Who thinks breast feeding in public is disgusting?

[MrsDoolittle]

And another thing while I am at it (thinking that is). Did anyone listen to Jeremy Vine discussing breast feeding last week? I was absolutely flabbergasted at the number of people that phoned in and said bf in public is disgusting. I think discussion was in response to talk of the Scottish Parliament banning restaurantuers from asking bfing mums to leave - please correct me if I am wrong.
This is not a breast feeding versus bottle feeding thread but I can't believe any man would feel like this in this day and age, let alone a woman!

[laneydaye]

I bf my ds and am still bf dd, but i dont particularly enjoy bf in public places infact i choose not to do it....Im not offended by others doin it but think they should where posssible use the bf rooms provided

[laneydaye]

sorry i certainly dont think its disgusting though... just not for me.

[jangly]

Oh what does it matter fgs! They're just tits, being used for the purpose they're intended for. Look away.

[MistressMary]

Spitting in streets, swearing and chucking litter around IS disgusting.

[franch]

Where DO these people get their sad hangups from??? It really is their problem not ours.

laneydaye - um, "bf rooms provided"? Can you point me in the direction of such a thing please???

[tabitha]

I listened to this while I was driving down from Dundee to Edinburgh and I was absolutely gobsmacked by what some people were saying about bf in public being disgusting. For one thing, most mums bf in public do it so discreetly that you would have to go up and have a really good ogle before you knew what they were doing and for another, even if you did know what they were doing, so what. Despite what The Sun and mens magazines would like us to think, it's what tits are for.

[Lonelymum]

NO! It is baby's natural way of feeding and no more disgusting than adults eating in public. I did it (breast fed my babies) all over the place - literally!

[Bozza]

laneydaye why? Can quite understand why you feel uncomfortable yourself and why provision of breast feeding rooms would help some. But can't help being in disagreement with your "they should where possible use the bf rooms provided". TBH I never used one with DD. Was far easier/pleasanter for me to take DS to a cafe, buy him a drink and cake and me a drink and feed DD there. Was more reticent with DS and did use the rooms sometimes.

Totally agree with you MrsDoolittle. Cannot grasp what could possibly be disgusting

[MistressMary]

When I grew up, I could look out of our house and see lots of mothers feeding their young. It looked a lovely natural site - All those calves really sucking away on their mums udders.

[jamiesam]

Maybe, maybe, if decent bf rooms were provided I might have been willing to use them instead of me and ds's having lunch with everyone else .

However, I think we will have more success with getting legislation to 'ban banning bf' (since no actual cost) than in getting decent bf rooms provided.

Believe I read that Moto service stations are considered to be one of the best groups for bf facilities. Only been to a moto once - bf room was also the disabled toilet. Felt like going to have a pi*s in the cafe. If a toilet good enough for my son to eat in then good enough for all their other customers too. Rant over.

[franch]

Bozza please enlighten me about these bf rooms! I've never seen such a thing!! What a bizarre concept!

[dramaqueen72]

john lewis has 'breastfeeding areas' sort ofa sideroom to nappychanging area..mmm, nice -NOT!
after feeding three children (not all at once i hasten to add........) i have got to the really dont care stage, i do try and be as discreet as poss but give me a happy feeding baby over one who is screaming blue murder anyday.
I hope scottish parliament go thro with the bann!

[Bozza]

franch - I know of several such rooms in shopping centres. But they are small rooms with a couple of comfy chairs and maybe bottle warming facilities intended to go and relax and feed baby. Not ideal with a 3yo in tow. And TBH I used to get bored in them. Think they are useful for some breastfeeding mums but not others.

Also lots of places I used to go when bf (beach, park, pubs/restaurants, soft play places etc) did not have them.

[laneydaye]

boots have them mothercare also...

[laneydaye]

infact mothercare have special ones with rocking chairs and footstools, dimmed lights and a water cooler

[TinyGang]

No not at all disgusting.

Please don't all jump on me though, but speaking as someone who was never very good at it - I think it is something that is better done discreetly.

I was always very envious of women who are so good at it you really wouldn't know, unless you were looking carefully, that they are doing it at all. I could never get the baby to latch on and seemed to virtually have to strip off from the waist up and wrestle about. I would not have felt at all comfortable trying to do it in front of anyone much, let alone publicly and I guess anyone watching would have been a bit perturbed.

However, I do not think that women should ever be made to feel dirty, embarrassed or awkward about anything to do with caring for their children and should be made to feel special and catered for in every way. If they wish to feed in public, then fine. I would not have been adverse to choosing (not being forced) to use a private area for feeding, if such a place existed. And no, I do not mean the toilets!

[Lonelymum]

It might have changed now, but when I had my fist ds, b/f rooms were usually a cubicle in the baby changing room so you sat there, feeding your baby surrounded by the smell of poo. Yuck! After ds1, I took to feeding my babies in the nicer smelling surroundings of the cafe/public seating area.

[Bozza]

I go to Meadowhall shopping and there are two such rooms that I know of. One is within the baby change - agree with dq72, not pleasant, although it is through a door. You go in and there are two changing tables and then two further rooms, one is a toilet, the other is a feeding room. There is also one in the Mothercare. That is really nice with low lighting and those comfy rocking feeding chairs. Have used neither with DD although I used the Mothercare one with DS.

[franch]

Goodness me you learn something new every day. Bf rooms, indeed.

I breastfed DD for 10 months - wore mostly bf tops for the first few months (simply because I didn't fancy flashing all over the place) but tbh in my naive new-mum bubble it never occurred to me that anyone might consider what I was doing disgusting. We live in an incredibly warped world if it's fine to have tits on display all over daily newspapers and disgusting for women to use their tits for the purpose they were made for. I really do despair.

[Noggermum]

Being the provocative individual that I am, I positively sought out public areas to BF DD1, whilst willing someone to say something/complain so I could have a good old rant at the antiquated old biddies who seem to think that babies should be seen (although not seen eating obviously) and not heard. In the event, no-one said a word! Didn't hear the phone in but doesn't surprise me in the least that people have these opinions - kids aren't very well received in this country full stop, are they?

[tassis]

In defence of such rooms - I LOVED the John Lewis one when ds was tiny. I felt well enough to be out and about from when he was a few days old but I was a very indiscreet breastfeeder to start off with and for some reasons I felt I had to take my top off to see what I was doing . Once I was feeding more discreetly, I'd feed anywhere - church, cafes, parks...

[MrsDoolittle]

Oh and only a few weeks ago I went into a branch of John Lewis. I needed to change dd's nappy and discovered the baby changing facilities had been moved out of the female toilets to a room at the top of the store. Fair enough. BUT......
Also in this room a couple of plastic chairs had been placed behind a shower curtain for BREAST FEEDING would you believe
Only about two months ago I bf dd in the coffee shop - there were about 3 of us mummies feeding at the same tome, very discreetly. Do you think they did this in reponse to this?
I don't understand why breast are the issue. I am feeding my baby FGS!!! Would you like to eat in the toilet???
I'm still furious thinking about it

[hewlettsdaughter]

MrsD, what a provocative thread title . You can sign a petition here if you agree with what Scotland has done.

[laneydaye]

mrs doolittle its maybe because not all mums are comfortable with doing it in public view...
they have to cater for both if a mum wanted they could easily leave the curtain open.

[sasa15]

I use to brestfeed everywhere,,,,don't really mind...also sunbeding in topless usually....

not haveing great boobs....either