So I know this is pretty much a dead forum subject, but i was curious and just reading threw it and had some input.<br /> <br /> i am a breastfeeding mother, i am relatively new to breastfeeding, only been nursing for 10 months now. it is completely different then i thought it would be.<br /> <br /> the messy part of breastfeeding only happends, maybe the first two months, but by 6 weeks your milk has pretty much regulated and your let down is not as strong. That is the only messy part i can think of. The milk is not constantly leaking from your breasts after your milk regulates. Before that, it is a hit or miss thing sometimes. However during the entire time i have been breastfeeding if I do not keep my son nursing on a schedule my breast get full and are extremely painful, to the point of tears, this could be because i am pregnant again(note that breastfeeding is NOT birth control!!! Lol!) so there are times that I do have to nurse in public. <br /> <br /> Nursing covers are hot and uncomfortable for both me and my son, and there are not a lot of places that offer a quite comfortable atmosphere to nurse, or sometimes it is just not practical. <br /> <br /> I have been pretty lucky, my son only nurses for 10-20 mins every 2 hours or so. A friend of mine has a son who nurses 40 mins every 1 1/2 - 2 hours. If we nursed away from everyone while we were in public that is 10-40 mins where we can not do anything but sit there and stare. That is not okay. <br /> <br /> covering, while nice in thought hardly ever works for a baby that is curious or for hot climates. I do think that some discretion would be nice,but its hardly the end of the world seeing some cleavage while a baby is nursing, which, while the baby is actively nursing, that is all you will see. <br /> <br /> When you are pregnant they test your for every STD/harmful thing they can think of, it is required. My arms are still black and blue from all the blood they took, so there is no way you wouldn't know if you had something that can be transmitted. Actually I am going to revise that, i do not believe they test for Lyme disease yet. <br /> <br /> however, like i said, unless you are new to nursing, which is hard enough as it is, your milk does not just squirt/drip everywhere. <br /> <br /> I think that is everything... excuse the complete and utter organization of thoughts, baby brain is a real thing, and so is pregnancy brain!

Well, a huge percentage of the population who have serious diseases, STDs especially, never know it, because they are asymptomatic. HIV can be asymptomatic for years, though it is still contageous.and then there are the prople who know there is something wonky going on with their bodies, but refuse to get checked out for fear of shame, or simply because they can't afford it, or in some cases, don't care. Too many people follow the idea that "what I don't know won't hurt me."

America is still a society with a lot of Puritanical ideals, and public breastfeeding is the victim of one of them.<br /> <br /> I am pretty confident in claiming here that Ravenwolf and GeistNoir are not mothers, and therefore have never experienced what it's like to be caught in a public place with a ravenously hungry newborn who needs to be fed, NOW. When I breastfed my son, I always had a nursing cover with me, and was as discreet as possible. I did not want to make anyone uncomfortable, nor feel embarrassed because people were staring at me with my baby under the nursing cover. So yes, I did breastfeed him in public, but I never exposed an inch of skin.<br /> <br /> And yes, I did pump milk. But what you might not know is that many very young babies do not tolerate milk that isn't blood temperature, and most public places have no way of heating pumped breastmilk, and that breastmilk kept at or above room temperature spoils after just two hours. So my frozen milk was kept for those late-night feedings that my husband did, or for the cluster feedings in the early weeks when I didn't have enough milk to satisfy my baby.<br /> <br /> GeistNoir wrote that "breast milk can carry disease". Look, any woman who has a communicable disease bad enough to be passed through breast milk -- which would really only be anthrax, HIV, or ebola -- is well on her way to killing her baby with it and should know not to be breastfeeding in the first place. Don't worry, GeistNoir. Even if a woman has forgotten absorptive breast pads or has leaked through them, all you have to do is simply not touch the fluid in order to not be contaminated by it.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, breast milk is so incredibly nutritive that it cannot be manufactured in a laboratory: the antibodies it carries AGAINST disease are impossible to recreate and are exponentially beneficial to babies. I was devastated when my milk supply dried up after seven months, although my son had no ill effects from switching to formula. I know this is a debate forum, but I find GeistNoir's post incredibly uninformed and hateful. I am not about to whip out a breast in public and stick it in my baby's mouth, but my god, I am nourishing a member of a future generation in the healthiest fashion possible, and doing so as discreetly as possible. Do give nursing mothers a little grace and understanding, please, instead of spouting a lot of nonsense about diseased bodily fluids. Until you have breastfed yourself, you have no idea how messy it can be, nor how easy it is to contain that mess.

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Wow, I idn\\\'t even think of diseases and whatnot. That\\\'s a little scary.<br /> Loling so hard at your story, Jive!!<br /> <br /> Where I live, women are allowed to walk around topless..it\'s just that none of em do. Probably because they don\'t wanna be harassed by men, heh.

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Geist pretty much covered my views on the matter. I actually find it really stupid that women aren\'t allowed to go shirtless in public ... at least, not in much of the US. But I\'ve also had a woman just pull her breast out and flop it literally <i>on my desk</i> while I was working at a vet hospital while I was in the middle of explaining vaccines to her. Like mid-sentence. The desk was just about face height for me, too, so I got a nice eyeful of it that I really didn\'t need about 2 feet away. I just sort of stammered and stared at her before I continued my explanation, and she complained to my manager that I was rude.<br /> <br /> Story aside, I don\'t understand why using breast pumps or just covering with a blanket and going somewhere a little more discreet is that objectionable. I don\'t have a problem with women\'s chests! I have a problem with the potential health risks any bodily fluids could present.

As someone who\'s stumbled onto breast feeding in public and has known breast-feeding women and just how messy it can be-<br /> <br /> They make breast pumps for a reason, as mentioned by Raven.<br /> <br /> Yes, seeing a woman standing there breast feeding a tiny baby while I popped into walmart to buy a bag of socks was a little jarring because of how unexpected it was, but more than that, breast milk can carry disease. And I\'ve known too many women with a habit of.. dripping. The risk of touching it where you have a cut and contracting anything is extremely low, but it\'s a risk I\'d really rather not have around. I really don\'t like <i>any</i> bodily fluids lingering around in public places just waiting to be accidentally touched.

long as they aint shootin their juices all over, its a-okay with me.

I think woman should be allowed to feed their kids whenever wherever seeing as how the only reason why people take offense to it is because our breasts may be exposed when doing so. They were put there to feed our children and have become a sex symbol and things for men to stare at instead of being embraced for the miracle that they are and what they do to help nurture our young. I\'m not going to go tell a cat that she cant nurse her babies in front of me so why should we tell a woman when and where she can feed her child? Tho since this is always going to be controversial and men and other woman are always going to have a problem with it... I say get a breast pump, fill a few bottles to keep in the fridge then when you are going somewhere stick them in a diaper bag and use those in public. I dont understand why some people seem to think that if you are breast feeding your kids you cant use bottles also. They dont have to have formula in them :]

I think it needs to be done in a more private setting if it can be helped. A lot of times a woman can\'t help where she is when her child needs to be fed. My opinion is if the child needs to be fed right then and there sit down somewhere more away from people if you can and cover it up with a blanket. I was in a mall the other day and a woman was sitting two seats away from me while I was drinking my coffee and sketching and I never noticed the fact that she was breastfeeding until I saw the blanket on her move.<br /> <br /> That\'s just my opinion, if it can\'t be helped to do it in public be at least more discreet about it.