Letter to the Editor: Discouraging Breastfeeding is 'Deplorable'

The following letter is in response to a story about a recent that was halted by management and security at .

Dear Editor,

I'm currently near term with my third child – my other two are 7 and 5. I nursed both my children and did so mostly privately in home or in family's homes, but also in public as the need arose – especially with my second child due to being out and about with my older child's preschool and play dates.  

I hope to nurse my expected baby as well in the same manner. I was as discreet as I could be, but clearly even covered up with a nursing "bib," I'm sure people could tell what I was doing. Most reactions were a quick glance and then look away, but as many negative comments came with the kind folks who actually congratulated me for what I was doing. It is truly a divisive issue, and I can't understand why. 

I share this with you only to establish that I might be one of a multitude of quiet authority on this subject. In other words, it is the moms who breastfeed and are subject to ridicule/disgust along with praise with more than varying degrees between, that are trying to make their opinions be known to try and raise awareness of this corrosive "anti-breastfeeding" ewww-gross knee-jerk reaction across this nation.  

I can't imagine even a public smoker getting the flak that a breastfeeding Mom gets from some irate man or woman who, ironically, probably doesn't get as riled up over a billboard for Hooters or watching NFL cheerleaders dance away sans pole. And don't get me started on Viagra ads or Victoria's Secret's giant soft porn commercial special every year!

In a nation that prides itself on self expression and the freedom of such, it is deplorable that we still find a significant portion of society that gets all squirmy when a woman's breasts are employed in the only fashion they were singularly intended to do so!

The irony is not lost on breastfeeding moms who can't gather and nurse in a mall where, if it is like any mall I've been to, there are gaggles of young girls who are experimenting with their sexuality and displaying their bodies in a new and often risque ways to attract attention. What a bizarre dichotomy and sad commentary on our Puritanical roots that somehow don't extend to breast augmentation and string bikinis.  

In a country that idolizes Hugh Heffner, and where mag racks yearly advertise a swimsuit issue with mammary glands prominently displayed and exposed more than any breastfeeding mother in public, I hope more women (and men) find the marbles to support this issue however they feel compelled to.  

I'm comfortable writing this letter, another Mom might stage a breastfeeding sit-in – maybe another might give a knowing smile and nod of support to a harried nursing mother in public who is just trying to do her best to provide nutrition for her baby.  I'm for anything that brings more awareness to this issue until breastfeeding is as normal and mundane as another mother popping a bottle in her kid's face in public.   

A (quietly) proud to have nursed mother,

Nicole Farrell
Tampa, Fl

Troy Patch accepts letters to the editor. Send yours to jen.anesi@patch.com; please include your full name and hometown. Letters may be edited for clarity.