"But it isn't the baby feeding that they are hiding.
If you have a flabby belly, you don't walk around in a crop top."
But if you're breastfeeding any display of flesh is incidental and takes place only when you're feeding your child. You're not 'flashing' or 'showing your body off'. You're feeding your baby. If you happen to show a bit of non-perfect body, well, so what!
Wonder why in other countries where unselfconscious breastfeeding is the norm mums don't get stressed about the need to hide their saggy bellies? Maybe it's because they come from a culture which values motherhood (and the body shapes that come with it) above looking like a 17 year old who's not carried a baby or given birth.
"In an ideal world all women would feel comfortable getting their boobs out in public to feed their babies. But, given that women do feel uncomfortable that they might expose their breasts, surely it's a good thing that something exists that allows them to breastfeed while out in public?"
It doesn't need to be an 'ideal world'. It's already happening in some places which are very far from 'ideal' in every other way. And most women in this country who breastfeed in public without covering their baby and breast with a sheet or their clothing probably DON'T initially feel comfortable about it. I know I didn't. They've grown up in the same culture as everyone else and are influenced by it in the same ways.
"some comments are indicating that people who use covers, don't live up to the expectations of the bf world"
Oh come on - does it need to be said again? Nobody is saying that anyone 'should' or 'shouldn't' do anything, or judging individual mums. Implying that they have is a distortion of what's being said.
Actually it's fairly hilarious how many posters here are distorting people's concerns about the widespread use of nursing covers. It's like you have to believe that people are out to judge individual mums so you can have something to complain about. While determined to completely IGNORE everything that's been said about the wider issues concerning the way breastfeeding is perceived in our culture.
Hello - anyone! Would anyone like to comment on the view that there MAY be a link between the very low rates of breastfeeding in the UK and the fact that most women grow up never seeing a baby feeding normally at the breast? (and that products like the one in question help perpetuate this situation).
I mean, lots of women feel embarrassed about bottlefeeding in this country (as evidenced by the many comments on this board). How would you feel if someone came along with a product (like this: www.dotdotslittleshop.com/i_276/Supplementary-Nursing-System.htm here]] that allowed them to bottlefeed their baby in public without anyone being able to see that this is what they were doing? To spare their feelings of mortification about the fact that they weren't breastfeeding.
Would you be saying 'Why can't we be more supportive of mums who feel bad about not breastfeeding? The most important thing is that they feel comfortable feeding their babies in public.
Or would you be saying, 'actually it's a really crap situation that our culture so fetishises breastfeeding that formula feeding mums feel the need to do something like this. We shouldn't be encouraging people to make money out of this situation'.
Breastfeeding, like bottlefeeding, isn't intrinsically obscene, ugly or embarrassing. These are all values that are placed on it by a society which is unfamiliar with it as an everyday part of family life. And normal women's bodies shouldn't be seen as being too ugly to be shown during the normal course of breastfeeding.
We shouldn't need these covers to feel comfortable breastfeeding, and the fact that so many women do feel the need says a lot to me about our values in this country.