Breastfeeding In Public

Personally, I don't have a problem with seeing it at all. And normally when I see it there is a blanket draped over the moms shoulder.

However, I don't think it is something that I could do myself.

i don't see a problem with it if the woman is being discreet. yes, you're feeding your baby and it's natural, but we do not need to see your entire breast hanging out.

i will say i get a little weirded out when i see a woman nursing in a restaurant. i'll give my baby a bottle at a restaurant so i don't know why it bothers me, but it does.

i do not think a mother should have to nurse her baby in a bathroom. would you give your baby a bottle in a bathroom? would you enjoy a snack in a public bathroom? that's just gross.

If you can be discreet, .I think it's fine. Some women are so good at it, that you wouldn't even know what they were doing. These women wear button up shirts and nursing bras so not to over expose the rest of us to their breasts.

Personally, .I have huge boobs, so there is no hiding them. I have to hold my breast away from my baby's face so he doesn't smother. It would be in your face obvious what .I was doing. I'm just not comfortable with doing it in public.

argh. i really don't like getting into debates or anything because i shouldn't care too much about what others think. i just read on that other post that someone thinks it's rude to breastfeed in public. now while i'm not going to be whipping out my boob at every opportunity, if i happen to need to feed my child while i'm in public i will do it without shame or remorse and i do not feel that it is in any way rude whatsoever. i think it is rude of people to stare at me while i am feeding my child if it is so offensive to them and they have a million other places they can look. if it were up to me fat guys with man boobs wouldn't be allowed to walk around in public with their shirts off but i have the choice not to look if i don't want to see that so i say let them do it. women have breasts and they are for feeding children. what is rude about that?? it's the most beautiful thing in the world and when i see others doing it, it makes me smile at a mother and child bonding in that way.

Bridget, interesting you get weired out if someone is breastfeeding in a restaurant. The child is eating just like everyone else. Interesting. I have similar things that bug me also. I have to say breastfeeding in a bathroom is just plain gross. I have to agree.

Before I had kids, it did bother me when people breastfed in public. I didn't understand. Now that I have a child (almost two!), it doesn't bother me at all.

With all of that said, I never breastfed in public.

I think .I should add that if .I saw a woman breastfeeding her "older child" in public, .I would be weirded out regardless of how discreet she was being.

i think that the whole reason a breast pump was made is to make bottles to bring with you out in public; i don't think that mothers should be able to whip out their breast and start feeding the child right there... you can get in trouble for indecent exposure for showing your breasts but not with breast feeding even if we can see your whole breast? how about for men who need to pee with no restroom around for miles? so they decide to pull over and whip it out to pee in the woods on the side of the highway... they get written down as a sex offender for that even if no one can see it because he's in the woods, but yet women are able to show off their whole breast while breastfeeding in the middle of a park with all little kids or at a restaurant while people are enjoying a meal... i wouldn't be happy if my 3 year old son was to see that and he shouldnt have to see it... thats all im saying.

for those of you who breastfeed but don't do it in public, what do you do? do you pump and bring bottles or do you just not go out or do you go some place private (the car? i really don't know...)?

My breasts are the size of kiwi fruit, so not many people knew what I was doing when i bf in public, but I think that it should be fine to do wherever and whenever a baby is hungry. I hiked down from a mountain once while I was breastfeeding .Hannah. I bf'd in stores, restraunts, busses, dr's offices, at work, everwhere. I don't really care how discreet a woman is, but I personally prefer not to whip out my golf balls in public. If someone else wants to put ona display, that's fine with me, but then they can't expect people not to gawk.

Yup, go to the car. .Mike's mom lives 2 minutes from the mall, so if we were out shopping and the baby needed to eat, we would go there and .I would go into the spare room and nurse.

I couldn't pump. I could have nursed triplets and had plenty to spare, but when it came time to pump, nada. When it came time to return to work, .I had no choice but to stop, as .I couldn't keep my supply up only nursing in the morning and night.

*edited to say*
a womans breasts were made to feed a baby, so saying it's indecent exposure to breastfeed in public is a bit far fetched (in my opinion). I certainly don't want to see some lady's full breast and nipple, but it's a bit different to be feeding a baby in public and whipping a penis out.

I don't understand how someone could see breastfeeding is indecent exposure. My sister in law has perfected the art of being discrete while in public. She throws a blanket over her sholder and you wouldn't even know she was breastfeeding unless you were sitting right next to her. From a distance it just looks like she is holding the baby.

I personally don't find it offensive if the woman is being discrete about it, but if she has no concern for what she is doing and just whips it out, then that bothers me a little.

I just hope that I can breastfeed when I do have a baby. I have had a couple of friends that they just couldn't do it and they were dissapointed that they couldn't.

i've already panned my breastfeeding techniques out.... i plan on having a "shawl" like blanket and because i'm so large (i don't fit into my DDD bras anymore) it may be obvious what i'm doing but you won't be able to see anything.... and i mean anything... but of course i'm also going to have breast mik bottles at the ready in case i get denied service at any place for doing it... that way i can stop and just give him a bottle to hold him over.

i believe it is the most incredible bonding experience in the world and shouldn't have to be hid if it doesn't bother you... btu peope are fickle and funny like that aren't they?

lol

I breastfed my son in restuarants and other public places using a blanket to keep it private whenever I needed to. I didnt want anyone staring at me. a baby has to eat, and no one should have a problem with it unless the woman is showing everything imo.

I think everyone is misunderstanding me.. if you can breastfeed and be discreet about it by putting a blanket over you then thats fine, but what im saying is that some women just pull out their breast and start breastfeeding with no shame and not covering it with a blanket. And i also think that if there is a way for you to get away somewhere private and more personal like a car or anything then you should do that espescially if there are kids around because kids ask questions and if they can see a baby sucking on a woman's breast their going to ask about it and for me i would not want my 3 year old son to see that and ask questions about it because i think that he is way too young to be seeing things like that. And i feel the same way with people making out with their partners right in the middle of the mall or anywhere else.

I was reading an article on this the other day! I have 2 children who I bottle fed and now I am pregnant again I plan to breast feed this time round. I just dont understand why people disagree with doing it in public! If your babys hungry and you feel confident to do it in front of people then you should do it!!

You just cant rate it as indecent exposure!! even if a women is showing more than she should.... shes just feeding her baby! Shes not saying 'hey look what I got!'

Some people say thery get offended when there are children around....errrr whats wrong with a child knowing that the normal way to feed a baby is with a breast???? I have a 6 and 3 yr old and they are both boys, If they see a woman feeding her child and asked about it I would explain it to them. simple! To me its no different than taking them to the zoo and seeing a animal feeding their young........not that I am calling breast feeding mothers animals lol

I think that a lot of brestfeeding women don't feel it is a shameful thing to do. That's why they do it shamelessly. Now, making out and PDA is completely different. It is not tending to the basic human needs of a dependent infant. Infants don't understand that some people think they should wait for a private moment to eat. They only know they are hungry right now. I don't think that satisfying this need is a shameful thing, regardless of how much breast is shown.

*Edited to add:

I think if we told our young children about this, it might help to emove the stigma of public bf. It also might focus a woman's worth off her breasts a bit and more on her other attributes. Breasts are not a sexual organ. They are a means of feeding babies. Period. Men see this otherwise, and since men were the forefathers of this particular country, here we are.