to suggest that my sister could cover boobs with a scarf....

[chocolatehobnobs]

Sister has 2 DC 2 and 5 months. I am pg. She reckons she is the world expert on child rearing, never afraid to comment on other's parenting. We went for lunch at the weekend at Wagamama's. Staff were lovely and helpful offered highchair etc sis was vocally demanding a certain table and being a bit precious IMO. We were sitting next to 6 young guys (same table) Sis whips boob out and BF baby. I (and our neigbours who were eating) could see boob, dripping nipple. When she announced loudly that baby had bitten nipple I offered to pass her a scarf to save the boys blushes. She refused and said she was often complimented on being a good role model for BF. AIBU to want to do things differently or is she right?

[Spudulika]

Those poor young men, being exposed to a
BARE NIPPLE! IN PUBLIC! God, how will they ever get over it?

They'll be traumatised.

The only nipples some of them may have seen up until that point are likely to have been photoshopped into perfection.

To be confronted with a ... yurk.... dripping nipple

[ginhag]

Good point pacific :) I shall mail f & b in the morning.

[BooyHoo]

and can someone explain to me how the hell you 'whip' a boob out? how frigging long are her boobs that she is whipping them about the place. i really hate that term. i BF for 20 months and even if i had wanted to i couldn't have whipped my boob anywhere, the most i could do was unclasp my hook on my nursing bra. this was nothing like whipping, it really wsn't.

[yukoncher]

and after all, why should she even try to cover up?
babies easily pull scarfs off, fuss, unattach, re-attach, get blanky on their face, oh no they can't breath, mum is getting anxious looking down, can't even get on and eat herself, incase got forbid the blanky shifts off her breast.~
I've been through it, all the stress of BF in public, so much that my baby would se crying because I couldn't relax.
If society didn't make women feel like that, then the breastfeeding rates might be a lot higher, and therefor statistically less babies would be hospitalised.

[helenthemadex]

a fair number of women who dont bf will say that they are not comfortable with getting their boobs out in public, not realising that you actually dont have to show any boob at all to anyone other than your baby, so she is not necessarily a good role model

still her body her choice, if nobody complained or commented about it no problem therefore maybe yabu (a bit)

[SherlockMoans]

I breastfed babies for over a year each and I doubt very much anyone else ever got a glimpse of my norks. No contest breastfeeding is perfectly natural but it doesnt hurt to be considerate, discreet and not make other people uncomfortable.

When I was a teenager I would have been mortified if someone had openly breastfed in front of me - plenty of people manage to do it discreetly unfortunately (I suspect) you are about to be flamed by the "breastfeeding mafia" on here.

[tiredfeet]

Yabu. If she bottle fed her child would you make her throw a scarf over the bottle?

[smartyparts]

She obviously needs one of those big lurid tent things with wire at the top to spare those poor guys' blushes.

[Lancelottie]

I could be as discreet as I liked, but DD always tended to talk with her mouth full, and would make loud, gurgly, chompy, enthusiastic noises from under my lovely long t-shirt:

'Ooooh! Omm, umm, ooh, umm [gluck gluck], ummm, ooh, ommm, ummm, oh, oh, mmmm' [sticks head out, bares milky gums at crowd] 'oh mmmmmmm'

Think of that scene from When Harry Met Sally. Oh the shame.

[BooyHoo]

could people please stop teaming the word breastfeeding up with words like nazis and mafia?? they are groups of people that commit/commited atrocious crimes. people who support breastfeeding are not criminals or murderers. tehy don't go round holding guns to people's heads or putting them in gas chambers.

[SherlockMoans]

Yeah well you cant do anything about the noise

I think I tended to wear front buttoning shirts and just drape a muslin over any "exposure" I did it right from the start so it wasnt an issue for DS just part of dinner time.

[ginhag]

I am not 'breastfeeding mafia' although that is a slightly hilarious image. HOWEVER I stand by the fact that not all bf babies are actually keen on being invisible, even if you drape things over them. They fuss, they cry, they yank their head back suddenly so you spray milk everywhere...

If you haven't had a baby like this, great. But don't get all proud. They are not all the same, some are happy to be 'dscreet' whereas some like to announce 'CHECK THIS!! MY MUM HAS THESE AMAZING MILKY THINGS!!!!EVERYONE LOOOOoooOOOK!!'

[yukoncher]

what about those women in in african tribes, walking around their titties out breastfeeding their kids.
What inconsiderate bitches.
They're obviously just attention seeking.

Not giving any regard to anyone else.
They should be sweltering under floor lengh gowns, like the arabs, now those women have respect.

