Hide that breast now!

Salon’s Broadsheet blog reports on an AP story about how the cover of a parenting magazine, Babytalk featuring a nursing baby (see left) has been creating a lot of controversy. A lot of mothers seem to find the idea of breastfeeding gross, and the picture of a naked breast (even one where the aerola has been airbrushed away) even grosser.
I can only imagine how they deal with seeing naked breasts in public. Fortunately I’ve never actually experienced the problems first hand. This is probably because I live in California, one of the most breastfeeding-friendly states in the nation. The law here is that you can breastfeed in any public space. And I have. The library, museums, restaurants, parks, planes, pretty much anywhere I could sit down and quelch my baby’s hunger. I breastfed until my baby was 16 months old, and by the end of it she insisted on eating while standing or looking around which meant my breast was even more exposed (and contorted) than even I was comfortable with. But I never had a problem. I never noticed any dirty looks – not that I would, I tend to be oblivious to the environment around me – or heard any assinine coments. Thanks God, ’cause it wouldn’t have been pretty if I had 🙂