Today is THE GREAT VIRTUAL BREAST FEST! The League of Maternal Justice have tasked us all to participate in a virtual nurse-in today. Many bloggers from around the world are nursing live, posting pictures and video of nursing right now!

I’m sharing a photo and the Breast Fest montage here, as well as my experiences with nursing in public. Here is a painstakingly obtained picture of Boogie nursing from earlier this week. I tried and tried to get a photo of him in time for the montage but it just didn’t work out but I did finally snap this one with my cell phone while nursing him at daycare on my lunch break.

Now click here and watch the montage from LMJ.

As for nursing in public, I have been surprisingly comfortable from the very beginning, having been known to “whip it out” whenever and wherever I needed to. Only now do I seek out a more private location when I need to nurse Boogie away from the house. This isn’t because I am ashamed but rather he has gotten older and requires a less stimulating environment in order to slow down for a sec and eat.When Boogie was less than 2 weeks old my mother drove me and my newborn son to the mall one day, just to get out of the house. It was our first real trip out for any length of time. When the little man began to fuss I calmly took him to a nearby restroom and changed his diaper. I was not willing to feed my new baby in some nasty mall restroom so I did the logical thing and took a seat in one of the chairs outside the restroom. I fed my baby because what else was I supposed to do, let him scream? My mom was so proud.

You know what, not one single person said a damn thing. I doubt anyone even noticed what I was doing. I didn’t even have a blanket over us. I don’t want to eat with a blanket on my head so why would I do that to my baby. I was discreet as I believe most women are when nursing their babies in public.

From then on I was totally comfortable breastfeeding my son anywhere. I do always try to position myself in a way that I can minimize the exposure for everyone, but I will not cover his head or feel the need to retreat to some closet or bathroom stall. I have fed him at friends’ homes during parties in the living room, in restaurants while eating dinner, daycare, the mall, Target, the doctor’s office, the gym, a friend’s office, a table on the sidewalk outside a restaurant and anywhere else I happened to be while he was hungry.

I have found it interesting some of the reactions I have gotten from other mothers. I have one friend that isn’t as comfortable doing it but doesn’t think there is anything wrong with NIP and that is fine. Then there was one mother that I talked to that told me how grateful she was when she introduced a bottle to her son at six weeks and she could once again leave the house. I looked at her quizzically because I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. As she explained more I said “oh, I just feed him wherever.” Her eyes got big and she said, “oh wow, so if he started crying you’d just feed him right here…then I’ll be sure I go the other way if he starts crying.”

To me this was such an odd response from another mother who breastfed her own baby. I can understand not being comfortable with NIP yourself but to be uncomfortable because someone else is doing it just boggles my mind. I have often said that my son and I both were born to breastfeed. We’ve had few problems and both taken to it like pros. I am thankful that I feel comfortable and confident to NIP and I live in a city that doesn’t take much notice of it when I do it. Now if we could just get everyone to realize that it’s just not that big a deal, it’s just a little boob (or a big one) doing what it was intended to do.