AIBU to think KLM's breastfeeding 'policy' is absurd?

[Celebelly]

'Breastfeeding is permitted at KLM flights. However, to ensure that all our passengers of all backgrounds feel comfortable on board, we may request a mother to cover herself while breastfeeding, should other passengers be offended by this.'

This was posted on their official Twitter today.

'Permitted'. Thank god it's 'permitted' to feed your child.

AIBU to think this is ridiculous?

"passengers of all backgrounds" = "some intolerant religious fucknut complained".

They can fuck off. I fed mine when they were hungry, end of. Anyone finding it offensive could feel free to deploy their eyelids.

Can we please not blame it on religious people without proof?

Plenty of atheists are misogynists too.

I was following this before it went onto twitter (it was shared in a FB group for breastfeeders) and it was a stewardess that asked on a flight to the USA for the mum to be cover up her breastfeeding. When the mum refused, the air hostess said: you can handle the complaints then and was rude to the mum throughout the remainder of the flight.

I've flown A LOT with KLM and never had this treatment or experience so I was sceptical but then when I've seen their "clarifications" on twitter, it's all about other people's comfort rather than the passenger in question.

I feel like we should all book a flight a breastfeed throughout!

I live in the Middle East and fed my DD through to 14 months, and I regularly fly KLM from here. I always feed discreetly in public and use a cover when I’m more exposed, as it’s just a part of respecting the local culture

KLM hasn't said it's only on flights in and out of religiously conservative countries.

If I board a KLM flight from Amsterdam to New York why the hell do I have to meet the standards for Saudi Arabia?

*@Somersetlady *
*Spot the difference?

Can you not see why some people from other generations/cultures might be comfortable in close proximity in a public space to one of these feeding mothers yet not the other?*

There is no difference. There are two babies being fed.
Are you sexualising something here?

Jesus this thread has some seriously weird posters on it!

Mothers breastfeed how you like, when you like, for as long as you like!

As for the poster who decided a one year old should take a bottle of pumped milk......ODFOD!

Some of the posts on here are seriously nasty. I just don't understand why people cannot be more tolerant and respectful of each other.

I'm a massive advocate of breast-feeding. It doesn't need to be us versus them.

@HappyLoneParentDay
You don't sound informed about breastfeeding at all

Oh ffs. There are some ridiculous comments in this thread. Breastfeeding is not illegal or deviant. It’s a completely natural and normal process and we shouldn’t be pandering to people who might have weird hang ups about a breast being used for its primary purpose. There are thousands of ‘religious’ paintings that show the Madonna breastfeeding, do people protest at the Louvre and national gallery because they show indecent art? Where do we draw the line at one persons right ‘not to look at something they don’t like’. Supposing there were a racist on the flight that said they didn’t want to look at someone wearing religious dress? Would their right to not be offended trump that persons right to wear a perfectly legal and legitimate form of clothing? Actually, the way things are now I wouldn’t be surprised, providing the offending person is female it seems anything goes.

BREASTFLOPPERS UNITE

Crispy that’s a great flop!

Yes, thank God they permit a woman to feed her infant.

if KLM are running flights from the UK they should comply with UK law anyway.

How's that going to work if they fly between the UK and somewhere with completely different laws?

Very easily. In the air it's up to KLM to decide on this issue. Are there actually any countries that forbid breastfeeding?

@HenSolo Someone having a different opinion to you, does NOT make them a troll? Did your parents not raise you to respect the fact that other people have differing opinions to yours?

Actually I said she was a troll because she compared breastfeeding to urinating. Very very rude of you to bring someone’s parents into it, don’t you think?

@crispysausagerolls look at that exhibitionist mother!

There is probably little more excruciating than being a teenage boy sandwiched between a woman with her breast on show on one side and, perhaps his mother in the other side.

Being a baby who can't feed when hungry is certainly more excruciating. Listening to that baby screaming is almost as bad, and certainly worse than the problems of a teenage boy who can always use a strategically placed magazine to deal with his embarrassment.

Can you believe a healthcare assistant on the maternity unit told me not to breastfeed when the other mothers husbands were visiting? I was too shocked to complain and I'm still angry about it 14 years later.

