I know the topic of nursing in public can be polarizing, and frankly at this point, often feels very repetitive and exasperating for many. However, I always have to remember that every day, women are becoming mothers for the first time. Like me when I was nursing my son in a booth in a restaurant and was asked to take it to the bathroom "for everyone's comfort", I had no idea that this was even an issue, much less did I know my legal rights or come prepared to handle it.

So repetitive as it may be to some, it's brand new territory to many others, and it's for those women that we continue to talk about it, continue to fight, and also want to wring the occasionally neck of the person who swears we're being selfish exhibitionist brats. But rather than writing out the entire rant myself, again, I'll let Kara Kay's video do it for me ... and then I want to explain where this kind of activism and anger comes from ... and why.

Just a warning, she does get worked up in her rant and unleash some cusswords:

Sit through the whole thing. Really, do it. To some, like the women who've commented on her video, we're saying, "AMEN, sister!" but I'm sure many others roll their eyes and shut it off, finding she's talking about their own words when she's rattling off rebuttals.

Jump to about 4:46. That's where the real, big issue starts. Often, people have absolutely no idea what it would really do to a woman's ability to function out with a baby if she couldn't nurse without hiding. Like Kara, my babies breastfed more frequently due to my underdeveloped breast tissue -- yet I was able to breastfeed exclusively, as long as I accepted that they needed to nurse a lot. I would nurse at home before getting in the car, sometimes offer the breast in the car before going into the store, and then still often find myself needing to nurse IN a grocery store as well. And no, I can't just ditch my full cart and go nurse in my car or a bathroom. Why? Because things melt, because my babies sometimes nursed for 45 minutes, and because like Kara says, honestly? I'm not about to ruin my entire day, make my older kids who are often with me sit in a bathroom stall, make my whole family wait for dinner or let mine get cold, just because someone else can't handle seeing a little "sideboob." Sideboob that is often LESS than what you can see on a magazine cover on the checkout line. And no, I can't use a nursing cover. My daughter hates it and won't nurse. Nursing my baby is about me. But mainly, it's about my baby.

It's Kara's last bit (around 7:47), is what the whole issue is about, why people get SO mad, and why it's so damn irritating that it leads to giant rants. You want to know what women who nurse their babies really want? What we really, truly, fight for, yell about, rant about, and get angry about? What if we got, would make us shut up and stop ranting and raving and staging protests and nurse-ins?

As Kara puts it, we just want to be LEFT THE !*@# ALONE.

That's it.

Do you agree with Kara Kay's rant?


Image via YouTube