Does nursing a baby have different meanings?

[Babysafari]

Basically a family member was holding my baby and was on the phone. She told the person on the other end of the phone that she was just nursing the baby.

I thought it an odd thing to say as and looked a bit like this I understood it to mean breastfeeding, or possibly even comforting when upset.

Or does nursing also mean holding/cuddling a baby?

It means breastfeeding to me. My family from Lancashire use it to mean cuddle.

In Wales it means holding and cuddling. Breastfeeding is breastfeeding, everything else is nursing

I'm in North West England; it means to hold/cuddle the baby here as far as I've always known.

I've always thought of nursing a baby as cuddling rocking etc, but a "nursing mother" is a mother still breastfeeding her baby.

I'm in Wales. It means breastfeeding where I am.

I always thought the original meaning was 'to cuddle' but that it has become used as a euphemism for breastfeeding by those who didn't want to use the word 'breast'. Started in states and drifted here.

I always think of it meaning BF (as in nursing mother) but DM, who comes from South Wales, uses it to mean holding/cuddling.

Ireland here and always understood it to mean hold / cuddle (except when I was 5 and my mother asked me if I wanted to nurse my new baby brother - I thought I was going to have to give him medicine or injections or something and started to panic )

To me it means breastfeeding; to my northern inlaws it means cuddling

My mum said this meaning cuddling but to me it means breastfeeding, I did tell her the meaning had moved on but she would roll her eyes. We are in Scotland

I am a midwife and have only heard it used to describe cuddling the baby, not feeding. I am in Ireland.

I never knew it meant breastfeeding until I discovered the US use on-line when my first child was a baby. I found it jarring for ages then found myself using it ;).

I agree with drivingmisspotty that it came over to me as a euphemism for people too 'ashamed ' to say breastfeeding.

Ah makes sense as relative is from a different region. I've never heard it used other than feeding but wasn't going to ask her.

You learn something new and all that!

Btw I've been trying to reply but keep getting an error.