Nature's best food difficult for public to swallow (WCFCourier.com)

Breast-feeding. That one single word has the power to spark heated public debate.

In 2004, an Iowa City woman was kicked out of a West Branch restaurant because she was nursing her baby. The owner, and then the owner's wife, told her she was upsetting other customers and asked her to feed her baby in the restroom. She refused, so she and her family were then asked to leave.

As a nursing mother, I'd like to ask a question: Why couldn't those customers who were so offended in that restaurant have turned their heads to look in a different direction?

Every time I go out in public with my newborn and he gets hungry, I think of this story as I look for the most unobtrusive place to feed my baby. On my most recent excursion, I found myself huddled on a triangular stool in a dressing room at a department store. The stool was barely big enough for me to sit on, let alone nurse comfortably. But it was either that, let my baby scream at the top of his lungs or plop down on the floor between clothing racks to quench his hunger.



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