I don’t write a lot about breastfeeding.

I write about bras a lot – fitting them, buying them, selling them.  I write a ton about kids, about being a mom and about running a business.  But I don’t write a lot about breastfeeding.  Let me explain why.

I am not into judgment.  Life, parenting, love, friendship; to me these are all built on choice.

I am pro-choice, pro-love, pro-information, pro-sisterhood, pro-parenthood.  I am anti-hate and anti-judgment.  As far as I am concerned, life is about choice.  If I am not nursing you, sleeping with you or love you, then what you do is your own damn business.

Breastfeeding is important to me.  This should really be obvious.  I do own and run a nursing bra company.  I have three little ones.  I nursed them all.  The oldest until he was 4, the second to 4 ½ and the little one to 3 ½ – tandem twice, through two pregnancies.  I have had mastitis nine times, plugged ducts, thrush and all the trimmings.  Even after nursing two children, through a pregnancy, I had plugged ducts so bad with the third that the midwife had to open them with a lance. 

For years I have breastfed, through pregnancies, colds, sick kids, mono and pneumonia.  I’ve nursed on hayrides, the subway, tandem in the food court at the mall, on planes, in cars leaning over the car seat and in sales meetings.  When Nummies opened our first accounts with retailers, I was nursing my youngest in their stores.

So you could say I support breastfeeding (nursing bra jokes aside).  It was never easy, not a single day of it.  But for me, it was a commitment to a relationship and I took it very seriously.   I would not take no for an answer.

I don’t write a lot about breastfeeding because I understand that there are many women who choose not to breastfeed and I don’t think it is any of my business why they do.   I have seen new moms in tears because they are not able to successfully nurse their children for a variety of reasons and my heart goes out to them.  I see women who spend their days pumping and feeding with bottles only to be judged by other breastfeeding women because their milk comes from a bottle.

I am blessed to know amazing daddies who have been caregivers of little ones full or half time.  I do not think it is a breast that makes a parent or a bond when feeding.

I do want to educate pregnant woman about why breastfeeding is an amazing choice.  I want to educate doctors and nurses.  I want to see women breastfeeding in public where children can see them.  It was not until I had my children that I saw another woman breastfeed…there is something wrong with that.  My children have never known a bottle, but don’t you worry, I will mess them up in my own special way.

The problem that I see with the breastfeeding debate is that it puts parents against each other in judgment.  I don’t like anything that pits us against each other.  Parents need to build each other up.  I want to talk about breastfeeding, but I am just not sure how to start.

I am a breastfeeding advocate.  What about you?