Breastfeeding Mom Has The Perfect Response When Asked To Cover Up

Now THIS is how you respond when someone takes offense to public breastfeeding

We’ve all read the stories about women asked to cover themselves while breastfeeding in public. In fact, there’s an entire movement around “normalizing breastfeeding” because strangers still feel empowered to tell mothers how and how not to feed our kids. So when one mom decided to cover up upon one of these requests, she obliged in the most fantastic way possible.

Melanie Dudley was on vacation in Cabo San Lucas having dinner at a beach restaurant with her back to other diners breastfeeding her three-month-old son. That’s when a stranger approached and asked her to please cover up — so she did. And the photo of her reaction has people slow clapping from all over the world.

“I did have the cover on, but it was so hot. It was like, 95 degrees, and my little baby was sweating,” the Austin, Texas mom told TODAY. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m on vacation, I’m taking this off.’”

She said when the man (who was part of their dinner party) approached, she was taken back and left speechless. “I was kind of stunned,” she said, so she asked her husband to pass her the nursing cover. Her husband snapped the hilarious photo and sent it to his mom, who shared it on Facebook. A friend of hers asked if she could share it and the rest, they say, is history.

Dudley, who also has twin 4-year-old boys, tells Scary Mommy it’s sad to see how much opposition the act of breastfeeding your child still receives. “Every woman should feel comfortable about where, when and how they want to feed their children,” she admits. There are certain subjects that should never be up for discussion — how a person chooses to feed their child and where is one of them.

August is National Breastfeeding Month, an awareness campaign aimed at continuing education around breastfeeding, pumping, workplace accommodations, and general support for moms like Dudley who still face scrutiny trying to feed their child in public. Although breastfeeding in public is legal in all 50 states, it’s still a topic that continues to be a hot-button for people who feel entitled to ask others to do something so they feel more comfortable.

Dudley said she’s received so many positive reactions to the now-viral photo. “I’ve been extremely touched by all the support that has been shown the past few days from women and men around the world.”