Nursing in Public

So today I went to Target and Riley became insistent that it was time to eat. I didn't have a blanket with me so we found ourselves in the ladies room. My butt fell in the toilet and I was praying it wasn't an automatic flusher. It was noisy and uncomfortable. Why doesn't Target have a family bathroom? In a perfect world they'd have an actual nursing lounge.

On Friday Riley and I found ourselves in the family restroom at the mall. They had a permanent changing table and a wooden rocking chair in there. I was pleased even though the rocker was a little rough on the butt it was better than breastfeeding on a toilet. Oddly enough I noticed that aside from tampons and Advil in the vending machine there was breath spray and candy. Shouldn't someone put diapers and wipes in one of those? At least in the family restroom?

Even nursing in a bathroom stall beats booking it to the car to feed the baby. I spent so much of the beginning of Riley's life breastfeeding in the backseat. In parking lots, pulled over in random neighborhoods, in front restaurants while everyone else ate inside...It still happens but I'm much more likely to feed the baby at the table or in the store now. In the beginning I worried not about myself, but about the people around me. I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable or to get in trouble. Seems so silly to worry about getting in trouble feeding your baby.

The world isn't very accommodating to a nursing mother and it can make you feel like you're doing something abnormal or even wrong. I'm not sure why it's that way. It's only right and natural for a mother to want to feed her baby without feeling bad about it. I think some more quiet spaces for mommies and babies would benefit everyone. Not just nursing mothers mom's who use formula would also like a space to do so in peace. Anyone caring for a baby knows they get overstimulated and a minute for everyone can decompress is very necessary.

A girl can dream I suppose...