made to feel ashamed for breastfeeding

[busywith5kids]

hi have never posted before but wanted an opinion. i was in town the other day with my 21 month and 4 month old. it was raining and my 4 month old was crying for a breastfeed. i went into my bank and asked if i could please use one of there rooms to feed my baby. a lady looked at me like i was mad and said sorry we are not allowed. why do i still feel, after breast feeding 5 children, that people look at me with disgust and that using boobs to feed a baby is something to be hidden away from public view so that no one has to deal with it. dont get me wrong i am not a flop it out anywhere feeder and am always discreet but babies dont always want feeding when u are by a mothercare. should i write a letter to the bank and complain????

softly that would make you a for chugging sake would you feed before I have someone's eye out feeder.

Random!

I don't believe this is true. If I'm wrong though the bank officer probably did look at you, op, like you're mad. Not because she was disgusted by bf but because she was probably shocked at your lunacy!

The bank is not a public convenience of free room hire!

I bf my two all over the shot. Never ever have I experienced any hint from anyone that it was wrong or made them uncomfortable.

i bf my 2 year old and my 9 month old

no body can make you feel anything

and i dont think it was because you were breastfeeding, it was because it was a bank, you dont need a room to bf, you dont even need a chair if there arent any

[hwink] this is clearly a wind up!

that's it I am going to march into Boots and DEMAND a pound of TURNIPS and then complain when they look confused and suggest I go elsewhere !

If this is real I will:

Eat my bra (underwired)

Give DP a BJ tonight after five year drought

Abstain from Malteser munching in the afternoon for 3 days

Not look on eBay for a week

Whack yer baps out, luv. That's the way to do it.

(Although I am secretly hoping, for the sake of DesireeZapp, that this is true )

This isn't real surely. But even if it was there is a Starbucks every fifty feet these days, just go in there not a bank!

And I am also currently BFing a 4mo on demand.

I would think the woman looked at you as if you we're mad not because you bf but because you expected them to give you a room to do it in!

True story (ex bank worker here)
Found member of public wandering round the floor of our (completely private and closed to the public) office.

Me: Can I help you?
Her: I am a nursing mother.
Me: OK
Her: I need somewhere to pump my breast milk
Me: Emmmm... OK?
Her: This office will do
Me: (momentarily tempted by thought of worst-tempered boss in the world coming back from his meeting to find random woman pumping in his luxurious office, but remembered in time that needed job to feed own baby) I'm sorry madam, this is actually a private floor which isn't open to the public. Can I escort you back to the banking hall?
Her: But I am a nursing mother
Me: But this is a private office, I'm afraid no member of the public is allowed in here.
Her: I will write! I am a nursing mother!
Me: Me too love, but I'm still not allowed to wap the baps in the bosses office...

I used to BF on demand, but...on demand doesn't actually mean wherever you happen to be at that moment! It is actually ok to make your baby wait a few minutes while you find somewhere appropriate. Bank...no, bench outside...if I had to...an unobtrusive corner in a cafe somewhere..ideal.

I can't even use the lavatory in a bank, and my son's the manager.
Not sure I believe this nonsense.
[hhmm]

I breastfed out in public and never ever had an issue and I am THE most disorganised person in the world.

There was one instance, when baby was asleep so I decided to try on a top in a certain store. Pulling the top over my head I heard someone else's baby crying and my beloved breasts decided to turn the tap on... the ONLY thing to stem the flow was to either use the top I hadn't yet bought as a towel (I had muslin squares and was using them to frantically wipe the mirrors!) or plant my sleeping baby on the breast.

I was in there a while, sat on the floor of the changing room feeling trapped and ashamed, not at breastfeeding, but at using the one changing room for so long and making others queue.

I eventually poked my head around the curtain and asked the assistant for assistance. The staff were amazing, they helped me off with my half on unbought top, held my baby whilst I sorted myself out and said I could have the top with their compliments (I refused and paid for it).

That was a breast emergency though. "Because it's raining outside" isn't really.

Desiree will have to resort to mechanised means of stimulation I'm afraid. She'll cope.

Love the Jewish mum upthread 'my son the bank manager'.

Quite right love!

aldi you need to name that store, that's amazing service.

And arf at 'breast emergency'!

Flat battery, dearie :small world:

My friends say Im verging on being a lactivist these days just because I feed my nearly one year old thats all. Ive popped into my oestopaths clinic before and asked if I could sit and feed as car was inaccessible due to doors being blocked by a 4x4 and no where to sit except a sodden car park floor.

However I probably wouldnt have popped into a faceless high street bank and expected to have been given a room. I would have just sat in one of their waiting area seats and good luck to anyone who tutted or tried to move me on.

So they were providing a space for people to bottle feed their babies, but wouldn't let you breast feed?

aldiwhore and

fab story, what lovely staff too!

Peaz no one was bottle feeding.

Exactly cooking

So the op wasn't being made to feel ashamed for breast feeding, it was more to do with her odd request!

People never cease to amaze me. The bank didn't bow down to her request so she gets in thick humour and wants to complain.
I would bloody complain if the bank allowed some random person into a room where my details were.

I only didn't mention it because I'm often a bit ashamed of shopping in New Look