yes I have been challenged for breasfeeding in public, twice in the same month and it bothered me quite a lot, I was upset and offended by the way it was done.
-first time at the local library, well actually when sitting on the bench in the entrance (never elsewhere in the library and I breastfed there many time)... what upset me so much was the manner of it "I' m only saying it for you etc ...." I was SO surprised that I didn't think to reply something to make it clear that I wasn't bothered breasfeeding but clearly this lady making a comment was so it was her problem rather than mine ...
- second time in the caf� section of a department store, impossible to know if really a customer complained or if it was the employees who were bothered ....
I've been wondering, is a shop a public place or a private place ? surely I can't be prevented from breasfeeding sitting down OUSTIDE a shop if I'm asked to stop breasfeeding inside a shop ...
a library is a PUBLIC library so that's clear ...
It's my third child and I walk a lot (I don't drive = can' t hide in a car for breasfeeding !) so I breasteed everywhere I happen to be, anyway .... I just HATE it when I'm made to feel bad about it ...
I wonder, there could be somewhere on the net where we could register everyday WHERE we breasfeed in public ... otherwise we only hear about such and such mother who was forced to get off a plane or asked to leave such and such place ...
I wish there would be some more ways to make it more "mainstream" to breasfeed in public so that more people would be aware that it happens .... and that it's OK ...
I also lift my tee-shirt from the waist up, I wouldn't want to unbutton from the top it would show too much ..... on the other hand the idea of covering up seems ridiculous to me;
- the first time i did it, for my first child, it was more because we were in full sun and to give her a little shade BUT a German tourist came up to me and lifted my cover, he was intrigued by what I was doing and then straight away appologetic when he realised ... so much for privacy !
- my last baby tends to need to push my breast away to position the nipple as she needs it, SO she also pushes my T-shirt up, I end up showing more than with my previous babies, and I'm sure she would play with a cover and NOT let it in place anyway but yank it away and wave it etc ...
- I found these capes I've seen in America (I'm from Europe) terrible .... because you can't see your baby ! Someone suggested they would offer one to me when I was pregnant, I blurted out "but this is not Saudi Arabia, this is America, this is supposed to be the land of freedom !"
so is there anywhere on the internet mothers can "clock-in" and list all the different places they breasfeed in public, instead of where they were asked to stop or move or made to feel bad about it? That would be more positive.
Isabelle.