Time for a Breastfeeding in Public thread

We need to get weaned off all the spanking hoo-ha.

I say it is ok with me, although a woman nursing on a plane next to me might make me a bit uncomfortable.

This woman is showing some talent - duals!:

then I think it's out of place :P

:crazy:

The mother kept one infant on her lap while she fed the other two, then rotated.

I know several ladies who've bfed 3 at once, including one lady I met on the bus when LK was an infant who has nursed her own child, expresssed enough for a neighbor's twins and had leftover milk for the milk bank. That's so cool.

A child has the right to be fed anywhere one is allowed to bring that child.

I always took the seat near the window and would feed out of the breast closest to the window. Breastfeeding was great when flying because whenever the baby's ears needed to pop you just give him some milk and no crying just happy baby.

It made flying with my three month old a breeze. No one around me even knew she was there she was so quiet.

I try to avert my eyes so as not to seem like a perv. That makes it a little awkward.

My eyes are always drawn to a woman's breasts. It's hard not to sneak a peek. Must have had a great time as a baby!

All for it (the thread, the weening, and the public breastfeeding). It's never really bothered me. I think it's an intimate time between a woman and her baby, but if she wants to air that intimacy to the public, it doesn't bother me.

KJ

and everyone on a plane should be grateful..

Whatever it takes to stop the crying.

I think it's weird that anyone has a problem with breastfeeding.

under which the child cannot suffocate are the most discreet alternative. Some women truly don't get it.

As for spanking. . ."violence only begets violence only begets more violence."

Just need some clarification because my interpretation is not flattering. Thanks!

I just meant there are generally ways to go into corners of airplanes or restaurants and shroud both baby and boob to not offend anyone. I was thankfully always able to do this. I've seen other moms be completely indiscreet.

What did you find as unflattering?

goodness I am reluctant to get into this. LOL!

I agree that there are discrete ways to breastfeed in public and there are rather unnecessarily revealing ways. The problem is that not everyone has the same sensibilities. A woman who shows a modicum of breast to latch her child doesn't necessarily "not get it." That's just her comfort level. She may have the perception that someone like you is "slinking off to the corner" or going overboard to cover up to do something entirely natural and that you are the one who "doesn't get it."

*shrug* It's perception, opinion and that is why 100% of the population will probably never reach a consensus on this subject. Assuming the other point of view "doesn't get it" it pretty dismissive of their perspective and their intelligence.

Keep in mind this is coming from someone who was such a piss poor nurser she couldn't bring herself to breastfeed in public. Unless I was practically nude and contorted in a variety of odd positions I couldn't get my infants to latch properly. Not exactly the situation you want to get into at the cafe in Barnes & Noble. ;)

But breast feeding for me was an intensely bonding experience and the fewer projections, the better. Call me prudish but I don't think negative projections from offended onlookers can possibly be good for the mommie or the child or for that matter, the offended onlookers.

If your style didn't cause a ruckus I'm sure you did fine. And I wasn't being dismissive. It's just that I feel, the less turbulance, the better. That's all.

I wasn't saying you were being dismissive which is why I asked you to clarify. You asked what could be unflattering about it and that's one possible interpretation of your comment. You and I are actually probably in agreement on the subject.

Why should I shroud feeding my children?
Is this something that I should be ashamed of?

Are people "Discreet" with bottles?

The more that people (other women, children, men etc.) that see breastfeeding the more comfortable they become with it.

while they were sitting in the grocery cart. She just whipped it out and let him have at it.

for me it was merely a question of privacy. It inherently felt important to the treasured sanctity of the connection between me and my kid.

If that's a none issue for you and you are comfortable flaunting it then go ahead. You've got thicker skin than I and I trust that your kids do too. Just not my style. If it's your's then fine.

Not a matter of shame at all. There is a rather huge distinction between shame and discretion.

