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Good for her! I'd be proud too, if I'd manage to breastfeed a baby while going to school. That's a lot of work.

I'm disgusted at the people attacking this mama.

I'm always happy to see mamas beautifully feeding their babies anywhere and everywhere.

As supportive as I am of breastfeeding and nursing in public, I think this kind of thing gives it a bad rap. Her goal was to make a statement, but I really think nursing discreetly is a better way to normalize breastfeeding than making a scene.

I also think her achievement is amazing and she should be very proud!

@Arden: I agree. I see a lot more breast than this in the summers, on TV, and in ads. I know that once my LO was old enough she hated the cover. Maybe her child doesn't like covers. But that doesn't matter, this should be normal. I used the double tank top approach but people would stare at me even then, when no part of my breast was exposed. I think a lot of people have problems with boobs when they are being used as they were meant to be used.

@Applesandbananas: How is nursing like this making a scene? As I said, it isn't "making a scene" unless someone else chooses to make it one. If people aren't staring or whispering or making comments, it's not a scene. It's a mom feeding her baby, end of story.

How does feeding this way take away from the natural beauty? I'm sorry but I just can't understand your reasoning. Feeding a baby is feeding a baby - whether or not you have a couple more inches of your chest showing should not change that.

I certainly take no issue with you choosing to nurse discreetly, but I do take issue with you thinking other women should have to make the same choice.

Women should be free to feed their babies however they choose. The last thing we need is even more pressure from other moms to do it a certain way. There is no right or wrong when it comes to feeding babies.

@Applesandbananas: You are definitely entitled to your opinion, I just really find it sad when we as mothers judge other mamas for not feeding the "right" way so I may have jumped into this conversation with a little more passion then necessary. I apologize if you felt attacked.

I still can't figure out how in the world she "made a scene", and I completely support her posting the photo on social media. That's part of normalizing - celebrating it. Acknowledging that this is part of life that deserves to be photographed and shared.

I'm fine with the boobs. You gotta do what you gotta do when you're nursing/feeding a baby and I get why people don't like to use covers. That's fine. That said, I'm not sure I agree with even having your baby with you while sitting in graduation. I understand it's hard for some babies/moms to be separated, but moms still have to go to work, to classes, to graduation. I'm not adamantly against it or anything. But I can see why this can be interpreted as making a scene when instead of just quietly nursing and moving on she took a picture and posted it while the ceremony was going on, thereby drawing attention to it. I also don't know that this does much to normalize breastfeeding, but when I think of normalizing breastfeeding I think more along the lines of not FREAKING out over boobs and acknowledging that bf is a natural thing and a huge part of a baby's life, not to be shamed. That doesn't necessarily mean to me that moms and babies never ever be separated for things like graduations.

I'm pretty sure someone's going to take this offensively but it's not meant that way.

Good for her. Shows there's a way to go before people feel OK with nursing in public. Mom and baby look happy, I don't see how graduation would be an inappropriate time to nurse.

@Applesandbananas: I know what you're saying and I agree. When I nurse M it's between me and him. If we're out and about I am discreet about it. People notice me and can tell what I'm doing but I'm not doing it to make a statement or help normalize breastfeeding. I'm doing it because he's hungry.

@Dandelion: agree

Good for her for graduating with a baby! And I guess good for taking the pic, I would never do that though.

Hmmm.....I think it's fine she's breastfeeding at her graduation but the picture initially struck me as odd because I don't love when people take breastfeeding pics for the sake of saying that they breastfed in X location. But then I read the story and she says her baby was being fussy, so she took her from her mom and started to nurse her and then a friend asked if she could take a pic of them. Seems perfectly ok to me. It also love her cheesy, happy graduation grin

@MamaMoose: Idk, I've seen this on fb and maybe just the source was different but I've seen way more support for this than people disagreeing with it.

eta..Not to say there aren't a**holes out there just throwing insults around and what not. Just where I specifically saw this outside of hb. I think the whole public breastfeeding thing is way different depending where you live.

@Aimed: If she was bottle feeding though the first thought would be happy graduating momma with hungry baby not she's grandstanding. She made a choice on a different way to feed so how does that make her trying to make a point?

I get sad sometimes looking through pictures of my daughter. I have pictures of everyone else feeding her. I have zero pictures of me feeding her even though I was a SAHM who nursed constantly with a baby who rarely took a bottle. It's because people thought it would be embarrassing or inappropriate to take our picture. So I have pictures of our extended family feeding LO but zero pictures to solidify the sweet memories of my time feeding her.

@Maysprout: your post is food for thought for me.

I think it's super inappropriate. There's a time and place for everything. If she were in the stands or after the ceremony I wouldn't see a problem, but it looks like she's sitting with the rest of her class, not cool. This coming from someone who is totally open to BFing in public. If my kid were fussy at a graduation/wedding/whatever where I was part of the center of attention, I would sit off to the side and feed her. I would be pissed if a bridesmaid were at the alter feeding her kid, sit in the front row but get out of the way. Same here, she could have sat with her mom while she fed her baby and then took her position back with her class after. I feel like it does give breast feeding a bad name. And yes, it is natural, but we should still be discrete. Sex is natural, should we be doing that center safe too? But, that's just my opinion.

@MamaMoose: I think I made reference in the previous thread about being bummed that the pendulum has swung so far towards breastfeeding that a well informed mama has to worry about being judged for her choice to formula feed or justify that choice to anyone. That doesn't mean that I think breastfeeding moms don't have their own share of public opinion battles.

The bottom line for me is this - it's all judgey bullshit, every family should have the right to make a well informed decision about how to feed their baby without worrying about backlash or feeling like they have to explain that choice to anyone. Period.

@MsLipGloss: yes, I suppose you're absolutely right that it's unrealistic... But that doesn't mean it's not my ideal. I don't think that working to educate that breastfeeding is natural and normal means that we can't also work against other societal issues such as sexism.

@googly-eyes: we have an accord

This reminds me of those Vagenda headlines going around a few weeks ago, where they rewrote tabloid headlines without the sexism.

"Baby is in a place and gets hungry."

Also applicable,

"Someone does something. People on the Internet get mad."