Food for thought

I missed the boat on World Breastfeeding Week last week, but here's a related video, a little late:



Breastfeeding is interesting. Eden has nursed all over the place, from Bed Bath & Beyond to in front of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to a grassy hillside at Harper's Ferry to our favorite Indian buffet. I've always been a proponent of the right to breastfeed in public, but it wasn't until I had a baby myself that I realized on a pragmatic level just how much less conspicuous it is to breastfeed than to try to pacify a screaming, hungry baby. (And given that breastfed babies typically eat 8-10 times a day, the only option besides breastfeeding in public would be to essentially retreat from public life entirely.) We were out to lunch the other day, and I was doing the former and could hear someone across the restaurant trying to do the latter. Nobody noticed what I was doing, but every person eating lunch was aware of what she was doing. I felt bad for her. So far, I haven't had anybody raise an issue, and when people have noticed (like in the hallway at church), they're more apt to smile than anything else, which is nice.

We've also given Eden a bottle of pumped milk on occasion, in preparation for my return to work part-time. While I'm thankful she'll take it pretty easily, it still makes me a little sad to see her do it--but it also makes me even more thankful each time I do get to breastfeed her, even when that's at 4am.