BABY

“You finally get out of the house with your newborn baby at four in the afternoon, hours after you started getting ready. You’ve made it to the mall and you’re right in the middle of buying the underwear you hope is going to fit your postpartum body, and at that moment the baby starts to cry. Well, you need to be able to nurse right then and there,” says Jennifer Patterson, the mother of one-year-old Kyle.

As Patterson points out, breastfeeding in public is often a necessity. But for many new mothers it can seem pretty daunting at first.

Mary-Tim Hare remembers feeling a little nervous about nursing her three-month-old daughter, Amy Grace, on a crowded airplane, especially since the couple sitting next to her were in their 80s. She wondered how they’d react, but decided that the alternative (a miserable baby) would be worse. So she arranged herself as carefully as possible with a blanket to cover any exposed skin, and helped her daughter latch on.

She laughs now when she recalls that day: “They were thrilled that I was nursing! They told me how wonderful it was, that they could see how content Amy Grace was, and they spent a lot of time reminiscing about the days when their own children were babies and nursing.”

That positive response is increasingly common, especially as awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding grows. Mothers also find they feel less awkward when they learn to nurse discreetly and have some clothing or other accessories to make it easier.

Hare discovered that using a sling to carry and feed her baby was extremely helpful when Amy Grace was small. “Most slings will include instructions about how to position the baby for nursing,” she adds, “but practise at home until you find what works for you. I found it easiest to position Amy Grace with her head in the pocket rather than up by the rings, the way the instructions recommended. The key is to have her lying with her head near the nipple.”

To get the feeding started, Hare says she used her hand to support her breast and get the baby latched on. “That's when people are most likely to notice what you're doing,” she says. Find a quiet corner or just turn toward a wall if you’re self-conscious about latching the baby on. After that initial procedure Hare found she could easily walk around, perhaps with a hand to support Amy Grace’s head as she continued to nurse: “People would often walk up to me and talk about the sling or the baby, and I’m sure they had no idea she was nursing.”

“It can be a little tricky at first,” adds Jennifer Patterson, “but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. I was breastfeeding Kyle at Home Depot, surrounded by gruff old guys in work boots, and not one of them said a word. I finally realized that, thanks to the sling, none of them noticed he was nursing.”

Originally published in Today's Parent, Pregnancy & Birth, Autumn 2000