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BF in public
This is slightly OT so forgive me. ![:\](https://forum.madeformums.com/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
) I know this has come up before and I hope you can help me.
I am going back to work as a teacher next week and have been given some Year 13 (18 years) General Studies lessons. Anyway I am covering a number of different topics, one of which is "Breastfeeding in Public - should it be allowed?".
What I would like is some real life case studies of BF in public and/or your opinions about this. I personally haven't had any issues but I know some of you have. I would of course make them totally anomalous - I wouldn't even mention this site - I would just describe certain circumstances to them and ask whether they thought the BF mum and/or the complainant were justified. The point of it is for them to have a healthy discussion of both sides and come up with their own final opinion (hopefully that it's ok
but I can't force my own opinion on them).
I do not want to go back over old threads as those people posted in privacy. If you post here I will assume you are ok for me to use your story.
Thank you very much in advance,
H xx
) I know this has come up before and I hope you can help me. I am going back to work as a teacher next week and have been given some Year 13 (18 years) General Studies lessons. Anyway I am covering a number of different topics, one of which is "Breastfeeding in Public - should it be allowed?".
What I would like is some real life case studies of BF in public and/or your opinions about this. I personally haven't had any issues but I know some of you have. I would of course make them totally anomalous - I wouldn't even mention this site - I would just describe certain circumstances to them and ask whether they thought the BF mum and/or the complainant were justified. The point of it is for them to have a healthy discussion of both sides and come up with their own final opinion (hopefully that it's ok
but I can't force my own opinion on them).I do not want to go back over old threads as those people posted in privacy. If you post here I will assume you are ok for me to use your story.
Thank you very much in advance,
H xx
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Replies
when my 1st child was 3 1/2 weeks i traveled from bristol to manchester on the train. in manchester picadilly station i was meeting a couple of friends so i went to the bar upstairs with my pram, got a coffee and was helped to the table by the barman. in due time my friends arrived, bought drinks and had a nice chat. Se????n needed feeding so i fed him whilst sat there. about 15 mins in to a feed (he would sometimes nurse for hours at a time) the landlady came along and pointedly asked me to leave. i asked her why? she nervously glanced at se????n nursing and then said "we dont havve a childrens licence so you cant be in here with the child."
i said "why was i allowed in then in the 1st place?"
LL "the barman obviously realised you didn't have a child with you"
Me "really? so why did he help carry my coffee so i could carry the baby and push the pram?"
LL "well he shouldn't have done and i'll be talking to him about that, anyway, you still need to leave"
Me "ok, as soon as my son finishes his feed we'll leave"
10 mins later she comes past and glares "have you not left yet?!"
"no, my son is still feeding, nearly done now"
She wasn't very happy and stalked off the watched us until we'd left.
that was the only time i've been specifically asked to leave somewhere. usually peaople don't notice and only a few times have i had evil looks.
i'm now on my 3rd child, i still feed everywhere and anywhere. recently i've been to 2 different weddings and have nursed the baby wearing an evening gown. that is quite hard and you deffinatly need a shawl to cover up.
i hope this helps and your class have a good debate. have you considered getting a breastfeeding mother to come into the class to give an example of someone feeding? they probably wouldn't even realise until you told them!
Chrystal.
my hubby is convinced he's seen guys trying to 'peek' and get a look of my boob but i really think hes just paranoid lol.
will be interesting to hear what your students think
But this was 14 year ago i have since fed 3 other and had no coments either way.
And my friend was asked in Macdonolds once if she would go and feed in the toilet as it might put other customers off!! She asked them if they would eat there dinner in the loo?
i cannot imagine being asked to leave cos people dont like it! i seriously dare somebody to say something to me- i'd give em what for!
i've only ever had nice smiles from pg ladies and old people and a few nice comments too.
my friend who is due her second is terrified about bf in public (only fed her 1st at home) as she thinks someone will ask her to leave or say something nasty to her. i obv feel very differently but feel sorry for mums who feel like this.
H xx
It makes me laugh now as with my son 2.5yrs later I just fed wherever I needed to! It was almost always fine. The only bad experience I had was on a train back from London one evening when my son was 3wks old. I'd fed all over London throughout the day and thought nothing of it.
A family consisting of parents and 2 teenage daughters sat eating their tea. I heard the mother say 'It's disgusting!' looking pointedly at me. I just felt sorry for her ignorance and the fact that she was passing it onto her poor innocent children. I also thought 'certainly less disgusting than the Macdonalds you're all shovelling in to yourselves there!'
I'm Australian and I think it's more accepted there - more the norm than anything else. The first of the 'dietary guidelines' learnt at school is 'Encourage and support breastfeeding'.
I now have my third due in November and I'll be feeding whenever and wherever my child needs to be fed!
I did have one funny experience in the house when I had a joiner in working on my stairs. He came into the living room while I was feeding and got really embarrassed. I told him not to worry, but he left pretty quickly, claiming he was 'old school'. I told him there couldn't be more of an 'old school' way of feeding a baby than what I was doing!!
It does annoy me when you hear stories of people being asked to leave places or to feed in the toilet! What is the difference between someone breast feeding and bottle feeding their child? If you are uncomfortable with the sight of someone breast feeding the solution is simple... don't look at them!!!