They still don't get it

Bottle feeding can be the best thing for some babies.
It was for one of mine, the other two were fine being breast fed.

This isn't about what is best for babies or their mothers. It's about people being screwed up about one way of feeding a baby and not another even though we are just mammal animals like all the other mammal animals. We are lucky that we have a choice about feeding method. Other mammals don't so their babies die if they can't do it. Ours don't. That's good.

Why do some people feel uncomfortable if they see a woman breastfeeding? Why? What are they afraid of? I really do think it's weird.

I do not think bottle feeding is weird. I do not think breast feeding is weird. I think it's weird some people think one of those is weird. OK people are weird.

Hmm, I guess I knew that already.

We have forgotten that we are animals.

petallus Bottles filled with cow's milk have been used to feed babies or supplement their feeds for centuries. It wasn't freeze dried like Cow & Gate but that's the only real difference.

Twenty images of Our Lady of the Milk. Disturbing at all?

Anyone who thinks so needs to see a shrink.

This, as has been said, is not meant to be a discussion of the benefits of breast feeding. It's about the irrational reaction of certain people to the perfectly natural sight of a woman feeding her child.

Who is disturbed?

'Allo, 'allo, whatever happened to that picture of The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies?

Petallus - all it says is that there is nothing lovelier than a mother breast feeding her baby.

Exactly anno

Virtually nobody is disturbed.
It is almost a non-issue.

No-one on here seems to be disturbed; however, there may be certain people who are. There is absolutely nothing wrong with breastfeeding a child in public but some people could be somewhat embarrassed.
It is a matter of thoughtfulness for other people who could be perturbed, which many of today's younger people appear to lack.

I don't care where mothers breast feed their babies, but I don't agree that there's no sight lovelier.

I don"t for one moment think people are weird !!
I like the human race!!

Rose - what are you saying? That the rights of those -- perverted, twisted small minded people--who are perturbed ( whatever that means) should trump the rights of mothers who want to breast feed? Why not turn it on its head and say that if you are perturbed you could just stay at home?

thatbags had a look at the images. I confess I was a little taken aback by the one of the Virgin Mary squirting milk from her breast some distance (about five feet) downwards into the mouth of St Bernard.

There was a similar scene in the Little Britain 'bitty' sketches I seem to remember.

Oh yes, I'd forgotten those, petallus! How the nation laughed...

I think they squirmed rather than laughed Ana

Exactly - hence the emoticon, petallus!

That's the pic I like best, petallus. It's really funny. I could never squirt that far. Mind you, I wasn't a virgin when I gave birth either.

I agree, ana, about the slight excessiveness of the "nothing lovelier" idea.

I'm off to bed now to dream of how wonderful it would be if "ostentatiously" breast feeding women could give their detractors a well-aimed eyeful of milk every now and then à la Virgin to St Bernard. Chuckle.

I think the Little Britain sketches about breastfeeding probably played quite a part in turning a lot of young women off breastfeeding. Some of their stuff was funny but a lot of it was stomach churning .

I am not talking about rights GT, just thoughtfulness for others.

That is a problem these days (not the breastfeeding itself), it's that everyone always shouts about their rights and don't often consider other people's feelings.
It is a perfectly natural process imo, but I was just saying that some people may find it uncomfortable to be eating their scones with clotted cream whilst someone on the next table is breastfeeding.
It doesn't bother me but it may bother some. It does not make them perverted or twisted to have a different opinion.

But then, perhaps I have been brought up to consider other people's feelings and many people have not.

Why does this discussion remind me of Bunuel's 'The Phantom of Liberty'?

Well, I was going to mention that farting is perfectly natural too, grumppa but I would attempt to refrain from it when in a public restaurant.

grumpa please enlighten this ignoramus.

A surreal satire on what are and are not social norms; probably the best-known scene is the one where the guests sit in a circle on lavatories and chat, and retire to separate private cubicles to eat.