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I must be honest here. The question itself "Should women be allowed to breastfeed in public areas?" is a bit offensive to me. To think a woman might need permission to feed her baby anywhere seems odd to my mind. Babies need to eat. Some mothers feed babies by nursing them with the breast. I fail to see the problem.

I believe the question we should really be asking is this. Should mothers be allowed to expose their breasts in public areas in order to feed their children? A much better question in my opinion.

So all that to say, of course women should be allowed to breastfeed in public areas and nursing mothers should absolutely not be allowed to expose their breasts in public areas. Both can be accomplished quite nicely with a little practice.

As a mother of seven children and five grandchildren, I am a huge supporter of breastfeeding. I have not only breastfed my own babies but also breastfed other mother's babies in emergency situations. Hey, it was the 70's and I was a true California Earth-Mama. I have proudly watched as my own sweet grandbabies were nursed by their mama's and I rarely saw a breast although I know they were involved in the process. I have even helped a daughter or daughter-in-law with a strategically placed blanket in public in order to feed a squalling baby. I can understand that the sight of a completely exposed stranger's breast can upset the sensibilities of some but I find it difficult to believe the sight of a woman with a blanket over her shoulder would produce the same angst in people. If a blanket toting nursing mother offends someone I gasp to think what the sight of a bottle with an exposed nipple must do to them.

I nursed in public for many years with only one unfortunate incident. I was a new mother with a two week old little son. My husband thought a quick outing to McDonalds would be good for us. This was way back before we knew McDonalds probably wasn't actually that good for us really. Anyway, off we went on our first outing as a new family of three. Once settled in at our booth baby Matthew started to howl. I placed the receiving blanket I had with me over my shoulder and began to feed my son without any complications or stares from others. Feeling very proud of myself I ate my dinner as Matthew nursed happily and fell back asleep. Suddenly my husband caught my attention with a horrified look on his face. He pointed at me and I immediately looked down to discover the blanket had slipped down far enough to see what his horror was about. Our baby had let go of my breast in his milk-induced sleep stupor and milk was literally shooting out of my breast across the table towards my husband. I quickly covered myself, stood up with my little one in my arms and walked as fast as I could to the car. My husband assured me no other patron had seen a thing however, 30 years later I still have not gone back to that McDonalds.

I did go on to have a very fruitful nursing experience over the next 8 years or so without one single mishap. Like I said earlier, both can be accomplished quite nicely with a little practice.

Learn more about this author, Marla Hansen.
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