Breast-feeding in public

[Isaviel]

Originally posted by Dalaena
It's just the sight of a boob that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

That's my point. Of all the experiences I've had with it.

I'm not knocking people down of breast feeding. I know it's healthier and all that and that's great. It's just not something for me. As I stated I'm not comfortable with it and when you're not comfortable with it, it makes it much worse trying to do it be it for the mother or the baby.

[Marah]

I was once a member of LLL but I've still never understood their idea of staging breastfeeding sit-ins. All it does is make the news for one night (if that). It doesn't change anyone's mind.

I'm all for breastfeeding in public but finding a corner or a secluded bench or something. Most mothers I know (even the militant LLL ones) cover themselves up but sometimes the baby moves the cover away. Sometimes the baby commits the painful act of pulling his/her head away while still holding the nipple in his/her mouth. Even when a mother is covered, there is still a chance that her breast might be exposed. But usually the baby's head covers the nipple and aereola. You can see more boob just walking around the mall than what you'd see on a nursing mom.

If a woman is with a group of people, the polite thing is to ask if it's OK. I think it's sad that people are offended by an infant drinking milk from its source. The same people probably think it's cute to see a calf drinking from its mother or puppies nursing. But even though I think it's sad, there is still a place for manners.

In answer to the question of pumping milk, why would I want to lug a diaper bag heavy with bottles, especially when the bottles have to be chilled and then reheated? What am I supposed to do at the store? With breastfeeding, I had the stuff in convenient packaging at just the right temperature!

(And I've had children exclusively bottlefed, one exclusively breastfed and one that took both. Trust me, breastfeeding's the easiest.)

[Isaviel]

Originally posted by Marah
In answer to the question of pumping milk, why would I want to lug a diaper bag heavy with bottles, especially when the bottles have to be chilled and then reheated? What am I supposed to do at the store? With breastfeeding, I had the stuff in convenient packaging at just the right temperature!

(And I've had children exclusively bottlefed, one exclusively breastfed and one that took both. Trust me, breastfeeding's the easiest.)

I've never had a problem with lugging bottles of milk around. It's what you do when you don't breast feed.

[Marah]

Originally posted by Isaviel
I've never had a problem with lugging bottles of milk around. It's what you do when you don't breast feed.

Yes, I also have done this with my bottlefed babies. But why should I have to carry around a diaper bag full of bottles just because someone else can't deal with boob juice?

[Kraxe]

It's all in how it's done really, I suppose. I mean, if a woman puts the baby to one side, peels her t-shirt off with arms high above her head, loosens the bra and regards each breast with a soft squeeze before putting babies mouth around desired choice (a) or (b), all in a posh restaurant, then yeah, perhaps there will be an eyebrow raised.

Frankly, I can't wait to be a dad, go to a crowded posh eating hole, peel my t-shirt off to expose my milk filled plastic falsies and breast-feed in public.

[Bramond]

Originally posted by Enosekel
And as for the mother washing out her breast pump in a public food prep area...yes that thought is disgusting, for me too. I find it revolting because breast milk is a human body fluid. It's just as unsanitary as taking a cup full of spit or some other human fluid and dumping it out in a sink that other humans have to use and the fact that it was a food prep area makes it even more stomach-churning. Now maybe breast milk is germ free, I have no idea, but given what I've heard about the importance of mothers who breastfeed taking care of themselves for the sake of their baby's health, I doubt it. And even if it was perfectly sanitary, I think I'd still get grossed out by it, again just out of an ingrained fear of coming into contact with other peoples' body fluids.

Sorry but this is just ridiculous. So if she was pouring cows bodily fluids down the sink, and washing out a glass, youd be fine with it??? Also youd expect them to wash the pump in the toilet area where its all nice and full of germs for baby to possibly pick up, rather than in a food preparation area.

Maddness..absolute maddness, the worlds turning on its head with the stuff!!

[Melanchthon]

I don't have a problem with public breastfeeding. Truthfully, I'd much rather deal with that than a screaming infant. It can certainly be awkward when the person next to you begins shifting clothing to begin breastfeeding, but negative responses to these things are socially conditioned into us and far more unnatural that what we are viewing.

Originally posted by Bramond
Sorry but this is just ridiculous. So if she was pouring cows bodily fluids down the sink, and washing out a glass, youd be fine with it?

This is why cow's milk says 'Pasteurized' on the label. Part of my workplace training went heavily into biological contaminants, and breast milk was indeed covered as a potential source. The simple fact is that any body fluid can transmit disease.

That said, I've always thought it rather silly to be deathly afraid of what's inside of other people. It's sensible to minimize the risks you can control, but even so, we are most definitely going to die despite this at some point. Better to live with a bit less stress and worry more about what we choose to do with our own lives.

