Your View On BREASTFEEDING In Public (page 13)

minimus

So, do women have the "right" to breastfeed in public? Legally, can they do it???

sammielee24

It's sad that many breastfeeding mothers are caught in such an awkward dilemma: either they let the child scream blue murder and elicit the disdainful glances of disapproving people around her, or she breastfeeds the baby (discreetly or otherwise) when he or she wants to be fed and elicit the disdainful glances of people who find public breastfeeding offensive, or she becomes a hermit until her child stops doing things that are going to elicit disdainful glances from onlookers.

In this day and age - breast pumps are very affordable and common. A woman has the option of using these to carry the milk with her to her mother in laws house, the airplane, the mall, a busy restaurant...etc. As I said - a woman who is discreet when breastfeeding is so good that nobody around her even knows what she's doing. There are however, women who feel a need to stand up and scream 'my rights'..simply because its the cause of the day. By the way - I'm not against it - some of my sisters chose to do it but they performed the task using respect and common sense for the varying relationships they found themselves in ie; the public, family, friends.sammieswife.

Fe2O3Girl

Bottle feeding expressed milk is not always that simple. My boy wouldn't take a bottle until he was over 5 months old (just as I went back to work - phew). And why should I faff about with sterilising bottles and pumping when he can have it on draught anytime?

On the other hand, some mums do feel so self conscious about nursing that they prefer to bottle feed or hide to nurse. After all, bottles are for feeding and breasts are sexual, right?

Scully

In this day and age - breast pumps are very affordable and common. A woman has the option of using these to carry the milk with her to her mother in laws house, the airplane, the mall, a busy restaurant...etc.

Of course they have the option to do that if that is what they want to do. However, I feel it is inappropriate to impose the option on them. It should be their choice, not the choice of those around her (and even complete strangers) who find it offensive.

The issue is not about pumping or not. There is a ton of information out there about the benefits of not just breastmilk, but also about breastfeeding itself. The physical mechanics of bottlefeeding is different from that of breastfeeding. The way the baby suckles at the breast is amazingly quite different from suckling from a bottle, so much so that it has been established that babies who are exclusively breastfed have a much lower rate of ear infections compared to babies who are bottlefed (even if they were fed breastmilk by bottle), due to the physical dynamics involved. Breastfeeding allows for the baby to drain the Eustachian tubes (the tubes that connect the ear to the throat), due to the way a baby's tongue must move during nursing, whereas drinking from a bottle, the baby mainly uses the tongue to control the flow of milk from the opening of the artificial nipple.

Additionally, breastmilk properties are optimal when the milk is fresh, not frozen, not in contact with plastic, not reheated. Pumping, while it can be utilized to have a store of milk for occasional use, does not provide adequate stimulation (the way cuddling your baby in your arms, smelling him or her while you nurse) to mimic the same milk supply as breastfeeding. Used long-term, pumping by itself is not a way to promote milk supply, in fact, it's difficult for breast pumping to yield the highly nutritional hindmilk that promotes growth; it's not nearly effective at doing that as breastfeeding. Yes, pumping is still preferable to formula feeding, but it's an option, not something that I would recommend routinely to new moms, unless there are issues such as baby being in the NICU and unable to feed.

One of the "pluses" of breastfeeding is that no additional equipment is required. I would feel somewhat resentful if I felt that I had to buy a pump and bottles and all the sterilization paraphernalia needed to give breastmilk from a bottle, if I did not want to go to that expense. And for what? To make someone else feel better? What else do you buy that you don't need or necessarily want, just because it makes someone else feel better?

I guess I just don't appreciate the need to acquiesce to other people's hangups, rather than allowing them to "own" their hangups, when it comes to breastfeeding (and many other things).

JWdaughter

Equating breastfeeding to flashing is inappropriate, unless the woman got pregnant just so that she could go around you when she felt the need to breastfeed, making sure the baby was hungry and then deliberately exposed herself to you (the full flash) before feeding her baby. That is not how babies are breastfed! Women who are breastfeeding are not directing their actions at you. It isn't about you or your reaction. Flashing is. I have been flashed, and it was rather deliberately directed (so to speak) at me. For me. In an isolated place-to scare/startle/? me. Like I said, I don't think flashing can be equated with a woman breastfeeding a hungry child. If I want to flash anyone, I will leave my children out of it!

Tuesday

My boy wouldn't take a bottle until he was over 5 months old

So there's a chance that if you breast fed at home but when you went out and brought a bottle the child might not take the bottle anyway?

Oh this parenting thing is going to be fun!

nvrgnbk

This is getting out of hand.

Like truthsearcher said, if you believe in God or evolution, breasts are designed to feed babies.

If anyone has a problem with a mother doing that they can exercise their right to walk away or look away.

To liken breast-feeding to public urination and/or defecation is absurd and troubling.

Nvr

minimus

no sh*t, nvr. Couldn't resist.

Scully

So there's a chance that if you breast fed at home but when you went out and brought a bottle the child might not take the bottle anyway?

Totally.

However, for some babies there is also the opposite risk - that if they are given a bottle, they will subsequently reject the breast. If breastfeeding is going well, is that a chance that a mom wants to take? Some don't want to take that chance.

found-my-way

One of the "pluses" of breastfeeding is that no additional equipment is required. I would feel somewhat resentful if I felt that I had to buy a pump and bottles and all the sterilization paraphernalia needed to give breastmilk from a bottle, if I did not want to go to that expense. And for what? To make someone else feel better? What else do you buy that you don't need or necessarily want, just because it makes someone else feel better?

Well Said Scully! Infact your entire post was amazing!

In this day and age - breast pumps are very affordable and common. A woman has the option of using these to carry the milk with her to her mother in laws house, the airplane, the mall, a busy restaurant...etc. As I said - a woman who is discreet when breastfeeding is so good that nobody around her even knows what she's doing. There are however, women who feel a need to stand up and scream 'my rights'..simply because its the cause of the day. By the way - I'm not against it - some of my sisters chose to do it but they performed the task using respect and common sense for the varying relationships they found themselves in ie; the public, family, friends.sammieswife.

Sammieswife, of course a woman would stand up for her rights to breastfeed her hungry baby when that child is hungry if someone told her to not breastfeed infront of them. THEY CAN LOOK AWAY IF THEY DONT LIKE IT!!!!

How would you like it if someone told you didnt have the right to eat with your mouth open, or that you didnt have the right to speak your mind, would you not be a little incenced? Would you not defend your rights?

Breastfeeding ISNT shameful and it isn't a TASK. It's an act of love.

Even though you say you are not against it, you are obviously not an advocate for it either especially if you tell mothers to pump and bottle feed. That's just disresptful, insulting, and insensitive.

Thank goodness the majority of people dont think like you do, and actually dont mind seeing a woman giving her baby the love and nourishment that it needs, right when they need it.

Most women dont just whip out their breasts, but if they do, and it bothers you, LOOK THE OTHER WAY!!

Your View On BREASTFEEDING In Public

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