{image1}Public breastfeeding is legal in Wisconsin.

I had to remind myself this last winter while nursing my son at Bayshore Mall and enduring the disgusted looks of a mall security guard. Although he didn't say anything, his message was loud and clear: feeding my son outside the confines of a bathroom stall was indecent.

I wanted to ask him if he ever eats in public, and if so, why my son shouldn't be allowed the same opportunity?

Breastfeeding is not just for crunchy "Earth Mother" types anymore. Educated women know that human milk is a living, changing fluid that continually adapts to the needs of the developing infant and cannot be duplicated.

"My husband asked me to breastfeed in a bedroom during a family gathering once. I was livid. I needed adult interaction more than anything during the first few months post-partum," says Margaret Luck, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter.

Breastfeeding is also an economically solid choice -- many formulas cost $100 a month -- and is the difference between super-stinky and not-so-stinky diapers. (Ever change the diaper of an entirely breast-fed infant? Nothing but a minimal amount of "mustardy" discharge to deal with.)

Plus -- at risk of sounding like a "lactivist" which, for the record, I am not -- professional research demonstrates that breastfed infants have much lower morbidity rates, and that nursing offers significant immunologic, developmental and nutritional benefits.

All the same, public breastfeeding has become a "bandwagon" issue that many oppose, much like cell phone use in cars. Although there are far greater causes of accidents, like drunk driving, the media has convinced the public that drivers who use cell phones are a digit away from being the devil himself.

It's the same with breastfeeding. Despite the fact it's highly recommended by pediatricians and the World Health Organization, high-profiles like Barbara Walters make ignorant comments and perpetuate the mainstream myth that boobs are okay when flashed by Victoria's Secret models, but not by loving mothers.

"Breasts are everywhere: on television, in movies, on the cover of magazines. Why does anyone in today's world care about seeing one (during a breastfeeding session)?" asks Milwaukee's Mary Randolph, who has a 2-year-old son she breastfeeds before bedtime.

Is seeing a little breast flesh really worse than watching someone hork down a Big Mac, "special sauce" oozing down their stubbly chin? And if so, why not just look away?

Perhaps it's the belief that public nursing is fine, as long as a woman's breast is covered the entire time. This is a fair argument. However, while most women want to cover themselves during public nursings, they sometimes are unable to; whether so eager to stop the screaming that they whip it out without a solid plan, or they are alone and find it difficult or impossible to locate a blanket.

Some, like Milwaukee's Erin Jones, think nursing is a private issue and should be treated as such. "I would never breastfeed in public," she says. "It's between a mother and a child."

OK, but have you ever been on a plane with a cranky baby refusing a bottle? It's times that those that even the prudish would probably agree that a big, fat, exposed breast never sounded better.