Because we went through this phase where nobody breastfed or got down into single digits,
now today people are weird about breastfeeding.
They're squeamish about it.
They get real awkward about it.
Instead of realizing that it's a very normal activity that people have been doing for thousands
of years and that it's normal for women to breastfeed in public.
Now I know there are people who disagree with me on this.
I'm sure there are probably people even here tonight that disagree.
I know that some of my fellow preacher friends disagree with me, but you know what?
I don't care.
What I'm saying is the truth.
Breastfeeding is normal and I allow my wife to breastfeed in public uncovered.
And people freak out about this, but this is what people did for thousands of years.
Okay?
I mean I know people who are so squeamish about this that they literally even in their
own home put a blanket over themselves to breastfeed even in their own home.
Now here's the problem with that, okay?
Try eating your next meal under a blanket, okay?
I challenge you to go home tonight, put a blanket over your head, and eat dinner.
And then when you wake up in the morning, put a blanket over your head and eat a bowl
of cereal.
And bring a blanket with you to work.
And at your lunch break, get out a blanket, put it over your head.
And especially in the summertime, this is going to be difficult.
Now let's say you had to eat with a blanket over your head.
You know what you're going to do?
You're going to finish that meal as fast as you can to get that blanket off your head.
I mean if I had to eat every meal under a blanket, here's what I'd do.
I'd put the blanket over my head, I'd eat as quickly as possible, and get the blanket
off my head.
Well here's what happens.
When women are constantly breastfeeding their child under a blanket, because they have this
kind of overly over the top, prudish, overly modest, where even a normal thing like breastfeeding
has to be hidden and covered, then what happens is the baby just eats for a couple minutes
and then it's done.
It just pretty much gets in there, eats it, gets out.
The thing that releases the bonding hormones and the thing that releases the don't get
pregnant again too soon hormones is the constant suckling.
See, a baby who's not feeding under a blanket will sometimes just nurse because it feels
like it.
It's not even hungry.
It just sort of chills out on the breast and just enjoys it, just for the comfort.
It loves its mother.
So it'll drag that meal out for a long period of time.
So here's the thing, people are breastfeeding their kid hours apart, a couple minutes under
a blanket, boom, move on, get back about my busy life.
That's the problem.
That's why it's not working.
In order to be healthy and have a good relationship with your child and to be able to give birth
to lots of children and not too close together, you have to make breastfeeding a little more
priority and make it comfortable for you and the child.
People are sometimes nervous, too, that someone's going to confront them because there's always
horror stories about women on an airplane getting confronted for breastfeeding or women
getting thrown out of a restaurant.
First of all, all across the United States, it's illegal for anyone to ban breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is not a crime, amen?
They can't throw you out of a plane or a restaurant.
It's not legal.
Breastfeeding doesn't allow you to breastfeed, okay?
And you don't have to be under a blanket.
That's what the law says, okay?
So you don't have to worry about that.
And here's the thing.
My wife has been doing this now for the last 15 years.
She's been breastfeeding nonstop for the last 15 years.
I mean, there's never been a time virtually, hardly at all, that she wasn't breastfeeding
during that time, right?
I mean, she's breastfeeding most of the time for the last breastfeeding we're pregnant,
you know, for the last 15 years.
Has never, have you ever been confronted in public?
Has anyone ever said, "How dare you, you know, draw out the breast and give suck to your
young one in Costco?"
No one has ever said that to her.
No one has ever confronted her about that.
And listen, when my wife and I go to Costco, she walks through Costco with the baby on the
breast right here and walks around Costco like that.
And it's totally normal.
It's as natural as rain.
Now usually, every once in a while you get dirty looks from old ladies because they pumped
so much birth control and bottle fed their kid and they're all bitter because their one
grandchild has green hair and a nose ring or whatever, you know.
So they're jealous of the fact that she's breastfeeding and has all these, you know,
nice clean cut kids.
I mean where you're from in Botswana, is breastfeeding publicly pretty normal or is it squeamish?
Very normal?
Yeah.
That's what I thought.
So anyway, you know, I'm just saying, you know, it's normal.
We need to bring back a culture where being a mother and breastfeeding and staying home
with your kid is not only normal, but it's actually looked upon as being a good thing,
as being a blessing, as being a righteous thing, not something to be ashamed of.
I mean we took a couple of families from our church to a preaching service at another church
in this area, and we went to the church and they were pulled out of the service for breastfeeding,
which isn't legal, but they didn't want to stage a nurse in or do a civil disobedience.
So when the usher came and pulled them out for breastfeeding, and they said, "Okay, well
where can we go to breastfeed?"
They put them in like a literal closet.
I mean they put them in a room that was like, I think it was like six foot by seven foot
or something, or maybe even smaller than that.
It was like a closet with no furnishings, no windows.
It was just like a couple of chairs and they could barely even fit in there, these mothers
with their children breastfeeding.
It was just like, you know, lock them away in some dungeon.
I mean I've seen churches where the breastfeeding room, it's like a stall in the, it's like
a stall in the toilets.
Like why would you, yeah, you really want to breastfeed your kid on a toilet.
But I mean isn't that just so disrespectful and demeaning?
Oh well I guess if you must breastfeed your child because you don't have it on a four
hour schedule yet, here go sit on the toilet.
Go sit in this janitor closet.
Here sit in this mop bucket and do it.
And these churches are filled with people who are using birth control and having one
or two kids and then they don't understand people who actually do it normal and just
have as many kids as God give them.
They don't even understand that mentality.