RE: Actually, it is a health emergency for the baby to receive formula. Even the companies that make the formula will admit that the baby *needs* breast milk for at least 6 months. They have yet to perfect formula and it is actually very bad for babies; they will not have a good immune system and we will only create a world (actually an America) full of people with allergies (we’ve already started doing a good job of this). As for the mother, she is less likely to get breast cancer if she breast feeds. The benefits are endless. The World Health Organization does not just make this stuff up!!!

RE: WHAT??? yes, people, our “role models” in Hollywood especially do go around with their breasts exposed, and they are proud of it and think it’s “sexy”. (even though it’s not)

Just because you have a baby now, does not change our culture and the world around you. “Find a bathroom people, it’s not that hard. And I’m sick of hearing people complain about it not being sanitary… for crying out loud, the baby doesn’t care if they are in a bathroom.”

RE: The baby may not “care”, but the baby will be put in grave danger. Like it our not, the germs will get onto the breast, the germs are in the air, the baby is being exposed to germs. Lady, you really need to think twice, would you eat your dinner in a bathroom????

I am an obstetrician, I know the problems associated with not breastfeeding, I would never expose another human being to eating in a toilet or not getting the immunities only the breast can provide.

It is a fact that the baby needs breastmilk for a min of 6 months, and the best outcome for the baby’s health is at least 2 years! (WHO recommends this) You would never never go and eat dinner in a public restroom, why should a poor little baby who’s immune system is still growing.

Please, look at all the exposed breasts on TV, in the magazines, in the movies, walking down the street. Yet, when they are actually used for what they are made for people freak out?

How can anyone actually compare a baby nursing, (eating dinner)! to urinating and defecating???? People walking down the street smoking and blowing the fumes into the air is a better comparison to getting rid of waste than a helpless little baby getting it’s nutrition.

I am a pregnant mom to be and I will breastfeed where ever the baby needs it. Grow up people! People who are opposed to breastfeeding and breastfeeding in public (like it or not, a baby needs to eat when it needs to eat) obviously have never had children, or if they have, they are not very good parents.

Look to the rest of the world, it’s not just the peasants or 3rd world nations, the entire world supports breastfeeding. What is wrong with my country???????????

Not hard at all. I suggest the people with the problem - those offended by infant feeding - do so, and stay there until the imaginary threat has passed. Enjoy.

Regardless of how people view breasts (sexual or for feeding) the reality is in our culture people don’t go around with their breasts exposed. Just because you have a baby now, does not change our culture and the world around you. Find a bathroom people, it’s not that hard. And I’m sick of hearing people complain about it not being sanitary… for crying out loud, the baby doesn’t care if they are in a bathroom.

I am not very familiar with breastfeeding.

Nik, I think you said it all with your very first sentence.
So let me guess… in your opinion breastfeeding mothers should
#1) Go out and buy a heavy duty double electric pump (which are quite expensive by the way and if they’re going to do it the way you suggest they better pay the price for it because manual pumps take WAY too long, not to mention; what if they needed to go on an outing for more than 3-4 hours),
#2) Tie themselves down to their pump at least an hour to 30 minutes before they are supposed to be somewhere (breastfeeding mothers have appointments to keep and schedules to go by too ya know),
#3) Go out and buy a stock supply of formual (also expensive a big reason why a lot of mothers breast-feed) just so they can use it when they go out in public? So what you are saying is that mothers can, instead of supplying their baby with the best nutrition at all times… substitute with a cow’s milk based formula that lacks over 100 important nutrients for a baby just because you feel uncomfortable with seeing a baby nursing or a tiny bit of flesh from a breast?

I have a feeling that nursing mothers are not going to feel the same way about this as you.
As far as you not knowing a lot about breastfeeding or being all too familiar with it… I suggest you educate yourself before you make these type of comments.

FYE (For Your Education) I suggest you Go visit

Seriously: I grant you that breastfeeding has health benefits, but I seriously doubt that a no breastfeeding in public policy causes tangible harm to babies.

But there would be harm to mothers, which affects the baby. Why should a new mother be forced to only be able to be out in public with her baby in two hour intervals, rushing home then to feed? This would create isolation among new mothers which makes dealing with a new baby ten times harder.

Yes, you can pump, but this milk needs to be refridgerated so that wouldn’t help a mother be able to venture out in to public for more than two hours. And as was stated previously, breastfed babies usually will not accept formula.

It’s a mind-boggling thought that there’s some scenario in which this culture was less prudish in 1957 than it is now. Who knows, though. Maybe outraged parents wrote to Darigold out of horror at an actual photo of breastfeeding back then, too. :/

Well, I wasn’t thinking of fraternity stunts or alcohol-influenced dares (at bar: “I’ll bet you can’t eat…..”). I was referencing another breastfeeding thread here that mentioned that any eating “on the street” was considered rude until fairly recently, which I balked at because street food and sidewalk/piazza cafes have been present in the Mediterranean for millenia. The idea was presented that breastfeeding was no less rude than any public eating; which doesn’t translate well if culturally, you think of public eating as convivial.

You obviously weren’t present at my fraternity house the day I decided to eat a steak, spaghetti w/ sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, and ice cream dinner without using utensils. Apparently the National fraternity officers present were not amused. Most of my brothers were, though; I was unanimously elected the house Morale Officer.

Hm, let’s not fall into this trap. Breasts are for whatever their owner wants to use them for. Feeding kids is one function, and a damn important one, but it’s not the only one. I certainly agree, though, that it makes no sense for people to get offended when someone is breastfeeding but not when breast are used sexually. However, my guess is that most people who are offended by the former are also offended by the latter.

Katie, how old are you? Opposition to public breastfeeding by a minority of the public far predates Maxim, or even Playboy. In fact, I’d make the argument that public acceptance of public breastfeeding has been assisted by such magazines, by making exposure of the female body more acceptable overall.

The first time I saw someone publicly breastfeeding was when I was in college, about 1972. I was 19. My school had/has a large percentage of foreign students. I was working in a restaurant in the student center when the mother/sister (couldn’t tell) of a Middle Eastern/Indian sub-continent student had to feed their child. They stepped out of the restaurant, sat down on a bench off to the side, loosened their robe and fed their child. The robe was sufficiently concealing for this purpose. It was a curiosity, but nobody seemed offended at all. I certainly wasn’t. It wasn’t until about 15 years had passed before I saw someone born in the U.S. do this. My wife breastfed both our children for around 6 to 9 months (she could probably tell you to the day), and carried a small cotton blanket that, among other things, proved useful for this. She also used a breast pump, but that was a pain.

It doesn’t help that breast vs bottle is one of the bitterest battles of the Mommy Wars…

I’m sorry you mistake a parent taking care of her child for “lactivism” or a hostile act aimed at disgusting you, but that’s what you appear to be doing.

There does seem to be a great deal of self-righteousness on all sides of this issue, but perhaps it would help if people like Nik didn’t make women who just wanna breastfeed their babies in peace feel bad for doing so.

On the other hand, if you ever see a breastfeeder standing in the middle of the street yelling, “HEY, LOOK AT MY BOOBIES!!!!” then we’ll talk.