Is it considered acceptable/ appropriate to breastfeed in church?

[BlueBerry123]

Attending a christening this weekend and wondering if I would be unreasonable to breastfeed my 3 week old in church? sorry if it sounds a naïve question but I am not religious at all but do respect peoples faith and wouldn't want to cause offence if it is considered unacceptable.

I fed ds at a funeral when he was close to 2. Better then the alternative of him crying and me having to further to disturb people by taking him out.
I did seat myself as close to the door and as tucked away as I could. The tucking away was more to do with ds's age and chance of him popping on and off the breast and exposing me then anything else.
Don't worry about it and enjoy, my children have always loved church music and have always really enjoyed services.

' I thought slurping and winding (and farting and pooing) might intrude into prayer and meditation.'

Yes and the baby might make a noise too!

Hope you had a lovely time op. I breastfed my dd in church. In the early weeks I would take her out but soon realised that by doing this I was causing more of a commotion.
So now i breastfeed in the pews in a rc church.
Also breastfeed in the family room afterwards with all the older members of congretation meet for tea and coffee. Only ever has posive responses. One lady got me a drink. Another said how nice it was to see me feeding and didn't know what the fuss was about.
Only strange commentwas from an older gentleman who said it was great I was breastfeeding as it meant dh could sleep. Err no thats not why I do it.

The church will be fine, but it's probably the only place where I would BF discreetly. Any other place I just take my boob out and feed

Wear a vest with a cardi on top and you will be fine.

I feed DS in church pretty much every week. One week I managed the Peace while feeding (hadn't planned it but just sat there feeding and everyone came to me - not sure they realised that I was feeding at first). I draw the line at feeding through communion though! It's fine in the pews as everyone is facing front anyway so no one is actually looking at you.

Thanks all, had a wonderful time and as it was a rather long service DS2 fed three times. Was quite amusing at one point as I sat towards the back and tried to feed discreetly at the exact point the vicar asked the congregation to all turn around and look towards the back of church so everyone was standing staring straight at me! Even got three or four lovely comments about feeding him myself.

Glad you had a lovely time, hope the feeding continues to go well

Totally fine. Extra points if you can find a stained glass window of Mary and baby Jesus to feed under.

Duh, I didn't look at the date!

Sadly, my DM (who is am ordained vicar) & my Dsis who both go to a very modern, evangelical (happy clappy) church were both so preoccupied with covering me up & hiding me away, they made me feel really ashamed of trying to feed DD. I didn't get any bad comments from anyone else. Hence, I stopped going to church.

If anyone has a problem just tell them you are using your breasts as God intended them to be used.

PMSL at everyone turning around to face the back! I'm so glad you had a positive experience .

My friend's dad is a vicar. A mother BF her baby at a service and two members of the congregation tutted and huffed then complained to the vicar afterwards.

The next Sunday the vicar gave a sermon on God choosing to live amongst us as a vulnerable human baby (it was Candlemas) and used a series of slide pictures of Mary and baby Jesus to illustrate, all from different artists at different times in history.

By a strange coincidence, Mary was breast feeding the infant/toddler Jesus in every single one.

There were no further complaints.

If anyone gives you grief, I think "What would Mary do?" would be an appropriate response.

I breastfed throughout my friends husbands funeral recently and felt completely comfortable with it. Don't even worry what anyone else thinks, it would be ridiculous to have a problem with this.

Then, of course, Mary would have been in a seperate part of the synagogue/temple but why go into details...

I felt a bit funny about it with DS1- the situation didn't arise until he was 6 months at his own Christening, the only service he's ever made a fuss at. I regret not feeding him (especially as I was wearing a feeding dress), but the way the baptism was integrated into the service, it was a bit up and down so more awkward than being normal congrgation.

DS2 has clocked up his second church at 10 wks. In my church, I tend to be at the back in children's corner, when elsewhere, the pram dictates pew choice. I was mid-feed during the Peace the first time. It would have been fine if DH hadn't have been referring to activities under the scarf!

We went to a baptism preparation session at the local convent and both the vicar (female, mother) and curate nun seemed suprised that I asked approval to feed DS1 and were very encouraging.

Churches also prefer quiet exploring free range toddlers to frustrated restrained ones. DS1 is quite an expert on ecclesiastical architecture, specialising in Anglican.

Apparently DS1's reverse crawl down the steps near the altar livened up rather a dull service one week. That was from the nun :grin:

I have done so at a church wedding, sat to one side not in main seated area, could still see & hear what was going on. Would have been no problem sitting with main congregation but DS quite refluxy & I didn't want the wailing etc to be too disruptive to the ceremony.
I would have thought it completely fine at a christening too.