The Blanket Breastfeeders...Why? Do you cover with a blanket while breastfeeding? I noticed another mother doing this at the mall today (b/c I always notice it...it's like a neon sign over the head:

[sdbc]

I voted "other" and my answer is no, I don't, because when I first started nursing, I wasn't coordinated enough and it would fall off. Now I don't because nobody can see anything anyway.

[alexandria1981]

I'm sorry that you undervalue others opinions so much. I didn't state my thoughts because I wanted to start an arguement. I guess I just value my body and modesty and don't wish to display it especially if it makes others uncomfortable. All I am saying is that, fat or thin, it isn't hard to wear clothes that allow one to nurse modestly. I have nothing more to say on this matter.

[Rachels]

Yikes. I am stick-skinny and also feel offended. Making other people comfortable isn't the job of a nursing mother. Feeding her hungry baby IS. To suggest that a woman should only nurse her baby in public if she's wearing a certain kind of clothes or posessed of a certain kind of body perpetuates the exact problem we're talking about here. It suggests that other adults' inappropriate hang-ups about each other's bodies should trump the needs of sad or hungry babies. I wish that mothers, at least, would not allow such judgment of one another for where and how we nurse our babies. It's sad.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02


"When you know better, you do better."
Maya Angelou

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo...pphire_24m.gif Two years and counting!

[MartiesMom2B]

I voted other, because I did try to nurse DD with a blanket at the beginning, but it was such a pain in the a$$. Half of the time my head was under the blanket too making sure that she was attached to my nipple and it was scorching hot under there. After lunching with some of my friends that I made through the BBB, I saw how indiscreet nursing could be. So off went the blanket. However most of the time I would put Martie's lovey between her cheek and my breast. I was trying to get her attached to her lovey and I'd rub it under her cheek. The lovey covered up any breast and it covered any part of my stomach that was raised. No one could tell that I was nursing unless they stuck their face in my boob.

-Sonia

[alexandria1981]

I think its sad that you can't just try to reasonably understand what I'm saying. I'm not judging people by their body types, nor am I trying to say that what I'm wearing trumps my DD's hunger. It makes me sad to have words put in my mouth. Case in point, I never said that the woman at the Gap was fat...I know quite a few thin people that carry alittle extra around the middle after having a baby, including myself.

[Rachels]

But you need to look at your posts. We're responding to exactly what you said. Okay, whether you meant "fat" or not, you expressed displeasure with a woman nursing in public because of how her body looked. And you were very specific about the kind of clothes you think women should wear if they want to NIP. Some of us here are saying that it's more inappropriate to criticize or restrict a woman's right to feed her baby no matter where she happens to be than it is to NIP with perhaps not the perfect body or clothing.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02


"When you know better, you do better."
Maya Angelou

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo...pphire_24m.gif Two years and counting!

[alexandria1981]

Not to beat a dead horse but again, this has nothing to do with body types. Please read carefully!! I simply believe that a traditional sense of modesty and dignity should be preserved. Never, ever, would I put those things above my child's hunger however. Please stop misrepresenting what I am saying.

[christic]

> I saw a woman setting on a display at the
>gap once with her lovehandles showing for all the world to
>see, though I wanted to cheer her for NIP, I thought she
>should have been a little more aware and covered up a bit.

So...what was the Gap showing on that display that made the nursing mother look so out of place??? Cause I'd be willing to bet that it was a pair of those hip-slung jeans and cropped sweaters that SJP is so keen on selling to us all these days ;). Janet Jackson proved that a large portion of the population is uncomfortable with a flash of nipple, but judging from current fashion most of us are ok with seeing some midriff here and there--in much less nobler pursuits than feeding a baby. Perhaps you're not and that's fine, but it seems to me that that's why previous posters have assumed that it was the woman's body type that you found embarassing.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

but is about body types. You specifically mentioned a particular body type, one with love handles.

"I saw a woman setting on a display at the gap once with her lovehandles showing for all the world to see, though I wanted to cheer her for NIP, I thought she should have been a little more aware and covered up a bit."

If you had used the word "midriff" or "tummy area" instead of the word "love handles", then it would not have been about body type. But you narrowed it down to just those with "love handles". The implication is that if she didn't have love handles, it would have been okay.

And I have to say that I still don't understand why it gives breastfeeders a bad rep to show their love handles. Does it give beach goers a bad rep to show their love handles? Or what about women who ride the subway, does it give them a bad rep if they reach up to hang onto the strap and their shirt rides up and shows their love handles?

If you don't want to show your love handles (not saying you have any, just using as example from your words) then that is fine. But that doesn't mean that no one should ever show theirs just because you don't like to show yours. It's not polite to impose ones own customs and beliefs on others.

And yes, this horse is very very dead.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/bo...breastfed2.gif

[spunkymom]

I think it is really sad that a new person joins BBB, posts her opinion and then is attacked by no less than the moderator. Alexandria has tried to explain her position numerous times and many of you have refused to understand her position, misinterpreted her responses and said you were personally offended by her opinion, although she never personally attacked any of you. I am ashamed that moderators treat new members this way.