The mom, her baby, and You: breastfeeding.

I live on the north shore of Chicago, the suburbs directly north of the city.

This is a place where people aren't too...willing to be your best friend in a minute, or two, or ten.

It's not that there aren't nice people here, it's that, well,
it takes a while to get to know them.

However, this is all together different if you have
a. someone who is over fifty or under twenty-two, and
b. you have a baby with you.

Now, those under 22 will say "oh, a baby!" and usually not much else, and that's ok.

Those over fifty have one burning question they must ask:

"Are you breastfeeding?"

This is funny because I blissfully went around without my preggo belly getting touched for almost my entire pregnancy.  Now that my girl is outta da womb, they have to know.

Men and women alike will ask,
and though it's only happened to me a few times, it seems that it doesn't matter to them whether or not I would care to discuss such a thing, they need to know.

I say yes, because I am nursing, and they say something like,
"Oh good - that's great for the baby," or
"Oh good, that's the best you can give," or
"Oh good - better than formula,"
and usually there is a brief story with that, if not several brief stories.

I have a feeling that somewhere along the line, or even this day in age, these BF advocates or their children felt pressure to formula feed or saw someone give up, and they didn't understand why.  Or maybe these individuals really felt the concern for my little girl that she was getting the best from me. Good thing that in these circumstances, I also had impeccable hair and totally unstained clothes, too.  Kidding, though they didn't even make a glance at that (also untypical for that not to happen on the North Shore). 

I was a formula-fed baby, and now I'm breastfeeding my own.  I know that there are circumstances that make formula the better choice at least for the mom, and the baby is, all things considered, doing just fine with that decision.

Any formula company advertisement will tell you, "breast is best," but they should really consider coming to North Shore Chicago and get in touch with the folks around here.  They will make sure you are breastfeeding or at least know why you should!