Complete Coverage has appeared both in the print edition and the online edition of an actual parenting magazine.
This essay started out at twice the length for a book of humorous nursing tales that eventually got cancelled. It’s the first “personal experience” column this particular magazine is trying out, so I guess I had terrific timing for once!
Enjoy!
Oh, I remember those days well! FIL leaving the room. Mom telling me that, while she wasn’t embarrassed, it was rude of me to make him uncomfortable. Being glad another had already nursed in front of the school-friends, and for Dad’s coworker who took her baby to a Christmas party. Finding that the “access ports” on the expensive clothing are useless. Flash forward three years and, high on painkillers, trying to get a two-week old to latch on at a school reunion; hey, all were parents themselves by then, but still,… ; when I ditched the “privacy cloth” and got her settled, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I hear, though, it’s going the other way; bottle feeding is getting nasty looks. Nasty looks at a new mom are bad, period.