here’s the whole issue about doing it in public, and breasts being so sexualized and so commodified that people don’t want to use them as a tool to nourish their child. And maybe women think it’s going to take away from their sexuality somehow.
Out in public at first I definitely felt a little bit inhibited. But now it’s totally easy. I haven’t had any negative experiences breastfeeding in public. People look at me weird sometimes, but I’m a self-confident person and I’m doing what I have to do. I have to feed my baby and so I’m going to feed my baby, so I don’t invite a lot of looking and gawking, I just don’t notice. I’m kind of into what I’m doing and don’t really worry about it, what other people think.

don’t mind breastfeeding in public. If you have to feed your baby, you have to feed your baby! I’m in a grocery store, pushing the cart, and breastfeeding her. It’s normal. There’s nothing wrong with breastfeeding your baby. We produce milk to feed our babies. Why be embarrassed to feed your baby in public?
There are a whole lot of things you could do to breastfeed in public—you can take a blanket; you can take a really lightweight something and put it over the baby’s face. I don’t even bring a blanket any more. I just cover her face strategically with my shirt. I’ve had people stare at me and look at me funny. I just smile and wave. Yesterday on public transportation I was talking to a man who was telling me that he used to be in the Black Panther party. He was saying, “Oh, that’s beautiful that you’re breastfeeding! We need more African-American breastfeeding moms.”

m shy. At first, I wouldn’t do it out in public, I would just do it at home. But now, it just comes naturally. I put the breastfeeding bib on. He doesn’t like being covered up. He pulls the bib out, shows everybody.

don’t know how breastfeeding in public could be an obstacle more than preparing a bottle. That’s an obstacle! You’ve got a screaming baby, you’ve got to pull over somewhere and shake up some formula and measure out the water. Why do that when you can just lift your shirt up? And the formula goes bad after so many hours, and you have to remember what time you made this bottle, and you’ve got to clean the bottle and do all that. Why not just pull out your breast?

hen I started coming back to work I needed a place to pump milk. I was talking to some other women who didn’t have a good place to pump and eventually their milk just dried up. So I got inspired to set up a real comfortable place with other graduate students who were parents—we all provided some money and we got a screen and bulletin board, which makes it the “lactation corner” and sets it apart from the rest of the room. I didn’t enjoy it at all. It’s very artificial. You really feel like a cow, with a machine that’s hooked up to you that’s sucking out your milk. But because it was going to my little sweetie…