Your View On BREASTFEEDING In Public

by minimus 143 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  razorMind

  Honey, we're not talking high school bathrooms here. Though I can't recall any such care being taking with the cleaning of the restrooms at my high school

  .....Unfortunately, I have rarely been in public restrooms where the keepers were so conscientious. Most of them are hellious affairs with dirty tissue strewn everywhere, shit smeared every-damn-where INCLUDING splattered on the walls (good luck trying to find a clean bowl to sit your ass down on), and used maxi pads and tampons thrown willy-nilly all over the place. None of the aforementioned is exactly odorless.

  I REFUSE to take my child into such filthy surroundings and attempt to sit down (scratch that-- I mean, balance on a nasty toilet bowl) and try to "relax" for a feeding--and let's not forget the woman in the neighboring stall with the running shits squirting and funking up the entire area. And the car? HA HA HA....in 98-degree weather? How about how hot a car gets sitting out in a vast, bare concrete parking lot? And I'm supposed trek 1,000 miles from the mall to the car in the hot blazing sun, kid screaming all the while, and then wait for the A/C to kick in while my baby is screaming for food?

  I have breastfed my child in restaurants, in stores, everywhere. I always had a nice-sized blanket or a big fabric sling that allowed me to pull up the excess fabric around us. I get so sick of the "whipping-it-out", I have rarely seen any women "whip it out" when it was time to feed her baby. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I've never personally seen that. Most of us are just trying to handle our business and get our babies fed with a mininum of fanfare.

  Boy do I regret opening this thread......
• 

  Mrs Smith

  I breastfed both my kids. I always carried an extra light weight blanket to cover baby and me. If someone didn't like it tuff. If a mother keeps on having to go to a restroom to feed baby and then to change baby she would never get anything done! I was having lunch one day and feeding my baby when the waitor asked me if I would mind going to the toilet to feed my baby!!! I told him that I don't eat on the loo and neither does my baby. I think people who are offended by it should get over themselves. It's hard enough having little babies never mind still trying to please all the sensitive people in the world!!
• 

  trevor

  Women are well aware of men's sexual interest in a nice set of breasts. They exploit this to the full . All perfectly understandable and natural but it is not surprising that both men and women can feel uncomfortable when a woman breast feeds and makes no attempt to be discreet.

  Many of the posts here mention this and talk of discreet baby feeding. I say baby feeding because it is the baby not the breast that is being fed! The fact that the women concerned are now preoccupied with a baby does not mean the men have suddenly lost all interest in women's breasts or that the significance of a naked breast has been lost.

  I had a women relative who made a deliberate show of breast feeding, even choosing to sit where she could best be seen. Most women, though, are discreet and we are adult enough to realize the difference between feeding a baby and giving off a sexual display of cleavage.

  Provided discretion and consideration for other peoples sensibilities are shown then I personally have no problem with babies being fed in public. But then these guide lines apply to all interaction with strangers.
• 

  jinjam

  i don't find it offensive, topless tanning doesn't seem to offend anyone,lol, so why is feeding a baby such a big deal? its the most natural thing in the world.
  
  if you don't like look the other direction.
• 

  The Humper

  im all for it. its natural and it can be something beautiful. it doesnt matter to me if a mother uses a blanket to cover it up or just pulls it out and lets the kid suck on it. i think some parents just dont want to have to explain to thier children what a mother breastfeeding is doing. my wife breastfed our son and she and i had no problems doing it in public.

  personally, though being a guy, ive taught women how to breastfeed properly. i worked at Womack Army Medical Center on Fort Bragg in the Mother/Baby Unit for a little over a year and ive seen more breasts, vagina, hemroids, and all sorts of other things, (especially when working down in the Emergency Room from time to time) then i ive ever wanted to see. anyway if someone is offended by it then they are offending me and the mother who is feeding thier child.
• 

  lisavegas420

  Never bothered me. I breastfed in public, only one time did anyone ever say anything to me. And it was a man turned around the wrong way in his chair. He walked over to my table and said, I should go in the bathroom to do that. I said, how 'bout YOU go in the bathroom until I'm done.

  My daughter was even less bashfull about it. We would walk around walmart with her boob hanging out while she was feeding. People..well, mostly men, would do a double take, or walk around do they could pass her again. Didn't bother me then either, but I think my husband was a little embarrassed.

  lisa
• 

  truthsearcher

  I have here at home a copy of "The Politics of Breastfeeding" which has an interesting picture taken by Unicef of an Egyptian woman standing breastfeeding on the street: she is wearing the traditional Islamic dress, heavily covered, including her head, but her breast is fully exposed. Cultural conditioning is everything! I do believe that our daughters, neices, grandaughters, etc. NEED to see mothers' breastfeeding their babies. They need role models so that when their time comes, they will feel comfortable giving their baby the best nourishment possible. (My daughters all played at "nursing" their dolls and stuffed animals--no bottles in our house!)

  Breastfeeding in public can be as discreet and beautiful as this. No blankets or ponchos required, the mother undoes her shirt from below, leaving the upper part of her breast covered, the baby's body covers her midriff. Who could possibly be offended?

  Let's not forget that breastfeeding is not just a "lifestyle" choice but a very real life and death issue for babies. In Western society, we have forgotten this fact. Other nations think that bottlefeeding is more "advanced" because it is so common in Western society. Check out the twins below:

  

  Use my picture if it will help," said this mother at the Children's Hosptial, Islamabad, Pakistan. Photo: UNICEF.

  A baby dies every 30 seconds from unsafe bottle feeding. The photograph above tells the tragic story of the fatalities that occur due to unsafe bottle feeding. The babies are twins: the child with the bottle is a girl - she died the day after this photograph was taken - but her brother was breastfed and thrived.

  The mother was told that she would not have enough milk for both children, and so she breasted her son and bottle-fed her daughter. But she would almost certainly have been able to feed both her babies, since the more a baby suckles, the more milk is produced.

  You Can Breastfeed Anywhere by Laurie Coker
  
  You may breastfeed in a store,
  on the floor, in a roar.
  You may breastfeed in a jam,
  eating fried green eggs and ham.
  You may breastfeed on the stair.
  You may breastfeed anywhere!
  
  Your baby can latch on in a swing,
  on the wing, in a ring.
  He can latch on in a car,
  where you are, at the barre.
  She can latch on in a storm,
  on the farm: that's her charm.
  She can latch on in a train,
  on a plane, without pain.
  They can latch on to a rhyme.
  They can latch on any time.
  
  You can nurse Jane or Joe.
  You can nurse Clyde or Moe.
  you can nurse Betty or Sallie.
  you can nurse at a political rally.
  You can nurse any time, anywhere.
  You can nurse clothed or bare.
  You can nurse unshaved of hair.
  You can nurse Tim, Tony or Tom.
  Who can nurse? Any mom!
  

  
• 

  Crumpet

  I don't think women should have to breastfeed to get their breasts out - I think they should do it anyway if they feel like it. Men do it all the time and honestly I'd rather look a lady breasts than man chest any day!
• 

  Crumpet

  oH YES AND FURTHERMORE having been thrown out of the odd bar for breast exposure I feel its sexist to allow men in without tops on and not women.

  i also feel that my breasts have not been exposed nearly enough - very shortly no one will want to look at them anyway and it seems a crying shame that they weren't hardly ever allowed out. Just complaining on behalf of them - they arent amazing but they are great consolation when I get lonely and I just wish I could have given them a better life.
• 

  Country Girl

  As it becomes more common for women to breastfeed their children in public, it will most likely become less of an issue with anyone, and won't be suitable for debate because no one will care. They shouldn't really care now.