Breastfeeding in public - annoyed!

[nursie]

I know there is a long thread on breastfeeding in public but I thought I would start a new one as I saw something today that really annoyed me!
I am going shopping tomorrow with a friend and ds, who is 3 months old. We will likely be out for most of the day so I went onto the website for the shopping centre I am going to to find out where the Baby Changing facilites are. There are several, which is good, but I was shocked to read a note that said ' There are Breast Feeding facilites in the public toilets.' Oh great, so if I want to feed my baby I'm expected to go and sit in the toilets on my own for half an hour???
I'm fully intending on feeding ds when my friend and I have our lunch, and although I recognise that some women may not want to feed in public, the note did rather give me the impression that feeding in public is not ' the done thing'.
Can somebody reassure me that attitudes to feeding in public are gradually changing?

What is the collective noun for a group of breastfeeding mothers? A milkfloat? Suggestions on a postcard.

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Can those of us who bottlefeed for our own personal reasons but still think bf'ing in public should be more supported join in? We can wear fake tits!!!

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Willow - a spurt?

If I was feeding (bottle or breast), or pg I'd love to join in too. I'd come along to support though !

metrobaby - what about if you hold placards?? Every protest needs them and surely they're a bit hard to hold if you're trying to feed a baby!!!

Has anyone thought about contacting one of the baby or parenting magazines? Noticed that my latest copy of Practical Parenting has a news item about a campaign to get commuters to give up their seats to pregnant women. Apparently, T-shirts are being produced with some catch slogan on.

Think Next's reaction was outrageous. Do you suppose they would have asked a bottle-feeding mum to have stopped? I doubt it. Makes me want to take my top off and march through Next to protest (except that I might get arrested of course!).

Happy enough to hold placards ! Also would come round bringing any water/coffee etc to feeding mums. May also bring along a big bag of Foxes glacier mints (they gave them to customers waiting in the sales queues in Croydon Next)

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Collective nouns : a herd?? A fertility? An udder? Then the staff can say ' Oh, no an udder one....'...sorry!

Drat - wished I'd read this thread earlier - was in Croydon this morning (and even in the offending branch of NEXT). However I fed ds2 (12w) in the M&S cafe instead - the gentleman who had hogged the sofas soon moved on once I started feeding! (discreetly of course!). Will now make a point of feeding in NEXT, but must admit will probably wait until the sale is over...

tits out for the babe(s). brilliant t shirt slogan idea, i have a friend who prints t shirts for a living, he usually does clubby t shirts but will print up any design u want. i briefly spoke to him last night and he chuckled. if u want one made up, then let me know. will pass details on.

My friend saw a baby t shirt in Sydney which said "mothersucker". Could be a good one to wear in Next.

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You should get "tits out for the babes" tshirts to wear to Next.

I remember a previous thread re: breastfeeding/bottlefeeding in art galleries which could squirt on the paintings etc (!) - but cannot see why shops should object to feeding especially in this heat. i personally feed in next by taking three garments into a cubicle and pretending to try them on
and then not buy the clothes

HI, yes, I am supposed to be calling the press office woman to give her the details. Will do tomorrow. I did speak to her and told her what 'customer services' said, and she sounded nervous and embarrassed and said, "Oh she shouldn't have said that and the shop shouldn't have behaved like that" she also said it could have been because the shop was busy due to the sale... BUT...then said, the woman should have been 'offered' the chance to feed in a changing room to 'give her some privacy'. Well, obviously the woman didn't want 'privacy' and also, if the shop was so busy someone couldn't sit on a seat and breastfeed, how on earth could they spare a whole changing room for her??

As it happens, the changing rooms would have been shut on the 1st day of the sale. Offering her the chance to feed in private would have been better than telling her to stop. What would have happened if she'd refused to stop anyway?

Go get 'em!

Have only just come into the chatroom today so forgive me if I have missed something. Dorothy Perkins and Evans are both pro breastfeeding and will let you use their changing rooms if you need somewhere comfy (and very discrete) to feed. I even had one sales assistant bringing clothes in for me to look at whilst I was feeding!

I was really shy with ds and would not feed in front of anyone. With dd (5 mths)I really do not care. If she is hungry, I feed her, at Tescos, in front of the vicar, in cafes. I have not had any comments yet, even though I have been ready for them. My db is the only person who has said anything when he suggested that I feed in the toilets whilst at the pub. I pointed out that he did not feed his daughter (bottle fed) whilst sitting on a toilet so why should I! I am sure that my tits look just like most others (apart from Jordans)! so what is the problem?

My cousin and her husband have just come over from New Zealand and they were shocked when I asked if they minded if I breast fed. They could not believe that it was an issue! It is standard practice to feed to at least 9 months and quite often up to 2/3 years over there and nobody bats an eyelid.

As to Next, I will have to do a campaign on my own at my local store in Staffordshire. They have got a very comfy looking leather sofa on display!

I live in New Zealand and see about 50-50 breast and bottles out and about. 80% of the people who leave the hospital I went to are excl. bfing (you stay 3-5 days).

Our official stats by 6 months though are only 7% are not supplementing with ABM.

I would never ask to feed either, but I'm coming to the UK in a week for a holiday and am concerned that I am going to get hassle. Please tell me that's not so.

I'm sure you won't get hassle! The people who object to it seem to be pretty few and far between. I didn't have a single comment in the 2 years+ I spent feeding.

Bobthebaby - I have have not had any hassle anywhere and I have fed in all sorts of places. The only comments that I have had are all positive including two older ladies who said that it was nice that young mothers are able to still have a life and breast feed on the go!

Maybe it is just my friends circles that seem to breastfeed so long. When I was in hospital with my first ds I was the only one on a ward of six who carried on breastfeeding and that was through sheer determination to get past the pain of bleeding nipples!

Don't worry I would be very surprised if you had any comments about feeding. Like it has been said earlier if you don't mention it no-one else will.

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sb34, was the bf lady sitting on a sofa in the homeware section? I was in there on the first day of the sales and remember walking past someone bf and getting all smiley thinking that'll be me in a couple of months. Well obviously it's not if they're going to be arsey about it.

If thats the way they are going to treat us then Next can go whistle for my custom.

Personally I'll breastfeed where ever I happen to be if baby needs it, but if there is somewhere comfy to go where I don't have to worry about what the other kids are up to then Ill use it.