Breast feeding in public ???

tnd1218

I breast fed my son and used a cover or if it was too hot sat in my car if I was in public. This because I am a very private person. I see absolutely nothing wrong with breast feeding in public. Although I was in stride rite with my daughter and son getting them shoes. A lady sat arm to arm with my daughter took off her shirt and let her 5/6 yr old nurse while trying on shoes. It made my daughter very uncomfortable when there were plenty of seats to sit and she chose to sit literally arm to arm. Keep in mind my daughter saw me nurse my son all the time it was nothing unusual for her. I think if she would have sat in any of the available seats we would've paid her no mind.

tnd1218

joules235 said:

I have literally never heard of anybody completely removing their shirt to nurse. I just don't understand why anybody would think that was necessary... I'm all for NIP but you know you can do that with your shirt still on, right?

I wore nursing tanks and shirts while nursing. Apparently this woman didn't. She literally removed her shirt. She was a very large woman and removed her shirt we saw full belly and breast.

allrightmeow

MegK82 said:

I agree that covering up while nursing is totally an American thing.  It's a huge taboo here, which is ridiculous because that's what our boobs are for.  To feed our children.  That is their function and why we have them.  Men's boobs are not a big thing. They can walk around flashing them all they want. I think it's ridiculous that we have such double standards.  

I notice when ever words like "modesty"  are thrown about it is usually being thrown at a woman.  A great number of women have been programed to believe that breasts are play things for men.  We've allowed them to be sexualized when their function is for feeding babies.  

I don't care either way you go but I find it disgusting to judge another mother for doing what God intended.  I hate with a burning passion the people who compare it too shitting and peeing.  If you stop hiding away a thing like its something to be embarrassed or ashamed about, it stops being so.  

I got into a huge discussion about the breast feeding doll with a friend.  She felt it was inappropriate and asked if Id buy it for my 5 year old.  I told her "no because she can use a doll she already has and pretend to breast feed it.  Why should I spend $39.99 on that particular one".  Im not going to hide from my daughter when I feed her sibling.  I copied my mom when she fed my baby sister.  I asked her "if she'd like me to slap the doll out of her hands if I caught her copying me"?.  She never really answered the question.  Americans have so many body hang ups.  

ncbelle

This thread needs this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgmbJso-2-o - It's a Luv's commercial

Luna C

As a rule, I think any activity that involves bodily fluids should be done as discretely as the circumstances allow. 

catsinawindow

I am still breastfeeding my 2 year old toddler.  We don't nurse in public much anymore (really only to end epic meltdowns, and then it's for the benefit of the people around us )  But as an infant I nursed in public with him many, many times.  And no, I didn't use a cover.  They are a PITA to remember to bring all the time and babies hate them. 

It's entirely possible to be discreet without using a cover.  And heck, I don't even see the need for being discreet.  BFing is a normal, beautiful process.  Personally, I've never gotten anything but positive feedback from passersby when I was nursing in public.

ChristineBaker23

I was just posting my opinion and I didn't want to seem argumentative. I'm obviously going to have to explain breastfeeding to my toddler in about 6 months but some parents may not want to. I just cover out of respect for other people who may be uncomfortable with seeing an entire boob flying around in public. I know that it's natural and everyone should be ok with it but some people just aren't and so I choose to cover. Personal opinion, not trying to force this on anyone, just giving my view. I don't drop my pants and pee in public, I don't fart in front of people, I don't plan to give birth in public, all natural things but I don't do them in public. And that how I view breastfeeding. I will not judge someone who chooses to bf coverless. And like I said, I bf in public ALOT just covered. Which I explained to the children in the daycare I worked at as the baby likes to eat in the dark. Which I will probably tell my daughter until she is old enough to understand.

wtfisup

Peeing in public =/= nursing in public. Nine kinds of logical fallacy there. You probably wouldn't drop your pants and pee in your own living room or in front of your friends either, right? I don't pee in front of my husband. 

Defecation and urination are acts of dumping waste and exposing genitals. Breasts aren't genitals; breast milk isn't feces or urine. Nothing goes onto the ground. 

Children are only bothered by seeing bodies if we teach them to be. If you don't instill a sense of bodily shame, they won't have it. 

ncbelle

Yeah, comparing breastfeeding to peeing, etc. is just plain offensive - no where in the same ballpark.  If it offends you to see a mother nursing, it should offend you equally to see a baby getting a bottle - because guess what.  They are both babies eating.

ChristineBaker23

I pee in front of my husband. No bodily shame. But I know he doesn't mind. I don't know that other people wouldn't mind so I don't pee in front of them. Same concept. I actually pee in front of a lot of close friends. But not strangers in public. That's inconsiderate of their feelings.

