No one could give her such soothing and sensible consolation as this little three-month-old creature when he lay at her breast and she felt the movement of his lips and the snuffling of his tiny nose. ~Leo Tolstoy
So I wanted to take this time to talk about…BREASTFEEDING. To feed or not to feed. (In public)
There seems to still be some debate about whether or not to breastfeed in public. (I know, I’m shocked too.)
The quick answer is…YES.
Baby is hungry, you feed him. End of story.
Ben eats every 2.5 hours on the dot and he hates the bottle. So. I scramble to feed him before I leave and try to rush home in time to feed him at home but you know what?
Sometimes we don’t make it.
Sometimes there’s traffic, or a longer wait than anticipated at an appointment, and we don’t make it. And I’m not shoving his head under a blanket. YOU eat your steak under a blanket and see how you feel! It’s hot and annoying for both of us.
If you can’t handle seeing the top part of my boob (Whatever you can see above his head and below where my shirt ends), while I FEED MY CRYING, HUNGRY BABY, which, by the way, is a lot less than what you’d see at any beach ANYWHERE (Bikini’s!) then…I don’t know what to say, I can’t help you.
Wait, I DO know what to say. If it bothers you…LOOK AWAY.
I’m busy feeding my infant the best possible nutrition he can get. We know all the great benefits breastfeeding has for babies. Better immunity, less colicky, less asthma, less ear infections and higher IQ. But what seems to surprise people when I talk about it is all the great benefits for MOM.
Like…
TOP EIGHT REASONS WHY BREASTFEEDING IS AWESOME FOR MOM:
8. No bottles to clean
7. Nothing to mix, measure or heat up
6. You won’t need to make any late-night runs to the store to get more milk.
5. It helps get your tummy back to pre-baby shape fast by releasing oxytocin which helps shrink the uterus.
4. It forces you to recover faster from delivery or C-section, probably by forcing you to sit back on your duff. Feeding baby every hour or two around the clock for the first few weeks seem to be natures way of forcing us to stop already and heal.
3. Lowers your risk of postpartum depression. When the gobber eats your body releases aforementioned oxytocin (also known as the cuddle hormone) which helps make both of you more relaxed and happy.
2. It burns STORED FAT. Aka, the weight you put on while you were making the little gobber. (or gobbers). It also burns an extra 300-500 calories a day and starting at three to six months your metabolism really goes into hyperdrive. Sit back, relax, and enjoy ladies.
I. It lowers your risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancers. Your risk lowers in direct proportion to how long you breastfeed.
So, take a page from my book and…#baretheboob! (So baby can eat).
My opinion is that anybody offended by breastfeeding is staring too hard. ~David Allen
Angela Yeh - Fantasy Author. Dragon Enthusiast. Optimist. 