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My wife and I agreed that she would breast feed our three children, which she did. We both felt it would be beneficial to our children, and it was. All three are now adults and doing well.

However, we also agreed that breastfeeding our children was a private matter, not something to be done in public. It was not that breastfeeding was a shameful act in our minds. But we both thought of it as a very private act.

I must admit that I have a problem with the phrasing "should women be allowed?" I do not want to see laws passed forbidding breast feeding in public places. The issue is not really a legal one, nor should it be. The issue is privacy, and the privacy necessary for a mother and baby to successfully engage in breast feeding simply is not available in a public place. Throwing a blanket over baby and breast does not provide adequate privacy.

The issue is not even so much that there may be those in public places who are gratified by the hope of a glimpse of an exposed breast. Again it is the privacy issue, the fact that the act of breast feeding is an act of intimacy.

I am very glad my wife agreed to breast feed our children. I am also very glad she decided to do it in places shielded from the public eye, places where the intimacy of the family could be protected and embraced.

Learn more about this author, Tom Parsons.
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