Wednesday, July 7, 2010

My Nursing In Public Leaflet

I wrote up a little handout in Word, but even with instructions from the Help menu I couldn't make it work. Here is the text, so you can copy it into Word or PageMaker or some other program of your liking. I used Word, and made three columns with lines in between so I could cut the columns into small leaflets I could hand to people. That way, if someone decides to get in my face about nursing in public ever again, or just looks confused, I can just hand it to them and they can read it on their own. Or more likely throw it away, but who knows. I live in Ohio, so I've copied the Ohio legislation reference from NursingFreedom.org's list. You can click here to go and find your own state's legislation reference and replace the text appropriately. Some states have more protections than others.

I'm not copyrighting this, because I want people to use it! If you refer to it elsewhere, do me the courtesy of linking here to let people read it here. You can copy it, customize it, use it. Just please, please don't say it's mine if you've changed it significantly. I don't want to be blamed for another person's hostile verbiage, nor do I deserve the credit if somebody makes it into a journalistic masterpiece. That said, have at.

Ohio State Law Protects Breastfeeding!
ORC Ann. 3781.55 (Lexis 2009) entitles a mother to breastfeed her baby in any location of a place of public accommodation wherein the mother otherwise is permitted.

What do you want your children to learn about the purpose of the human breast?
Women and girls display their breasts as "toys" by the use of revealing clothing, and the breast is sexualized in the media and in society. If these displays are accepted by society, then should the breast's primary natural function deserve less respect? Think about what you want your children to learn about respect for the female body and the act of feeding a baby.

Please don't be scared by mothers and babies nursing in public!
There are two basic rules: Don't Stare, and Don't Distract The Baby. You can make eye contact with most mamas, smile, say "hello". We will not slap you if your eye wanders down. That is natural. As long as you have the common decency not to let it linger there, most mamas will not mind. Just don't stare, and there is usually no issue. We nursing mamas want you to relax around us. There's nothing to be scared of. We're just feeding our babies.

Thank you for your understanding.
Most of us are happy to educate. Don't be afraid to ask a question.

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