'Breastfeeding is disgusting'

[startwig1982]

Two people I know, one a friend and the other more of an acquaintance, were having this conversation this evening.
Basically the friend said she was uncomfortable seeing mothers breastfeeding and later said to me, either do it in the toilet or use a bottle.
The acquaintance went as far as saying it's the same as someone 'doing a shit in the middle of the restaurant'! She was so provocative and rude and when I said that I feed my dd out and about and you can't see anything, she said it's disgusting and she would have to say something.
So here's the AIBU: we are all performing at an event in about 3/4 weeks. Wibu to ask my DH to bring my dd to the rehearsal so I can sit and provoke openly feed her? I'm so enraged by their conversation that I feel the need to change at least my friend's mind.

Start. You seem too intelligent and open minded to be friends with these cretins

People will happily drink milk from the udders of another animal

this made me lol, as my I had a mental image of people happily suckling from the 'udders of another animal'.

I find the idea of bf disgusting tbh - I could never have done/do it myself - but that is my problem. How and where other people choose to feed their babies has nothing to do with me.

Denim, I have seen women not cover in a restaurant and in a park

Define "cover" please.

I am so utterly bored by all breastfeeding talk

I wish we would happily accept that everyone feeds their children in their way

The end

I'd dump her. Horrible person

I think if a friend equated any action of mine as like taking a shit in a restaurant I would be highly insulted and wouldn't feel at opposite ends of the opinion scale. She's bloody spiteful.

Stop staring.

My MIL is very anti-breastfeeding and repeatedly announced "You won't want to be breastfeeding, not if you have another large baby" throughout my pregnancy with DS2. I breastfed him openly in her company many, many times, and not once did she ever do anything other than tut and grimace. Nobody died or got set alight because I fed my child. The world continued to turn.

It's such a small thing, really, when compared to all the other thousands of choices parents make regarding their child's welfare over the first 18 years, yet it's the biggest bone of contention. Why? It's food. Survival of our entire species has depended on our bodies doing exactly this for the thousands of years we've spent evolving. I just don't understand the battles. If you choose not to or can't or feel squeamish, bottle feed. If you can, and you want to, crack on. No battles, no drama, no arguments, no judgement.

Maybe you should stop staring at people's breast, then, Ugly

Ugh. Putting the breastfeeding issue aside for a second. She had an opinion which she knew would be hurtful to you and expressed it aggressively and rudely, for no other reason than to just be an arsehole. It's not the kind of thing I could forgive in a friend.

I have very strong opinions on this topic, but I tread carefully with friends I know feel differently, because I am not an arsehole. Simple.

Anyone who is anti-breastfeeding I will assume is uneducated on the subject, and possibly lazy, as the entire internet is flooded with information to show it's the norm. Not 'optimum' or 'best', it is normal. Anything less is just that: less. Just like artificial food given to astronauts in packets in space is less than fresh, grown food available to us here.

Define 'cover' please
Go use a dictionary

Wow! Akin to having a shit. Not even my brother (and he comes out with some utter bollocks, let me tell you) would have come up with that one.
Not sure I could continue a friendship with people that thought like that, tbh.
A lady moved away from me yesterday, actually. We were chatting waiting for the same thing to finish, and I began to feed my baby. Then she went quiet and went to sit on a bench outside.
The lady on my other side went in quite the opposite route and showed far too much interest!

Noticing something because I have eyes and staring are two different things.

in a public place I think women should cover. It's still their breast and people will still look at it as exposure.

Really, you see more 'exposure' on a billboard advertising swimwear/lingerie. It's just boob ffs.

Imwithspud
And that is why people see it as sexual

Some people.

Ugly a baby being fed is not sexual and the fact you can think that is worrying for you.

Hands and mouths can be used in a sexual way, do you expect those to be covered up too because of it?

The only way peoples views are going to change is if women are allowed to nurse in public without feeling like they have to use a ridiculous cover contraption which quite frankly in my experience does nothing except make the baby hot/fussy and bring more attention to what I'm doing than nursing without a cover.

I agree with you ugly

Have to stop reading Worra at this hour...always makes me wake the kids by laughing too loud

Well maybe but seriously who would care. I am far too busy to bother looking at other women's tits with if without a baby hanging off them.

hypotenuse disagree with you there.

It's each woman's choice. Breast or bottle. Each is absolutely fine.

Neither is artificial or wrong or right or saintly.

It's just a choice for a woman. That's it.

By them a drink each and take the drinks to the toilets as it's the only decent place to drink them. Preferably with a blanket draped over their heads.

in a public place I think women should cover. It's still their breast and people will still look at it as exposure.

DS loathed having his head covered in any way, shape or form. Trying to 'cover up' would have attracted a lot more attention than the tiny amount of flesh someone staring might have spied.

What should I have done? Stayed in with a baby who fed every two hours for six months, to avoid offending the delicate sensibilities of voyeurs?

Uglybuggaz don't be an arse. It is perfectly legitimate to ask you to define what "cover" means to you, as you can't mean "nipples covered" as the baby does that anyway! I suspect you mean a scarf wrapped over everything lest anyone sees a mm of flesh.