ChristineBaker23

I think a lot of people are forgetting my original post which seems to have turned into a personal attack on my view. I don't give a rats rear end if anyone breastfeeds in public. I did it myself. I just think that it needs to be done discreetly out of respect for those who may be uncomfortable seeing a boob fly around. My opinion, doesn't have to be anyone else's.

ChristineBaker23

I was just comparing them as both being natural body functions. Not saying bfing is peeing on your baby. Although as pregnant women I think at least a few of us HAVE peed ourselves in public lol.

ChristineBaker23

Then people need to stop declaring breastfeeding is natural as an argument if you don't want it compared to other natural things. Personally I believe it is natural myself. Like peeing. You know what let's all just stop wearing clothes and grow out all our hair and then nobody would mind if we nursed in public. Then I can pee in front of people too. Cause half the time those bathroom stalls are tiny anyway.

ChristineBaker23

That really made me laugh. That's actually what I was going for with that post. I'm tired of this banter.

ChristineBaker23

joules235 said:

ChristineBaker23 said:

I pee in front of my husband. No bodily shame. But I know he doesn't mind. I don't know that other people wouldn't mind so I don't pee in front of them. Same concept. I actually pee in front of a lot of close friends. But not strangers in public. That's inconsiderate of their feelings.

Read that last few comments ^^ You are missing the point. I also dont feel shame when I pee but peeing, pooping and farting have no place in this conversation and to suggest that they do is extremely offensive.

We are feeding our children not eliminating bodily waste.


What goes in must come out!

wtfisup

ChristineBaker23 said:

Then people need to stop declaring breastfeeding is natural as an argument if you don't want it compared to other natural things. Personally I believe it is natural myself. Like peeing. You know what let's all just stop wearing clothes and grow out all our hair and then nobody would mind if we nursed in public. Then I can pee in front of people too. Cause half the time those bathroom stalls are tiny anyway.

Wait, so would you think breastfeeding should be declared as not natural? By anyone?  What are you even saying? 

And you can't be like "all natural things can be compared!" That's like saying all blue things can be compared. Or all round things. So my head = a cantaloupe = a basketball. There are no differences! 

Your sentiment of "BF is a personal choice is fine." It's just that you throw out some crazy logic after that, and people tend to point that out. 

ChristineBaker23

wtfisup said:

ChristineBaker23 said:

Then people need to stop declaring breastfeeding is natural as an argument if you don't want it compared to other natural things. Personally I believe it is natural myself. Like peeing. You know what let's all just stop wearing clothes and grow out all our hair and then nobody would mind if we nursed in public. Then I can pee in front of people too. Cause half the time those bathroom stalls are tiny anyway.

Wait, so would you think breastfeeding should be declared as not natural? By anyone?  What are you even saying? 

And you can't be like "all natural things can be compared!" That's like saying all blue things can be compared. Or all round things. So my head = a cantaloupe = a basketball. There are no differences! 

Your sentiment of "BF is a personal choice is fine." It's just that you throw out some crazy logic after that, and people tend to point that out. 

I don't think you read my whole post.

ChristineBaker23

And your head can be compared to a cantaloupe. Comparison: they are both round, also they can both be referred to as a melon. I can compare what I want just like you can take your boob out in public. Free country. I don't hate.

wtfisup

ChristineBaker23 said:

And your head can be compared to a cantaloupe. Comparison: they are both round, also they can both be referred to as a melon. I can compare what I want just like you can take your boob out in public. Free country. I don't hate.

ChristineBaker23 said:

ChristineBaker23 said:

Then people need to stop declaring breastfeeding is natural as an argument if you don't want it compared to other natural things. Personally I believe it is natural myself. Like peeing. You know what let's all just stop wearing clothes and grow out all our hair and then nobody would mind if we nursed in public. Then I can pee in front of people too. Cause half the time those bathroom stalls are tiny anyway.

Wait, so would you think breastfeeding should be declared as not natural? By anyone?  What are you even saying? 

And you can't be like "all natural things can be compared!" That's like saying all blue things can be compared. Or all round things. So my head = a cantaloupe = a basketball. There are no differences! 

Your sentiment of "BF is a personal choice is fine." It's just that you throw out some crazy logic after that, and people tend to point that out. 

I don't think you read my whole post.

