Hasn't this latest Gem made it to MN yet? (Warning DM link)

[foxytocin]

Mother asked to face the wall while breastfeeding in a library.

here

the usual DM mentality out in force but also some cracking rebuttals.

at face the wall. I assume the librarian realised the head turns but boobs tend to remain facing front? I do so love the DM.

Comments are good too.

I read the comments last night and wish I hadn't.

Only read a few of the comments, but how depressing. And the orgasms one? WTF!

oh god! Think i'm going to cry. Why oh why did i start to read the comments???

Am just about to give birth to DC2. DS1 is active toddler. There's no way i'm going to be able to stay cooped up in the house all day (or in a toilet/feeding room) with DS1 running around, but am really hoping to BF DC2.

Have to say, I only had positive stuff from people when i fed DS1 in public, but it depresses me that there are so many meatheads narrow-minded people out there.

picc - I'm still breastfeeding DS 2 and I don't give a flying fig what anyone thinks frankly. If they are that small minded they can go fuck themselves. :)

Do not pay any heed to the DM - they probably have already condemned you for bringing another child into the country which is always full (and let's not mention the immigrants high birth rate)

They are big bloody bigots.

On the positive side, at least this unfortunate incident is apparently rare and newsworthy enough to make the DM.

Shame about the comments, especially the poor lady from NZ.

thanks whomovedmychocolate :)
i know that really. and, like i said, people were only ever positive last time (maybe i was just lucky...)
i just despair sometimes that there are such idiots around.

(i'm everything the DM would hate. public sector worker, "older" mother and married to... gasp!... someone who isn't english!! i am obviously just damned in general!)

I am particularly liking the comebacks from Ali - are you a mumsnetter?

Current faves

'Can you see the irony there? You hate seeing a human baby drinking human milk while you're drinking the milk of another species.'

'Before breastfeeding became the norm,...'

When was that, Ross? Before we were mammals? About 10 million years? How long ago did you hatch out?

I saw this in my local paper and was appalled. I'm glad the mum stood up for herself though. I was hoping the library was a bit more local to me, so that I could tell them I was boycotting it!

I was just about to post the link to this story which appeared in last night's Evening Standard.

It was in the my local library and I was actually in there at the time this happened, with my mum and my two children. There were several other people there at the time but we were all mums (or grandmother) with young kids and everyone was more outraged by the library staff than by breastfeeding.

DS2 (19 months) was pulling out DVDs and throwing them on the floor and a library staff member tried to tell another woman off for that - I told him it was DS2. This wasn't the first time we were told off.

When I told dp and said I was going to complain, he wrote to the Head of Libraries in Haringey complaining about the staff attitude to children in the kids' library including this bf incident. To her credit, she came down to the library and read the riot act, and she wanted to meet dp but he couldn't get it together to leave the house with two children who were napping and waking at different times that afternoon.

If you are local, don't boycott the library. Hopefully they know better now, if there are further problems, I think a feed-in/play-in might be worth considering!

It's strange how much libraries within Haringey differ, especially as Haringey supposedly has a breastfeeding friendly policy. My more local library is a very relaxed place with my various children throwing books and DVDs off the shelf with abandon. I do obviously clear up afterwards but it is a very childfriendly place, which is as it should be.

Good on your DH, elkiedee, for writing to the Head of Libraries and I hope they get their act together. My breastfeeding days are over now sadly!

I have thought we should try and get bf friendly posters displayed in the children's library.

Yes, that's a good idea. I'll ask mine when I next go in. Will distract them from my overdue fees!

I wrote two comments and neither of them made their message board. One describing that expressing 4oz of milk can take up at least 2 expressing sessions of 20 mins for a mum and that is even if she can express and more importantly, why should she express and feed from a bottle in public just to validate the outdated opinions of bigots and ignoramuses.

I also tried to leave a link for the Sex Discrimination Act under which this is covered and the letter by Barbara Follett MP clarifying why feeding in public is covered by this Act.

But NO, the Daily Mail, true to form has not published those. If anyone from the DM is reading this, I'd like to let them know that that paper is a pile of poo.

Well done for your DH complaining Elkidee and great result it sounds like.

I'd want to go down and feed in just to watch the twerp squirm.

What I can never quite understand with the DM is that they run these stories, idiots write comments underneath but then those idiots get loads of red arrows. Do we all go on there and click but not get our comments accepted?!

Just occurred to me that we have our breastfeeding support group actually in the local library - so lots of boobs out in there!

i love the way the DM message board always gets hijacked by rednecks from the US - obviously the US press isnt conservative enough for them.

Well done elkie :) When I read these sorts of things I always wish there had been an MNer about when it was happening - this time there was :)

Oh my gosh, people are mental.

The librarian should have been told to fuck off. Telling someone to fuck off isn't illegal, whereas telling someone to stop breastfeeding actually is, so jog on Mr Librarian.

Those comments? What the F*CK?????!!!!! Really angered and upset me.

My in-laws are big DM fans, most of their conversations start, "I read an interesting article the other day...." and I'm sad to say that there is a slight tinge of this thinking in their views too.

MIL bf all of her kids, but "always at 3 hourly intervals when I could be sure I was at home." and I know they get when they are out with me and DS cuz I bf him anywhere he's hungry.

Nightmare the whole thing, I feel sorry for anyone in that library trying to feed their child. And sure, according to some comments children shouldn't even be in the library! Sounds a bit Victorian to me; children should be seen and not heard.

TakeLovingChances - my mum reads it too, which I find ironic because she BF 5 kids, is a lesbian 'married' to someone who moved here from abroad, and on benefits. She's everything the DM loves to hate.

jem that's so funny! My MIL is everything the Mail stands for.... well-educated but knows nothing, owns a big house in the countryside, married only once, 3 well-to-do adult children etc.

Priceless.

There are some great comebacks on there, and some amazingly ignorant/dumb people too. I'm breastfeeding DD1, she's only 7 wks old so she needs feeding regularly. As much as I am a very shy person by nature I have fed her in restaurants (family friendly ones) and all over the place. I do drape a muslin strategically though, and haven't had any comments yet. If I did I like to think I would be strong enough to retort/stand up for myself! I would probably come home a little sad though.

I have fed ds2 in the library before, but don't feel comfortable doing so since a new member of staff started there, not the one who told AO off for bf. He stares disapprovingly at everything kids do - and this is in the children's library! And C was 19 months at that point and tends to wriggle and look up, so while I'm happy to still bf him on occasion, I choose where carefully.

C was clearly wanting a feed and I fed him at the children's centre before we headed for the library because no one would have considered staring or commenting there.

They do seem to be more careful in the library at the moment.