Attack of the Breast People

It's hard to believe, but 25% of readers polled found the latest issue of BabyTalk to be "inappropriate" because it shows a nursing baby and a side profile of a mother's breast. One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it. "I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast — it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that." A sexual thing? Is the baby "turned on" by the nursing process? Is nursing a sex act? Of course not, this is just a prime example of wrongheadedness, by confusing the most wholesome, nurturing, intimate and loving act of breastfeeding a child with the stripper swinging her tassels at the bar downtown.

Good for BabyTalk, and good for all the "lactivists" who fight for the rights of mothers to breastfeed in public. One mother makes a strong point for nursing her child in a restaurant booth when she says "I don't send people to the bathroom when THEY want to eat". If you see a breastfeeding mother in public, show your support.