Being religious doesn't mean you have to be squeamish about baring it all for your baby. Mia Diamond Padwa of Bronx, N.Y., is an observant Jew and the mother of three children. She nurses anytime, anywhere – and that includes shul (synagogue) and Shabbat (Sabbath) meals at other people's homes. "I do not expose myself any more than necessary, nor do I hide in another room," she says.

Padwa laughs as she recalls her son's bris (circumcision). "Right after Shmuel's bris, I was heading into the ... ladies' room to nurse," she says. "The rabbi [asked] with concern if that would be private enough." Ironically, Padwa had been nursing her daughter, Eliana, in the back of the shul for the last three years.

For Padwa, religious modesty doesn't contradict a mother's imperative to feed her children in the best way possible. In fact, breastfeeding is part of Jewish tradition. The Hebrew word for baby, she points out, actually comes from a root meaning "to suckle." "A baby is defined as a nursing baby," she says.

At a conference of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, Padwa addressed the subject of "Breasts, Babies and Boundaries: Breastfeeding in the Talmud." "The Talmud clearly considers breastfeeding the only way to feed a child," she says. "Tzniut [modesty] is certainly an important value, but it is a misinterpretation ... to think that a mother feeding her child is immodest or improper."

Christian women, too, are spreading the word that breastfeeding is part of God's plan for our bodies and our families. Elaine Smith* of Dubuque, Iowa, is a pastor's wife. She cites the verse, "Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her ... for you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance" (Isaiah 66:10-11).

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