attitude to breastfeeding in public in UK?

[XJessicaX]

Depends where you live! Cant speak of the rest of the country but here in Cambridge its very pro-breast feeding. Most of my friends breast feed, all of them feed in public. I see numerous women feeding and its deemed very normal here.

 

[Tasha]

I live in London and see women BF every where. Cafe's, shopping centre's, the bench on the high street, buses, trains to name a few of the places I have seen.

I always smile at Mum, and feel really proud of them. I wish I could of NIP.

 

[Redhead84]

There's an argument about this brewing between me and my OH.

I plan to BF when our LO comes along, and the OH is fully supportive of this. HOWEVER... he doesn't think that it's right that if we go out for lunch, for instance, and the baby is hungry that I should feed him/her there - his words.. "you could go to the car or something".

He thinks that it's rude to other people.. my feeling is that it's their problem if they can't handle a mother feeding her child in the way that nature designed.

We don't talk about it at the moment as we disagree... but I'm damned if I'm going to sit in the car whilst my lunch gets cold.. and anyway - if you can see anything at all, you're looking too hard!!!

 

[Tasha]

Maybe he will feel differently when he sees you BF your LO.

 

[nosocks]

I aGree with Tasha- hopefully his opinion will change when the baby arrives and he sees how discreetly you can NIP, how necessary it is to feed your baby when they are hungry, how inconvenient it will be to go to the car (!?!) and maybe he'll notice other women doing it and see it's something to be proud of!
I live in Kenya and it's seen as strange for baby's under 3 months to be seen outside- and especially not without millions of layers on- and god forbid a man would hold a baby! So we had lots and lots of strange looks and comments (people here are not afraid to tell you what they think!) but you just have to stand your ground and know what you are doing is right!

 

[Jodie.82]

thank you all so much for your responses! so good to hear so many postive answers and I feel a lot better and less worried about it now! I only ever bf discreetly so hopefully wont bring much attention to us! also someone said about the ergo and I always feed LO while walking around in the ergo under the cover and I would happily put her in there each time and go for a walk if possible

@yumosh thats so sad that its mostly women who are funny about it!

@mistyscott that is so true when I look down I feel exposed but I always ask OH and he can never see anything.

@green lady good point about LO being distracted, these days if there is anything to look at she keeps pulling away which makes it much less discreet!

@jaybee thanks for confirming that about it being illiegal to ask anyone to stop bf anywhere, I wasnt sure exactly how that worked. I feel better armed with that knowledge!!

 

[Jodie.82]

I aGree with Tasha- hopefully his opinion will change when the baby arrives and he sees how discreetly you can NIP, how necessary it is to feed your baby when they are hungry, how inconvenient it will be to go to the car (!?!) and maybe he'll notice other women doing it and see it's something to be proud of!
I live in Kenya and it's seen as strange for baby's under 3 months to be seen outside- and especially not without millions of layers on- and god forbid a man would hold a baby! So we had lots and lots of strange looks and comments (people here are not afraid to tell you what they think!) but you just have to stand your ground and know what you are doing is right!

thats exactly like here! we dont see a baby under 6 months actually, they are swaddled in loads of layers even in the baking sun and wrapped in fabric completely covered up on the mums back, then they just swing them round to the boob then back again. we had so much fuss over LO when she was younger, we still to but to a lesser extent but they wouldnt leave her alone as you just dont see the babies here until they are much older.

 

[Amyface]

There's an argument about this brewing between me and my OH.

I plan to BF when our LO comes along, and the OH is fully supportive of this. HOWEVER... he doesn't think that it's right that if we go out for lunch, for instance, and the baby is hungry that I should feed him/her there - his words.. "you could go to the car or something".

He thinks that it's rude to other people.. my feeling is that it's their problem if they can't handle a mother feeding her child in the way that nature designed.

We don't talk about it at the moment as we disagree... but I'm damned if I'm going to sit in the car whilst my lunch gets cold.. and anyway - if you can see anything at all, you're looking too hard!!!

My friends OH was kind of like this. The first time she did it they were in Ikea. He left her and they ended up buying LOADS of stuff because he just came back with a trolley full because he was embarrassed. Not long after he was perfectly fine with it. Boobs are a very different thing to a man, and although he might understand you saying you want to breastfeed, he might not fully understand the reasoning and feelings you have for it. Just give him a few times of you doing it in public, wherever you want etc. and I'm sure he'll come around quickly enough. I would certainly not have been ushered off to my car though!

 

[sparkle_1979]

I didn't BF for that long but I never got any funny looks. Im often out with my friend who BF in cafes, parks ect and I have never seen anyone give her a second look x