>Nurse In, Nurse Out

Photo courtesy of Paige La Grone Babcock

If you were at the Nashville airport this morning, you might’ve caught a glimpse of some Nashville-area moms taking part in a national Nurse In. The protest was staged in airports across the country in response to a woman’s claim that she was removed from a Delta flight after she turned down a flight attendant’s offer of a blanket while she was nursing her baby. Read one blogger’s account of this morning’s Nurse In here.

As a mom who nursed and plans to nurse again in a few months, I would’ve been mortified if this had happened to me. I think nursing should be allowed anywhere at any time, particularly on a plane flight, where nursing can make all the difference between a quiet, sleeping baby and a wailing, annoying baby. At the same time, it has always freaked me out a little when I’ve been talking with a mom who suddenly whipped out the boob mid-conversation and started nursing her baby. I’m always unsure of where to look- into the mom’s eyes? Down at my hands? Across the room? I end up totally forgetting what I was talking about in the first place. I’d imagine this kind of thing makes men even more uncomfortable.

So what’s the solution? Restricting breastfeeding to “private” areas or getting over ourselves and our mental reservations? Personally, I’m for coming up with some kind of code word, kind of like the ah-ah-ah before the achoo!, which would let all skittish parties know that nursing is about to commence. I need only a few seconds to mentally prepare myself for potential boob flashing and I’m good to go.