To the editor:

As a nursing mother, I absolutely believe legislation is in order to secure the rights of infants who are breast-fed. There is no better — or more convenient — food source for babies than mother’s milk, and a mother with a hungry infant should not have to think twice about feeding her child.

When a baby is hungry, he wants to eat. I have breast-fed my son in the library, in church, on a bus, at the grocery store and even in the aisle at Wal-Mart. Fortunately, my experiences with breast-feeding in public have always been positive. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Although I like to think that breast-feeding is gaining acceptance as people become more educated about nutrition and child-rearing, one has only to look at the Janet Jackson/Super Bowl fiasco to acknowledge that many people are very uncomfortable with breasts. As a breast-feeding mom, I found the public and media response to the flash of Ms. Jackson’s one little nipple to be infuriating. After all, it is just a breast; its function is to feed a child. I understand that in our culture that natural function is not considered the breast’s primary purpose. And THAT is the reason why we need legislation to protect a child’s right to benefit from nursing.

It is not shameful; it is not perverse. It is the most natural thing in the world, and we need the law to uphold our children’s right to receive the best we have to give.

Tamara Fairbanks-Ishmael,

Lawrence