Is breastfeeding seen as a middle class thing?

[Thandeka]

Am genuinely curious. Just heard a local children's centre in a deprived area refused to have a breastfeeding support group in it because only the middle class mums would go.

eh?
And I have heard elsewhere that breastfeeding levels are much higher in the middle classes,
Could it linked with education levels?

I have a feeling in other countries people of all classes breastfeed so why not in this country?

Am not posting this to be controversial or anything and apologies if it has been done to death already- I couldn't find anything before but I just wondered if mumsnetters thought it was a middle class thing? and know any reasons why this is?

if you find it uncomfortable to watch a baby being fed as nature intended then look the other way.
It's not rocket science.

So you would be perfectly fine to sit somewhere and do it would you if there was a group of men leering at you?.

Its hardly stripping, is it? Getting a breast out to feed... If other people don't like it, that's their problem, if they're uncomfortable, they can move.

And just as another point, how on earth are we ever going to be able to see breastfeeding as normal if no one feeds in public?

I'll feed anywhere if my son needs feeding. My son is my priority - what other people think is so far down the scale in comparison I tend to forget to give a shit.

Ryoko, you clearly know bog all about breastfeeding whether it be in public or otherwise.

Pathetic men leering at me is their problem, not mine.
Especially when they can actually see no breast at all and all they are leering at is a baby.

Well obviously you can't say that ALL working class mothers want to bottlefeed for this or that reason. And TBH there is a definite left-wing, alternative, natural minded etc slant on MN so the data here is going to be skewed.

Just from converstions I've had, reasons that (working class) people I know didn't breastfeed are:

• Because they wanted to go out on a Friday night and hand the baby to their mum to look after
• Because nobody in their family had breastfed and they never really thought about it
• Because they tried it but the baby didn't want to know and when a midwife tried to touch their breast they said "Sod this" and moved to bottles
• Becuse they tried it, but it hurt too much so they switched to bottles
• Because their partner wanted to help out
• Because they had breastfed a previous baby and it woke up at night far more than their friends' babies who were bottle fed, even after switching to formula
• Because they don't like the sight of a toddler (ie mine) pulling at the mum's top and they don't want their own child doing that when older
• Because they want to know how much the baby is getting/get it into a routine of four-hourly feeds early on

it is possible to bf while showing less boob than most of my tops reveal! Leering men do better from me without a baby in the way. Even better if they buy the sport.

You said earlier ryoko that you chose not to bf cause you simply didn't want to. But your more recent remarks are revealing a whole other set of prejudices that must have affected your decision.

Ryoko - I sat an fed today in a garage having my type changed, the only woman in a garge waiting area full of men on their tea break, no one leered, a couple didn't even realise I was feeding until the manager offered to get me a drink as he had heard that BF made you thirsty. No-one offended/put off their lunch/left the room a couple even said how amazing!

tyre - I can't type one handed (feeding)

DS2 doesn't use a dummy and does't sleep through the day much at all (maybe an hour in the afternoon), he sleeps all night instead, he feeds every 1.5 to 2 hours. I also have a DS1 so couldn't stay in all day everyday even if I wanted to and I don't want to, so I am not going to.

I feed my babies as and when they ask for it, wherever I happen to be and whoever happens to be there. I am not in the habit of stripping to the waist however sometimes there is breast visible - I don't care.

Have never been leered at and if I was leered at it certainly wouldn't be my problem but theirs and I would have something to say to them.

I don't find BFing a private act, I find it a necessary one and not one I am inclined to hide. I go about my normal business and feed the baby as needed. It isn't special, I am not trying to make a point, I am feeding the baby.

What Morloth said. As it happens I BF in public all the time (because my baby gets hungry, and I am out and about) and I have never, not once had a negative comment or even felt a negative vibe.

IME I would answer the OP's question in the affirmative. I met my mummy friends at a BF group and we are all professionals (if that's a way of defining class - who cares?). I've met lots of other mummies at other groups, and live in a fairly deprived town, and none of the non-professional mums (WC? or chavs?) have BF.

So now only professional 'mummies' BF ..bloody hell MN does my head in sometimes

How exactly is "class" defined? I don't really understand it.

We have money, but bugger all "class".

how can you define working class as a chav! I can think of many chavs that are definately middle class, but I'm heading off point...

Also why do people keep saying about WC mums wanting to go out on friday nights, or drinking/ drugs etc... This isnt a social activity limited to working classes!!! My goodness ignorance is funny

Well maybe the credit crunch will solve the problem, given that it is FREE.

I'm a working class single mum with an 8 week old baby and chose to breastfeed, a lot of my friends are anti-breast feeding but it was a decision that was made for my babies health and development and not what's socially agreed with. Since I've started feeding, a lot of my other friends have come around to the idea and may possibly do it in the future. It's such a taboo subject though. x

Well this has opened my eyes to some unspeakable ignorance of some MNers - I know who to avoid in future. My god some of the statements on here.

Working class = chavs
Give up breastfeeding to take drugs
Husband doesn't bother working (chavscum) so wants to help bottle feed
The plebs read the Sun so see breasts as sexual objects.

Funnily enough, we working class mothers encompass more than just those people you see from the windows of your car smoking roll ups outside Asda. I think that there are a lot of working class mothers who have a higher degree of intelligence than is shown by the middle class 'mummies' on this thread.

Shame on you. Professionals? Educated? Pah.

oopsandbabycoconuts: me too, and I live in North London. I was quite surprised to be the only one too and ended up leaving the group as I felt quite alienated from them.

Many of my work colleagues are working class. When I was pregnant, I was told:

"You should get a steriliser and bottles soon."
"Oh, I was going to bf."
"Eww!"

"Oh, I couldn't do that, I was too embarrassed."

"Yeah, they all say they'll have a go but you'll be on bottles by 3 weeks." (still bf at 8 months!)

I think overall there is a sense that bf is what they ought to be doing but that there is a lack of knowledge and tradition.

And, OP, a sense that it's something middle class women do.

That is a shame and should be targeted. I've tried to do my bit, by bfing in the office and answering any questions my colleagues have had for me.

My grandmother was working class and breastfed all 4 of her children, what a sweeping generalisation.

I breastfed not because I am middle-class and have a good level of education, but because I was brought up to think that is how babies should be fed. It had nothing to do with weighing up the pros and cons and deciding to breastfeed, it was just something I was brought up to think you did with babies.

I am half-Norwegian though and I think a good reason why bf rates are higher there is that people are less hung up about their bodies.

Know bog all do I? I know enough to know that I don't want to see someone with a boob tube sitting in the middle of the shopping centre with one boob hanging out (Seen it in Ealing Broadway Centre).

I know enough to know being leered at by men is not their problem, my god it's hard enough dealing with them normally, do you honestly think it's their problem? you obviously have never been threatened/chased by perverts.

And no one is saying your kids going to starve, if your baby needs changing you don't immediately plonk em on the table in Starbucks and change em, you look for somewhere quiet to do it.

MoonFaceMama
Why say prejudices?
It's a choice I choose not to do it, I don't feel comfitable with it, my son got some I bought a Breast pump and mixed it in with his feed as he couldn't take it from a spoon, if I did do it I would not do it in public, it's a private thing, I also think it's disrespectful to others to discard there feelings and do it in front of them regardless, there are far too many selfish people in the world who don't give a damn about the sensibilities of others, if I walked into the ladies and there was a women sitting there BF-ing I wouldn't give it a second thought.

I don't understand why you Breast feeding lot have to give us Formula feeding lot such a hard time every time there is a thread on here it turns into a war, I've never asked anyone why they BF, good for them it's there choice end of.

bf carnage as usual

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