Public breastfeeding

Breast is best. I rest my case.

Nobody is 'pounced on' - people simply express their own opinion.

Anagram I should have said it more clearly - both breast and bottle fed babies are equally entitled to be fed when they are hungry, and if a baby can be bottle fed on a bench or at a table in the Trafford Centre, who can deny the breast fed baby the same entitlement? There are many more bottle fed babies having their hunger assuaged when you look around a shopping mall.

Yes, I see that, when, but bottle feeding doesn't feature breasts, which a lot of people still see as objects of sexual titillation - hence the tut-tutting disapproval of breast-feeding in public.

.....but W H Smiths have breasts with nipples on display, and they are definitely there for titillation! No wonder breast feeding mums feel they need to collaborate to change the distorted views of tutting people who don't have a hungry baby to feed. That's not the mums' fault - it's our sexualised society.

I agree - I didn't say I agreed with the tut-tutters!

I am always disappointed to hear women complaining about other women just because they are breastfeeding their babies. That is what breasts are for! They are not playthings for men but are there, like on all mamals as a necessary milk supply. Without them we humans would have died out long ago.

Yes. But it's quite nice when................

Oh, never mind!

I can't remember that far back.....

I find it more offensive to see young mums feeding a baby in a pushchair with a bottle, instead of picking the babe up and cuddling it.
Some poor children spend all day in the buggy

Me too, Ella, and i don't like to see a baby being fed without being able to gaze into mum's eyes. If i see one more mum texting whilst feeding her baby.....!

When I give my dgd a bottle, she gazes up at me with big eyes. How can these mums not want to do that?

Same here

DS1 used to grin at me when he was breastfeeding, and the milk would dribble out of the sides of his mouth! DS2 was far too greedy to let that happen. Oh and after DS1 had grinned, he would then clench his teeth and bite. Soon after that he weaned himself. Brother never ever bit me.

Just seen this thread. I know I should say it's okay to breastfeed anywhere in public but it does make me tense in restaurants etc. If a woman bared her breasts in the High Street for any other reason she's probably be arrested.

Yeh, Petallus - at last the voice of reason. And to all those who want women to be asexual walking milk banks - why do we have doors on toilets, we have the right to perform a natural function, why privacy? Because there are some things where a little privacy and mystery [not the toilet of course] make life richer - not sticking it all out there in the public domain just because we can.

Why object to mums texting while feeding; giving the baby a bottle to be getting on with in a buggy; those mums have rights and are exercising them. But it is offensive to some people seeing it done. Voila, so is breastfeeding in public.

Greatnan - of course I posted to stir up a conversation, and it certainly did that - but I do think some things are best kept private and bodily functions - which, like it or not, breastfeeding is, certainly should. One and all seem to think it's a very special, precious thing to do, so why bring it down to a function that must not interrupt shopping or daily life by simply taking time out to go to a quiet room.

Wisewoman - absolutely! Spot on.

Yes, but you can't have mothers tied to the home Nanban. And there aren't often quiet rooms available.

I don't understand why you can't just avert your eyes. Which would be the considerate thing to do anyway.

Don't you actually enjoy your food. Why would you want to look anywhere else but at your plate? Or, at the most, at the person with you.

Annobel that is so sweet about little one grinning at you!

I take your point Nanban but don't agree about the way mums text whilst feeding their baby, in the same way that I object to people texting whilst they are eating at the dinner table. What are they teaching their children? Family time is precious enough, without mum, dad or teenagers chatting and Facebooking when they are sharing a meal.

Jingle I agree with you.

Regarding women baring their breasts in public - there is a world of difference between a public display of exhibitionism, and a breast feeding mum freeing enough of her breast to be able to feed her baby.

We were driving through a village and saw a woman sitting on the pavement breastfeeding a toddler, nothing wrong with that except she had both breasts out and her legs apart with skirt hitched up. To be perfectly honest I was nearly sick, she did nothing to promote breastfeeding.

Harrigran - the woman obviously had problems but your anecdote is hardly relevant to the huge majority of breast-feeding mothers.

Thanks a lot Greatnan think i'll just b****r off back to France