Too bad, so sad
Even before the pandemic, a sea of extended family and friends with arms stretched out demanding their "turn" to hold your precious child, fresh from the womb, was enough to make you turn and run!
Playing "pass the parcel" with a new baby seems innocuous to some people and your hesitancy can be interpreted with a whole range of negative connotations.
However, for a baby in the #4thtrimester, the sensory overload of multiple faces and arms, voices and smells can be overwhelming. Then, when they show signs of distress, self-designated "baby whisperers" can whisk them further away from mum, adding unfamiliar soothing techniques to the experience and ignoring the baby's cues.
When you do finally retrieve your infant, they can smell of foreign perfumes, be crying inconsolably or have missed a breastfeed and fallen asleep from exhaustion.
As family events return in some places post-lockdowns, older babies are confronted by unfamiliar people and environments, overstimulated by loud voices and background music and visual overwhelm from things like bright lights, balloons and other stimulus.
Thank goodness for #babywearing! Unlike a pram or car restraint, reaching into a baby carrier and removing a sleeping baby for a cuddle is beyond the limits of social boundaries for all but the most determined great aunt! And the more complicated that carrier looks, the more intimidating it can appear!
Now is not the time to defend your rights to breastfeed anywhere, anytime! Instead, seek out a private room muttering something about being shy and retreat to change, feed and settle your baby back to sleep in the carrier before rejoining the crowd.
Sure, there are bound to be snide comments about not "sharing" the baby and comments about spoiling and other dire predictions but you're the one going home with an overwhelmed baby at the end of the day, so follow your instincts and maintain your infant's social distancing bubble! There is plenty of time ahead for them to get to know the wider circle of people in their life but Mothers Day Lunch in a restaurant just weeks after birth is not the time!
Keep your baby and smile apologetically: maybe next time ;)
