I think that BFing in public is necessary as we can't expect mums to stay at home 24/7, but I do think common courtesy of modesty should be practised. ie; if you're in a shopping mall and need to BF then go to the parents room, don't sit on the bench outside the supermarket with your breast in full view of everyone (as I saw a few weeks ago). And if you are in a situation with no parents room, use a muslin cloth or clothing to provide yourself with some privacy. I do believe that if you don't want to see someone BFing then don't look, but lets not offend the public by bearing all.
See I completely disagree! I actually won't use a parents room unless there is a specific breast feeding area that is nowhere near the nappy bins as I wouldn't chose to eat around that smell and sure as hell won't make DD2 eat around it either! I will only use a breast feeding room if it's more convenient for ME! I think that women should be able to feed wherever, whenever HOWEVER!
Having said that I am pretty discreet, for personal reasons - I don't want everyone seeing my breasts! The thing is though, it's not always possible to be 100% discreet when you are a large breasted woman (40EE here!) - I'm better now than I used to be and do a pretty good job but in the early days with DD1, crikey lol!
Despite being pretty discreet, I got accosted yesterday! I was in a local Shopping mall - Starbucks to be exact when a woman came up to me and said (and I quote) "you should be ashamed - exposing yourself like that. John Lewis has a perfectly good breast feeding room and instead you chose to make everyone around you feel uncomfortable - if you have to feed your baby in a coffee shop, then use a bottle!". Suffering with PND this confrontation was the LAST thing I needed. I held it together though and responded "well, you'd better be careful walking past La Sensa as there's far more exposure of naked flesh on their posters" (I don't even know f that's true
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I then started a ramble about "gee, lets increas my baby's chance of cotdeath, cancer, adult obesity and my chance of breast and ovarian cancers just to make these ignorant people feel comfortable..." I said all this far too loudly and was very appreciative that the lady sitting practically next to me feeding her baby a bottle of formula was kind enough not to retaliate!
The worst thing was that NO nipple or areola was showing and there was a tiny, tiny bit of skin to the side between top and baby that could possibly have been seen. Had this not have been the first time I ventured out ALONE with PND (on the advice of DH and HV), I probably wouldn't have felt so defenseless and victimised but I just wanted to die right then and there. To top the lot the bloody car wouldn't start either. Yesterday was NOT a good day and needless to say today I've stayed at home!
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