Tips for Nursing a Newborn in Public

My newborn and I had our first “official” outing (other than to the offices of the pediatrician or midwife) on the day she turned three weeks old. We attended the community talent show at the local library, which I was pleased to see had a huge display of breastfeeding information (see above) in honor of World Breastfeeding Week! The talent show was so great. There is nothing cuter than: a 3-year-old belting out How Great Is Our God, a 4-year-old barely whispering the ABCs, another 4-year-old humming the Indiana Jones theme song, and a darling girl tap dancing on industrial carpeting in the library rec room! My own 6-year-old did an abridged reading of the book Chrysanthemum. I could not have been prouder and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything! It did take a lot of coordination for me to get there with a newborn though, and it made me think of some tips for nursing a newborn in public.

1. Watch your baby’s cues (rooting, fist in mouth, any fussing) and feed her before she starts to cry. It’s a lot harder to nurse inconspicuously when you’re trying to latch on a wailing newborn!

2. Consider whether you will be more comfortable using nursing clothing or regular clothing. Sometimes for me it’s easier to hike up a regular shirt than it is to fiddle with a nursing shirt. However, at a formal event (like the wedding ceremony I attended briefly yesterday) it is lovely to have a nursing dress rather than having to wear a two-piece outfit or excuse oneself to a private location to hike up a dress!

3. Along the same lines, consider whether using a nursing cover of some sort makes it more difficult or easier to nurse. If you are uncomfortable nursing in public without a cover, then by all means use one, but personally I find it very hard to maneuver a cover over me and the baby and still be able to see to latch the baby on. Plus it’s just too darn hot in the summer in California to use a cover. My motto: do what works for you!

4. Ignore everyone around you! The more you fret over who might be watching and what people might be thinking, the harder it will be to give your baby the attention she needs.

5. It does not bother me to see any level of exposure of a mother’s breast or nipple during a nursing session. I don’t even like to bring up the word “discreet.” What I will say is that the vast majority of nursing mothers do want to be considerate of others around them, and do wish to maintain as much modesty as possible when nursing in public. Having said all that, remember that you are likely much more covered than you think you are when you are nursing in public. I cannot count the number of times people have thought my baby was sleeping in my arms rather than nursing. Granted it’s not easy to get a newborn latched on, but it gets easier and easier (until you’ve got a wiggly toddler and that’s a whole other issue!)