Yes, because I wouldn’t stand up in the wedding of anyone who would have a problem with it if I was lactating. Babies ate at my wedding when they got hungry. Better that than have my women friends I love running out of the room to quiet a hungry baby, and not spend that moment where they wanted to be, which was with the wedding.
(Except that this is all entirely rhetorical for me, literally, as my breasts are apparently for recreational use only. I pumped for 14 months and had to bottle feed and supplement with formula as I was unable to successfully breastfeed. So I *am *one of those little girls who grew up unable to breastfeed. And yeah, it sucks, and it hurts, but it’s a medical issue and I got over it. Seeing another woman breastfeeding isn’t the problem; my breasts not producing enough milk, and doctors not taking lactation problems seriously as a medical concern are the problem. What about those poor children born without feet? I hope you’re not insensitive enough to walk in front of them.)
Exactly. The cite doesn’t say there are no “benefits” or that the “benefits” are overblown. It says it’s really hard to figure out if there are “benefits” in the studies they looked at.
I think that breastfeeding in a public pool is weird. Not dangerous, illegal, or unhygienic, just a weird and foolish choice for a parent to make.
Back when my wife was breastfeeding, we would look for the most cleanest and quietest place with the most comfortable seating and temperature that we could find, both for my wife and the baby (and me and the other kids too!).
If we were at Home Depot, my wife wouldn’t feed the kiddo in front of the store in the hot sun while perched on the hood of a lawn tractor when there was a crowd of kids loudly making birdhouses nearby. That would be a very odd parenting decision and foolish There are lots of comfortable shady and/or air conditioned places nearby that would be a much better place to feed an infant.
I don’t know all the details, but what kinda mom feeds her baby in the middle of a crowded, wet, noisy, hot public place when there were probably better places nearby?
What in the world is entitled about nursing? It’s a protected action, one encouraged by government health agencies, and is how women have been nourishing babies the world over since time immemorial. Your attitude is bizarre and at worst misogynistic and at least ill-informed. When breastfeeding works for mother and child, it’s the best possible solution for rearing children.
I’m a veteran (or victim) of Mommy boards and there are usually a couple of ongoing threads entitled something like “Lessons I’ve learned” or “I was naïve when I posted X” and I feel it would be a terrific idea if you revisited your posts here when you have children. I think you’ll find that the instinct to provide the best possible care for your children overrides any qualms you have about propriety, especially those qualms which infringe on the legal rights of others.
Funny, I was curious about the overall POV these board members have on nursing, and my search for “breasts” uncovered a thread where some posters were nonplussed that women wearing low cut tops occasionally covered themselves with a modest hand. So you are upset at the sight of a breast in a restaurant, but many men apparently feel put out when they are denied a peek. It seems that you are in the minority, both on board and legally.
It’s evident that you haven’t bothered to read WhyNot’s cites or her posts, because it’s quite clear she feels that breastfeeding ought to be consider the workaday norm, and not hallmarked as lofty goal or extraordinary act.
Since you feel that laws should be rewritten to suit your aesthetic sensibilities that require women in public to bare breasts solely for your gratification rather than the nourishment of an infant, your claim to “care about the people around me” holds no water. Until or unless you are also willing to diminish your personal freedoms in order to accommodate a minority who shamelessly demands that you make concessions that suit their individual hang-ups, you cannot rationally make such demands on others.
Very articulate and composed responses. Though others may or may not agree with you, I think yours is an example of how one should conduct themselves in a debate.
Thank you, but I’m not proud of how hot this argument has made me feel, and my words could have been more generous. And I’m unlikely to bear a child or nurse again, but if I were, I’d make no apologies about attending to my child’s needs before bowing to prudish demands and I’d see nothing selfish about it. This country is littered with burned and disfigured veterans, and it’s curious how others respect their privacy with no complaint but demand the exile of nursing mothers because boobs.
Because we are a sophisticated, evolved community of monkeys, aren’t we? A tribe whose members benefit from the well-being of the next generation. We should support every effort of attentive parents when possible, and focus support or ire, if one must, on disinterested parents instead. The immature mother in the pool could have been asked to allow other patrons to enjoy their fun without worrying over her little one without shaming her. A comfortable chair right next to her family in the pool would have been a polite concession. We all have learning curves, and support from more experienced parents would have made all the difference in the outcome and the vitriol in this thread.
I’m sorry for those made awkward, but exposure and experience will dampen the fascination with nursing and we’ll eventually get back to the new normal. Power to those bold women who nurse without squirming apology.
Yeah, you’re kicking ass in this thread, CLee. Thanks for it, too, because I don’t typically have the energy for it these days. That said, I nursed all three of my kids whenever and wherever I needed to with nary an apology to anyone (nor, I’m happy to say, was one ever requested of me). So maybe that’s where all my energy went.
It’s a toddler pool in an indoor council swimming pool in England. They follow a set model based on laws and customs and from the article it doesn’t sound like this one would have deviated from the usual design. The water would be waist-deep at the deepest end, it would be very warm, only very young children with their parents would be there - no dive-bombing from Whack-a-Mole would be possible; the adult pool might not even be in the same room - and it’s unlikely there’d be any seating at the sides that swimmers can use. Possible, but not likely.
Feeding the child in the pool would be no less pleasant or dangerous for the baby than having the mother stand at the edge of the pool, which is in all likelihood the only option other than simply leaving.
