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Can a man give an opinion on this? One day I walked through my home in the Philippines to the back where my wife had friends over playing cards. I stood watching the game for a few minutes, lending a comment now and then so they knew I was there. Suddenly, one of the children came over to the table asking something of her mother. The woman reached down and yanked up her shirt. Out popped a breast, distended nipple and all. The child started feeding while the game continued. Shaken, I went back into the living room.

This was not an isolated incident over there. The government has made a significant effort to promote breastfeeding over canned formula with signs everywhere. However, I'm not sure this gives tacit permission for indiscreet practice. I've even witnessed very public breastfeeding on crowded public transportation. Having it happen in my own home is a different matter.

I concede the innumerable benefits of breastfeeding for both the child and mother. I just don't want to see it. A lot of perfectly natural human behaviors are banned in public in America out of respect for public sensibilities. Despite the fact that every single one of us urinates restrooms still have doors. All of us enter the world through childbirth yet the delivery is not performed in street-level storefront windows. I don't even want to mention what can promote men's prostrate health but suffice it to say you don't want to see men doing that very natural act in public either.

I'll even concede that some accommodation to the needs of the mother and child must be made. But unlimited, unrestricted freedom? No way.

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