[Willowisp]

Good for your sister !! It's very hard BF in public & I'd much rather see "hint of nipple" "milky nipple" etc than a mum bottle feeding because she is too embarrassed to do it in public...

[yukoncher]

When my family are out, my DH says about DS(aged 1)
'I think he wants some titties'
and I say 'awh come and get some nice juicy boobies'.
and he goes 'mmhmmhmmm'.

[Goldenbear]

YABU, 'exhibitionist' squeakytoy? When you breastfeed a child it is, i am sorry to have to inform you, a necessary requirement to use your breasts. TBH it Sounds like she is just feeding her child, do you honestly believe the Daily Mail contents are her Main consideration when she is feeding her baby in public? With that kind of remark you sound like you work for the newspaper yourself!

[petisa]

I object to being lumped in with everyone else with a similar opinion and being called a "mafia" I'm just giving my opinion.

Oh yes the noise! My dd2 moans and groans really loudly with every swallow. Luckily, or rather really annoyingly, dd2 will only feed at home, lying down, in silence with NO distractions, so I never get the chance to "whip 'em out" and squirt fellow diners in the eye.

[MosEisley]

Maybe you should reserve judgement until you've BF a baby or two of your own. Until then, avoid lunching with her... sound like her 'expertise' is grating on your nerves.

[SherlockMoans]

Chocolate all I can say is my personal opinion is YANBU - the most strident vocal view on here (phrase it differently) will be that you are being completely unreasonable

please dont let your sister's method of bf put you off, it is perfectly possible to breastfeed in public discreetly, you probably pass women doing it every day without realising. It doesnt matter how "natural" it is some of us just dont like to show flesh in public - whatever the reason

[MillyR]

Your sister is unreasonable to consider herself a parenting expert and comment on other people's parenting. You are both unreasonable for going to Wagamama's which is like a school canteen. Why anyone eats there is beyond me. You are even more unreasonable for going to a school canteen like establishment with your sister and her baby and not anticipating that the baby would have to be fed at a table right next to strangers.

But the breastfeeding sounds completely normal to me.

I walk around in low cut tops a lot of the time and no man has ever complained or even loooked vaguely disapproving about seeing too much of my breasts in a restaurant.

[Fecklessdizzy]

Never mind the scarf for Sis, how about some sunglasses to preserve your anonimity ( or however you spell the bloody word ) and spare your blushes?

I BF mine for a fair old while ( much less washing up and I'm seriously crap at sterilising things ) although I tended to be fairly sneaky about it as I never figured out how to do it in public without the slurping/gushing/major exposure of frontage mentioned above ... This was a blessing in disguise as it gave me a foolproof get-out clause from any grimsters family gathering ...

" Sorry, I'd love to hear the full 6 hour saga of your feud with Auntie Wormwood but the baby's hungry ... "

[Mumwithadragontattoo]

YABtotallyU. I think your DSis sounds like a great role model for breastfeeding mums and mums to be. Either you have serious issues about breasts or you are worried that you won't be able to give your baby as good a start as your DSis has given and you are jealous.

[chipmonkey]

YABVU. My mother used to try to drape all sorts of scarves and blankets over me when my aunts, who happen to be nuns, were visiting. But my aunts themselves remembered their own mother bfing and were completely unfazed by it. Do those lads no harm to remind them what breasts are for!

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

You're not being unreasonable, OP, there's no need to make such a simple normal thing into a high performance at all but some people like to. Each to their own. I wouldn't be comfortable with it either.

When you have your own baby, feed him/her the way you want to and be at peace with yourself in bringing them up. Nobody will know your baby better than you do.

[missthing]

I wish I hadn't looked at this thread.

Today several people will have seen my 'dripping nipple' as I was breastfeeding, and my baby clamped down on my (once bitten already today) nipple. I'm afraid I wasn't so concerned about covering up, as I was trying to prise her off, whilst yelping - which I had no control over because it BLOODY HURTS -, then once off, she managed to grab it in her new pincer grip. So pretty much everyone (including some male clergy) then saw my entire boob, bruised nipple, milk et al.

I didn't apologise, as I see this as all part of feeding a baby.

Perhaps I am wrong, and instead of allowing myself to involuntarily express pain, and trying to remove the source of the pain, I should shut up and put up, just like women should do.

Or I should bottle feed. Obviously as per tiredfeet with a muslin over the bottle.

The more I read, the more it seems that it's ok to breastfeed - well, shucks thanks so much for allowing us to, as long as it's discreet. BOOBS ARE FOR BABIES TO DRINK FROM.