Breastfeeding: don’t tell me to cover up

So it wouldn’t be a parenting blog without a post about breastfeeding, would it?

Last week something happened that made me angry, You know how when you feel all clenched up inside and you can’t think about anything else except how cross you are? That’s how angry I was.

For the first time, in my 26th month of breastfeeding, I was asked to cover up while feeding my baby. This has got me all het up for several reasons:

I didn’t tell the spokesperson to blob off.

This may be petty, but I really wish I hadn’t just smiled and nodded… I should have said:

I don’t have to cover myself up if I don’t want to thankyouverymuch.

In British Columbia, where we live, it’s actually discrimination to ask a breastfeeding woman to cover up or go elsewhere. So there.

Nobody should be looking.

I was asked to cover up because it’s making anonymous people feel uncomfortable. But these people have no reason to be looking in my direction while I’m feeding. Unless they’re trying to cop an eyeful, I suppose.

My son does not like to be covered up while he is eating.

If I try, he will pull the cover off and scream while arching his back, making everyone turn around and see my now exposed breast. If I discreetly lift my top and pop him on, he remains quiet, nobody can see anything and everyone can continue to do whatever they were doing before.

I did actually try and cover my son up.

Bloody typical. And I took extra care when choosing my clothes to make sure I wasn’t going to have anything on show. -.-

Women should not be made to feel bad about taking care of their babies

This is the most important point.

When I had my daughter, we had some trouble with breastfeeding. She couldn’t latch properly and it was all highly stressful. Like making me into a gibbering wreck level of stressful. I’m sure other mothers have experienced the same thing.

Once I’d sort of got the hang of it in the comfort of my own home, I then had to try doing it in public. At first, I tried to use a cover. When your baby hasn’t got a good latch, you need to see where your baby’s mouth is and where your nipple is. A cover makes this more complicated because, well, it covers up the essential bits. Also, my daughter appreciated eating under a cover about as much as my son does. So for a couple of months, every time it was coming up to feeding time, I’d start to panic. I needed to find a nursing room. Quickly! Otherwise she’d start to cry, and then she’d be too cross to latch, and then she’d cry more and then my milk would just go everywhere and, and, and…

And then I saw a video on Facebook that basically said, “Just feed your baby. Nobody’s looking and if they are, that’s their problem.” So I did. I didn’t bother with covers. I didn’t walk around with my breasts hanging out (except for when my daughter caught me by surprise and latched on while I was getting changed after swimming once), but I wasn’t going to make life more complicated for myself and my child.

And up until last week, I’ve never had any reason to doubt that I was doing the right thing.

Now, over the past nearly three years, I’ve become a lot more confident in my motherhood, so although being told to cover up today has made me angry, it’s not going to stop me from feeding my son without a cover if he’s hungry. But if someone had said that to me when I was a struggling new mum, it would have been extremely discouraging and may have even been the final straw that made me give up on breastfeeding.

However, as my readers who know me in real life are aware, I always have to have the last word.

It’s one of my more appealing qualities 😉 So I’ve found the *perfect* nursing cover.