ChristineBaker23

No no no. A comparison is not an =. It is a list of similarities. Yes they are both excretions, yes they are both natural, yes they both have a tendency to make people who are not secure with bodily functions uncomfortable. But no they are not identical. Just similar when compared that way.a comparison can be differences too. Poop comes from your butt, breast milk comes from your breast, we drink breast milk, we do not eat poop. Anyone who would suggest pooping in your babies mouth is nuts. I am just a misunderstood creative mind. I would never poop on my child, though, she has pooped on me.

wtfisup

But you were equating them. Directly.

ChristineBaker23

If you're not offended by babies you should not be offended by poop. That's just silly. My baby poops all the time. If anyone here is offended by poop you need to suck it up because being a mom is gonna really stink for you(haha stink...). And I never equated them I just compared them. Similarly to exposing a breast in public, exposing your chatch makes people uncomfortable. Similarly, not equally. And if there were toilets with no stalls I would sit on one and pee while I breastfed my child discretely just to make a point. The similarity or main COMPARISON I was making this whole time is that it is not socially norm to wave a boob around or have you hoo ha out. So I politely make things as unawkward as possible by using a bathroom (for peeing) or a nursing cover (for nursing). And I use the cover mostly just until I'm done having a fulling exposed breast at which point I may take the cover off.

ChristineBaker23

Ps joules I think you have a bit of a potty mouth for someone so offended by pottying.

ChristineBaker23

That's the only type of public breastfeeding that bothers me. The people that whip the whole thing out while baby is still halfway across the room or something and it's just hanging out. And I have seen this. It is awkward and I'm a breastfeeding mom. I'll say it again, I don't have a problem with bfing in public. I just like to be polite and considerate (as much as baby will allow) about it.
And as a mom who breastfed my child with no cover while shopping for groceries on a very regular basis (because they always get hungry while you're trying to shop) I think I understand NIP.

katekat8721

ChristineBaker23 said:

I pee in front of my husband. No bodily shame. But I know he doesn't mind. I don't know that other people wouldn't mind so I don't pee in front of them. Same concept. I actually pee in front of a lot of close friends. But not strangers in public. That's inconsiderate of their feelings.

How are you comparing peeing to breastfeeding? This is not the same concept at all.

ChristineBaker23

And I actually talked about peeing in public. In the sense that people can see you whilst you are peeing. I never said I was peeing on the ground. Comparison: chatch to boob: both considered private areas that should not be exposed. Unfortunately thanks to the sexualization of the female body by the media.

ChristineBaker23

The act of peeing and the act of breastfeeding were not meant to be compared. Only exposure of body parts.

katekat8721 said:

ChristineBaker23 said:

I pee in front of my husband. No bodily shame. But I know he doesn't mind. I don't know that other people wouldn't mind so I don't pee in front of them. Same concept. I actually pee in front of a lot of close friends. But not strangers in public. That's inconsiderate of their feelings.

How are you comparing peeing to breastfeeding? This is not the same concept at all.

rainbowdashh

She's being ridiculous for the sake of being ridiculous now.

ChristineBaker23

joules235 said:

emotionlotion said:

ChristineBaker23 said:

If you're not offended by babies you should not be offended by poop. That's just silly. My baby poops all the time. If anyone here is offended by poop you need to suck it up because being a mom is gonna really stink for you(haha stink...). And I never equated them I just compared them. Similarly to exposing a breast in public, exposing your chatch makes people uncomfortable. Similarly, not equally. And if there were toilets with no stalls I would sit on one and pee while I breastfed my child discretely just to make a point. The similarity or main COMPARISON I was making this whole time is that it is not socially norm to wave a boob around or have you hoo ha out. So I politely make things as unawkward as possible by using a bathroom (for peeing) or a nursing cover (for nursing). And I use the cover mostly just until I'm done having a fulling exposed breast at which point I may take the cover off.

Who is missing the point now? No one here has said they are offended by poop, they are offended by your comparison if pooping in public to breastfeeding in public.

And your comparison if exposing your 'chatch' in public has nothing to do with this. You keep saying 'waving the boob around' which is totally not what is happening when a woman is breastfeeding. Even if a woman does not use a cover, she is not waving her breast around just for the hell of it, she is exposing it to feed her child.

You are making yourself look very silly and if you truly do have a 'to each their own' attitude about it you might want to stop all your comparisons which are so far from what NIP actually is.

Yeah what is that. I have nursed in public literally hundreds of times and there has never been any waving of boobs. That is a common statement made by people who are against NIP to make it sound worse than it is. It makes me think of strippers and tassels not nursing babies.



