I have never had anything but positive reactions when I've nursed Colin in public - although sometimes they were positive reactions I could've done without, as when I was on the plane getting ready to fly with him to Boston and someone whipped out her cell phone and reported, loudly, "There's a little baby on the plane! He's nursing right now!" (She sounded pleased, but it was still something I could've done without announcing to the world.) And Maryland law protects my right to nurse wherever Colin and I are otherwise allowed to be.

But it's clear from public/media discussions about breastfeeding that there are plenty of people out there who are distressed and offended when it happens in public. And in the Internet age, when someone gets told not to breastfeed, everyone hears about it. So I'm aware, for example, that a mother was asked to leave an indoor playground right here in Maryland, a few weeks ago, because she was nursing an infant while she watched her older children play. Thirty years ago I probably never would've heard about that incident.