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As part of the breastfeeding bloggers’ New Year’s resolutions I took the Motherwear Pledge to choose at least three ways to support breastfeeding this year. One of the things I pledged to do was to compliment another mother who was nursing in public.
I got my chance the other night at the gym (see, I’ve been keeping my own New Year’s resolution to get more exercise). I saw a mother seated in a leather chair outside the gym day care. As her infant boy nursed he played with a silk scarf — I suspect as a way to distract him from anything else going on around him and to get him to focus on nursing. Smart mama to use a trick like that to make nursing in public easier!
As I smiled at her she looked back at me a little sheepishly, which gave me all the incentive I needed to blurt out, “It’s so nice to see someone else doing that here!”
At first she was a little taken aback that I’d spoken to her. I think she was afraid I was going to chastise her or something! She smiled with relief and laughed her agreement. “I know!” she said, and she settled back comfortably in her chair. Mission accomplished.
I have a hard time finding something to say that doesn’t sound odd. Sometimes I wonder when I see a nursing mom and am happy to see it if they think I looked at them and was thinking something negative. I worry that my silence leaves it up for confusion or an assumption that I am against breastfeeding, which is not at all true. In all my nursing time, I’d never been complimented for nursing in public so don’t have many ideas of what to say. Oddly when I was a La Leche League Leader we didn’t talk about this topic at all, now I wished we had!
Velcromom – thumbs up was the way to go ;) Perhaps we need a secret sign — some sort of hand signal that says, “I know what you’re doing and I’m glad!”
It really does make your day when you get a positive response. I once saw a mom/baby pair nursing at an outdoor cafe and wanted to hail her with a compliment but was driving by. My first impulse was to honk, lol. Decided on a thumbs up instead! :)Glad you had an opportunity to follow through on your pledge!
That’s so great! Funny how awkward it can feel, though whenever I get up the nerve to do it I get a great response.