How do you feel about a mother breast-feeding her baby in a public place?

About the same as I feel about a mother bottle-feeding her baby in a public place. It's just a breast...deal.

It annoys me when people aren't discreet about it.

Breast feeding is so much better for babies than bottle feeding that I'm glad to see it done. There are lots of nursing clothes these days that can make it pretty discreet.

No worse than a calf sucking on a tete (sp?). ***Lisashea: thanks.

[insert comment about oral fixation here]

I have no issue with it and if done discreetly no one really notices.

I personally don't think a mother can do anything more important for her child than to breastfeed it. I think it is a good idea to throw a light cloth over the baby just because of some people's reactions. This is a natural thing & this is the reason women have breasts. It certainly is nothing to be ashamed of.

The same as I feel about someone taking a whiz in an alley. I think it's a little odd but I don't stare. Of course, taking a whiz in an alley makes you a "sex offender" and you have to register with your community...

What Mimi said, except that I think it is a sad commentary about our society that we need to throw a cloth over the baby.

I think it's fine, and I think it's more "exotic" in the puritanical US than it is in other parts of the world. We're the ones covering up statues in museums because they show 'nasty bits'. Other countries think we're pretty funny :)

jjg: teat :)

reality: I agree, but France's current government was founded by head-choppers and they got over that phase of their life. I can only hope the US someday gets over its archaic fear of sex and nudity and gets on to something more reasonable. See the discussion about masturbation and circumcision ;)

*Mark: the country was founded by puritans (pretty much). of course we are gonna be extremely uptight about nudity or natural body functions.
*lisashea: i've seen it. and yeah, we should grow up, but we don't seem to be able to. everytime something new becomes the norm, or at least accepted, there seems to be something else that people choose to become uptight about.

***seven: It's not the same, as breast-feeding your child in a public place does not leave the public place sticky and urine-scented. Pissing in alleyways is rude. If you just absolutely cannot hold it or find a bathroom, at least find yourself a patch of dirt somewhere that can absorb it.

It's human nature

Throw something over the baby's head so he won't offend adults? Adults wouldn't be offended by a mother breast feeding her child.
"I'm going to feed you now and we're going to have a wonderful bonding experience. You don't mind if I throw this sheet over you like you're some freak of nature so that scum over there won't get a hard on do you?"

Nothing wrong with it.

It's fine. If I saw someone nursing, I'd treat them as I would anyone else. I think people need to get over their breast obsessions.

I'm amused by the image of "indiscreet" breast-feeding. In general I think our cultural prudishness is silly and anything that ameliorates it I approve of.

changing diapers in public places I have more of a problem with.

I'm pleased by it. It's a wonderful and natural thing and it SHOULD be done if it needs to be done.

We're not a primitive society in North America - although sometimes I wonder. There are things, like most bodily functions, that are not appropriate in a public place. It's just not polite or good breeding.

zoomie: "bodily functions" not appropriate in a public place? So, if it's not "good breeding" for a baby to eat in public, is it also not good breeding for adults to eat in public? Maybe we should abolish restaurants, as they encourage us to put nasty "bodily functions," such as eating and drinking, on public display. Personally, I find it less gross to be around a nursing baby than I do to be around some adults when they're eating...

i have no problem with a mother breast feeding in public. however, if they are going to do it in public (lets say a bookstore), then they should at least be comfortable with it. a breastfeeding woman caught my eye in our bookstore's cafe a couple of months ago and snapped at me to mind my own business...sheesh...

I don't tend to stare, but I feel like they might think I
am if I look in the general direction. But I think its
perfectly natural. Men are just completely turned off by it
for the the most part because its not sexual I think. So we
fight about it. Maybe I don't think men should go topless.

..

It's fine as long as it's discreet... the mother isn't yanking her shirt to her chin and dropping the bewb out of her bra in front of everyone... My husband had video footage from his job, they were watching a kid who was trying to steal stuff... the kid goes to his mother, who was holding a baby. She lifts her shirt up to her chin, drops the breast out, and gives the baby the nipple, and then doesn't bother to drop her shirt back down. That's just unnecessary.