I am not advocating what she did, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen! I breastfeed both my children till they were eighteen months and I very rarely ever did it out in public. I just always made sure their bellies were full before we left! It just that some women get offended if you say there should be limits and I dont understand that.

realized that what that women did in the grocery store may not have been something that you would have been comfortable doing but that she was comfortable to do it. As she should be.

Would you bat an eyelash at someone feeding a bottle full of artificial milk to their baby in the cart while shopping?

imply shame rather than discretion?
"Flaunting It" ? "Just not my style."

Come on.

I'm a yankee prude. Whatever works for you.

what so ever. It just saddens me that so many women will consider themselves "Prudes" because they listen to someone else's ( formula manufacturers, religiously fueled aversion to the body, sexist ignorance etc.) BS.

Private, Yes. Prude, No.

“treasured sanctity of the connection between me and my kid”

Sounds to me like that was the Pro-lactin talking.

For me there’s nothing really private about it -- wonderful and beautiful, yes. Nature at it’s finest, yes.
But something to be hidden? Nah. Supernatural or Mystical? Nope. Mammalian Biology, plain and simple and the more we hide it, or make other women feel like they should, the more people will suffer.

But that's my issue, and i can deal with it by looking elsewhere.

Its natural. Its healthy. I have no problem whatever with it. I suspect as many moms are uncomfortable about this (fearing leering from others) as anyone else.

If you're opposed to breastfeeding in public, in my book, its your problem, not the mom's.

If you're uncomfortable about it ... ask yourself why.

I'm a man and I'll be very homest here. I worry about me. I'm gonna tend to look. Its not that I'm a perv .... but I would wanna look. I'm able to *not* look cuz I'm a grownup ........ but I've slipped up a time or two ..... and it could happen again. :shrug:

So shoot me ... I'm human.

I eat in public. I see no reason to deny the civil liberty to others - even infants. :shrug:

About looking: I look. I don't stare. I regard the sight as peaceful, loving, and entirely healthy. I think those are things that should be visible and enjoyed as a human family.

Ho hum and quite frankly, some of the adult eating I see in public is far grosser than any baby nursing could be.

of a multi-tasking Venezualan woman? She had a few points to communicate to her president and her infant's agenda was FOOD NOW. No problem! The kid ate, she talked and Chavez listened. It was such a beautiful shot. One of the security guy's curiosity got the better of him. ;-)

I think it's kinda bizarre that nursing infants has become something "other-worldly." Once upon a time (like when I was a kid), folks didn't think the store-bought stuff was either good for the kid or a wise expenditure. Infants went with their moms ... since a wet-nurse (babysitter) wasn't "normal" either. Stay at home? Nonsense. Thank goodness this insanity is mostly limited to the U.S. We're a sick people. :shrug:

I also recall that my earliest impressions of breasts-as-sex-objects was that the healthy and loving playfulness of a husband or boyfriend was suggestive of having kids - i.e. that a little squeeze was akin to saying "want a baby?" Thus, as my own libido matured, I was always a lot more "southern" in my attentions. After all, I was breastfed and weaned so it was time to move on. :evilgrin:

in public bother people, No, not usually, I must qualify, there are some people whose table manners are such that it is better for them to be fed in the Public restroom than making a mom feeding her infant in a Toilet stall.

I've been too many places around the world to be hung up about how fastidious anyone else is. Who knows? Some people might be put off when I hold a ham and cheese sandwich in my left hand and eat it. :shrug: :silly:

and pillage. I mean sheesh Give me a break......Aren't we above this sort of immaturity?

breastfed everywhere. wasnt a deal. would walk in on it all over the place. no one bothered.

talking how funny it is, this one thing we have regressed so and people are wanting it hidden., lol

ponder that

more free in the 50' and 60's than now

Thanks for posting that.

I'm a "Double-Banger" too, and the only problem that I encounter are other people's misinformed, ignorant attitudes.

I try to be as discreet as possible but refuse to be "embarrassed” by feeding my babies the way they were born to be fed.