@Northernsoullover wtf!! I’m furious that happened to you!!

On a similar note, when ds2 was about 14 months old he was seriously ill in hospital. One day was breastfeeding the poor little guy, who was in a lot of discomfort, and a doctor came into our room and said, “You should stop with that you know, he’s too old. He doesn’t need it.”
A healthcare professional telling me a seriously ill baby shouldn’t be breastfed tells me all I need to know about attitudes at least in my country (uk)

And let’s just stop and consider that people are actually, genuinely saying that a woman should cover as much as possible WHILE FEEDING AN INFANT so a teenager doesn’t get turned on.
No miniskirts ladies!

Isatis, if you'd read the full thread you'd have seen that I've never suggested people shouldn't feed next to embarrassed teenage boys.

My point was solely that surely peoples modesty levels when bf depend on the context. So if sunbathing on a beach with a bunch of topless women, then clearly flopping it out is absolutely fine, but people would generally be more careful if, for example sat next to a teenage lad in an enclosed space.

Not that the baby shouldn't be fed.

I've breastfed on planes, and yes when the ni e elderly bloke next to me looked excruciated, I took extra care not to show any extra boob, compared to when I was sat next to a lady and having a natter about breastfeeding.

Baby must be fed, that's no question, but as adults we have a choice in how much boob to expose (though child often has their own say!) and I think using techniques which at least enable the possibility of discretion are polite.

I'm a mother and did breastfeed DC1 - but I didn't get my boobs out whenever however and wherever I felt like it - some women seem to do it to get a reaction out of people - there are modest ways of breastfeeding without having it all hanging out so I support KLM in this

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted there is nothing that says KLM will ask you to stop only if you have "it all hanging out." If someone doesn't like you breastfeeding whether or covered or not, discreet or not, the crew can ask you to stop.

If you really support BF then you cannot support such a discriminatory policy.

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted; how do you know that the lady in question wasn't feeding modestly? It's making a lot of presumptions.

@Celebelly KLM are not being discriminatory- they've not said they will stop you just ask that you cover yourself So I don't see the issue - like I said the militant breastfeeders do it just to get a reaction

This is ridiculous. My 2 year old still feeds, on flights he does it a lot because his ears hurt and he doesn't like the noise of the engine. He won't entertain being covered up, he screams his head off. Given that most of the plane would likely prefer the risk of a split-second flash of nipple to a screeching, tantrumming toddler I'll carry on feeding as normal. I have never had anyone make any nasty comments, only positive ones from both men and women.

hensolo

How shocking! What an appalling doctor who doesn’t understand WHO recommendations or the massive benefits of extended breastfeeding. Hope you reported him. I remember after I gave birth to DS being told the consultant would see me when I was finished feeding. I insisted I was fine with it but they insisted we would have to wait - has always stuck with me because I think that’s so ridiculous. It’s for me to feel embarrassed, it’s my modesty at stake for goodness sake and he is a doctor.

like I said the militant breastfeeders do it just to get a reaction

Nothing makes me want to run around flopping out my breasts and waving them a la the Virgin Mary like idiots saying I MUSN’T. Challenge fucking accepted I say!

If people kept their beaks out then breastfeeding wouldn’t be such a contentious issue, more people would do it, and people wouldn’t feel so god damn defensive over doing something natural and perfectly normal.

like I said the militant breastfeeders do it just to get a reaction

What the hell is a militant breastfeeder? Sounds awesome! Who’s in? Where my titloppers at??

I think the problem for me @Hugtheduggee is why is the offended or uncomfortable persons comfort more important than my own or that of the baby? I am not saying I deliberately flaunt my breasts but if the baby pulls off the nipple or it’s easier to get the full boob out because I’m only wearing a single layer due to being hot or whatever, then my focus is making the baby latch on or getting in a comfortable position etc. Don’t need the extra faff of wondering who is feeling upset about it.
Also my friend has huge boobs and finds it a lot more comfortable to pull her top down and get the whole breast out instead of faffing with one up one down or whatever. And why the hell not when a baby is crying??