Breastfeeding in Public: It's None of Your Damn Business

Have you guys heard about the woman who breastfed during her college graduation ceremony and had a photo taken while nursing?

You can read about it here if you haven't yet:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5474420

So here's the deal:

WHO FUCKING CARES?!

This woman is (in my opinion) an inspiration:

1. A single mother

2. Gave birth one week into her final semester is college

3. Continued and finished school

4. Graduated with a Bachelors degree

5. Is able to breastfeed her child

Please give me one reason why this hardworking woman should NOT be able to FEED HER BABY WHO IS HUNGRY anywhere she damn well pleases?

Oh, you say she should cover up? Use a nursing cover? Do you know that this graduation was in California and in JUNE?! Who the hell would want to have on a cover (in addition to a graduation gown!) in that kind of heat? Furthermore, what baby would want their face covered up in that kind of heat?

Oh, she should have just gone to the bathroom? GROSS. Let me see you go have a bite to eat in the same place where people take a crap. Go on.

Oh, a graduation ceremony just isn't the time or place for breastfeeding? So her baby should just starve and scream her head off during the ceremony? That's better. Oh, she should've just given her a bottle. Pause.

DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO BREASTFEED?

1. Sometimes it takes weeks, nay, MONTHS to become comfortable and successful. 

2. Some moms have to pump EVERY 2 HOURS to keep up a supply. That includes during the night.

3. Giving a breastfed baby a bottle can (but not always in some cases) deter a baby from taking the breast and even lower the mothers supply. 

This mother has studied her ass off, grown a baby, pushed a baby out of her vagina (or had a cesarean, but that's neither here nor there), worked hard at feeding her baby, ALL ON HER FUCKING OWN. Oh, and GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE. And people have the audacity to comment on her photo - HER PROUDEST MOMENT OF HER LIFE - to say that she was "wrong" and a "ho."

Here are some tips for anyone who is "uncomfortable" with public breastfeeding:

1. It's none of your damn business

2. Don't look

3. That mom doesn't want to know what you think about it unless it's something along the lines of, "You're a good mom."

I only breastfed my daughter for 3 weeks. Kind of. And never in public. BUT YOU HAVE GOT TO BE DAMNED IF YOU THINK I WILL NOT STICK UP FOR THOSE WOMEN THAT CAN AND DO.

Floppity-flop-flop

So, last Friday I posted that:

YAY WE ARE TOTALLY GOING TO USE THIS BLOG AS A VENUE TO SHARE OUR WOMAN STORIES AND CHANGE THE WORLD. 

Yeah. 

I didn't receive a single story (except for the 2 that are comments on my original post - HOLLA LADIES!).

Lesson:

It takes a lot to change the world. To change society's ways of thinking. 

But I do feel like I reached a few people by sharing my own stories. And I know that it's hard to tell your stories, even the small ones. I know that it may feel like your story doesn't "measure up" unless you were raped or worse. BUT YOUR STORIES DO MATTER. All of them. 

Just know that if your story made your feel vulnerable or uncomfortable or confused - those are valid feelings. You don't have to feel as if you have no right to feel that way because your story "isn't that bad." 

Anyway, as the #YesAllWomen train is dying down, don't forget what the point is: You matter. We matter.