[Isaviel]

Originally posted by Bramond
Sorry but this is just ridiculous. So if she was pouring cows bodily fluids down the sink, and washing out a glass, youd be fine with it??? Also youd expect them to wash the pump in the toilet area where its all nice and full of germs for baby to possibly pick up, rather than in a food preparation area.

Maddness..absolute maddness, the worlds turning on its head with the stuff!!

As stated cow's milk is processed. A mother can easily get infections including Mastitis that is more well known in cows.
As far as washing the pump I would hope that they were using a better process then washing in a public sink whether it be in a bathroom or a kitchen area outside the home. I can assure you there is just as much germs in any publicly used area.

Ewww there's a lot of times I don't want to wash my hands in a public restroom, because I keep my skin cleaner than the sink faucets ever will be. I can't imagine "washing" anything in a public restroom.



As far as a woman breastfeeding in public, I think it's all about where and when she does it. Certain situations call for a little tact and taste...obviously you don't want to breastfeed in the middle of the workday with all your collegues looking on, or at a classy restaurant. But if it's like...at the park, somewhere not very crowded....I don't see a problem with it.

The problem is more people's reaction than the idea that there's anything wrong with the act. Good ol America especially. A lot of people can't handle any form of nakedness, not even their own. There's a wonderful thing about a mother breastfeeding her child that gets totally overwhelmed by some immature person going "OH MY GOD I SEE A BOOB!" There's nothing wrong with the act, it's just a matter of when the mother chooses to do it.

[Enosekel]

Originally posted by Bramond
Sorry but this is just ridiculous. So if she was pouring cows bodily fluids down the sink, and washing out a glass, youd be fine with it??? Also youd expect them to wash the pump in the toilet area where its all nice and full of germs for baby to possibly pick up, rather than in a food preparation area.

Maddness..absolute maddness, the worlds turning on its head with the stuff!!

Actually I'd expect her to wash it out at home, just like most everyone else does who brings a food container to work anyway, despite it not having human fluids in it or being potentially dangerous to other people.

What I don't expect...no, wait, what I don't accept, given the selfish attitudes so many people have these days I guess I am not really surprised when this happens...is for someone to decide they're going to have a child and then think the rest of the world should make sacrifices for them or be inconvenienced/disgusted/put at risk for them because of it. Sorry, but if you decide to have kids, they're your responsibility and nobody else's.

And I can't believe you're even comparing human breast milk to the kind of milk you buy at the store. As everyone else has said, that milk is held up to very high health standards and goes through very closely regulated and complex processes to ensure it is clean and safe to consume.

Furthermore, even if it was not and someone just sucked it right out of the udder with their mouth: cows are not the same species, and diseases/infectious parasites/etc. aren't as transferrable to us from cows for this reason.

Why do you think hospitals have such incredibly stringent rules about dealing with medical waste? Why do you think everything in the hospital that could even have a remote possiblity of coming into contact with human body fluids is considered bioHAZARD material? Because there is a chance (especially in a place where people go when they are sick) that it could contain disease-causing organisms.

Why do you think people in third world countries, where they don't necessarily have the luxury of "food prep areas" that are free of diseases which can be found in substances originating from the human body, die much more frequently of preventable diseases that have been eliminated or are almost nonexistent in the country where YOU live (except in cases where people do -not- live under clean conditions or have been exposed to someone who does not)?

Why exactly do you think -real- disease epidemics (and no I don't mean people coming down with 'a bad case of the flu') happen in third world countries? Certainly malnutrition and other consequences of extreme poverty make a person more susceptible, but you can't catch something if it's not there in the first place.

Why do you think you can't find human breast milk on the shelves in the supermarket and adults who drink it are considered "weird"? Why is that taboo?

There have been studies done which measure peoples' reactions of disgust to things that may make us squeamish, such as rotten fruit, ugly insects, and other things. Always far above all the other things and by far the highest on the list of 'disgusting things' have been infected human flesh and human body fluids/biproducts. Even instinctually people know what to keep away from, because they know even without science what's dangerous for mortal beings.

Who knows, maybe the reason people don't like to see someone nursing in public is because they're disgusted by the possibility of human body fluids leaking on something they might touch, or by just seeing/thinking about the milk and having a gut reaction, not seeing naked human flesh. I can't speak for anyone else but while I could care less if women went around topless with boobs showing all day long, what I would not like is the possibility of coming into contact with their body fluids including breast milk. I'm quite accustomed to seeing boobs, having two of my own that I can look at all day long if I felt like it.

So no, it's not 'absolute madness' to be turned off by human biproducts, especially those from a stranger, being splattered and splashed all over the same place you have to eat. It's human nature. As I mentioned in my earlier post it seems natural to me for someone to nurse a baby, but a lot of other things humans do are "natural" too. We just don't do them in public because there are social taboos placed on them, for a reason: to maintain the safety and good health of those around you, and thus the integrity of the group as a whole.