I've just finished breastfeeding, and the reason I used to be quite happy to do it in public was because:

a) I was usually with someone else who didn't necessarily want to sit with 135490984 other children while feeding in a parenting room, and in some cases there wouldn't be enough chairs for the other person to sit, as other Mums were feeding their babies

b) nappy change rooms stink of other babies nappies - would you want to eat smelling that smell, or would you want to sit for 45 minutes smelling that when there was an alternative of a nice cafe

c) they are often VERY busy with no spare seats

d) I often tried to do it around a mealtime for us, so that the whole day was not spent sitting down feeding either us or him - you don't get much shopping done when that's the case.

e) I was immensely proud that I was determined and disciplined enough to breastfeed for the first 6 months of my baby's life. I only gave up because it became clear that he was no longer interested in feeding from the breast and was becoming increasingly miserable on the little milk he was taking from me. I wanted people to see that I was doing what is undoubtedly the best thing for my son, and exercising my right to do it wherever the f**k I pleased.

f) I believe that more women would breastfeed if they saw more other women doing it, rather than them thinking of it as somehow 'weird' or sexual.

h) I think it's vital that children (especially boys in fact) get to see women breastfeeding, so that they learn about how wonderful a woman's body is and how much respect women deserve. It's important that boys/men don't just see women's bodies as sexual and that they aren't such a mystery. If boys get to the age of 13 and have never seen a breast, they are going to be far more interested in them as some kind of 'forbidden fruit' than if they've seen them plenty of times before and regard them as just part of life. Children who are shielded from all kinds of nudity are more likely to grow up with body hang-ups and awkwardness when it comes to sex etc, than those who've grown up seeing the human body as a normal, natural thing. If your child asks questions about it and you are embarrassed then it's YOUR problem, not his. Maybe it would be good so that he grows up with a different viewpoint from your own?

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