Here's a good link for those that would like to learn more:

http://www.kathydettwyler.org/dettwyler.html

And here's one of my favorite’s :
The Cultural Context of Breastfeeding
by Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.

http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detcontext.html

And the WAR On Breastfeeding waged against us all by the very powerful formula manufacturers ( pharmaceutical companies ) is a very political one. It truly hurts families.

The Milky Way of Doing Business
by Katie Allison Granju

http://www.drjaygordon.com/bf/stories/milky.htm
And this gut nearly made me pop a vein in my forehead:

Time for Congress to get serious about WHO's excesses
By James K. Glassman
Scripps Howard News Service

http://www.sitnews.us/Columns/0405/040405_james_glassman.html

I even bring my own tiger cubs

made me think of the one time I went to work and left a critical part of the breastpump at home. Not a good morning. I dashed over to my daughter's daycare and fortunately, she was in the mood for a snack, but I had a mental image of myself, engorged and desperate, asking her teachers, "Got any hungry babies?" When they ran the tiger cub story on Countdown the other night, I had a flashback to that day and wondered how I would have reacted if they'd said, "Sure. Here's two." :7

"a woman nursing on a plane might make me uncomfortable."

yes, forget nourishing an INFANT if an adult is somehow unnerved.

weird.

boy, xtianity and judaism sure convoluted our mental processes. If this is how most of us feel, and it probably is, we are all certfiable.

Nowhere. He or she merely said that it might make them uncomfortable. YOU decided that somehow meant not feeding the child.

who want to breastfeed, and they should be encouraged and helped whenever possible.

When I was in the hospital with my firstborn, I shared a room and the father of another baby in there was SHOCKED that I was breastfeeding. In my hospital room.

Actually - I wasn't any attention to him and wouldn't have known - but my husband noticed. I suppose it's a guy thing.

I just tossed a receiving blanket over my shoulder while he nursed. I'm not a prude but it never occurred to me not to have a light cover over my breast as he ate and it sure never interfered with his appetite.

Perhaps I was protecting the public. I didn't cover myself at home and there were a couple times someone came in the room as he was nursing and he turned his head to look over, sending a stream of breast milk across the room. One got hit.

This was in 73/74, I didn't know other people who breast fed so it might have been even less accepted then. I breastfed because there would be no bottles to warm or wash, that should be inducement enough, let alone all the health benefits. In retrospect our formula then was not very healthy...can't believe they just got around to including all the EFA's.

On the other hand if it were today I would be tempted to get my milk checked for toxins. We lived in Michigan and that was the time that fire retardants were accidentally mixed in cattlefeed...

Whenever I find an article about the better health or IQ of breast fed babies I send it to my son, suggesting Godiva as an appropriate thanks. But I always add "Sorry about the PBBs"

"Whenever I find an article about the better health or IQ of breast fed babies I send it to my son, suggesting Godiva as an appropriate thanks."

That's Great -- Funny !
:D

Everyone has them, even men. It is interesting that we can show the nipples of any man any time, even the ones who need "Bros" or is it a "Manssiere". But the nipple of a women, God Forbid! It is amazing who much of the breast tissue can be shown on TV, Music Videos, PG Movies etc but the nipple gets fuzzed out, Breasts are FATTY TISSUE, women just have more of it. Most women I know who have or are breastfeeding infants are very subtle about it and nipple is never seen. Breasts are meant to feed human infants. I frankly think the Viagra, Cialis, Levitra (now that's a name) ads during the Super Bowl were far more offensive than Janet Jackson's breast.

they were around a year and a half. (Usually it was when they started biting more than they were drinking-Ouch!)
I never covered in public, unless I was cold. I got a few scowls, had a teenager look at me nursing and give an "Ohmigawd gross!", got a lot of appreciative smiles, and a few giggles. But mostly people just looked away.
I love to see women breastfeed it's such a wonderful tender time- except it makes me a little jealous because I miss it.