Five months after giving birth to my first child, I boarded an Amtrak train with him to Princeton University. During that trip, I joined a panel and gave a speech. I have a precious memory of him sleeping on me in a carrier as I talked about the failures of feminism to Princeton students. (I think having a baby around actually made the questions much more civil.) He nursed everywhere — on a train, in a classroom, outside. He had a great day with his mom; I had a wonderful day with him and got some work done.

If conservative media personality Isabella Riley Moody had it her way, that adventure would never have happened.

Moody tweeted last month, “I find it so weird when women breastfeed in public. Like you can’t have bottles prepared before you leave the house? Put your juggies away.”

Moody isn’t alone in her shaming of mothers who nurse in public. A mother in Texas was asked by an officer to leave a public pool after being confronted by the pool manager while nursing. Singer Michelle Branch tweeted about being “shamed by another mother” for nursing her newborn on a playground bench.

Not only do new mothers have an unpredictable baby to care for, but they must figure out how to navigate the mommy wars right away. One of the first landmines is about breastfeeding, whether to do it and, according to some, where to do it.

After receiving strong responses pushing back, Moody shared that she is pregnant with her first child and is specifically concerned about women overexposing their breasts. She will quickly learn that there are many reasons mothers nurse in public. Most basically, if her baby is hungry, a nursing mom will feed her child, including in public.

Even for those mothers who would prefer not to nurse in public, babies don’t always stick to an eating schedule, especially newborns. A mother who plans an outing around her baby’s feeding schedule might get a surprise. And not all babies, especially very young babies, take bottles.

This means some are faced with a choice: A mother who doesn’t want to nurse in public can either stay home all the time to make sure she doesn’t need to nurse in public or feed the baby.

Pushing a narrative that encourages mothers to stay home by themselves to care for babies all the time isn’t good for mothers. As a society, we shouldn’t socially isolate mothers.

Furthermore, this idea makes motherhood less attractive for women. It is no wonder the birthrate is down in the U.S. The total fertility rate in the U.S. is now 1.7 births per woman, which is below the 2.1 replacement rate.

Timing of nursing gets even more complicated with older children around. Sometimes I have nursed at a playground so that an older sibling can play outside.

And don’t forget that even if a mother leaves a baby at home, she might still need to pump (which has the same exposure issue) if she is out for an extended period to keep her milk supply up. I once pumped in a hair salon closet in New York City just to keep my supply up while on a quick day trip.

While Moody’s tweet is likely purposely provocative, we shouldn’t make motherhood more difficult at a time when a lot of the messages young women hear are about how wonderful life without children is. One representative BuzzFeed headline from the past year reads, “People Are Sharing The Biggest Reasons They Don’t Want Kids, And Every Single One is Valid.”

Mothers should be encouraged to take care of their babies and themselves by actively joining society, including when that means nursing in public.

Karin Lips (@klips) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is the founder and president of the Network of enlightened Women, as well as a senior fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum.

This article was originally published by the Washington Examiner.