John Allemang’s recent comments on the subject notwithstanding, women who choose to breastfeed do so from the conviction that they are doing what is best for the child. I was pregnant and/or nursing for almost five years, and I certainly got bored with it, but I never felt trapped, because it was something I chose to do, voluntarily, despite the witlessness and smug, value-laden commentaries of people like Mr. Allemang.
I never flashed my breasts in public because I failed to see how I could advance the cause of nursing by so doing. Take a poll of real live women who nurse their children, and ask them how they feel, rather than telling us how you think they should feel. We already know that a lot of men like looking at women’s breasts. Please tell me something new – that we are perhaps now living in a world where a woman can discharge her responsibilities as a caring parent without getting flak for it.
His last comment about bottles bringing happiness into the world was egregious. Tell that to a Third World mother who has lost child after child to formula mixed with contaminated water, or the mother whose child has become kendy or brain damaged due to lead-contaminated formula.
