Great Public Breastfeeding Photos
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Wednesday, January 04, 2006
There's was a great image over at Blogging Baby yesterday that shows a photo of a mother breastfeeding in public while her other children look on. It's pretty much the perfect example of what any mother I've ever seen nursing in public looks like. From a distance of more than a few feet, it simply looks like she's cuddling up with her little one.That photo sparked some curiosity and got me out hunting for other images of moms breastfeeding their children in public. Surely if there are tons of women "whipping out" their breasts in public and offending people, there out to be a picture or two that shows a pretty egregious incident, right?
Possibly, but I sure couldn't find them and I like to think that I'm fairly skilled when it comes to search engines.
I did find quite a few interesting photos though...
A great photo of Theresa Healey and Robyn Malcolm breastfeeding their children in public. Healey and Malcolm are two well-known actresses from Oz that wanted to help show how natural breastfeeding was and thus posed for the picture for World Breastfeeding Week.
An absolutely beautiful photo of Lucy Lawless nursing her son for an ad that ran as part of New Zealand's Breastfeeding Awareness week.
A whole collection of photos of mothers breastfeeding in public on a site that offers up tips and advice on how to do it. The great thing about these photos is that these mothers are not actresses or models, they are real moms. Some of them beautiful, some of them average, some young, some more mature, some that are slim, some that are huggable. ;) The point is that all of them are happily nursing their child and no one would be the wiser if the photos were not labeled.
I did find a posed picture for a new story about breastfeeding in public that showed some areola...but it was taken from about 8 inches away and again, clearly posed. I doubt too many people sneak up and stare at a nursing mom from less than a foot away without getting smacked. ;)
Labels: Lactivism, Nursing in Public
Coo, I never looked as elegant as Lucy when I was feeding, was I doing something wrong? ;)
Great images - can't figure out how some of those discreet babies are feeding through the clothing, but that's part of the issue isn't it? Given that so many women are so discreet when they are feeding, the ppl who complain have probably seen far more nursing babies that they've ever realised. But they assume that the one they spot with a millimetre of flesh on show (and remind me again what precisely is *wrong* with a millimetre of flesh anyway???) is just the tip of the let it all hang out iceberg...
See that's the thing...I look at it from two perspectives...
1.) I've been all over the place and I've taken the time to really look to see if I could spot a nursing mom. I've only ever spotted two...one was nursing much like the women in the photos. The other one I noticed only because she had a blanket over the baby and that's the only reason I could come up with for her having covered up with a blanket.
2.) Even if something does get flashed for a brief second, why is that the end of the world. You'd have to be staring to notice it, and if that's the case, then I'm not so sure it's the nursing mom that has the problem.
I just really wonder sometimes what city all these crazy breastfeeding moms live in that reporters stumble upon nipple after nipple being waved in the air for all to see.
Besides, I thought the general rule of thumb in America these days was that we should all stop being prudes...
;-P
Just a small aside...
I dont mean to be picky but those actors are from New Zealand, not from Oz (Australia). Aussies and Kiwis tend to get rather indignant about being referred as the other nationality! lol
Lucy is beautiful.
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