As a father of two children who were both breast fed I have some pretty strong views on this subject.
Firstly, people need to understand that breastfeeding is entirely natural - if society has developed a rod up it's back over this natural process, then that's societies problem and something society should learn to get over (it never used to be a problem).
As natural and good for the baby as it is, breastfeeding can be damned hard - it's often very painful for the first month or so and many women have to stop because the pain is too much for them. Those that manage to persevere often find that their nipples become desensitised to the process and can managed to feed their children for many months without pain.
My wife wanted to breastfeed because it's certainly the best start a baby can be given (food wise) due the make up of the milk being exactly what a babys developing digestive system needs. The milk contains the mothers antibodies too and provides the infant with a basic immunity for their first few months of life. However another thing women who breastfeed have to get over is the self consciousness that comes with getting a boob out in public if you are outdoors.
This takes some courage on a woman's part and they should certainly be given credit for putting their babies needs before their own comfort (both physical and mental) and if some people are uncomfortable with this difficult and entirely natural happening they need to get over it and look away.
All of this said, my wife was considerate of other peoples feelings and bought tops that allowed for the minimum of revealed flesh to be exposed to feed the baby and also carried muslin cloths around and would cover up so that others wouldn't have to see a baby feeding. I believe this helped her embarrassment to start with and in the long term helped avoid other peoples embarrassment too - so a good thing all round.
There are a lot of militant women out there when it comes to breastfeeding who frankly need to tone it down a bit. My wife joined the Breastfeeding Network - an organisation that promotes breastfeeding (daft that something like this should need promotion imho) and she was able to actively help some of her friends learn to breastfeed and get past the initial painful stage as they and their babies learned to do it properly. She got quite into it, attending training courses and planning to become a supporter for our region but soon became disillusioned with the level of pro-breastfeeding militancy in the network. There were a couple of times in our first babies early months when the breastfeeding because just too painful and we resorted to a bottle for just a few feeds while my wife's tenderness subsided - this was good because it enabled her to continue breastfeeding and baby still got fed. But the Breastfeeding network were so militant against the bottle that she wouldn't have been able to promote this perfectly sensible approach to other new mothers - it was breast or nothing with that lot. There really are some militant nutters out there promoting breastfeeding and I firmly believe a lot of the fuss in papers recently is down to this group deliberating stoking the flames in the press.
TL;DR - Breast feeding is entirely natural and to be encouraged. Women could be more discrete about the whole thing.
Firstly, people need to understand that breastfeeding is entirely natural - if society has developed a rod up it's back over this natural process, then that's societies problem and something society should learn to get over (it never used to be a problem).
As natural and good for the baby as it is, breastfeeding can be damned hard - it's often very painful for the first month or so and many women have to stop because the pain is too much for them. Those that manage to persevere often find that their nipples become desensitised to the process and can managed to feed their children for many months without pain.
My wife wanted to breastfeed because it's certainly the best start a baby can be given (food wise) due the make up of the milk being exactly what a babys developing digestive system needs. The milk contains the mothers antibodies too and provides the infant with a basic immunity for their first few months of life. However another thing women who breastfeed have to get over is the self consciousness that comes with getting a boob out in public if you are outdoors.
This takes some courage on a woman's part and they should certainly be given credit for putting their babies needs before their own comfort (both physical and mental) and if some people are uncomfortable with this difficult and entirely natural happening they need to get over it and look away.
All of this said, my wife was considerate of other peoples feelings and bought tops that allowed for the minimum of revealed flesh to be exposed to feed the baby and also carried muslin cloths around and would cover up so that others wouldn't have to see a baby feeding. I believe this helped her embarrassment to start with and in the long term helped avoid other peoples embarrassment too - so a good thing all round.
There are a lot of militant women out there when it comes to breastfeeding who frankly need to tone it down a bit. My wife joined the Breastfeeding Network - an organisation that promotes breastfeeding (daft that something like this should need promotion imho) and she was able to actively help some of her friends learn to breastfeed and get past the initial painful stage as they and their babies learned to do it properly. She got quite into it, attending training courses and planning to become a supporter for our region but soon became disillusioned with the level of pro-breastfeeding militancy in the network. There were a couple of times in our first babies early months when the breastfeeding because just too painful and we resorted to a bottle for just a few feeds while my wife's tenderness subsided - this was good because it enabled her to continue breastfeeding and baby still got fed. But the Breastfeeding network were so militant against the bottle that she wouldn't have been able to promote this perfectly sensible approach to other new mothers - it was breast or nothing with that lot. There really are some militant nutters out there promoting breastfeeding and I firmly believe a lot of the fuss in papers recently is down to this group deliberating stoking the flames in the press.
TL;DR - Breast feeding is entirely natural and to be encouraged. Women could be more discrete about the whole thing.
" like teachers used to say when you were eating in class.
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