I’m so on the public breastfeeding train. I literally cannot understand why anyone would have a problem with me feeding my babe in public -- even if they accidentally saw a nipple flash. Horrors!
I mean, in a world where 300-pound guys paint their torsos and flail around shirtless on national TV because they’re at a playoff game ... is my boob really worth crying about? (I mean if you’re not Abby, that is.)
Yet even my uber-boober mom tossed a muslin blanket over me when she caught me breastfeeding at a sidewalk café. Well, she did have a point: we were in buttoned-up Palo Alto, not loosey-goosey San Francisco. But I love that I’ve breastfed in odd and creative places.
For instance, in that pic up there, I was carrying Abby in a sling across the Golden Gate Bridge during the March for Women. Faced with the tempting aroma, she started fussing, and what was I to do -- tell her to have a sandwich instead? She fell asleep and stayed latched the rest of the way across, to the amusement of everyone except a family of horrified tourists. (Welcome to San Francisco! Now go home!)
It made me cast my mind back over the last two-and-a-half years to remember other strange places I’ve done the old nip-snack:
- 3,000 feet above Chicago (on an airplane, that is)
- At a beekeeping store
- In my synagogue’s sanctuary (hey, it was Penny’s naming ceremony, and I didn’t want her to drown out the prayers with her wailing!)
- Leaning over my shopping cart (at least it was at Whole Foods)
- In a surreal flower-shaped chair at Fairyland (see above)
- On a bench on a windy cliff overlooking a wild, beautiful beach (this was sweet -- as I was feeding the baby, the people who had paid for the bench in memory of their friend arrived for a dedication ceremony, and were touched that a new life was being nurtured in that spot and at that moment ... so cool, right?)
- In the stands at a Giants game (there are better ways I'd like to be near Brian Wilson topless, believe you me)
- In a gingerbread house (well, it’s part of this big playground in Golden Gate Park)
- In a Starbucks (during lunch when I was working full-time -- yay, one fewer pump session!)
This is starting to feel like those “weirdest places I’ve had sex” conversations we used to have in college, but much less sordid.
Where’s the oddest place you’ve breastfed?
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Comments 53
My 20 yr high school reunion! LOL They did a casual picnic so families could be included. My oldest was only 5 mo at the time.
Seaworld! I didn't know that there were nursing stations in the park, so while my hubby and my eldest daughter went to see the penguins, I sat down and started feeding my 3 month old.
but leanne, I wasn't in a hospital -- i was sitting at a sidewalk cafe!
In bed?! Never thought of that one, huh...
I loved breastfeeding in my ERGO! I could breastfeed literlally anywhere and no one would know. I could be talking to someone straight on and they didn't know!
Also in the stands of a Giants game with a 5 week old, they were playing the Red Sox on my husband's birthday and those are his two fave teams. And in Nelder Grove, a redwood forest between Yosemite and Bass Lake where we were hiking. I have a pic of her nursing in front of Big Ed, one of the largest redwood stumps in the area :)
Who knows... The zoo, churches, parks, the mall, restaurants, planes, countless Starbucks lol, Whole Foods just this week!, hockey rink, poolside in Mexico, a rodeo in Montana, the car (parked, or leaning over the carrier while DH was driving when desperate!), Target, dog shows, fairs/festivals/events, 6 states and 2 countries. Maybe a better question would be where HAVE I gone with one of my babies and not breastfed lol. I love Portland!