is when a mother is nursing to let her be and not say a thing to her as it’s unlawful. It irks me that not every place of employment trains their employees that well because if these guards were trained well they would have let her be. There’s no shame it what she did; just what the guards did. By the way, I hope that those guards were either retrained in the law, fined heavily, fired, or a combination thereof.