I have actually seen a few women leave there breast out for an uncomfortable amount of time before or after nursing. That's the only type of NIP I find a little inappropriate. One woman was actually cupping her breast and almost gesturing with it while waiting on the child to be handed to her from someone at least 4 feet away. It was odd. That's what I mean when I say waving it around. I don't take anything out till baby is with me and ready to nurse. Again, out of courtesy for those who might be made uncomfortable.

katekat8721

Ok. I can kind of see what you were trying to go for, but even comparing the exposure of body parts is a leap for me. Breastfeeding is natural, whereas peeing in public is not. The boob isn't exposed a whole lot during (typical) NIP. It sounds like you've had some experiences though with people 'whipping their boobs out' in public and that made you feel uncomfortable. I've never really seen that myself, but I can imagine it happens.

ChristineBaker23

It does and it was almost alarming. I'm just glad it didn't start spraying like mine did. (Another good reason to have some sort of cover) and the reason peeing in front of people is not ok is because it is not the American social norm. Boob exposure is also not a social norm for this country. I wish it was.

ChristineBaker23

Their breast sorry for the typo.

ChristineBaker23

Find the GIF! I love your GIFs! And I was being a little silly. I'm not just dumb. I stand by my point though.

ChristineBaker23

I really did see the boob Waving woman. True story.

wtfisup

emotionlotion said:

ChristineBaker23 said:

e.
You keep saying 'waving the boob around' which is totally not what is happening when a woman is breastfeeding.

Isn't that a new kind of breast feeding? You swing your engorged breast around the baby's head like a lasso. In turn, it helps the infant develop coordination, agility, and eye muscle control. It also emits early positive reward training; the baby only gets fed when it catches the breast and wrestles it to its mouth.

ChristineBaker23

I wasn't offended just concerned for people that would be. I'm not offended by nursing. But it did make me uncomfortable to see a gesturing boob. That discomfort is due to social upbringing. I wish that that wasn't something that mad me uncomfortable is what I meant. I like being referred to as earth mother though. I like to think I'm pretty laid back. I didn't say I see it as private I am only saying others see it as private. That will not stop me from nursing my child in public. But I will be discrete out of respect.

catsinawindow

ChristineBaker23 said:

I wasn't offended just concerned for people that would be. I'm not offended by nursing. But it did make me uncomfortable to see a gesturing boob. That discomfort is due to social upbringing. I wish that that wasn't something that mad me uncomfortable is what I meant. I like being referred to as earth mother though. I like to think I'm pretty laid back. I didn't say I see it as private I am only saying others see it as private. That will not stop me from nursing my child in public. But I will be discrete out of respect.

By this same logic should none of us ever NIP, even with a cover, because it might offend people?  There are people out there that are offended by nursing even if it is covered.

I guess I'm in the camp where I'll say that I don't really care if people are offended.  I have a legal right to nurse my baby in public, with or without a cover.  Additionally, I see public nursing as a social "good."  Young people who see babies being nursed will be more likely to view it as "normal" and will likely nurse their babies themselves.  Plus, the more women who NIP, the more likely public perception about NIP is to change.  This, to me, is more important than protecting a few stranger's feelings.

ChristineBaker23

Example: my father in law gets a little sweaty and twitchy if I nurse without a cover. So I cover up in front of him. It's not his fault it makes him uncomfortable.

I've seen people get a little bug eyed or even point about public nursing so I assume they are a little uncomfortable. So I simply try not to make a breast cupping and gesturing scene out of it.

And about the peeing in private, if you went in a ladies bathroom that had no stalls just a row of toilets would you be uncomfortable peeing? I personally would not. I see it as a natural bodily function. I would not recommend putting a toilet at the dinner table though. I do agree that the nutritional values of breast milk differ from that of urine. I guess I worded things badly before. I admit peeing may have not been the right way to say it when I was speaking about the exposure of your lady business.

ChristineBaker23

I believe in nursing in public in a discrete fashion. You don't have to shove the fact that you are nursing down someone's throat to make it socially acceptable. I think it's perfectly reasonable to keep things on the DL and NIP at the same time which can be done with or without a cover depending on your level of mad skill.

catsinawindow

ChristineBaker23 said:

I believe in nursing in public in a discrete fashion. You don't have to shove the fact that you are nursing down someone's throat to make it socially acceptable. I think it's perfectly reasonable to keep things on the DL and NIP at the same time which can be done with or without a cover depending on your level of mad skill.

The thing is I honestly don't see why I, or anyone else, should have to "keep it on the DL".  If someone sees an inch of the top of my breast or *gasp* a slip of nipple during latching/unlatching, is that really so terrible?  Plus, as I mentioned before, everyone's notion of "discrete" is different.  Some people would be horrified by your NIP with a cover.

Finally, no mom NIP is "shoving the fact that they are nursing" down anyone's throat.  We are simply feeding our babies.