Adventures in breastfeeding.

In Ireland it's National Breastfeeding Week from the 1st to the 7th of October. I support this and in a real way I am participating in it because I am breastfeeding, so every week is breastfeeding week around here. Every time I breastfeed my child it feels like a political act, because it is. When I breastfeed in public it's provocatively political. I've breastfed in a hospital, at the doctor's surgery, and in a waiting room. I've breastfed in the park, at the beach and crouched in a muddy lane near a lake. I've breastfed at Seapoint after a swim (several times) and in the grounds of Dublin Castle (just the once). I've breastfed in a rented car, in a borrowed car and in a relative's car (I guess what I'm saying is, I don't own a car). I've breastfed in chairs, on benches, on couches and sofas and chesterfields, and on a picnic blanket in some very picturesque locations. I'm enjoying the journey amd it's taken me (and the baby) to some interesting places.

I tried to send some 'brelfies' to an organisation promoting breastfeeding that had requested them, but the baby was looking for a feed in the other room and I was tired from being up feeding during the night (many nights), so I later found that I hadn't managed to actually attach the photos to my email. The multiple ironies were not lost. Perhaps they'll get the pics I sent hours later and will get to use them after all. It's a strange thing, I'll breastfeed in public yet I hesitate to publish a photo of myself doing it. So this post is unadorned by photographic evidence of this act undertaken many times daily (and nightly). I hope that the organisation was inundated with photos and mine won't be missed. Yet I doubt it - Ireland still has the lowest level of breastfeeding of any European country, and one of the lowest in the world. So we need all the promotion we can muster. And real supports for everyone who wants or tries to breastfeed.

Some great organisatinos like Cuidiú are supporting National Breastfeeding Week. What looks like an interesting breastfeeding event is being held at Maynooth University. Sabina Higgins even held a latching on morning in Áras an Uachtaráin. I hope I'll see more people breastfeeding next time I'm at the park or the beach. Or even Dublin Castle - not a bad location for a political provocation.