Advocates of breastfeeding in VA won a victory last month when the state Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill that legally protects mothers’ rights to breastfeed in public.

The previous law allowed breastfeeding on public property owned by the state of VA, such as libraries and state parks. Under the new law, mothers will be allowed to feed their infants wherever they want, even if the owners of a private establishment disapprove.

Lactivists, which is a portmanteau for lactation activists, are responsible for the overwhelming success of the campaign.

The bill passed unanimously in the Senate, after congressmen heard testimony from nursing mothers. That’s right – these mothers were actually nursing their babies while they stood and testified before the House of Delegates.

I’ve got to hand it to them, that takes some guts. Nursing in public is one thing, but nursing while speaking to a panel of unfamiliar middle-aged men is quite another. I can only aspire to be as uninhibited and determined as those women.

Lactivists are responsible for many of the strides made in breastfeeding laws. In 2007, lactivists gathered in the streets of New York City to protest the rude comments Barbara Walters made about public nursing.

Perhaps most the most ironic case of breastfeeding discrimination was at a Victoria’s Secret in Texas this past January. After buying several items from the store, a young mother asked if she could nurse her 4-month old in the dressing room.

An especially rude employee told her that nursing was not allowed in the store and told her to breastfeed at the back of the adjacent alley, so that no one would see her. The mother was shocked and insulted, an understandable reaction to the suggestion that breastfeeding is not a perfectly acceptable and natural human process.

This is especially ironic since Victoria’s Secret has so many open displays of breasts in their store. For a company that sells bras and makes a living off of breasts, why aren’t they comfortable with women demonstrating the true purpose of their boobs?

A common phenomenon among the lactivist community are “nurse-ins”, which is a take off on the sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement. Nurse-ins have taken place around the country, typically at public facilities that rudely told breastfeeding mothers to leave.

Virginia came a little late to the nursing party. When the bill goes into effect in July, we will be the 48 state to legalize public nursing. Idaho and South Dakota are the two states that still have not gotten the memo.

Though I’m not a mother and don’t plan to become one for at least a decade, I support breastfeeding and women’s rights to nurse in public.

My own mother cares a great deal about this issue. She has made it clear that she will disown me if I don’t breastfeed her grandchildren, and I don’t doubt her sincerity.

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), breastmilk contains the ideal balance of nutrients for newborn infants and helps them grow into healthy toddlers. It also helps protect babies from infections and diseases that are common throughout childhood.

Breastfeeding not only has incredible health benefits for babies, but for mothers as well. NIH reports that mothers who have breastfed are less susceptible to certain types of cancer. On a more superficial note, the USDA reports that breastfeeding helps mothers lose weight after pregnancy because extra calories are being used.

So I am happy to say that in ten or so years from now, when my hungry newborn starts crying in public, I’ll be able to feed my baby without being berated.