Nursing in Public.

Nursing in public is quite the controversial topic. I, of course, am in favor of it, since I am a nursing mom. I'm a member of an Austin 2010 Mom's group online, and one of the ladies posted recently about nursing her baby in church. She and her family attend a big Catholic church here in town, and she nurses her baby without any sort of cover during the church service. She says she's discreet, and I'm sure she is, but a recent nursing experience offended the family sitting next to her in the pew. The family next to her had a 14-year-old boy who was "distracted" by her public nursing. This mama's stance was that nursing is a very natural process and should not be something to cover up or about which she should be ashamed. The priest came up to her after the service and asked her to please nurse her baby in the "cry-room" instead of in the sanctuary. She was surprised, but was obviously more self-possessed than I would've been because she was able to defend her stance to him. It didn't go well. It basically ended with him kicking her out of church if she refused to remove herself & baby, which she did, so she went above his head to the Archbishop (is that the right dude? I'm not Catholic.) who listened as she pointed out the benefits to breastfeeding, and the fact that it should be seen as something natural, healthy and beautiful, and NOT sexual, just because a woman's breasts are involved. In the end, the Archbishop agreed with her and asked if she would be willing to gather some written materials about the benefits of breastfeeding that they could disseminate to the congregation. I believe he also had a word with that jerkoff priest.

At any rate, I cheered silently as I read the conclusion to this saga, but I am still one of those mamas who would prefer to cover up with something while breastfeeding in public. In the "old" days, mamas would just use a blanket or perhaps even a burp rag. Nowadays, we've gotten fancy with our boob covers. I have one that's called an "Udder Cover." (I do not look all model-y wearing it though, unlike this lady...I was very disappointed about that!) I like the Udder Cover alright, except that Isabel and I get all kinds of hot and sweaty underneath it. It's even made with a very light fabric, so I suppose the flaw is in the design, and not the actual material used. It looks like an apron and has a piece of curved plastic or something inserted in the top portion so that ideally, it stands out from the body so that I can just look down at my baby as she's nursing. In reality, it doesn't work as well as it's meant to work. If I'm outside and trying to nurse on a windy day, forget it. The Udder Cover is spinning in circles around me. It's got a lot of material, and is a little tricky to maneuver while trying to uncover the boob, position it in the mouth of the baby, and hold the baby in a comfortable position....all at the same time. To that end, I'm researching other options.

Today I ran across this one: Uh huh...a bonnet for the baby?!?!?? Really? Do they take into account that my baby is NOT fond of wearing headgear? Obviously not. I'd like to be able to try this one out without actually purchasing it first. ;)

And then there's the "Hooter Hider" - just as catchy a name as the Udder Cover, in my opinion! It looks like the Udder Cover's twin:

I just googled "nursing covers" and came across this one that I hadn't heard of yet: the Slurp & Burp!!! The names just keep getting better and better. This one actually looks promising. It even has a built-in burp cloth on the shoulder part! I'll have to consider it. Again, I wish I could give it a try without having to purchase it first!

I had lunch with my friends, Joanna & Eric recently, and one major topic of conversation was the nursing cover, prompted by my breaking it out during our lunch at Chili's. Eric thought that this would probably be a good market and that we could come up with something better than my Udder Cover. I hope so. Who knew there was a whole slew of nursing cover products out there?!?! I didn't. Eric, Joanna, and I will have to jump on this if we're going to come up with something that hasn't hit the market yet. I think the Slurp & Burp is my favorite name so far though. I wonder if we could come up with something (new) that's equally as catchy. Hmmmm. ;)