Breastfeeding in public

Just interested to find out how far others are willing to go with breastfeeding in public ...

For example have you done it in the cafe? In the airport? In the park? Any negative reactions from others?

After the whole labour/birth/hospital stay I feel like I have lost all sense of shame or embarrassment at flashing my nipple at the world, but am worried that others will be turned off and/or offended.

lol mountaingoat I'm exactly the same, don't care who sees it - it's not like there's anything sexual about my boobs at the moment! - and have breastfed in shopping mall foodcourt, at cafes, at a work function in a bar, at my desk at work (not that I'm working but I went in to help out with something), at the zoo... so far no negative reactions except for an american (male) workmate who looked shocked and stared at the ceiling while I was latching bubs on while I and my female workmates teased him - I think it's less socially acceptable to do it in public in the US.

ETA: and also at church while going up to get communion, so when the priest blessed the baby I felt like my boob was being blessed! But that was discreetly, underneath the Moby Wrap. I don't take a blanket or anything but usually wear bf singlets and JJ latches pretty quickly so it's not actually like I'm giving everybody an eyeful

Edited by weegee

I'll feed anywhere.

In the early months it didn't matter where, but these days I think about distractions - noise is fine, but children's voices are guaranteed to make him pop off and look around (= nipple flash!). I usually wear layers so that otherwise there's not much exposed flesh.    I've never noticed any looks and have certainly never heard anything negative.

i've fed in parks, cafes, food halls, at my grandmothers funeral, botanical gardens, in the car while in the car park, playgroup... i dont have a blanket but i also keep myself covered with my top as i know that not everyone is as accepting and i dont believe in trying to offend anyone if i can help it. in the beginning tho i would feed in parents room at malls, but only till i got the hang of it and we both knew what we were doing...   

I feed anywhere I need to, and unfortunately I'm not very discreet at it as I have big boobs and a small baby

The one thing that I do have to watch tho is that my milk doesn't neccessarily stop just coz she's come off - yesterday I was at an appt with the gremlins and lil miss decided to let go and the milk literally squirted across the room, gave their poor psychologist quite a fright, she didn't know where to look

I fed anywhere until Caleb was about 10-12 months old when he just got too distracted and would come off and look around. I wear loose tops so I can feed discreetly though. I recall feeding at home or in parent rooms for the first 2-3 months until we got the hang of it though.

I've never had any negative comments but plenty of smiles. A lot of cafe staff will seek you out a big comfy chair in the corner somewhere if you have a little baby assuming you'll be wanting somewhere quiet to feed.

I was embarrassed to bf in public for all of about two minutes. A hungry bubba gives you the courage to do what comes naturally. If I am in a restaurant I try and use a blanket but this can often be stifling for baby so just try and sit on a table where we can be discrete. Otherwise, planes, airports, hotel lobbies, parks, foodcourts, the male in-laws and more have all had the privilege of being flashed by me...even LAX has probably got security footage of my nips after feeding baby in the gate lounge!! I think if anyone in the states asked me to stop I would've gone all human rights on them!! Lol...It's people changing dirty nappies in public that turns me off!!

LOL it's kinda scary how used to it I am now, I just keep a muslin cloth on hand to jam over the breast in a hurry when she pulls off, when she was smaller she'd pull off coz the flow was too fast, now she pulls off coz she's nosy!

lizzle wrote: I wanted to keep myself covered - not so much so they didn't see my boob, but so no one saw the belly! much more imoprtant!

ditto!

I feed anywhere and everywhere (except toilets. I will NOT feed my child in a toilet) I even fed Jake once when I was getting an ingrown toenail cut out at the podiatrist, bit random, but he was howling.

Edited by fattartsrock